Fergal goes stateside with new TV series

SONG and script writer Fergal O’Byrne may have just seen his new tv series go stateside but it was closer to home, in the Dunbrody Cafe, where his dream began.

The first episode of O’Byrne’s series ‘Hipster Verse’ aired in the US on Friday after it was sold to Dish Network in recent months. It was a dream come true for Palace West native and former CEO of Sonru.com Fergal O’Byrne, who got the series off the ground after meeting Dubliners Dylan Townsend and David Lawrence in the Dunbrody Cafe.

‘They had met me through a mutual connection and wanted me to be involved. We put the whole series together and wrote the episodes but we knew it would be difficult to get produced,’ explained Fergal, who stepped down as CEO of Sonru two years ago to become a writer. ‘Dylan volunteered to move to LA and Vancouver for the guts of a year where he went around knocking on doors. He met a famous Canadian tv star Michael Coleman and between the two of them, they filmed the show in Vancouver.’

Fergal describes the series as a parody of modern-day hipsters in a coffee shop owned by a young guy who secretly wants to be like them. It is set and filmed in Vancouver and is brimming with quirky characters who are obsessed with coffee, themselves and everything ‘cool’.

‘The mantra for the season is “it’s only cool until it’s cool and then it’s not cool”,’ laughed Fergal. ‘It is pure parody.’

Fergal’s coworkers Dylan and David helped to provide the Wexford writer with inspiration for his script. Describing the pair as ‘unashamedly hipster’, Fergal said a lot of the series is based on them and his view of them.

The first series has been taken on in the US and although he said there is nothing set in stone, Fergal hopes that it could run for up to six.

‘For someone sitting in Wexford working away writing on their own, to get this opportunity is great,’ he said.

Although the series is only available in the US, the trio hope that it is picked up by Irish television in the future.