Do the skating fans of DL miss Dick Button?

Both of you have an obsession with women's clothes.

Typical bitchy queen - attacking women's clothes and their appearance

He was an excellent commentator. He knows skating and skating history. His comments were never flippant and always intriguing.

MISS HIM.

I, too, really miss him. One of the things I liked about him was that he favored skaters who would push the sport forward, and he'd be critical of those who didn't. Another thing was that he was usually diplomatic when he didn't agree with the judging, but he would subtly let you know what he really thought.

My straight, 90 year old dad thinks he's the greatest thing to ever happen to skating. I agree. We need someone to call out underrotations!

I really wonder what Button thinks of the recent Miner/Rippon decision.

I too loved Dick Button commenting on skating. I've recently watched some of the skating competitions on TV and have to say that Tara Lapinski has really grown into her role and that the chumminess with Johnny Weir has been toned down so that he comes across as thoughtful as well.

Dick Button was fabulous. I got a kick out of watching when straight folks found out he was gay, as he was a very " masculine" skater, and not a "poof" Universally respected as far as I saw, a tremendous talent, with a genuine joy and respect and love for his sport, and his role as an ambassador of same.

[quote] I've recently watched some of the skating competitions on TV and have to say that Tara Lapinski has really grown into her role and that the chumminess with Johnny Weir has been toned down so that he comes across as thoughtful as well.

I agree that they are thoughtful and am glad they dropped that buddy shtick they started out with. But they are too cautious and at times too quiet.

Part of what made Button great was he wasn't afraid to be critical or say he didn't like something. His opinions weren't expressed in a way that suggested his were the only ones that mattered. He just came across as exactly what he was, an insider with years of experience.

Tara and Johnny have to use their experience not to just talk about technical things. It's boring. And they need to learn to find that balance between talking too much or not enough. Long silences are dull, too.

Button understood that he was like an educated friend sitting next to you on the couch watching the competition with you. Scott Hamilton understands this, too.

R8, I'm going to disagree with you about the long silences during skating with Tara, Johnny and another NBC sports-guy. If there's nothing to to say, let the viewer just enjoy the skating. Don't interrupt... let the music play, watch how the skater's moves match the tune. Listen to something from the commentators after or when there's a mistake or something amazing happens... there was a male skater who easily performed 5 quads - Tara was great during the routine.

I learned this years ago when watching Wimbelton tennis on a BBC channel. The hosts were barely there, commenting between plays and sets. What a difference! I didn't need McEnroe and Endberg filling the air with their personal commentary. Just let the players do their thing on the court.

Figure skating hasn't been interesting in years .

What's a dick button? Is what they wear over their weiners in the tight stretchy pants? Tara and Johnny are the bomb. I live in a more successful skating country than the US and we have no one commentators who vibe as well as Tara and Johnny Queer. They should do a food network show. For real, we never used to watch Americans calling the skates during international competitions but its T&J all the time now. I'm a big dick sports dude, I wouldn't want some old dick button around. That American pretty boy is gonna get it though. Owwweee, I'll give him third birth. Babies for days.

Like Bud Collins in tennis, Dick Button was the conscience of skating. He knew a great layback spin with a turned out free leg and knee and he called women with lazy back positions(Nancy Kerrigan). He started the World Professional Figure Skating Championship in 1980 and saw its tv ratings exceed those of the IFSU World Championships. People wanted to see their stars! That event is gone now - he sold it years ago and skaters stopped needing to turn 'pro' or grow as artists. Now skaters go to South Korea because of the popularity there of Yu-Na Kim, the robotic 2010 Olympic champ and South Koreans desire for anything figure skating.

Boy this sport did go to shit.

I miss him and his informed, accurate and blunt commentary back in the days when ABC Sports covered the Olympics and other big skating competitions. For so long, he and Peggy Fleming were truly excellent together with Jim McKay or Terry Gannon or whoever. Dick won Emmys to go along with his Gold medals.

I appreciated that NBC gave him a commentator/correspondent role, though not part of the main broadcast team in the booth for the live calls, at both the '06 and '10 Winter Olympics (he was especially fun to watch with Mary Carillo hosting her cable and late-nite shows: she obviously adores him)

Dick Button was great when he was on, but could be overbearing when he was off. He was usually on, but man sometimes it was like he was bipolar and a different Dick Button showed up. He would go from being helpful to being pedantic. No layback would be good enough, spirals would be arbitrarily to his liking or not to his liking but he wouldn't tell you why, and he pulled favorites in a way that played into a lot of the institutionalized ice princess and homophobic masc stuff. I'd still give him a net positive.

The worst was when they started letting Scott Hamilton do commentary. He was insufferable, manic, annoying and totally uninformative. He would also somehow manage to condescend to his audience while also not helping the audience grow and learn. Absolutely one of the worst commentators in any sport outside of maybe Dennis Miller.

Peter Carruthers was fine, but a bit dry.

I love Johnny and Tara together. I find them to be really informative while also helping different audience members understand the more subjective parts of skating. I watched the men's short dance with a woman who is an ice dancing test judge (and is a rather harsh and very old school woman) and she said it was Johnny Weir who both made her see the artistry and expression in something like Jimmy Ma and thought he did the best of anyone at making ice dancing judging seem more accessible and fair (which - pre-Johnny/Tara was mostly just passed over entirely with the worst of color commentary).

Very interesting NY Times article on Button, with photos of his 14 room pied-a-terre. What say you, tasteful friends?

Wow, a gorgeous apartment, especially the hallway with the art on the walls. In the first pic he's got the Bob Fosse biography on the table - nothing gay about that!

yes,op.

[quote] My straight, 90 year old dad thinks he's the greatest thing to ever happen to skating

Sounds like your dad might be hiding a 90 year secret.

Yes, I ABSOLUTELY miss Dick AND Peggy and their anachronistic style of commentary.

Only Dick would have the flair to describe skaters by saying:

"Now the thing to watch with her is NOT only the extraordinary revolution she has in her jumps but the ELAN with which she presents all these moves, the QUIET presentation...very VERY interesting."

" She's really superb at combining both difficult, technical merit along with VERY elegant line and musical programs."

"This gal has such charm, such fun, such LIFT".

"He sees himself as a modern jazz dancer portraying the evil Baron Von Rothbart from Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake".

"LOOK at that layback!"

Another thing that made Dick so compelling was his knowledge of history. Not just in skating but the arts in general. He would reference movies, dance, theater and classical music and ballet and then relate it back to skating. He also was able to create suspense during a performance by tightening and raising his tone of voice right before a skater went into a difficult jump.

"This is his *gasp* TRIPLE AXEL!" You could almost sense him coming out of his seat.

Also I loved the graceful and quiet way Peggy would add the human interest. Always giving (sometimes literally scripted)insight into the personal stories of the skaters and into their individual personalities and characters, on and off the ice.

I also loved the graceful and quiet way she could shade.

"What a wonderful performance FOR HER".

Both Dick and Peggy created an intimate and familial connection between the skating world and the television audience that I really miss.

I do miss butt dickin'

That was an excellent analysis, R20.

Unfortunately, people under 50 just aren't that deep anymore, nor would they have the historical understanding of both skating AND culture, to be able to deliver that sort of commentary.

In fact, we'll probably never see that sort of intelligent commentary again.

What we're stuck with is Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski. They're the polar opposite of Dick Button.

I love when DIck would go in HARD, like saying on national television that a 16yo Nicole Bobek had no energy, was out of condition and was overweight.

He's almost ninety...let him rest.

No I do not miss him or Peggy Fleming. Then again I stopped watching skating in recent years.

Great compilation of some of Dick's best moments:

Not a day goes by that I don't think of, he was extraordinarily talented and underrated.

LOVE him! He was perfectly paired with Peggy Fleming. Always respectful and gentlemanly.

And his art his STUNNING. That bronze sculpture is gorgeous.

[quote]Dick Button was great when he was on, but could be overbearing when he was off. He was usually on, but man sometimes it was like he was bipolar and a different Dick Button showed up. He would go from being helpful to being pedantic. No layback would be good enough, spirals would be arbitrarily to his liking or not to his liking but he wouldn't tell you why, and he pulled favorites in a way that played into a lot of the institutionalized ice princess and homophobic masc stuff. I'd still give him a net positive.

Completely agree with this. He got on my nerves after awhile though. He would also venture into the territory of sounding like a pedo the way he would talk about some of the young skaters... of course the Ramble knows better. I thought Peggy was the better, more thoughtful, commentator.

They sort of remind me of the duo of Bart Connor and Kathy Johnson... with Kathy obviously being the more informed, thoughtful, brilliant, commentator.

Peggy And Dick would always play "good cop, bad cop".

Dick would say something withering and unflattering so that Peggy would have to swoop in and mention something complimentary about "beautiful body lines" or how enchanting someone was on the ice.

I never liked Dick Button's commentary. All he did was pick, pick, pick. Never seemed to have anything nice to say about a skater's performance. It was always negative.

Is Dick a top or bottom?

There are no tops in male figure skating.

I agree with R15 about Button becoming overbearing after a while. But he was INFINITELY better than Scott Hamilton. It chaps my ass that Hamilton was the major commentator during the heyday of figure skating, 92ish to 02ish. He was so uninformative I think he left audiences with less understanding of skating techniques than if they watched with no sound. Button would detail (to the point of pedantry sometimes) why a particular jump was difficult or why a particular position was considered more elegant/artistic, and so on. Hamilton never talking about things like edges, or why certain entries to jumps were more difficult than others. To listen to him, you'd assume that as long as two skaters landed all their jumps their programs were "equal." Never mind that one skater had split jumps or Ina Bauers or spirals leading into jumps, while the other just skated straight across the ice before jumping. The most you'd get from him would be "well his program was technically more difficult" but not WHY. And he'd say empty headed shit like "that jump was slightly two-footed, but she FOUGHT for it!" WTF does that even mean? A two-footed landing is a two-footed landing. There's no bonus points for NOT falling on your ass.

R31, not true. If a skater really impressed him, he couldn't contain it. Watch his reaction to, of all people, Tonya Harding. He was enthusiastic about her the whole routine, and he practically burst when she landed the 3A.

What I learned from Scott Hamilton:

Every skater feels every note of their music.

I remember Button really championing Midori Ito as well. He liked skaters who were actually advancing the sport without sacrificing good technique.

LOL R35. And that there are some skaters who are known more for their athletic ability than their artistry.

What I learned from Scott Hamilton: the competition will go to the skater who skates best.

A must watch rant for skating fans. Dick goes OFF on the ISU.

I got sick of Dick and his incessant talking over the performance and bragging about his own technique.

[quote] I got sick of Dick and his incessant talking over the performance and bragging about his own technique

When 900 years old you will reach, look as good you will not. Hmm?

I worked on a project with Dick and his husband about 25 years ago. Nothing to do with skating.

He was a true gent and a very smart businessman. Though he wasn't closeted, you wouldn't necessarily have thought he was gay.

I wish he'd been my date to go see "I, Tonya."

R40, I agree that sometimes Button talked a little too much over a performance but I can't recall him ever bragging about his own technique.

The NY Times has a long piece on US skater Jason Brown right now. Brown is a male alternate for the upcoming games in S Korea.

The article links you to Brown's skating to music from Riverdance. Now, I'm not a skater, just watch and have to admit, am somewhat bored by what I see on the ice these days. There's a lack of "artistry" and "contact" with the audience... skaters are far too focused on skating faster and faster in order to launch into a triple combination or a quad and land them. it's dulL and repetitive.

HOWEVER, Jason really does seem to have that artistry that will surprise and make you gasp. He connects with the audience, even performing jumps right in front of them (how thrilling that must be).

I wonder what Button would have to say about Brown's routines; they are unique.

Agree with all the raves and critiques of our Dick; however I disagree about Peggy. She was terrible, not articulate or informative in any way (outside of letting people know that a skater's mother made their dress) and generally petty with a limited conception of 'artistry'.

Button was a genius promoter. After the 1980 Winter Olympics he managed to corral the major pro stars of the day to compete against the recent Olympians in the World Professional Figure Skating Championship. He cut a deal with NBC to avoid a conflict with ABC and it aired on Sportsworld to record ratings. The event was the pinnacle of the pro skating year and a chance for pros to re-establish their marketability and creativity. Of course it got bogged in politics and went away after 20 great years. He also created The Superstars 1970's competition on ABC which pitted the likes of OJ Simpson vs. Reggie Jackson in bowling(!) and Willie Shoemaker against Pete Rose in ping pong. Great, great shows.

I'm so old I remember Dick Button starring alongside Tab Hunter in a TV musical special way back in the 1950s of Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates. Tab supposedly did all of his stunt skating in that and Dick still had hair. They were quite a pair.

R45, that Riverdance was his 2014 routine. He's not a strong jumper, which holds him back. But he is fun to watch because he's an old school elegant skater. If Button were commenting, he'd be orgasming all over his deep edges.

I know that this thinking is passe as hell in women's figure skating, but I loved that he found artistry and grace as important if not more so than that fat thigh-ed clunky lumpy triple axel shit which now determines who is the best. That is why I never cared for Tonya...it wasn't her lack of a pedigree, it was her short fat jumper's body and complete lack of grace.

He developed a real liking for those teeny tiny waifs like Sasha Cohen and Naomi Nari Nam. Unfortunately neither of those actually worked out, but he raved about them at the time.

And he was not terribly fond of Tara Lipinski's style.

I cracked up every time he referred to her not knowing what to do with those little "flapping chicken wings" she has for arms. Sascha Cohen is my sort of skater.

Dave Lease reads DL, right? Every time something gets mentioned he randomly posts a video on that same topic.

Latest video is him and Jenny Kirk talking about the anatomy of a layback spin and they make fun of Dick and Peggy's love for dissecting them to death.

He adored Michelle Kwan too...and was always genuinely sympathetic when she failed to achieve that elusive OGM.

[quote]Sascha Cohen is my sort of skater.

I loved her and then I stopped loving her, because she always fell apart. It just got tiresome.

lol R55, I know exactly what you mean.

I always loved Sasha. She was so cute, and I would root for her all the time, but she was the queen of choking.

It was awful being a fan of hers.

I agree, r56. I kept on waiting for Sasha to put together a clean short and long programs at the same competition, sigh.

Sasha was the great skater that everyone mistakenly took Oksana Baiul for. Girl could just not keep it together when it counted.

And going back to commentary, here's is the perfect storm of banal with Scott Hamilton and Sandra Bezic along with Button. Button must have intimidated them because usually Scott and Sandra cannot shut up, but here they all keep it to a minimum.

Dick is rich. His family was wealthy, he went to Harvard and he produced all the Battle of the Network Superstars shows in the 70’s. He has a gorgeous property in North Salem, NY in addition to his Park Ave apartment.

He oozes well bred upper class polish.

R39, thanks. That's the kind of thing he was always known for, including calling out individual judges or block judging when he thought things were bogus.

Of course, he could on occasion be bitchy about skaters, even American skaters. And if he said something like "well, that slip was uncalled for" or "he wants to be a lot tighter on that spin" or "it was alright, but you know it just didn't SING, if you know what I mean, Peggy" ... You always knew he was being honest.

Maybe why the Emmys.