''Snowden on Ice'' is a musical holiday special aired on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

in 1997. It was funded by

Target Corporation Target Corporation is an American retail corporation that operates a chain of discount department stores and hypermarkets, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the seventh-largest retailer in the United States, and a component of th ...

.Snowden on Ice – Variety
/ref>

Plot

Kate (

Ekaterina Gordeeva Ekaterina "Katia" Alexandrovna Gordeeva (; born 28 May 1971) is a Soviet and Russian figure skater. With her late husband Sergei Grinkov, she is the 1988 and 1994 Olympic Champion, a four-time World Champion (1986, 1987, 1989, 1990), a th ...

) and her daughter, Lizzie (Daria Grinkova), moved to Kate's old hometown where Kate was taught to skate by her Grandpa Albert. His spirit lives on in Snowden, a snowman, who wears Albert’s old hat and scarf. Kate knows that Lizzie will not be accepted if she doesn't know how to skate, so she pushes Lizzie onto the ice. Kate's bitter rival, Shana (

Josée Chouinard Josée Chouinard (born August 21, 1969) is a Canadian former competitive figure skater. She is the 1996 Champions Series Final bronze medallist and a three-time Canadian national champion (1991, 1993–1994). She finished in the top ten at two W ...

), and her students give Lizzie the cold shoulder and laugh at her when she falls. Lizzie comes off the ice in tears and Kate is reminded of when she fell down in one of her performances while attempting a difficult movement during her first competition for the Albert Trophy. Kate's fall allowed Shana to win the competition and all succeeding competitions except one that Bret (

Kurt Browning Kurt Browning (born June 18, 1966) is a Canadian figure skater, choreographer and commentator. He is the first skater to land a ratified quadruple jump in competition. He is a four-time World Champion and Canadian national champion. He comp ...

) won only because Shana had a broken ankle and pneumonia. However, she still came in second place. This discouraged Kate, leading her to vow never to skate again. One night, while no one is watching, Kate summons up the courage to finally attempt skating once again. As she puts on her skates, Snowden comes to life. As Kate steps onto the ice her costume dramatically changes. Snowden skates with her, and as he does so changes into a cartoon. During the competition, Kate decides to spontaneously enter as a late entry. As there are no rules to the competition, she is allowed to perform. She wins and is promptly given the trophy by Shana, who has become less hostile. Scootch ( Scott Hamilton), the narrator, Zamboni man, and old friend of Albert's, carries Lizzie to Kate. At the end, Lizzie goes out on the ice in an attempt to skate, encouraged by her mother's earlier performance. She skates with Snowden for a while before he transforms back into Albert (

), who starts teaching Lizzie how to skate as he had done with Kate. She sees this and smiles.

Cast

as Kate *Daria Grinkova as Lizzie *

as Shana * Scott Hamilton as Scootch *

as Bret

References

{{reflist Christmas television specials 1997 television specials Figure skating on television Television shows directed by Dwight Hemion Television shows written by Buz Kohan CBS television specials American Christmas television specials 1997 films 1990s English-language films