The first animated adult comedy series ever produced for Irish television kicks off on 3e tomorrow night.
Newsbag, created by Gerard Barrett, who describes it as a mix of South Park and The I.T Crowd, follows Moss, Lenny and Gig, who work for a dysfunctional Dublin-based online news website, Newsbag, run by a rich megalomaniac named Eric Dundee.
Together, the trio pursue hot news trends such as the wave of Twitter-addiction spreading across the country, Barack Obama coming to Ireland, the spud shortage that brings Ireland closer to another famine, Lenny being afflicted with piles, Moss getting kidnapped by a gang of priests to become King of the Priests…and much, much more!
Gig’s main quest in life is to find a long term girlfriend to love and cherish him. He has offered on numerous occasions to pay for this service, but as yet no one has accepted. Gig is a tech geek and everything he does involves technology, sometimes leading to devastating consequences.
Lenny is a big talker whose stories, usually concerning his sexual conquests, are more fantasy than reality. He’s a compulsive liar and as such, usually finds himself in dangerous situations. To sum him up; if Gig was on fire, Lenny would film it on his iPhone for YouTube and then tease him with a bottle of water.
Moss is the wide-eyed third member of the group and hails from a tiny island off the east coast of Ireland called InishPuffin. Moss finds it hard to keep up with the pace of life on the mainland and is generally two steps behind everyone else. Overall he’s a likeable chap, but socially inept.
Their boss Eric Dundee is a New Zealander who made a billion dollars inventing an apparatus for facilitating the rapid birth of a child by centrifugal force. He was paid a billion dollars to stop inventing by the United Nations and has decided to plough his billions into launching an online news company out of Ireland to avail of tax incentives.
Accompanied with an Irish sense of humour and dark wit, and written by an all-Irish writing team with an Irish voice cast, this show looks like the beginning of something remarkable.
In the series premiere, Moss joins the Newsbag team and is overwhelmed by the creepy welcome he gets from eccentric CEO Eric Dundee. Gig is ecstatic when his new Personal Attack app gets approved by Crapple but is equally depressed when Molly makes him move desk for Moss. Dundee breaks the news to staff that Obama is coming to Ireland for a state visit. He wants Moss to go cover it with Lenny. Gig tags along but during Obama’s speech his app goes off, causing the whole place to erupt in chaos. Obama then breaks away from his entourage to go and explore Ireland with the Newsbag trio.
TV3 Director of Content, Jeff Ford, said: “We are excited to be teaming up with Icehouse Media to bring 3e viewers Ireland’s first animated adult comedy series. This unique animation is a fantastic addition to the many home-grown programming and talent that TV3 Group supports. It also highlights the importance of the BAI fund which contributes to the continuous relationship between TV3 and the independent sector.”
Newsbag Creator, Head Writer & Executive Producer, Gerard Barrett, said: “It was always an ambition of mine to create a cartoon and set it in Ireland, so I came up with the concept of Newsbag and setting it around three friends working in an online news website in Dublin. It was the perfect setting for it and a great segue into potential storylines having it set around all types of news stories.”
Newsbag airs Saturday 12th October 2013 at 10pm on 3e.
Irish News Review 