Series Description

The Father Ted TV show was a 30 minute British comedy series on Channel 4 about the misadventures of three priests who were sentenced to serve as the leaders of a congregation on a small Irish Island due to their past indiscretions. Unfortunately, their punishment didn't have any effect whatsoever on their behavior. It just changed the people who had to deal with them to the residents of Craggy Island.

Father Ted Cast

Dermot Morgan .... Father Ted Crilly
Ardal O'Hanlon .... Father Dougal McGuire
Frank Kelly .... Father Jack Hackett
Pauline McLynn .... Mrs. Doyle

Father Ted Trivia:

Only 24 episodes of the Father Ted TV Series aired from 1995-1998. There was also a TV Special episode titled, "A Christmassy Ted that aired on Christmas Eve in 1996.

The idea for this series was first pitched to Ireland's National Television Station, "Radio Telefis eireann (RTE)". They turned it down because they felt it was too much like a 1984 series titled, "Leave It to Mrs. O'Brien' which turned out to be a flop. That was a huge mistake because Father Ted became a worldwide hit!

Unfortunately, Dermot Morgan passed away just one day after completing filming of the final episode of Father Ted.

Pauline McLynn's character "Mrs. Doyle" was based on writer "Peter Graham's" mother.

Series' creators "Graham Linehan" and "Arthur Mathews" were both huge fans of the series, "Seinfeld" and Mathews has stated that Seinfeld had a big influence on the type of comedy written for Father Ted.

With the womanizing, boozing and other bad conduct on the part of priests you might think that Father Ted would have resulted in lots of complaints from viewers but after the airing of the premiere episode there were only two. One viewer felt that the show was too anti-Catholic and the other felt it was too pro-Catholic.

Dermot Morgan was chosen for the role as Father Ted because creators Mathews and Linehan had been impressed when they saw Morgan playing a Priest named "Father Trendy" during his stand up routine.