Posted on 02/03/2006 3:47:57 PM PST by churchillbuff
Reacting to pressure from Christian groups, NBC canceled an episode of "Will & Grace" that featured Britney Spears as a conservative who hosts a cooking segment called "Cruci-fixin's" on a Christian TV network.
NBC last week was forced to pull its highly touted new show "The Book of Daniel" because of charges its portrayal of Jesus was blasphemous
Spears was to appear as a sidekick to the regular character Jack, who hosts his own talk show on the homosexual network Out TV, which is bought by a Christian TV network. The episode was to air April 13, just before Good Friday.
The American Family Association said NBC canceled the segment after pressure from its affiliates and AFA.
But the network said its own description of the segment was a mistake.
In a memo to affiliates, NBC said "the information was mistakenly included in a press release describing an upcoming episode of 'Will and Grace' which, in fact, has yet to be written. The reference to 'Cruci-fixins' will not be in the show and the story line will not contain a Christian characterization at all."
"NBC wanting us to believe they were mistaken in describing the segment, that they didn't know what was in their own press release, just doesn't hold water," said AFA Chairman Donald E. Wildmon. "Plainly put, NBC heard from their affiliates that they did not want to go through another 'Book of Daniel' situation while losing millions in advertising avenue."
The appearance by Spears was billed as "her first prime-time television episodic appearance." However, she also appeared as herself in an episode of "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" in 1999 and was the star of last summer's unscripted UPN show "Britney & Kevin: Chaotic."
As a young girl, Spears, now 24, was a regular on "The Mickey Mouse Club." After becoming a pop singer, she starred in the 2002 film "Crossroads."
Good tagline material, Jay!
No.
Really?
Wow. ;o)
Fortunately it was after the coffee.
I picked up Fulton Sheen's Life is Worth Living a few months back.
Well worth the price. (Published by Ignatius Press)
Interesting. I do wonder if this is something of a manufactured controversy. You know, nothing sells a book like being put on a "banned book" list.
We'll see how the lamestream media spins it. If there's a "shocking expose" in one of the news magazines like time or newsweak, we'll have our answer: it's just marketing.
As for NBC, I normally don't watch T.V. I don't have cable and what the networks say or don't say just isn't on my radar screen.
Okay. Since you seem to need the dots connected FOR you:
BoD was pulled because news of its blasphemous portrayal of Jesus aroused over 630,000 people to send scorching email to NBC expressing their disapproval of the content, expressing their opinion that broadcast of such offensive content is unacceptable in civil society, and calling for it to be pulled on those bases. That email is in addition to people who called on the phone or actually took the time to write a letter. The totality of THAT outcry did several things:
It induced others NOT to watch the show.
It induced advertisers to abandon the show.
It made very apparent to NBC decision-makers that continuing to air the show would be a tremendously poor business decision for both fiscal and public relations reasons; even a worse decision than giving it the green light in the first place.
To answer your other rhetoric:
One need not live in a theocracy in order to recognize as socially unacceptable the derision of the peaceful traditions and religious practices of huge segments of the population. One must only be socially inept and redneck, a$$-slap crass to do that, the theocracy part is wholly unnecessary.
[And, please, don't fell compelled to think, "Hey, I resemble that!" You may, however, admit to being silly. Again.]
You don't need to connect the dots for me, thank you...you expounded on what I was getting at. A theocratic government did not force NBC to pull the ratings; the people chose not to watch because of the blasphemous nature of the program.
We are in agreement, thank you. No need to call me silly.
No need to do that...after all, it was I who forgot the sarcasm tags! :)
Oh no you didn't. I went back and looked. Using my trusty tag "FRevealer", I found them right where I thought they'd be: tucked in neatly between the lines.
;)
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