GOD, THE DEVIL & BOB

By: Frederick C. Szebin
Date: Monday, April 10, 2000

Television history is filled with shows that didn't get a chance to live beyond unlucky episode 13 for various reasons: bad time slot, viewer apathy, network antipathy, and, as with God, the Devil and Bob, all of the above, along with viewer-network narrow-mindedness. The plot was clear-cut enough: God decides to destroy the Earth and start over, but upon having second thoughts he bets old Lucifer that, if one soul could convince him the world was worth saving, He'd let it be. The Devil chooses Detroit native Bob, a beer-drinking, socially inept head of a most dysfunctional household. While God remains as inscrutable as ever, the Devil takes a hands-on approach to help Bob fail as the poor guy tries to understand what it was God wants him to do to make the world a better place.
It was all a very playful affair with such talent as James Garner (God), Alan Cumming (the Devil) and French Stewart (Bob) doing very good work indeed, as did Laurie Metcalf, Nancy Cartwright and Kath Soucie. There was nothing blasphemous, even when Bob accused God of being 'a deadbeat dad' (certainly a sentiment many pf is can understand). God was portrayed as a bit of an elderly hippy, fond of light beer, and when it came to his ancient feelings for Lucifer, just as human as the rest of us. The Devil was saucily voiced by Brit Cumming, who has gained the reputation as a bit of a chameleon who can move just as well in broad comedies as he does in the stiffest Shakespeare.
The humor could miss a beatnot that the show had much of a chance to find its momentum, having been cancelled after only four episodes were aired. But many belly laughs made up for the jokes that didn't hit the mark. In one instance, to prove to Bob that He is the Almighty, God pulls eggs out of the Devil's mouth. Bob still doubts until He makes the bar they're at disappear and grows to mammoth proportions. In Hell, Guy Lombardo plays every frickin' night, and the Devil has a loutish demon assistant named Smeg who is so incompetent that he gives Bob a plague of bowls instead of boils.
Poor, put-upon Smeg. As Hell more than doubled in size in the 1980s, he was left to run it on his own while his master filled his time on Earth. The Devil didn't realize just how much he had let the place go until he took all evil out of the world (after God forgot his birthday yet again) and, out of sheer boredom, made a little tour of the grounds. The fourth pit had become a golf course, with Smeg terribly overworked and unable to keep up. Lucifer decides to start over, he tells Smeg, like in the good old days, when it was 'you and me, a box of matches and a bag of briquettes.'

With evil gone from the world, however, all sorts of problems crop up as Bob and his dysfunctional family get along like the Beaver's and Saddham Hussein gives pony rides to Kurds. Meanwhile the Devil's old friend, Martha Stewart, has been called down to redecorate Hell'We need to unify the suffering, make it flow'and winds up taking over for a time as Lucifer locks himself away and paints sad clowns.
What was there to offend anyone? Not a thing. But 22 NBC affiliates cut the cord on that half hour even before an episode had run, which lowered ratings considerably, making the Peacock pull the plug so that they could show reruns of Just Shoot Me instead. Any episode of The Family Guy (another great animated program) could be considered more objectionable than anything that God, The Devil and Bob managed to show in its brief run. GD&B had a more gentle humor than the Fox program, but there are those closed minds who feel that any mention of God in entertainment must be blasphemous and therefore should be boycotted. So a good show dies before it finds an audience. NBC didn't give it a chance. The almighty dollar is far superior to any laughs generated by the Almighty, so we get reruns of Just Shoot Me. Surprised someone hasn't been offended by that title, to tell the truth.
Thirteen episodes of God, the Devil and Bob were made, and it is doubtful they will show up anywhere. (Maybe after Duckmann reruns at 3:30 in the morning?) It has been said that animation is a perfect medium to display ideas, concepts and actions much more comfortably than in live action, simply because animation is so unreal. Who could watch Kenny violently die every week if South Park were live action? God, the Devil and Bob wasn't particularly insightful. I don't think it was meant to be. But it was funny, which is the least you can expect from a comedy. But its main character was our Maker, and God knows we shouldn't laugh at Him. Don't see why: if we were made in His image, wouldn't He have a sense of humor?