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This sitcom features Jesus, his Dad and the Holy Ghost as a Three's company- like roommates in an apartment on Earth. They are obviously who they are but their identities are (somehow) not suspected by the people with whom they interact.
The idea is that of a family business. God as the founder
and still in charge. Jesus a man of peace and love, but getting impatient for his chance to run things (after 2000 years!) and frustrated by what he perceives as the roughness and sometimes hamhandedness of his Dad.
Jesus is the main attraction as he tries to gently and patiently persuade / co-opt / work around God. God is invariably proud of Jesus and likes what he does, but then goes ahead and does his own thing. The Holy Spirit is laid back, neutral and mostly acts as a foil for Jesus. God is the God of the Old Testament - an energetic and bellicose Old Man, with rough edges and a temper, but still flashes of the Creative genius he had in his Youth. There would be occasional appearances by Moses and Abraham, also depicted as energetic and a little bit scary old men in their 70s, who show up in the apartment to pick up God and go rowding around. Abraham musses up Jesus' hair like he is a little kid.
I envision Jerry Seinfeld as a laconic Holy Ghost, mostly on the sofa. Adam Sandler is Jesus. Larry David is Abraham. I can picture God but I am not sure who could play Him.
The Christs of Valbonne
The_20Christs_20of_20Valbonne
[calum, Aug 28 2010]
of course this could be based on Del Boy, Rodney & Grandad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del_Boy
[po, Aug 29 2010]
Third Rock from the Sun
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_rock
[DrBob, Sep 01 2010]
Old Harry's Game
http://en.wikipedia.../Old_Harry%27s_Game
[DrBob, Sep 01 2010]
[link]
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Seinfeld, Sandler and David? Jews for Jesus? |
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{does best Seinfeld impersonation}
"Sandler as Jesus?...What's the deal with an Adam as Christ? Is he happy guiltmore now? Is he walk on waterboy?"
"I don't think so."
{dbSi} |
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No vote for whom should play God.
<is that right?...whom? or who?>
<or what?> |
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This is great, but it's a bit limited. I think we should be more
egalitarian about this, and see if we can't work in some ways
to offend some other religions while we're about it. |
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Also, Breathairians should appear. Ideally, the main
breatharian character should be inexplicably replaced by a
different actor every couple of episodes. |
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Bill Shatner could play God. He's had enough practice ... |
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Shiva, in his/her many-armed form, could be the local
handyman. |
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[po] There you go. Or if Shiva doesn't suit you, how about
Gaia as the landlady? |
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definitely needs a pothead buddah, a half crazed
mohammed, and one or two from the old greek set. |
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How can we offend the shintoists without a haunted
house? |
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We like this more and more. We think it work best as a South Park style cartoon. |
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Odin and Freya are the nice Scandinavian couple next door, but they do have noisy paries when Thor, the local blacksmith, calls round. They have a large, fierce dog called Fenris. |
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Zeus and Hera run the local taverna and kebab restaraunt. |
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Philosophy and environmental concern are dispensed by the Native American Great Spirit, who lives in a teepee in the local park... |
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Ovwer the back fence, backing on to the gardens of God, Allah and Odin, is Satan, who no-one likes and seems to spend all his time is profligacy and disspiation at the taxpayer's expense. He is resented by the Residen't Association, but some of them do sneak round now and again for a reefer and to listen to some Heavy Metal music. |
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Can I suggest that we drop Mr. Seinfeld like a hot brick? Or
am I the only person who is sick to the back teeth of his
perpetually pappy perky preppiness? |
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I humbly submit that far more suitable actor for the role of
Jesus would be Dylan Moran. |
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That would mean casting Frank Kelly (in his Father Jack persona) as God, which might well work ... |
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Of course, the family business would be carpentry, but JC would want to diversify ... |
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In order to extract the last drop of irony from the situation, Allah (not Mohammed) is gentle, friendly peace-loving .... and female. |
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//That would mean casting Frank Kelly (in his Father Jack
persona) as God// |
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//Allah (not Mohammed) is gentle, friendly peace-loving ....
and female.// |
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Have we covered Jews? You say Hassidic, and I say
Sephardic..that kinda thing? |
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A slimmer Orson Welles could play the local egomaniac/braggart Author L. Ron Hubbard, who is constantly pretending to perform miraculous acts/deeds, but is constantly freaked-out by his neighbors, whom he can't figure out how they are doing their "tricks". |
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What would the Holy Spirit Do? |
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I lost my sense of humor on things like this (Acts - Chapter 4). |
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May be the price of admission in the land I live, who knows? |
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How would this show work, when Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are the same entity? |
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Multiple personality disorder? |
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Can one of them run a cheese shop? |
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Also, we're lacking a wider conflict here, to give the family
story context. I'm thinking we need a good old fashioned
Beelzebub. Obviously Jack Nicholson would work for this,
but an alternative might be Rodney Bewes. |
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I always pictured David Letterman as ol' Mephisto for some reason. |
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The demise of Methuselah could have been greatly exagerated. He lives a perpetual witness relocation program existence and does the odd cameo appearence in disguise. |
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[2_fries_shy_of_a_happy_meal] No, that's the Wandering Jew.
Who should certainly be an occasional character in this
sitcom -- just happens to be passing through, any time the
writers find it convenient. Suitable
role for a guest star. |
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No doubt I'd watch this if it made it to TV, but I fear the writers would be forever tripping over copyright/plagiarism (assuming they didn't mind forever tripping over religious zealots of all persuasions). |
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Check out "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman, and "Small Gods" by Terry Pratchett, both stories taking the rise out of established and proposed religions' characters for literary effect. |
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Or indeed "Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett .... |
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One benefit of this sitcom is that there could be new characters each episode who need no intrudction: angels, Lucifer, Adam, Samson, disciples etc. This alone should provide the energy for a season. |
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Just quirky enough for me, bungie. + |
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<smacks forehead> Of course [mouseposture].
Methuselah would only appear in flashbacks. |
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I don't think we've offended Druids yet. That's
discrimination, that is. |
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samson would test the dodgy sets to the limit. |
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Are you sure you didn't mis-read "Druid" as "Irishman"? |
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Come to that, are you sure you didn't mis-spell "shillelagh" as
"shalleleigh"? |
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(No matter. Any nation that claims a clubbish stick as an
invention and then gives it a name deserves to have it mis-
spelled.) |
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Everyone pretends to be out ? |
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Can we also have an alien abductee? Not strictly a religion,
but still delusional. |
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What names would the neighbors know them as? Big Daddy, Junior, and "The Spook" probably wouldn't do...
When the mail comes, what is their surname? I don't think "Christ" will fly... |
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[bungston], what did you have in mind? |
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//I don't think we've offended Druids yet. That's
discrimination, that is.// So, what you're saying is: We've
offended them by leaving them out? Next on the list of
people to offend: Spanish barbers. |
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Setting aside the fun but somewhat distracting question of casting, it is necessary to think of the comedy fundamentals. Will it work? I think that there is comic potential in Jesus. He must be human in his failings and foibles, for both the sake of ensuring his essential Jesus-nosity and providing the comic impetus: delusions of grandeur, visions of a better world, feelings of inadquacy all folded into the motivational mix. The Holy Ghost, too, can, as the least well understood part of Trinity, conform to the sitcom archetype of idiot savant (e.g. Kramer or Manuel). God, though, he is a complication. By definition he is perfect and infallible and therefore not funny. Perhaps within the sitcom set up God should be removed from the immediate action - he's let Jesus run the branch office but there's continual threats that he'll cut short his vacation to come and inspect the premises, causing Jesus and the Holy Ghost (who, in my head, is increasingly acting like Brad Pitt's character in True Romance) to flap about in a panic. Either that or we place God where he should be placed - everywhere at once - and watch Jesus fall apart, struggling to cope with the fact that his every slip-up and manifestation of his humanity is already known to his auld da. |
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At the risk of taking the idea too seriously (and setting aside casting distractions; good advice), I think it is sound. Jewish humor has enjoyed a lot of popularity in the US. Jewish humor has a long tradition of jokes and situations that involve God and His relationship with man: the character of God in Jewish humor is well laid out. The idea of a family dynamic involving God would be a new one but family is also bread and butter for jewish humor and Jesus as archetypal Jewish son would not be so tough. Where better to do family comedy that the 1/2 hour sitcom format? |
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Pondering the lack of women, and the lack of a mother (integral to Jewish family comedy!), is there any reason the Holy Ghost couldn't be a lady? To avoid any questions about the exact relationship between God and Ghost the ghost could be a very old lady: maybe a great grandma figure. This would be in accord with how I envision the Ghost role: always on stage, maybe in a chair, not doing much, but making with the witty retorts and acerbic observations. |
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Everybody would be taking it too literally, much like
life [+] |
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//God, though, he is a complication. By definition he is perfect and infallible and therefore not funny.// |
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So straight deadpan humor.
John Cleese it is then. |
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Sounds a bit like 'Third Rock...' but with God etc substituted for aliens. Also, the characterisation of God is straight out of 'Old Harry's Game'. Links provided. |
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Betty White as the Holy Ghost. Essentially
the same role as in the Golden Girls |
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Well Jesus had a biz way back when: he was a carpenter, yes? So what does he yell when he hits his finger with a hammer? |
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// advanced physics .... string theory,... knot for prophet // |
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Nothing personal [IT], but now we shall hunt you down and kill you. Or at least try to, depending on if we can work out where you are and/or how fast you're moving. |
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