February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Jim Smith and Stephen McKinley
BOSTON — Following complaints from Catholics and Irish Americans, Boston’s WGBH-TV, the flagship station of the Public Broadcasting System, has canceled "Father Ted," a hit British comedy series that portrays Irish Catholic priests in a manner that many viewers deemed offensive. The series will start a run on New York’s local PBS station, WLIW, this Friday, July 6. WGBH had run the program during a four-week trial period in April and May and decided to cancel the series after station executives concluded that it was "inappropriate for this viewing area." Catholic Action League Executive Director C. J. Doyle told the Echo that he was notified last week by station management about the decision. "WGBH did the right thing in terminating this lewd and puerile caricature of the Catholic priesthood, which invidiously portrays priests as imbeciles, hypocrites, alcoholics, cross-dressers and users of pornography," Doyle said. "It mocks, demeans and trivializes the Catholic priesthood and it panders to crude and archaic anti-Irish stereotypes, a formula not unknown to British television." For WGBH, Ron Bachman acknowledged that there had been complaints. He said that more positive responses had been received than negative ones, but that "the negative responses were stronger." "We knew it was a risk, but because of requests we decided to do it on a trial basis," he said. The show was a hit in the UK and Ireland when it first aired on Channel 4 in 1997 and 1998. The show was written and produced by Irish comedy writers Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews. Set on a remote and windswept island off the Irish coast, it portrays the feckless shenanigans of exiled priests Fathers Ted, Dougal and Jack and their maniacally hospitable housekeeper, Mrs. Doyle. Most of the filming took place at Glenquin, on the Boston road from Kilnaboy in County Clare. In a previous interview, writer Graham Linehan said: "All the characters are based on some little peccadillo that the Irish have to some extent or another. "It’s based on people, but on complete exaggerations of them. If we have a character who’s obnoxious, he has to be the most obnoxious character we can think of. Which is a very easy way to write, really, to just get a particular characteristic and exaggerate it." For WLIW, senior publicist Susan Soberman said that a pilot episode had been run in May as part of a "Battle of the Britcoms" event, where viewers were invited to view five British comedies and telephone vote on which they would like to see in a full series. Father Ted won the vote, and the same episode from May, "Good Luck Father Ted," will air this Friday. "The overwhelming response was positive," said Soberman of the May pilot episode. "Whatever happened in Boston won’t impact on our airing it here."