COVER STORY Judd Hirsch and Billy Ray Cyrus are among celebrity cameos

Syfy viewers ate up original, so Sharknado 2 on deck

I'm betting nobody at Syfy saw it coming last year. Not the suits. Not the C-list actors. Not the network publicity flacks.

Nobody realized last July when Syfy unleashed Sharknado, its latest in a long line of cheesy, over-the-top, silly Saturday B-movies, that they had an instant pop culture phenomena.

I can just imagine the brainstorming session in development stage.

Suit No. 1: "OK. OK. How about this? We have a weird, freaky hurricane hit L.A. and the water spouts suck up hordes of ravenous, man-eating sharks.

Suit No. 2: "I ... love it!"

Suit No. 3: "And we could have the tornadoes dump all these sharks on the flooded city streets. Blood and guts everywhere!"

Suit No. 1: "It'd be like Jaws comes to Hollywood. I mean literally to Hollywood!"

Suit No. 2: "Stephen Baldwin and Charlene Tilton are busy, but maybe we could get Ian Ziering and Tara Reid?"

And the rest, as they say, is Twitter history. Sharknado was an overnight sensation.

Cheesy? Sure. But Sharknado was no cheesier than director Anthony C. Ferrante's Mutant Vampire Zombies From the 'Hood! (2008) starring C. Thomas Howell.

It was no cheesier than Syfy's Chupacabra vs. the Alamo where Erik Estrada destroys the monsters by blowing up the Alamo. Or Mega Python vs. Gatoroid where '80s pop star Tiffany was eaten by an enormous mutated alligator and '80s pop star Debbie Gibson was chomped in half by a giant python head.

It was no more over-the-top than Mansquito (where a man morphs into a mosquito), or Arachnoquake (with Tracey Gold) where giant fire breathing spiders eat New Orleans, or Sharktopus (starring Eric Roberts) where a half-shark, half-octopus wreaks havoc in Mexico, or its sequel, Piranhaconda (with a piranha-anaconda hybrid).

There was just something about Sharknado that clicked and, thanks to social media, went viral. Syfy aired two encores and Sharknado became the most watched original film in the network's history.

In Sharknado, Ziering plays Fin, an aging surfer and bar owner. Once the rain of sharks begins, he sets out with friends to rescue his estranged wife, April (Reid), and their teenage daughter.

Assorted folks get eaten along the way.

The thrilling climax comes when a dive bombing great white is headed straight for our intrepid heroes. Fin leaps into its gaping mouth armed with a chainsaw and, in the most fantastic scene in cinematic history, slices his way out.

Rumor has it that beforehand Ziering, once enormously popular in his Beverly Hills, 90210 days, had reservations about lowering himself to this level of schlock. But at a certain point in a stalled career, an actor just has to hold his nose and take the paycheck.

Ziering had no such reservations about signing up for the sequel.

"I'm very happy to be a part of a project that people find entertaining," Ziering said this time around. "If you see the storm coming, forget the umbrella, grab the chainsaw."

Sharknado 2: The Second One premieres at 8 p.m. July 30 as part of Syfy's "Sharknado Week," which begins Saturday.

Sharknado 2 immediately follows the 6 p.m. airing of the original film.

In the sequel, Fin and April travel to New York where another freak shark storm rains death upon the city and its iconic landmarks.

Fin rallies the assembled: "They're sharks. They're scary. Nobody wants to be eaten. But I've been eaten and I'm here to tell ya. It takes a lot more than that to bring a good man down. A lot more than that to bring a New Yorker down!"

Then, brandishing aloft his 4-foot fire department chainsaw, Ziering has his shining Emmy moment: "Let's go kill some sharks!"

Sharknado proved so popular, a slew of celebrities signed up for campy cameos in the sequel. They include Kelly Osbourne, Judd Hirsch, Andy Dick, Billy Ray Cyrus, Kurt Angle, Robert Klein, Perez Hilton, Sandra "Pepa" Denton (of Salt-N-Pepa) and Downtown Julie Brown. Al Roker and Matt Lauer play themselves.

Klein's Emmy moment: "This is the Big Apple! Something bites us, we bite back!"

Sharknado 2 also stars Vivica A. Fox, Kari Wuhrer, Judah Friedlander as Fin's childhood best friend, and Mark McGrath as Fin's brother-in-law.

Fox's Emmy moment: "Let the fireworks begin!"

One note -- Sharknado "Week" is actually only four days. Here are selected highlights.

Saturday: 4 p.m., Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus; 6 p.m., Mega Shark Vs. Crocosaurus; 8 p.m., Mega Shark Vs. Mecha Shark; 10 p.m., 2-headed Shark Attack.

July 27: 4 p.m., Dinoshark; 6 p.m., Mega Shark Vs. Mecha Shark; 8 p.m., Syfy original special, Sharkmania: The Top 15 Biggest Baddest Bloodiest Bites.

July 28: 10 a.m., Jersey Shore Shark Attack; Noon, Shark Assault; 2 p.m. Dinoshark; 4 p.m., Malibu Shark Attack; 6 p.m., Swamp Shark; 8 p.m., Ghost Shark.

July 30: 6 p.m. Sharknado; 8 p.m. Sharknado 2: The Second One.

Finally, the good news. Syfy has already ordered Sharknado 3 for next summer.

Style on 07/20/2014

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