New family movie capitalizes on the consumer
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By MELISSA OLSON
Thursday, August 23, 2007 12:39 PM CDT
Special to the Herald
For the last 10 years or so, there have only been four kinds of TV movies. The most respectable is probably the backdoor pilot. Basically, someone figured out that instead of investing in a TV series right away, you could make a two-hour pilot episode, call it a movie, and see if people watched.
If they did, you’re aces, and you can go ahead and start mass-producing episodes. If not, then everyone just walks away and no one gets hurt. All in all, it’s not a bad idea, and it allows networks a little more freedom when it comes to show ideas.
Our second kind of TV movie is the smash-and-grab job. You make something low-budget and thrown together, preferably with really bad acting and some sort of threat to humanity — throw it on the air, and run away.
If you’ve ever watched the Sci-Fi Channel on a Saturday afternoon, you know what I’m talking about here: a quick and dirty investment for a quick-and-dirty reward. These movies are notoriously awful, but in kind of a fun way. Here are some honest-to-goodness titles: “Megasnake,” “Mansquito,” “Frankenfish,” “Sasquatch Mountain,” and my personal favorite, “Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys.” You may find this hard to believe, but none of them won any awards.
Which brings me to the Emmy-bait TV movies. These appear on more credible networks like TNT and HBO, and they usually involve a lesser-known star (poster boy: William H. Macy) in a based-on-a-true-story performance as a teacher who uplifted inner-city kids, or a cop who went undercover and faced down the mafia.
The idea here is to build some buzz for the actor or writer involved, and help them win awards and boost careers. These movies are usually pretty dull, and too often people just buy the TV movie version of the story as the truth, but all in all, they’re relatively harmless.
Unlike the last kind of TV movie, the New Exploitation movies. These disgusting, hastily thrown together crap-a-thons are all about cashing in on a recent crime or tragedy that made national headlines. Need examples? How about “The Perfect Husband: the Laci Peterson Story,” or “The Amy Fisher Story,” or pretty much any movie appearing on Lifetime in the last 10 years?
Exploitative TV movies are responsible for the terrible, terrible reputation this format has obtained in the last decade. They are a crap playground where bad writing goes to die.
In fact, TV movies have gotten such a bad name from the tabloid-style junk that most TV networks now stay away from TV movies altogether. If TV movies do come out, they stay within the parameters I’ve listed above. TV movies were once known for attracting great talent in small, personal roles, but now no one wants to touch them.
Except, of course, for Disney. As TV movies have fallen off the radar, Disney has actually increased production of their own films — new, original movies directed at the “tweens” who watch the channel’s other programming. If you look it up — and I did — Disney has been releasing six-10 TV movies per year for the last nine years in a row. And it turned out to be a genius move: last year, they hit paydirt.
That’s right — I’m talking about “High School Musical.” The innocent, old-fashioned musical phenomenon starring unknown actors hit it big on the Disney Channel…and then the hits just kept on coming. Soundtracks. Toys. Trivia games. A stage musical. Full-on, paparazzi-stalking, uber-pressurized celebrity status for its stars.
And now, of course, a sequel.
Don’t get me wrong — if you sit down and watch “High School Musical,” or even it’s sequel, they’re not bad little films. They’re fun, and catchy, and agreeable, sort of the frothy, old-fashioned root beer floats of TV movies. And, as many sources have pointed out, they’re 100 percent family friendly, which is a huge relief for parents who’ve been stuck watching “Dora the Explorer” with their children for the last five years.
I have no beef with the actual “High School Musical” films. In fact, I have a lot of admiration for them as movies. But what I can’t respect, what actually kind of disgusts me, is the way these films have been turned into products.
Of course, the folks over at Disney have long been marketing geniuses. They’ve taken licensing and merchandising to a new level, and they’ve always shown a willingness to sell some souls for higher profits. (Don’t believe me? Six words for you: “Cinderella III: A Twist in Time.”)
But with “High School Musical,” Disney has taken a kids’ movie and added…synergy. Before the original movie even aired, Disney put out a marketing blitz, airing song clips and behind the scenes footage during much of its regular programming.
Then, they put a new emphasis on kids’ understanding of technology by posting codes in malls and on buses that led kids to Web sites where they could download the mp3s. After the first airing, viewers were directed to the Web site to download lyrics for a special karaoke airing the next day. And so on.
By focusing on internet campaigning and word-of-mouth buzz, Disney hooked kids and then started the merchandising: selling DVDs, soundtracks, dolls, games, stickers, backpack, books, etc. If you type “High School Musical,” into the search engine at Amazon.com, you get at least 35 results, including at least three different DVD versions of the original film.
Again, let me say: I have nothing against the movies “High School Musical” and its sequel. I’m glad someone is out there making entertaining, non-cringeworthy TV movies. But my fear is that in exorcising one demon, we’ve invited in another.
Do we really want family entertainment to become a buyable commodity? In creating something innocent, old-fashioned, and sweet for children, are we now selling that innocence to the highest bidder on Ebay?
It’s definitely something to think about. As for me, I can’t answer those questions for sure, but I can tell you this: for such an innocent, family-oriented, G-rated movie, “High School Musical” really, really frightens me.
Melissa Olson was born and raised in Chippewa Falls. She graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in film and television, and works in Madison for the television program Discover Wisconsin. E-mail comments and questions to Melissa at mfo.usc@gmail.com.
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