– Much-anticipated webisodes hit FAILSHOW.com July 1st –
Multi-platinum recording artist T-Pain worked his trademark vocals for the series premiere of “FAIL,” a fresh, new take on the black sitcom set for world premiere Friday, July 1, 2011, at 7 p.m. EST. The new show, executive produced by James Bland of BET “Lens on Talent” fame, and Vanessa Baden from Nickelodeon’s “Gullah Gullah Island” and “Keenan and Kel,” will be launched on FAILSHOW.com and feature the new T-Pain track during the title sequence. Before recording the song, T-Pain agreed to support the sitcom about college life after hearing a fervent pitch from the producers.
“Getting him was a stretch, but we are beyond excited and so grateful that a superstar like T-Pain took an interest in our show,” commented Bland, co-president of Hometeam Entertainment, LLC, the production firm he runs with Baden. “Our watchers will go crazy when they hear it – it’s going to blow their minds!”
The anticipated premiere episode of “FAIL” opens with a 15-second snippet of the track, which watchers can hear in its entirety when the music video hits later this month. The show has already garnered a loyal following through the posting of unique video shorts introducing the cast of characters. Each “FAIL Friday” for the past few weeks, viewers met one of six unlikely friends in a study group that doubles as a platform for foolish misadventures and tough college lessons.
“Each one sports an electric personality just like any group of modern young adults,” shared Baden on her cast. “Everyone who has experienced college life will fall out laughing – we kept it real, showing outrageous student life in and, far more importantly, outside the classroom.”
The sitcom follows the six study-mates that mostly end up getting caught in the many distractions their college affords. From the absent-minded jock and sheltered daddy’s girl to the money-crazed gold digger, smooth-talking ladies’ man and “wanna-be thug,” the show packs big laughs into five-minute episodes airing biweekly on FAILSHOW.com.
Formerly with Sony Screen Gems, Bland, a Florida native and recent round-one winner of the national Shadow and Act Black Filmmaker Showcase, based the show on his experiences while a student at Florida A&M University, a historically black university in T-Pain’s hometown of Tallahassee. “FAIL” was conceived by Baden and him after getting fed up with the lack of opportunities for blacks in mainstream television. They join Denzel Washington, Will Smith and others that have taken to the Internet as a self-produced outlet for their work.
“We kept looking for auditions that just weren’t there,” continued Bland. “Writers aren’t creating enough roles for young black actors, so we created a medium for ourselves. We just want to add a new flavor to the market and we know ‘FAIL’ is it!”
Viewers can go to FAILSHOW.com to meet the characters before Friday’s premiere at 7 p.m. EST. You can also connect with the cast and fans at facebook.com/THEFAILSHOW, where producers post behind the scenes footage and photos, twitter.com/THEFAILSHOW or youtube.com/FAILSHOWsitcom. For more information on the show, cast and crew, email [email protected].
