TAKE two former pop princesses — Debbie Gibson and Tiffany — and cast them in a television movie involving illegally imported snakes and alligators on steroids. Stir in gobs of gooey cheese — a “Dynasty”-style cat fight here, a trio of fisherman eaten alive there. Most important, make liberal use of computer-generated creatures and effects. Pythons blown up with dynamite! Thousands of hatching reptile eggs! Alligators the size of skyscrapers!
Then send out a news release promising “down and dirty” action, focusing in particular on Ms. Gibson and Tiffany, who had dueling singing careers, and hairstyles, more than two decades ago. “We settle our old ’80s music rivalry by putting on short skirts and throwing snakes and ’gators at each other,” Ms. Gibson said.
A rare, colossal alignment of camp and corn? Not really. For the channel known as Syfy, “Mega Python vs. Gatoroid” is just another Saturday night.
Getting noticed on television increasingly takes something over the top. “Glee” on Fox is a big gay comedy-drama-musical hybrid. “Jersey Shore” on MTV needed drunken girl brawls and wall-to-wall profanity to stand out in the reality show cesspool. Syfy has its messy B movies, guilty pleasure titles that chew into the absurd like tanker-sized sharks.
“It’s about letting escapist entertainment wash over you,” said Dave Howe, the president of Syfy. “These are fun and easy Saturday night, put-your-feet-up, don’t-think-too-much movies.”
Syfy started making these breezy films back in 2002, but the channel has stepped up its reliance on them as a loyal audience has developed. Last year it churned out 25, allowing Syfy to match the Hallmark Channel as the leading producer of original television movies. Budgets have stayed the same, about $2 million each, less than most hourlong dramas. But Syfy is devoting more marketing dollars to the franchise. For instance “Mega Python vs. Gatoroid” will receive a red-carpet premiere, the first in the network’s history, on Jan. 24 at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York.
Routinely high ratings have helped make the movies an indispensable part of the Syfy schedule. An average of two million people watch, according to Nielsen, with some of the movies (“Pterodactyl,” “Dragon Storm”) attracting more than three million, on par with Syfy’s biggest hit series, “Warehouse 13” and “Eureka.” The Saturday night mayhem also fits snugly with the channel’s effort to broaden beyond science fiction. In 2009 the channel re-branded itself Syfy (dropping the Sci Fi Channel name) in a bid to capture the full landscape of fantasy entertainment: the paranormal, the supernatural, action and adventure, superheroes. Recent movies have tackled unexplained phenomena (“Stonehenge Apocalypse”), furry beasts (“Red: Werewolf Hunter”) and horrific experiments with nature (“Mega Piranha.”)
