Funnybones is a British children's comedy animated television series, which originally aired on S4C in Wales, and on BBC One with BBC Two showing repeats elsewhere in the United Kingdom from 29 September to 15 December 1992.

It was based on the series of nine storybooks, by Janet and Allan Ahlberg, which were illustrated by André Amstutz, focusing on the adventures of a pair of skeletons who were the eponymous Funnybones, in the book of the same name. The first book in the series was published in 1980. The characters in the series are Big Funnybone (whose catchphrase was "good idea"), Little Funnybone (the brains of the group), Dog Funnybone (whose catchphrase was "Woof") and Cat (whose catchphrase was "Meow"). Each of the show's episodes was five minutes in length.

The Welsh voices were provided by Ray Gravell, who also sang the theme song as the Moon Man, whilst the English dubbed voices and theme song were by popular comedian Griff Rhys Jones.

Main characters

• Big: The larger skeleton (who wore a mini red bowler hat in the TV series and who wore various hats in the storybooks and in his wishful ideas). He said "good idea" to every idea that Little had.

• Little: The smaller skeleton (who didn't wear a hat), who came up with many ideas for the skeletons to do in every episode.

• Dog: The pet dog of the skeletons who loved bones, digging holes, and found everything that the skeletons need.

• Cat: The pet black cat of the skeletons, who always got chased by Dog. Unlike other characters, she was not a skeleton.

• Moon Man: The Crescent-moon-shaped character who was always the narrator in each episode. Unlike other characters, he was also not a skeleton.

• Mr. Bonehead: The skeleton owner of the pet shop (who wore a flat cap with a pencil and an apron), who Big and Little took Dog into with a view to swapping him for another pet in the episode "The Pet Shop".

• Dr. Bones: The skeleton doctor (who wore a doctor's coat and glasses with a first aid kit, a stethoscope and a leg tapping hammer) who helped Big and Little to stop them from bumping in the night in the episode "Bumps in the Night".

Episode guide via storybook comparison

On the television series of Funnybones, six episodes have the same title as the stories from the published books, three episodes were re-titled from the storybook versions, and the other three were written for TV and didn't use a storybook as source material. The final episode of the television series, however, was based on the first storybook of Funnybones, while the first episode was based on the second storybook called "The Pet Shop". All twelve episodes were originally shown on BBC One and repeated on BBC Two as part of the CBeebies and Children's BBC strand, as it was known before 1999, on Tuesdays at 4:00pm.A BBC video, entitled, Funnybones – Bumps in the Night (Cat. No. BBCV 4871), which contained all twelve episodes, was released soon after the series ended, but this is now out of print. The VHS tape was also released in Bulgaria and Australia, respectively by the companies Proxima Entertainment and ABC Video, but in the former case, it was dubbed into Bulgarian.

Miscellaneous

This was one of several cartoons dubbed by the then-new Irish post production company Telegael, to demonstrate children's programming possibilities for a proposed television station in Irish. The result, entitled Smior agus Smiortán (translated to the English language as Marrow & Little Marrow), was broadcast on Ireland's two national television stations, RTÉ1 and 2, in 1993.

The series also aired on ABC in Australia, from 1 February 1994 to 28 January 1999 as well as airing on the channel in Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea, SABC2 in South Africa, as part of a block for children called Mini-TV, the military television network BFBS in Germany and West Germany as well as being shown on the channel in Cyprus and Falkland Islands, TVO in Canada, Yle TV2 in Finland, TVNZ 2 in New Zealand and Cartoon Network, as part of a block for preschoolers called Small World and FOX Family Channel, as part of Mister Moose's Fun Time, a spin-off from The All New Captain Kangaroo in the United States, S4C in Wales, and BBC One, BBC Two and CBeebies (when repeated) in the United Kingdom.

References

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