Lentorama 2009: Great(?) Moments in Catholics on Television



April 22, 1994: Father Ted debuts on Channel 4

Father Ted was a show about Irish priests, starring Irish actors, created by Irish comedians, with location shooting in Ireland, that was made for and aired on a network in Britain, a country not exactly known for embracing the Catholic faith.

The show followed the exploits of three priests relocated to Craggy Island after each ran into trouble in their previous assignment. Father Ted Crilly was caught using funds meant for a childrens' pilgrimage to Lourdes to pay for a trip to Las Vegas. Father Dougal McGuire, who is kind of dim and not particularly religious, precipitated an unexplained incident involving a group of nuns and a ferry. The elderly Father Jack Hackett was a foul-mouthed boozer with an eye for the ladies, sent to the island after an inappropriate encounter with a bride he had just married off.

Together, the three deal with the requisite wacky locals while trying to get themselves out of scrapes, often the result of Father Ted's schemes to make money or get transferred off of the island. There's also an ongoing rivalry with the priests from Rugged Island, a kind of ecclesiastical version of the Cheers-Gary's Old Town Tavern rivalry.

As is common with British shows, Father Ted enjoyed a very short run, lasting only 25 episodes over three seasons. It was very popular, though, with the last episode becoming Channel 4's most-watched program ever. It would be shown in Australia and (fittingly) Ireland, but it never quite made it across the pond in any formal fashion (as far as I can tell). The show apparently helped further the career of a number of British actors, but the only one I've heard of is Graham Norton, whose talk show currently runs on BBC America. Sadly, the actor who played Ted, Dermot Morgan, never got the same benefit from the show, as he died of a heart attack the day after the show finished taping its last episode. Not the way Father Ted wanted to get off the island, I'd wager.