God: The Cartoon

Who wants to be a millionaire, when you could be hanging out with God Almighty? NBC hopes audiences will be asking that question as it goes up against Fox's game-show juggernaut with "God, the Devil and Bob," a new animated series from Matthew Carlson, whose created the oafish sitcom "Men Behaving Badly" in 1996. The show, (premiering Thursday, March 9 at 8:30, before moving to Tuesdays), sounds edgy enough that two Midwestern affiliates have refused to carry it. That news, no doubt, has NBC execs tossing their caps in the air with glee.

But there's little here to give offense, and plenty of clever dialogue, sharp characters and firm plotting. True, God takes the form of an affable, wise old man, a convention that is theologically shallow but can't possibly still be shocking. The deity and traditional religious beliefs are, by and large, treated with respect, and the show even makes a few meaty theological points. But will that be enough to defeat the tidal pull of vicarious wealth? Hey, Carlson: feeling confident?

The idea behind "God, the Devil, and Bob" is promising, though not strictly fresh: God, disappointed in mankind, resolves to destroy Earth unless one representative human can prove it's worth saving. God allows the Devil to select the human subject, who turns out to be Bob Alman, husband, dad and beer-slugging, boss-annoying, good ole boy assembly-line auto worker ("Not my best work," God sighs). The first three episodes show how Bob resists or rallies to his role as humanity's last hope. ("That sounds like a lot of work. What's in it for me?" Bob asks. God retorts, "This isn't new stuff. It's written down in books, scrolls, stone tablets. What do you want me to do, scribble it on a bar napkin for you?") Bob comes through his dilemmas, which center around his family, as the hapless hero.

What is fresh here is the writing, which starts strong and keeps going. An ad hoc focus group of friends and leaders from my church watched with me, and laughed pretty continuously from the opening scenes. In a pre-credits exposition, God explains that Bob is the test case who will determine whether the world continues or ends. A shaft of light illuminates the couch potato watching TV, and he begins to float upward in its beam. He looks at the bottle in his hand and says, "Wow, this is good beer!"

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