Religion

rug

(82,333 posts) Wed Oct 21, 2015, 11:02 AM Oct 2015

CBS is Developing a Sitcom All About Taking the Bible Literally

October 20, 2015 by Hemant Mehta

Several years ago, author A. J. Jacobs wrote a hilarious book called The Year of Living Biblically, in which he tried to follow every rule in the Bible as literally as possible (without killing anyone).

It’s taken a while, but the premise of that book is now being used to develop a sitcom.

According to Deadline:

In its first development season, Alcide Bava Prods., the Warner Bros. TV-based company of The Big Bang Theory star Johnny Galecki, has sold its first project — a multi-camera comedy from writer Scott King, showrunner of the Hulu series Difficult People, which has been set up at CBS. Additionally Alcide Bava is developing a half-hour comedy series based on the A.J. Jacobs’ bestselling book The Year of Living Biblically.

… The book had been previously under option at Paramount Pictures with Plan B producing. Producer [Spencer Medof] had procured the rights and approached his friend [Andrew] Haas about turning the book into a TV series.

I’m not sure how they turn that premise into a full-fledged series… but it’s bound to upset conservative groups who still can’t handle positive gay characters on television. So it has my enthusiastic support!

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2015/10/20/cbs-is-developing-a-sitcom-all-about-taking-the-bible-literally/

5 replies

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CBS is Developing a Sitcom All About Taking the Bible Literally (Original Post) rug Oct 2015 OP

I hope they get the clothes-shopping scenes right. TygrBright Oct 2015 #1

Turning it into a series is not that difficult: DetlefK Oct 2015 #2

Whatever they do, the idea has a lot of potential. rug Oct 2015 #3

If they can keep from hamming it up Fumesucker Oct 2015 #4

Leonard from Thr Big Bang Theory is behind it so I have high hopes. rug Oct 2015 #5

TygrBright

(20,759 posts)

1. I hope they get the clothes-shopping scenes right.

Reply to rug (Original post)

Wed Oct 21, 2015, 11:46 AM

Oct 2015

Since petrochemical products tend to irritate my skin, I spend a fair amount of time in shops and on the phone or "livechat" with catalog retailers, getting the *precise* skinny on fabric content.

It's often a tedious process, I'll be keen to see how they make it "funny."

interestedly,

Bright

DetlefK

(16,423 posts)

2. Turning it into a series is not that difficult:

Reply to rug (Original post)

Wed Oct 21, 2015, 12:06 PM

Oct 2015

They could do the same thing as "My name is Earl": An ordinary guy has a spiritual revelation and decides to change his whole life.
"Earl" spent each episode undoing a bad deed he had done in the past.
In the "Biblically"-series each episode could deal with the difficulties of following the literal meaning of a specific Bible-passage.

"Earl" had a comic-relief brother and was friends with a married couple. The same scheme could be used for this series, as it keeps the number of characters small.

Or it could be done like "Monk", where he exhibits all of his various "ticks" from the very beginning, but the viewer doesn't realize them until they conflict with the real-life situation of a given episode.