Adam Rippon to Produce a Figure Skating Comedy

[sk9tingfan]

Adam will produce this on NBC. It will be interesting to see how this goes. ?

https://twitter.com/Variety/status/1319058682827636737

 

[Sylvia]

Direct link to the article:

Adam Rippon to Produce Figure Skating Comedy Series in Development at NBC

Champion figure skater Adam Rippon is developing a comedy series about figure skating at NBC, Variety has learned.

variety.com

Rippon and Susan Kittenplan co-created the series and developed the story, with both serving as executive producers. Billy Finnegan is also a co-creator and is attached to write the script and executive produce. 20th Television will produce.

Set in the off-the-wall world of adult figure skating, the series is said to tackle the oversized ambitions, underwhelming talent and boundless heart as one woman fights her family, failing knees and every other skater on the ice.

ETA another article:

NBC Nabs Figure Skating Comedy From Olympian Adam Rippon & Billy Finnegan With Penalty

NBC has given a script commitment with penalty to a figure skating comedy from Olympic bronze medalist figure skater Adam Rippon.

deadline.com

 

[Wyliefan]

Not a bad idea to focus on adult figure skating. Failing knees are something many of us can identify with.

 

[misskarne]

I'm really cautious about this. As an Adult skater I would hate to see us reduced to jokes. I fear that there will be mockery of our skills and that there will be thinly-veiled fatphobic jokes. I want to give Adam the benefit of the doubt, I'm just really wary.

 

[ilovepaydays]

I'm really cautious about this. As an Adult skater I would hate to see us reduced to jokes. I fear that there will be mockery of our skills and that there will be thinly-veiled fatphobic jokes. I want to give Adam the benefit of the doubt, I'm just really wary.

Didn’t Netflix cancel Spinning Out within a month of it coming out? I don’t think a show like this will get enough ratings to survive in the U.S.

It seems like it’s preliminary right now. Very few shows make it to the pilot episode and fewer get the green light by networks.

IMHO, network sitcoms are basically dying in the U.S. right now. Look at what got nominated for the last Emmys and Golden Globes. Pretty much shows from HBO/Showtime/Netflix/Amazon/Hulu and almost nothing from NBC/ABC/CBS/FOX.

 

[MacMadame]

Didn’t Netflix cancel Spinning Out within a month of it coming out?

That was pretty expensive to make though. They won't need nearly as many body doubles for this. They may be able to get all the actors to do a lot of their own skating at least to a level you see in Skating with the Stars. Plus if it's a sitcom, they'll have a lot of off-ice hijinks.

 

[sk8girl]

I'm really cautious about this. As an Adult skater I would hate to see us reduced to jokes. I fear that there will be mockery of our skills and that there will be thinly-veiled fatphobic jokes. I want to give Adam the benefit of the doubt, I'm just really wary.

Same. This could be fantastic and I hope it is, but I hope it's sympathetic to adult skaters and not mocking. There is definitely tons of humor to be found in adult skating, while still keeping it respectful.

Random, but I went to an adult skating weekend in Hackensack many many years ago. I think it was the summer after Adam won one of his junior world titles, and he was training there with Morozov. This was back when Adam still had the curls and Morozov was still cool. ?

I think Adam was there to demonstrate stuff for some of the coaches in the on-ice workshops. I don't remember him being on the ice for any of my sessions, but I remember him speaking to all of us off the ice and he said some nice things about adult skaters. People were asking if he was going to cut off his curls and he said maybe they should include that in the workshop survey for the next year, so we could all vote on that. ?

Anyhoo, no idea what his experience with adult skating has been like since then, but definitely he had some early exposure to the adult skating community and seemed positive at the time. I'll be optimistic that this show will be fun!