“The Book of Daniel” 1/6/06-1/24/06–R.I.P.


“…take a deep breath, relax and vote with your remote rather than play the protest game. Do that, and “The Book of Daniel” and its desperate priest will be dead on the vine within the month.”

I wrote those words on January 7th. Not that I’m a prophet or anything (who, after all, didn’t see this coming?), but just remember, I told ya so!

If you haven’t heard, NBC has pulled the plug on the desperately lacking and controversial show “The Book of Daniel” after only four episodes. The folks at Focus on the Family and the American Family Association are already taking credit for forcing the network’s hand on this, and others are whining and complaining about all those drunk-on-religion Red State right-wing nut cases who have struck once again and spoiled everyone’s fun.

I suspect both groups have overestimated the influence of the “Christian Right” in this instance. The show was cancelled because no one watched it (the American free enterprise system at work). The reason no one watched it was because it was poorly written and acted and an insult to the average person’s intelligence and morality. In short, it was bad art. Add to that the fact that NBC placed it in a loser Friday night time slot and essentially the show was doomed from the start.

I still believe the show would have disappeared without all the phone calls, emails and boycott threats, but I guess I’ll never be able to prove it since Donald Wildmon and James Dobson don’t take their marching orders from me. Call me crazy, but I still have faith enough in the “collective wisdom of the American people” to believe that they don’t need Wildmon and Dobson whipping them into a frenzy in order to do the right thing.

As we say in postmodern, partially-post-Christian America, “Whatever…” So, now we move on to other more enlightening and culturally rich fare such as “American Idol.”

What was that I was saying about the collective wisdom of the American people?

7 Comments

  2. mike

    Oh, please, don’t get me started…

    Yeah, I saw that last night. What’s that advice we often give our children about annoying brats? Ignore them and they’ll go away?

  5. mike

    Derek–

    Not all of us are busy pouring over Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical like you are! 😉

  6. Jared Cramer

    yeah, if one more evangelical claims that they are responsible a poorly done show is off the air i may pass out.

    conservative evangelical christianity is certainly not the bastion of good taste and good art–and this show is gone because it failed in those categories.

  7. mike

    Hey Jared, make sure you’re not standing next to any furniture when that happens! 😉

    Yes, conservative evangelicals must do more when it comes to contributing to art and culture as opposed to simply complaining about it all the time.

    The good news is I’ve found a few good examples of such postive contributions, and I plan to post about those soon.

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