Dollar Theater: Animation + Branding

Dollar Theater was a TV pilot I created and co-produced with my partner Paul Weiss in the early 2000s. I designed every aspect of the show, from its logo and branding to the opening title animation—a cartoon flight through the crumbling, quirky streets of Harlem that leads us into the show’s setting: a dilapidated discount movie theater. I also wrote, performed, and (admittedly) sang the theme song. Vintage intermission commercial bumpers, drawn by hand and given an aged film treatment, added to the show’s nostalgic charm, paired with real 1950s drive-in audio. Though the show was optioned and pitched to networks like Comedy Central, MTV, and BET, it found new life online in the early days of streaming video. Dollar Theater was later featured in MovieMaker magazine, alongside Peter Jackson’s King Kong of all things, as part of a conversation about the rise of streaming content.