Even Ned Flanders would have probably laughed - at least politely - at the Simpsons episode that ran after the Jan. 31 Super Bowl. The Fox Network, on the other hand, allowed its collective sense of humor to be waylaid by a Catholic activist group, and some minor but telling editing took place.In the original episode, a commercial depicts a nerdy driver pulling into a gas station and beeping for service. Three seductive beauties slither to his assistance and proceed to make the act of opening the hood, washing the windows, and pumping the gas a sensuous experience. As the lucky guy notices a crucifix hanging around the neck of one of the women, the voiceover says, "The Catholic Church - we've made a few - changes." In a subsequent airing, it just became "the church."
The spot was merely intended to poke fun at the much-hyped Super Bowl ads, but the Los Angeles Times reports that the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights wasn't amused. After the network received an influx of incensed letters from the League, Simpsons exec producer Mike Scully says that he was given an ultimatum by Roland McFarland, Fox's vice president of broadcast services. Either the voiceover could be changed (as it ultimately was), or Scully could change the entire reference to religion. When Scully resisted, he says that McFarland suggested that "Catholic" be replaced with any other denomination: "Methodists, Presbyterians, or Baptists."
"When I asked what would be the difference changing it to another religion, and wouldn't that just be offending a different group of people," Scully says, "[McFarland] explained that Fox had already had trouble with the Catholics earlier."
League members had previously raised Cain over another Simpsons gag where a hungry Bart asks, "Mom, can we go Catholic so we can get Communion wafers and booze?"
"No one is going Catholic," Marge replies. "Three children is enough."
The League also raised concerns over two episodes of this season's Ally McBeal, one of which dealt with a pedophilic priest and the other, a sexually active nun.
Neither McFarland nor the network's senior VP for publicity and corporate communications would comment.
Scully, who has been with the Matt Groening series for nine years, is "really angry."
"People can say hurtful things to each other about their weight, their race, their intelligence, their sexual preference, and that all seems up for grabs," he says, "but when you get into religion, some people get very nervous."
