TV at its Finest

I despise TV. Here's a brand new TV show to "entertain and enlighten" us. Isn't that what hours of TV watching is supposed to do?

If one looks back over the years of TV, and I've seen in from the fifties, one knows that the most successful shows like Gunsmoke, Little House on the Prairie, Carol Burnett, the ones that last the longest, have been the uplifting shows, the shows that have a moral and teach or simply entertain us with a look at self.

That goes back to Horace - the Greek - who said that writing, and I suppose that means screenwriting today, should both educate and delight us.

Looking at a child's world of TV choices is more as miserable than not having any. TV is a vast wasteland of real vapidity. A constant drone of "It's OK to be steeped in degradation" won't help conscience forming or will it? Families often watch TV together. Children watch their parents watch TV and watch what they are laughing at and what they are gravitating towards as entertainment. Approval is the number one thing children are gaining from watching a show that goes over their heads.

I wonder, however, if this avalanche of waste won't switch the pendulum to a more conservative next generation. Tastes do change. It's a bit like Mt. St. Helen's erupting. It wasn't long when the growth began again out of the destruction.

So here's one for the family?

Controversy: "Book of Daniel"

The new NBC series "The Book of Daniel" doesn't debut until Friday night, but NBC affiliates around the country have been getting an earful of objections for weeks now.

The drama features the family of an Episcopalian priest who is dysfunctional at best, and that has some people of faith in an uproar.

A San Antonio radio station broadcasted this statement: "Not only has NBC stabbed the body of Christ in the heart, they have twisted the knife. Don't you think?"

In the series, Daniel is the pill-popping priest with frequent one-on-one conversations with Jesus because of his drug dealing daughter, a gay son and an alcoholic wife.

Some Christians are taking offense, and taking the offensive with e-mails and phone calls to NBC stations.

American Family Association representative Ellen Eagle says, "It almost seems to be mocking Christianity."

Some stations in Indiana and Arkansas have decided not to air it.

Rick Rogala from KARK-TV in Little Rock, Arkansas says, "You're really looking at a soap opera at night airing under the guise of faith."

Others say they'll run it, and let viewers decide for themselves.

was it was a pretty good show, and that we shouldn't censor it from airing on Friday."

The show's creator, Jack Kenny, says "The book of Daniel" is not a mockery of the faithful. He defends, "This is not about religion. It's about a good man and his family. His religion is second nature to him. It's not a matter of questioning his faith. He has absolute faith."

But Christian protesters are unconvinced.

Christian talk show host Kelly McGinley replies, "The Jesus that will be portrayed in this show will not be the Jesus in the Bible - probably somewhat of the anti-Christ. He'll be a tolerant Jesus. He'll tolerate sin and bad behavior, and you can still go to heaven.

On both sides of the argument, there's a call for heaven to help us.

WFIE respects the wide diversity within the communities we serve, and the freedom viewers have to decide for themselves the programs they allow into their homes.

If you feel the programming is objectionable, the most effective thing to do is not to watch.

If no one watches and the ratings are poor, the show will likely be taken off the NBC schedule in a few weeks.

"The book of Daniel" debuts Friday night at 8 P.M.