Moone Boy is an Irish sitcom created, co-written by and co-starring Chris O'Dowd for British broadcaster Sky One. The series is co-written by Nick Vincent Murphy and is produced by Baby Cow Productions, Sprout Pictures, Hot Cod Productions and Grand Pictures. The series is semi-autobiographical of O'Dowd and focuses on a young boy's life growing up in Boyle, County Roscommon, in the west of Ireland in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Moone Boy is the second series produced from Sky One's Little Crackers shorts and is inspired by O'Dowd's contribution, "Capturing Santa", which was produced by Sprout Pictures. The introductory music for much of each episode is "Tico's Tune" by Geoff Love. This piece of music has near-iconic status in Ireland as it was used as the theme music for The Gay Byrne Show, a long-running and immensely popular morning radio show on RTÉ Radio 1. Background music and soundtrack pieces were composed for the series by Rónán Johnston. The opening credits are accompanied with the song "Where's Me Jumper" by The Sultans of Ping FC. Moone Boy aired its third and currently final season in 2015.
Plot
Seán Murphy is the imaginary friend of 12-year-old Martin PaulKenny Dalglish Moone, the youngest child in a family living in Boyle, a small town in County Roscommon in the rural West of Ireland. Martin, aided by his imaginary friend, has a unique perspective on life. His imagination comes into play both in his childish drawings, which come alive through animation, and in the ridiculous schemes he comes up with, against Seán's better judgement. With Seán's help, Martin negotiates life as the youngest member of a chaotic, scatterbrained family.
Production
Chris O'Dowd said: "Moone Boy is a fantastic comedy which centres on a twelve-year-old boy who has an imaginary friend. It is set in the late eighties/early nineties and all of the experiences are ones that I had. It's a really funny show which has loads of animation and a number of laughs that I hope people will love. It was essential to film in Ireland and what was great about Sky was they wanted us to film here and they were really supportive. That wouldn't have happened at any other channel." Moone Boy is Sky's second commission based on a Little Crackers short. The series is a co-production between Sprout Pictures, who produced the original Little Crackers short, Baby Cow Productions, Hot Cod Productions and Grand Pictures, and began filming in early 2012 on location in Boyle and other places in County Roscommon, as well as County Wicklow.
The show has been well received by critics. The Guardian called it "the most life-affirming delight to have hit our screens in a long time", and said: "It is surreal, within decent limits, and it is derivative, but I think the derivations are happily if tacitly acknowledged". Moone Boy won an International Emmy for Best Comedy and was also nominated for two awards at the 2012 British Comedy Awards. In 2014, it won an IFTA Award for best entertainment programme.
Home media
The first series of Moone Boy was released on DVD on 15 October 2012. The second series of Moone Boy was released on DVD on 31 March 2014. A boxset containing the first two series was also released on 31 March 2014.
American remake
It was announced in October 2014 that the show received a "Put-pilot" from ABC. O'Dowd is said to be a writer and producer, but is not expected to star.
