Weird Al Yankovic Stars in Sundance TV Campaign

02.17.2016

Weird Al Yankovic is the star as well as composer of a new marketing campaign by Sundance TV intended to help viewers find the network on their TV provider's service and "never (ever) forget the channel number."

Yankovic composed an original jingle for the campaign and starred in a locally targeted custom video featuring specific channel numbers as a way to drive awareness and support of SundanceTV as a destination for original programming on Wednesday nights. Music video director and longtime Yankovic collaborator Liam Lynch directed the series of channel-specific videos.Â

The campaign launches Thursday, Feb. 18, on a number of major cable, satellite and telco TV providers in advance of SundanceTV's newest original series , which premieres Wednesday, March 2 at 10/9 central.Â

"We set out to craft a fun and effective ear-worm to help viewers find and remember our channel position on their TV service, and Weird Al was the perfect creative accomplice,"Â said AMC and SundanceTV President Charlie Collier in a statement. "Please watch and listen to Al's original song, put our three-digit (or sometimes four-digit) channel number on your forehead, as he recommends, and settle in with SundanceTV for entertainment we promise is worthy of being found!" Â

Set in the late 1980s, Hap and Leonard, featuring James Purefoy (Rome, The Following), Michael K. Williams (The Wire, Boardwalk Empire) and Christina Hendricks (Mad Men) is a darkly comic swamp noir story of two best friends, one femme fatale, a crew of washed-up revolutionaries, a pair of murderous psycho-killers, some lost loot and the fuzz. Â

Based on the novels by Joe Lansdale, the six-hour series event was developed by director/writer Jim Mickle (Cold in July, We Are What We Are and Stakeland) and writer (Cold in July, We Are What We Are and Stakeland).Â

The project is executive produced by Mickle, Damici, Jeremy Platt and Nick Shumaker, along with co-executive producers Lansdale, Linda Moran and Lowell Northrop.Â

This project marks Mickle's and Damici's second major collaboration with Lansdale, as the pair previously collaborated on the film adaptation of Lansdale's novel Cold in July, which was selected to premiere at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.Â

Additional Hap and Leonard cast members include Jimmi Simpson (House of Cards), Bill Sage (American Psycho), Pollyanna McIntosh, Neil Sandilands and Jeff Pope.Â

Check out links to the ad on DISH, Verizon Fios, AT&T U-verse, DirecTV.Â