Do you think they could ever make an American version of Father Ted? Or are Americans too uptight with religion to laugh.?

As an ex-Pat Brit living & thriving in the USA, allow me to absolutely assure you that a show like "Father Ted" would COMPLETELY BAFFLE 95% of Americans....these are not what one might call a "bright" people! What they ARE (in spite of their incessant political in-fighting) is a third of a billion CLONES who are astonishingly easy to separate from their money!

God Bless America!

On a television station? Probably not. About 15 or so years ago, there was a show called "God, the Devil, and Bob." In a nutshell, God was disappointed in humanity and was going to destroy it. He told the devil about this, who was thrilled, but then God started to have second thoughts. The devil didn't want this, so he and God made a deal. If there was one person on the whole planet who could prove life is inherently good, God will not destroy the earth. The devil gets to pick this person and of course he picks the titular character, Bob.

It's a great show. Even as an atheist, I love it, and I recommend to people who ask me my favorite shows. It has heart, it has a message, the characters are well thought out, but still flawed human beings who care for each other, and it's not really preachy. There are time it pokes fun at the dogma of religion, but it also acknowledges how spiritually can help some people through hard times in life.

Nevertheless, only 4 episodes made it on television (the rest were released on DVD) because of pressure from religious activists who, in addition to other things, found the love/hate relationship between God and the Devil offensive. God is pretty much what you expect, but the Devil is somewhat of a whiny brat who hates God, but also wants his approval. The series plays off the Christian myth that Lucifer was God's favorite angel before he fell. So, in the show, the devil has an interesting dichotomous relationship with God where he hates him, and wants to best him, but also wants God to be proud of him. God, always the "parent," almost pities the Devil, and feels sorry for him more than anything else (although there was one episode where God regrets what happened between them because he really did favor Lucifer.) Their relationship is interesting, and it develops deeper than just a simple and overplayed "good God vs. evil Devil"

If that show was pulled after 4 episodes, (and it's not really *that* critical of religion), I don't think a show similar to Father Ted would survive. One episode focuses on Bob's abusive father dying. Bob kind of hopes he is in hell, but when he finds out he is in heaven, and confronts God about this he tells him something to the effect that Bob has a right to be mad at his father, but it's not his job to forgive or judge because he didn't know what was in the man's heart. What is offensive about that??? It's like the religious cohort didn't give the show a chance.

Now, it came on Netflix or something, it might do okay, but I think pressure from religious organizations (which would affect advertising deals) would get it pulled from television stations.

Hmmmm, i think it would be hard. Whenever UK shows are remade in america they seem to be dumbed down quite extensively. I'm not saying father ted was high brow viewing but still probably out of grasp for your typical neanderthal american.

We had Pastor Greg a decade before you had Father Ted.

You've been pwned by reality.

You are probably right - I cant get most US humour and they seem to find ours eccentric