A teenage girl is visited by God, disguised as everyday people, and is given assignments and tasks that eventually have a positive outcome on people's lives.A teenage girl is visited by God, disguised as everyday people, and is given assignments and tasks that eventually have a positive outcome on people's lives.A teenage girl is visited by God, disguised as everyday people, and is given assignments and tasks that eventually have a positive outcome on people's lives.
- Nominated for 4 Primetime Emmys
- 10 wins & 26 nominations total
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Did you know
- TriviaShow creator Barbara Hall wrote a list of guidelines for the writers, which she called "The Ten Commandments of Joan of Arcadia". These "commandments" are:
- 1. God cannot directly intervene.
- 2. Good and evil exist.
- 3. God can never identify one religion as being right.
- 4. The job of every human being is to fulfill his or her true nature.
- 5. Everyone is allowed to say "no" to God, including Joan.
- 6. God is not bound by time. This is a human concept.
- 7. God is not a person and does not possess a human personality.
- 8. God talks to everyone all the time in different ways.
- 9. God's plan is what is good for us, not what is good for him.
- 10. God's purpose for talking to Joan, and everyone, is to get her (us) to recognize the interconnectedness of all things - i.e., you cannot hurt a person without hurting yourself; all of your actions have consequences; God can be found in the smallest actions; God expects us to learn and grow from all our experiences. However, the exact nature of God is a mystery, and the mystery can never be solved.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The 61st Annual Golden Globe Awards (2004)
- SoundtracksOne of Us
(aka "What if God was One of Us?")
(Title Song)
Written by Eric Bazilian
Performed by Joan Osborne
Featured review
Heaven-Sent
After Buffy the Vampire Slayer was canceled, I was also on the outs with every other show I had previously watched, and had almost nothing left. There was a great big void in my TV watching schedule, and it was filled with this show. If I had only heard the description for Joan of Arcadia, I know that I would never have watched it. Let's face it, the premise alone sounds pretty lame. Fortunately, I saw a commercial for the show one day while flipping through the channels, but was still skeptical. The commercial was on again and again, incessantly telling me to watch this show, and finally I decided to give in and watch the show, even though I probably wouldn't like it. The pilot episode was good, and the episodes that followed were good as well. The Girardis are a realistic portrayal of a family, not too perfect yet not overly exaggerated either. The kids are funny and intelligent, from the snippy Joan to the dorky Luke to the sarcastic Kevin, and the parents actually seem to love each other and their kids. Joan's friends, Grace and Adam, are another highlight. Grace is great as the rebellious girl without a cause and I liked her instantly, even though I did think she was a boy. Adam, on the other hand, took me a little more time. I recognized him from when he huffed paint on 7th Heaven, which did not exactly endear me to him. By the end of the very first episode he was in, however, I fell in love with his character. What is unique about this show is that the main character talks to God, who appears in various forms and assigns Joan tasks. The tasks always have unexpected results, and there is always a message in what Joan has to do, a message that is thankfully not beat into the audience with a sledgehammer, but is subtle and genuine. This is a moving show that deals with human experience quite well. Without a doubt this is the best new show this year.
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- PopRox9139
- Jan 18, 2004
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- Country of origin
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- Also known as
- Le monde de Joan
- Filming locations
- 1816 1/2 N. Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, California, USA(Skylight book store)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
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