Book of Daniel Cancelled; Religious Conservatives Rejoice

14110 Views 181 Replies 55 Participants Last post by bengalfreak, Feb 2, 2006

anom

Discussion Starter · Jan 25, 2006

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Religious Conservatives Claim Victory After NBC Pulls 'Book of Daniel'

By Kevin Eckstrom
Religion News Service

Conservative critics are claiming victory after NBC pulled "The Book of Daniel," a racy primetime drama about an Episcopal priest struggling to hold his dysfunctional family together.

NBC officials in New York would not confirm or deny that the show has been cancelled, but the broadcaster's Web site lists "Law and Order" during the Friday 10 p.m. time slot that had been occupied by "The Book of Daniel."A blog on NBC's home page contained an entry from Jack Kenny, the show's creator, who said the show will "no longer be aired on NBC on Friday nights" for "many reasons."

"Whatever the outcome, I feel that I accomplished what I set out to do: a solid family drama, with lots of humor, that honestly explored the lives of the Webster family," Kenny wrote, adding that he was "proud of our product."

The show, which debuted on Jan. 6, had only aired four of its eight scheduled episodes. Conservatives criticized the show's sex, drugs and alcohol and said its depiction of Jesus was disrespectful.

Complaints from the Mississippi-based American Family Association -- to the tune of 678,000 angry e-mails to NBC -- prompted advertisers to pull out. At least 11 NBC stations in six states declined to broadcast the show.

"This shows the average American that he doesn't have to simply sit back and take the trash being offered on TV, but he can get involved and fight back with his pocketbook," said AFA Chairman Donald Wildmon.

Kenny had hoped the show would survive at least until Feb. 10, when the Olympics will take over for most NBC programming. Kenny had called the "bullies" who sought to kill his show "un-Christian and un-American."

For its part, the Episcopal Church declined to comment on the show since it was not consulted as the show was created.

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1 - 20 of 182 Posts

anom

Discussion Starter · #2 · Jan 25, 2006

Not to respond to my own post, but what's with this spate of abrupt cancellations after just a couple of episodes?

It seems like every non-reality summer replacement show is being yanked before I even get a chance to watch them.

Neenahboy

· #3 · Jan 25, 2006

Rats, I really enjoyed this.

Burn in hell, NBC, for taking the coward's way out.

mrowe8

· #4 · Jan 25, 2006

I'm offended by Oprah but nobody seems to care. Now the "religeous" folks are telling me what offends my religion. What is this world truly coming too.

Jotas

· #5 · Jan 25, 2006

There should be no surprise. Whenever there is pressure from a group TV execs usually play tough, then realize it's better to run with their tail still intact.

dswallow

· #6 · Jan 25, 2006

The whole free television model is broken.

The viewers need to take over the role of the network execs deciding to make or not make a show. One day the numbers will be high enough that we can review concepts and subscribe to them, then a show can be made just for the subscribers.

No matter how bad some may think a show is, there's others out there who enjoyed it. At the very least you'd think showing the produced episodes wouldn't be that hard. It's getting so it's almost not worth the emotional roller coaster ride of becoming invested in a show only to have some suit cancel it 3 episodes later.

JYoung

· #7 · Jan 25, 2006

Religious protests aside,
I honestly didn't think that the show was that good.
I watched the two hour opener and didn't really care about anyone except for Daniel. Somewhat.
The parts where he talked to Jesus were decent to pretty good but I felt the rest of the show was trying way too hard to be too over the top.

And considering that it only pulled 9 million viewers in it's first showing, I suspected that it wasn't long for the air.

The Flush

· #8 · Jan 25, 2006

If the show had really good ratings, it would not have been cancelled, regardless of the protests.

I really liked this show, but I gues it was not meant to be. I wish they would at least show all the episodes that have been filmed.

justapixel

· #9 · Jan 25, 2006

The most boring new show this year. Good riddance. :up:

(No, I'm not religious)

Warren

· #10 · Jan 25, 2006

its good thing that I don't run NBC after seeing that press release from them claming they are the ones that caused it to fail. I would renew "BOD" and run it until the actors got bored working on it. Remember spite is the best reason to do anything.

(Not religious but I hate religious people shoveing there agenda down my throat)

terpfan1980

· #11 · Jan 25, 2006

The ultimate response that should be used by NBC: bring back God, the Devil and Bob...

JustAllie

· #12 · Jan 25, 2006

Sigh.

dswallow

· #13 · Jan 25, 2006

justapixel said:
The most boring new show this year. Good riddance. :up:

You must not watch many pilot episodes.

tivotvaddict

· #14 · Jan 25, 2006

The Flush said:
If the show had really good ratings, it would not have been cancelled, regardless of the protests.

I really liked this show, but I gues it was not meant to be. I wish they would at least show all the episodes that have been filmed.

Unfortunately it sometimes takes a while to build good ratings (a la Knots Landing). Shows just aren't given that chance anymore.

busyba

· #15 · Jan 25, 2006

I didn't really care about the show one way or another, but anything that causes religious conservatives to rejoice can't be good for anybody.....

JYoung

· #16 · Jan 25, 2006

JustAllie said:
Sigh.

So, are the two episodes I have parked on TiVo Galileo worth watching?

atrac

· #17 · Jan 25, 2006

Ivan Shaw, please come back in another series or movie soon....you're a hottie!

/shallow mode off

I enjoyed the show and indeed, I'm not surprised it was cancelled. I was interested in seeing the episode that they skipped about a little girl could also see and talk to Jesus. Too bad I probably won't ever get to now, unless there's a DVD release in the future.

Jeeters

· #18 · Jan 25, 2006

Had interest in checking this show out but I had a strong feeling it wasn't going to make it so I never bothered watching. Figured it would be a wasted investment of my time. Good call I suppose.

bicker

· #19 · Jan 25, 2006

If this year's cancellations are any indication, network executives are getting far better and judging which shows will and won't be successful, after just a couple of episodes, removing any need to "give a show a chance to build an audience." The only shame in this cancellation is that right-wing wack-o's think they had something to do with it.

bengalfreak

· #20 · Jan 25, 2006

I'm what you would call mildly religious. And I thought the show was borderline blasphemous. But, I would have thought the same thing had the Jesus character been Muhammad or Buddha. It was making someone's religion into a farce. The main reverend was addicted to pain killers. His wife is a borderline alcoholic. His son is having sex at every turn. His father (a bishop) is having sex with another bishop while his wife is struggling with Alzheimer's disease. His daughter is selling drugs. The main character is in business with the mob. And the Jesus character is way too amused by all of this.

And yes, all of us are flawed. But in reality, Quinn's character wouldn't have been a reverend beyond the second show. Glad to see the show go.

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