Syfy | Bob Schwartz

Tag: Syfy

Sharknado

Sharknado
Some of us have been watching and loving the Syfy channel’s ludicrous scary animal disaster movies for years, such as

Dinocroc
Dinocroc vs. Supergator
Dinoshark
Frankenfish
Mega Piranha
Mega Python vs. Gatoroid
Mega Snake
Piranhaconda
Supergator

Then there are the newcomers who just this week discovered the film art of Syfy with the premiere of Sharknado and have made it an entertainment sensation. If you haven’t yet heard about it, Sharknado, like many of these Syfy movies, pretty much gives away the basic concept in the title. Sharknado combines sharks and tornadoes: “When a freak hurricane swamps Los Angeles, thousands of sharks terrorize the waterlogged populace. And when the high-speed winds form tornadoes in the desert, nature’s deadliest killer rules water, land, and air.”

Soon, millions will be “experts”, comparing the performances of Debbie Gibson (as Dr. Nikki Riley) and Tiffany (as Park Ranger Terry O’Hara) in Mega Python vs. Gatoroid (2011), as well as trying to understand the symbolism of Monkee Mickey Dolenz appearing as himself in the movie.

Debbie Gibson and Tiffany

Being an early adopter of cutting edge art means learning to share with latecomers. So if you are a newbie and want to go back to the classics, be assured that any of the above are worth your attention and time.

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May 9, 2012

Logo of a Lifetime

The image above is not the new Lifetime Network logo, launched on May 2 as part of the network’s rebranding. Instead, it is from the Sci-Fi Channel, which rebranded itself as Syfy in 2009. But for a brief moment, from November 1998 to March 1999, it asked to be called SF until it could decide what it wanted to be when it grew up. This is that interim logo.

Here is the new Lifetime logo, designed by Leroy+Clarkson:

Designing logos, while it may be well-compensated work, can be a thankless job. No matter how much sophisticated research goes into the process, it is art for commerce, but definitely art, and opinions vary according to taste (even when the discussion is seemingly objective, scientific and market-based). Add to that the creation and integration of a tag line and it is amazing that the process ever ends.

In 28 years, Lifetime has had 11 logos. You can see them on parade at Logopedia.

Elsewhere you can read explanations of what the new logo and the tag line mean relative to Lifetime’s strategies and its audience. Here and now, the logo can speak for itself…though it might have been worthwhile for A&E (owner of Lifetime) to consider reaching out to NBCUniversal (owner of Syfy) to see if maybe, just maybe, the old SF logo might still be available. Not nearly as subtle, Eastomystical, or feminine as the new logo, but it would be tons of fun: