Thomas Vitale: Difference between revisions

”’Thomas P. Vitale”’ is a television and film executive, writer, producer, and actor specializing in science-fiction, fantasy, and horror/supernatural series and movies. Vitale joined [[Syfy]] (then “Sci-Fi Channel”) in 1993 where he rose to the rank of Executive [[Vice president|Vice President]] of Programming & [[Sci Fi Pictures original films|Original Movies]] for [[Syfy]] and [[Chiller (TV network)|Chiller Network]], and was responsible for the acquisition and scheduling of all programming, as well as the development and commissioning of original movies and specials, for both networks{{Cite web |date=2006-03-15 |title=SCIFI.COM Chat Transcript: Thomas Vitale, October 11, 2001 |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060315054942/http://www.scifi.com/transcripts/2001/thomas_vitale.html |access-date=2023-08-09 |website=web.archive.org}}. While at Syfy, Vitale made Syfy into one of the largest producers of original movies on television when he created Syfy’s original Saturday movie franchise, “The Most Dangerous Night of Television.” The over 350 original movies made during Tom’s tenure include buzzy, and unique titles like [[Mansquito]]”,” [[Ice Twisters]], Roger Corman’s [[Sharktopus]], Stan Lee’s [[Harpies (film)|Harpies]] and [[Lightspeed (film)|Lightspeed]], and the social media sensations [[Sharknado|Sharknado 1]] & [[Sharknado 2: The Second One|2]]{{Cite web |title=Thomas P. Vitale |url=http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/1605389%7C0/Thomas-P.-Vitale |access-date=2023-08-09 |website=www.tcm.com |language=en}}. In the series world at Syfy, Vitale developed, commissioned, and supervised many original shows such as [[Z Nation]], [[Dark Matter (2015 TV series)|Dark Matter]], [[Flash Gordon (2007 TV series)|Flash Gordon]], [[Painkiller Jane (TV series)|Painkiller Jane]], [[Lexx]], the animated comedy [[Tripping the Rift]], and the critically-acclaimed [[Farscape]] from [[The Jim Henson Company|Jim Henson Productions]]. Vitale was also responsible for bringing the immensely successful [[Stargate|Stargate franchise]] to Syfy and worked on everything at the network from [[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|Battlestar Galactica]] to [[Taken (miniseries)|Stephen Spielberg Presents Taken]] to [[Eureka (2006 TV series)|Eureka]] to [[Ghost Hunters (TV series)|Ghost Hunters]] to [[Paranormal Witness]]{{Cite web |last=Berman |first=Marc |title=Network Executives-Turned-Producers: A Growing Trend In The Era Of Peak TV |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/marcberman1/2020/01/15/network-executives-turned-producers-a-growing-trend-in-this-era-of-peak-tv/ |access-date=2023-08-09 |website=Forbes |language=en}}.

Since leaving Syfy and Chiller in 2015, he has started his own independent production and distribution company, Vital Signs Entertainment, where he has executive produced on the horror anthology series, Slasher, for Netflix and the Shudder streaming service. He was also writer and executive producer on Pandora, an original scripted science fiction series for the CW and Sony International{{Cite web |last=Bryan |first=Ellianna |title=Pelham’s own Thomas Vitale executive produces and writes new sci-fi…