Nashville Station Pulls 'Book of Daniel'

yahoo news ^ | 1-14-06

[LouAvul]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - NBC's Nashville affiliate has closed "The Book of Daniel" after the show, whose main character is a pill-popping Episcopal priest with a gay son and a pot-dealing daughter, drew thousands of complaints.

WSMV-TV General Manager Elden Hale Jr. said he decided to pull the show starring Aidan Quinn after NBC rejected the station's request to air it overnight instead of during "family viewing time."

Despite its third-place finish nationally, the show won its time slot last Friday in the Nashville TV market.

Hale said viewers objected to the language, the sexual content and the portrayal of Jesus, who appears to Quinn's character for regular chats.

WSMV's general voice mailbox shut down within 20 hours of the airing of the two-hour premiere last Friday because 137 complaint messages jammed the machine, WSMV officials said. There also were complaints via e-mail and regular mail, including letters bearing church letterheads.

"Over the years, other shows have generated as much or more reaction, but this wasn't a cut-and-paste reaction where a national group says, 'Please send an e-mail to your station' and every e-mail is the same," Hale said. "These were individually crafted, considered, well-thought, well-reasoned e-mails and phone calls."

NBC defended the show Thursday, issuing this statement: "The Book of Daniel is a quality fictional drama about an Episcopalian priest's family and the contemporary issues with which they must grapple. We're confident that our viewers can appreciate this creative depiction of one American family and will understand it to be an entertaining work of fiction."

[LouAvul]

We're confident that our viewers can appreciate this creative depiction of one American family and will understand it to be an entertaining work of fiction.

Baloney. It's more anti Christian (read that anti American) propoganda by the MSM. The people in charge of entertainment in America are dedicated to destroy western civilization. And the only way they can do this is by destroying our faith in God.

[silverleaf]

First they must destroy our respect for our fellow citizens who believe in God. That is behind the mockery and the stereotypes used to depict Christians as simpletons, zealots or hyprocrites.

[Don Corleone]

bump both

[capt. norm]

The people at the networks who are in charge of programming live in another world.

They spend a lot of time hobnobbing with the Hollywood egos who produce this trash and they buy into every bit of the hype. Later when the show hits the air and fails in the ratings, they blame the American public for not being 'sophisticated' enough to appreciate a good show.

As long as they have this "We're right and you're to dumb to appreciate it" attitude their ever-growing list of failures will continue.

[TontoKowalski]

Well, one thing is certain. If it's offensive to so many people, particularly Christians, it will sweep the Emmy's, regardless of the "quality" of the program.

I swear, if it weren're for History Channel, A&E, and ESPN, I wouldn't watch any television at all.

[voletti]

The MSM is digging its own grave. The fear is an entire generation of youngsters maybe lost to us if they succeed in their propaganda before the graves is fully dug. The 60s liberation nonsense set us back by a generation at least with a lasting damage to American establishment institutions.

[caryatid]

This is almost a case of life imitating art [fiction].

Does anyone else remember the hysterically funny BBC production from the mid-90s, called "In the Red"?

The story is about someone killing bank managers and the crimes are ultimately solved by the BBC crime correspondent. A sub-plot has two ambitious BBC employees trying to shake things up a bit by producing the most breathtakingly bad, irreligious show they can dream up for "the God slot". They call their show "Oh, Jesus!". It is truly awful.

"In the Red" was satire and was quite funny. In real life such things are far from amusing.

By the way, to my knowledge, "In the Red" has never been released on VHS or DVD, and that's too bad, because it is one of the most entertaining TV movies of all time. Fortunately we made a video tape of it and have enjoyed it countless times.

[mewzilla]

TV by the blue bits, for the blue bits.

I'll never understand their amazement when the red bits refuse to watch it.

[milagro]

Amen--but you forgot my fav, HGTV. I mean, what can be more dramatic than learning which of three houses a couple is going to buy on House Hunters?

But--honestly, the ads for so many of the Tv shows--Desperate Housewives--Lost--all those supposedly popular shows--create in me absolutely NO desire to watch them. And CSI--which I think would be fascinating--has proven too gruesome too often.

Am now so out-of-the-mainstream of what's on TV and who's in the movies that I don't even know who most of the people are that appear on the cover of all those mags the local grocery displays in the check-out lane. And I do not feel deprived!

And--from what is shown in the ads for many of the newst TV shows--like The Book of Daniel--it seems like there is a real possibility of feeling not a little depraved!

[martin_fierro]

The Episcopalian Church has much bigger problems than a TV show.

[LibKill]

This "Book of Daniel" is just an insult to Christians. Nothing more, nothing less.

I would not waste a second watching this P.O.Slime if I was stranded on a desert island with one TV channel. :)

[LouAvul]

Who is that?

[OpusatFR]

"We're confident that our viewers can appreciate this creative depiction of one American family and will understand it to be an entertaining work of fiction."

Tonight on "Will and Grace,"

Will struggles with his Ecstasy and heroin addition while paying for underage male prostitutes in a hillarious episode, "Will Does Seattle," while Grace, confronted by Will's need for speed and her own barren existence, copes by having alcohol-fueled indescriminate sexual encounters in bar mens' rooms while she channels the spirit of Gore Vidal and Pedro Almodóvar (both alive, but hey, could have fooled me..).

""We're confident that our viewers can appreciate this creative depiction of one American family and will understand it to be an entertaining work of fiction.""

[martin_fierro]

That would be Episcopalian bishop Vicky Eugene Robinson, practicing homosexual.

[DuncanWaring]

I don't recall his name, but I'm guessing it's their homosexual bishop. "Gene" someone, perhaps.

[RckyRaCoCo]

Destroy the faith, destroy the family and you destroy the foundation of this nation.

"America we shall demoralize, divide, and destroy from within"

McCarthy was right about these people.

[Draco]

There's a job for you in Hollywood. Thanks for the laugh.

[winner3000]

(We're confident that our viewers can appreciate this creative depiction of one American family and will understand it to be an entertaining work of fiction.")

I'd like to see them hide behind this "it's just a work of fiction" excuse if they had made a movie that made fun of blacks, jews, muslims, or just about any other group out there. NBC's show is pure bigotry.

[calex59]

This is common communist doctrine. Destroy people's beliefs, religious beliefs, and don't give them anything to replace it with, that way the people will come to depend on the state for everything.

This type of destruction of religion has been part of most communist revolutions and take overs. Russia used it to good effect and so did Cuba and it has been going on here for 50 years.

[kjo]

Yeah. Ever notice how when it comes to offending Christians the MSM is just practicing "free speech". Can anyone imagine them puting on a show that offends Muslims?

You know what would happen? There'd be a huge liberal outcry about how we were demeaning people our armed forces were already attacking.

The ACLU would be going ape-sh*t. Democrats would be demanding hate-crime legislation aimed at the media. ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, would have special programming demanding to know who the racist responsible were.