History Trivia / FatherTed

* ReferencedBy: ''One Piece Abridged'' has Zorro voiced by Father Jack.

* CastingGag: The SimilarSquad Rugged Island priests are played by the runners-up in the auditions for Ted, Dougal and Jack.

* RealLife/MeanCharacterNiceActor: Father Jack, as loud and as obnoxious as he is, is played by Frank Kelly... who couldn't have been more different from the character. Kelly joined ''{{Series/Emmerdale}}'' but left after five months, because he missed being with his wife and children in Ireland too much to stay. He also donated money to various drama projects which are struggling, and asks for nothing back in return.
** Despite playing the closest thing the series has to a BigBad, Jim Norton (Bishop Brennan) comes across as a warm and friendly man in the behind the scenes documentary, where he admitted to having never watched "Kicking Bishop Brennan Up the Arse" because [[TearJerker/FatherTed it was the last time he saw Dermot Morgan]].

* TemptingFate: A behind-the-scenes example: after finishing shooting the first season, Dermot Morgan approached Linehan and Mathews and sarcastically asked them what they were going to do to him next, and jokingly mentioned being covered in slurry. And so, the very first scene for season two that they wrote down was the one in which Ted and Dougal are slathered in the contents of a septic tank truck, a scene that Ardal O'Hanlon described more than once as one of his worst experiences. In the documentary, Linehan admits that they did that because at the time "we felt like smartasses".

* IAmNotSpock: Severely affects the entire cast. If you were an extra in this show that's all you're ever going to be. Creator/GrahamNorton averts it by simply carrying his persona to the talk-show circuit. Some of the cast who are in stand-up avert it (such as Creator/EdByrne), although Ardal O'Hanlon may not be so lucky. (That said, there are far worse shows to be forever tied to.)

** According to the DVDCommentary, originally Ted was supposed to be more of a sexually repressed and AmbiguouslyBi kind of character, to the point that watching "The Passion of Saint Tibulus" would have caused him to experience a surreal and heavily sexually charged dream revolving around the homoerotic content of the movie. As they went on writing the rest of the first series and flashed out the characters, Linehan and Mathews eventually decided to scrap that idea, in part due to a series of sexual scandals involving priests actually going on in Ireland at the time, which made Jack and Bishop Brennan more fitting for jokes on the matter. Eventually, they decided to get out of their system all jokes they had about Ted in the episode "And God created woman", only toned down compared to their original intentions and with more of a sentimental side to it.

* The "All Priests Over-75 Indoor Football Challenge Match" is played each year between inhabitants of two islands which lay claim to being the real-world inspiration for Craggy Island. (Although the participants are neither priests nor over 75, and the match is not played indoors.)

* The DVDCommentary is interesting in this regard, as Linehan spends a lot of time pointing out things he thinks they could have done better. In particular, he is very critical of "A Chrismassy Ted"'s EndingFatigue.

** "A Song For Europe" is probably the biggest individual example, as the ability to research obscure bits of music online would likely have shut down Ted's plan to plagiarize the Norwegian song almost immediately, or at least forced him to acknowledge that he failed to carry out even the most basic research on the song.

** The mess that Ted's and Dougal's protest turns into "The Passion of St. Tibulus" would likely have been even ''worse'' in the modern day. Whereas in the episode their protests only succeed in people coming from all over Europe to Craggy Island to watch the film, nowadays you can bet that they'd have attracted the attention of an enterprising movie pirate, meaning they'd end up causing the film to become available ''worldwide''.

** Some of the gags around Father Larry Duff's new cellphone in Season 2 wouldn't work as well (if at all) in the modern day, as they tend to rely on cellphone still being a novelty back then.

* DawsonCasting:
** Inverted with Pauline [=McLynn=], who was 33 when the show started. She almost didn't get the part, because she was [[http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Money/Pix/pictures/2009/7/10/1247223849596/Writer-and-former-Father--001.jpg too pretty]] for [[HollywoodHomely Mrs. Doyle]].
** Also inverted with Frank Kelly, who was 58 when the show started; Father Jack is supposed to be fifteen to twenty years older.
* IAmNotSpock: Severely affects the entire cast. If you were an extra in this show that's all you're ever going to be. Graham Norton averts it by simply carrying his persona to the talk-show circuit. Some of the cast who are in stand-up avert it (such as Ed Byrne), although Ardal O'Hanlon may not be so lucky. (That said, there are far worse shows to be forever tied to.)

** In an In-Universe example, Richard Wilson plays himself in one episode, and is driven into a rage by Ted saying [[Series/OneFootInTheGrave 'I don't believe it!']] to him.
* {{RealLife/Mean Character Nice Actor}}: Father Jack, as loud and as obnoxious as he is, is played by Frank Kelly... who couldn't have been more different from the character. Kelly joined ''{{Series/Emmerdale}}'' but left after five months, because he missed being with his wife and children in Ireland too much to stay. He also donated money to various drama projects which are struggling, and asks for nothing back in return.

* OlderThanTheyThink: "Dermot Morgan playing a funny priest" actually goes all the way back to 1980, when he would appear on ''The Live Mike'' as "Father Trendy" to deliver the end-of-episode homily.

** Despite playing the closest thing the series has to a BigBad, Jim Norton (Bishop Brennan) comes across as a warm and friendly man in the behind the scenes documentary, where he admitted to having never watched the infamous/hilariously "Kicking Bishop Brennan Up the Arse" because [[TearJerker/FatherTed it was the last time he saw Dermot Morgan.

** In an In-Universe example, Richard Wilson plays himself in one episode, and is driven into a rage by Ted saying [[OneFootInTheGrave 'I don't believe it!']] to him.

* TooSoon: The original script for the final episode, "Going to America", ended with Father Ted contemplating suicide. However, when Dermot Morgan died the day after filming was completed, that ending was quickly replaced with a montage of scenes from previous episodes.