Jesus is a positive character mostly, though he’s not above breaking heads. Not like Family Guy where he’s kind of creepy.
The SP take on Mormonism (and also in their Broadway show) is that a lot of their beliefs are probably made up by Joseph Smith and they get a lot of ridicule, but that Mormons are basically well-meaning and decent people.
The best part of that episode was the ending, when the Captain gave a demonstration of Earth’s dominant belief system.
Jane the Virgin? I always assumed Ugly Betty was about a Catholic family but on reflection, have no idea what (if any) religion the Suarezes were.
Indeed, the chief authority of the Church of Latter-Day Saints (I think his title is “President”?) gave his approval to the musical The Book of Mormon (though, he pointed out, the book was better).
How could I have forgotten about Jane the Virgin! I was actually quite a bit shocked how overtly religious the characters were - you don’t really see that on a lot of shows (like if you just watched American TV, you’d be surprised that for a lot of people their religion is a major part of their identity). Like one of the most heart-wrenching moments on the show is when the family gets some terrible news and they all get down on their knees an say the Lord’s Prayer. And it shows some of worst of religion - the purity culture - with some of the best. Fantastic show.
Anything with Michael Landon.
It was adopted from a Spanish language telenovela. Catholicism is still quite strong in the Spanish speaking areas of the New World.
Indeed. I was just convinced they would have ‘secularized’ it for the US version. Friday Night Lights was also very open about showing the impact of religious faith on people. Most US shows don’t really show it or go into it, even when set in areas you’d think it’d be relevant (I mean did anyone go to church in “Nashville”?)
Miracle Workers. The whole premise is that God is bored and decides to end the world unless two angels can get two sad-sack humans to kiss each other. He then wants to create a restaurant called Lazy Susan’s with diners eating from rafts floating on a circular lazy river with food on the banks as they drift by that you grab with a long claw. God is portrayed by Steve Buscemi as a stupid, vacillating, illiterate boob who is easily manipulated by his staff.
Along with Father Ted, two other Irish sitcoms have some bits that even I, a Catholic who will laugh at most anything, felt were getting pretty close to blasphemy (not that I stopped watching):
Moone Boy - lots of jokes at the church’s expense, including stealing communion wafers as snack foods
Derry Girls - no specific incidents I can recall but the head nun doesn’t seem particularly devout and admits she joined up for the free housing
Yeah, I mean, if Preacher counts, it’s hard to beat that Jesus is a mentally handicapped chronic masturbator for blasphemy.
I’d say Sabrina, on Netflix, comes closest in that respect.
Please no spoilers for Sabrina. I’m waaaay behind on that series.
Actually, the one who was mentally handicapped was the inbred direct descendant of Jesus. Jesus himself was of normal intelligence, but out of favor for having an affair with a married woman.
Nope. 
Hell, in that show, is just really hellish …and wildly funny.
Huh…never thought of the South Park “God” in such terms. I always thought of it as having features of all different creatures to indicate that everything in the world has some aspect of the divine in it. (Though of course species-centric humans wouldn’t have expected such. Too many humans also think of angels as looking completely human plus two wings, while the Bible itself says that they have four faces, only one human, and six wings.)
I’d say the show Lucifer, where the lead is literally the devil, comes closer.
Fr. Dougal: “God, Ted, I’ve heard about those cults. Everyone dressing in black and saying our Lord’s going to come back and judge us all.”
Fr. Ted: “No… no Dougal, that’s us. That’s Catholicism you’re talking about there.”