FāVS News News and Commentary about Religion and Ethics in Eastern Washington and North Idaho
You know and love them from your favorite shows – but, do you know what they believe in? Here's a look at 10 religious television show characters, including what they say when they talk about their beliefs.
1. “The Office” – Kelley Kapoor, Hindu
Kelly: Um, Diwali is awesome. And there's food, and there's gonna be dancing. And, oh, I got the raddest outfit. It has, um, sparkles-
Michael: Kelly? Um, why don't you tell us a little bit about the origins of the holiday?
Kelly: Oh, um, I don't know. It's really old, I think.
Angela: How many gods do you have?
Kelly: Like hundreds, I think. Maybe more than that.
Angela: And that blue busty gal? What's her story?
Kevin: She looks like Pam from the neck down.
Dwight: Pam wishes.
“The Office,” Season 3 Episode 6: Diwali
2. “Bones” – Arastoo Vaziri, Muslim
Arastoo Vaziri: This was not the work of religion, it was arrogance, it was hypocrisy, it was hate. Those horrible men who hijacked those planes hijacked my religion that day too. They insulted my God. So no, this isn’t too difficult. It’s a privilege to be able to serve this victim, to be able to show him care and love that was so absent that day.
“Bones,” Season 8 Episode 6 – The Patriot in Purgatory
3. “Downton Abbey” – Tom Branson, Catholic
Branson: My daughter Irish, and she’ll be Catholic like her father.“Downton Abbey,”
Season 3 Episode 5
4. “The Big Bang Theory” – Sheldon Cooper, Atheist
Cooper: Why hast though forsaken me, O deity whose existence I doubt?
“The Big Bang Theory,” Season 4 Episode 19 – The Zarnecki Incursion
5. “Glee” – Rachel Berry, Jewish
Rachel: Are you suggesting I get a nose job?
Doctor: You’re 16, right? That’s when I gave my daughters theirs. It’s like a right of passage for Jewish girls.
“Glee,” Season 2 Episode 18 – Born This Way
Tracy Simmons is an award-winning journalist specializing in religion reporting and digital entrepreneurship. In her approximate 20 years on the religion beat, Simmons has tucked a notepad in her pocket and found some of her favorite stories aboard cargo ships in New Jersey, on a police chase in Albuquerque, in dusty Texas church bell towers, on the streets of New York and in tent cities in Haiti. Simmons has worked as a multimedia journalist for newspapers across New Mexico, Texas, Connecticut and Washington. She is the executive director of SpokaneFāVS.com, a digital journalism start-up covering religion news and commentary in Spokane, Washington. She also writes for The Spokesman-Review and national publications. She is a Scholarly Assistant Professor of Journalism at Washington State University.
