[Jason Vines]

From Excite:

Quote

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.

This is one of the dumbest things I've heard in my life. It's a TV show, people. And, frankly, it's more representative of reality than those sermons you go to every week. So grow up, and get over it.

(Why do I get the feeling many of these same people wouldn't mind a television series highlighting the problems of Muslims? )

[Joshua]

Heh... That's great. Much like you were saying... I wonder how vigilantly these people are protesting the portrayal of europeans and middle easterners in the show 24?

[Bondo]

It gets worse: a station in arkansas has been getting death threats because they're airing it.

Good point about the muslims. Some people live under a fantasy that liberal jewish atheists are the only ones with problems.

[Jason Vines]

Bondo, on Jan 15 2006, 07:37 AM, said:

jewish atheists

LMAO. Oxymoron, much? A bit like an Eastern Orthodox Catholic.

[Bondo]

Well... specifying "atheists" is a bit much. But every once in a while you get some religious reactionary who spouts off about the jewish mennace, sometimes concerning hollywood. Catholic League honcho Bill Donohue's (not the fmr talk show host) blab about how "Secular Jews hate christianity in general and catholicism in particular" is one such event, and probably the most famous, but there are others.

So Bill Donohue has issues. It gets better when seconds later he says, "I like families. I like children. They like abortions."

This post has been edited by Bondo: 15 January 2006 - 09:49 AM

[Cymro]

Jason Vines, on Jan 15 2006, 08:54 AM, said:

Bondo, on Jan 15 2006, 07:37 AM, said:

jewish atheists

LMAO. Oxymoron, much? A bit like an Eastern Orthodox Catholic.

Athiest Semites?

[-Oz-]

The religeous will complain about anything that jeapordizes the believing of anything other than their teachings. If you don't believe, you can't be controlled.

[Jason Vines]

Once more with Bible thumping hilarity:

Quote

A conservative advocacy group that urged a boycott of NBC's recently canceled drama about a pill-popping priest turned its wrath on Thursday to an upcoming "Will & Grace" episode that it says will mock Christ's crucifixion.

NBC announced this week that pop star Britney Spears would make a guest appearance on the gay-oriented sitcom as a Christian conservative hired as a talk show sidekick to the gay character Jack played by series regular Sean Hayes.

In the episode, scheduled to air on April 13, Jack's fictional TV network is bought by a Christian broadcaster, leading Spears' character to do an Easter cooking segment on Jack's show called "Cruci-fixin's."

The American Family Association immediately raised objections to the planned episode, saying it "mocks the crucifixion of Christ" and will "further denigrate Christianity" by airing the night before Good Friday.

...

The advocacy group called on its supporters to urge network affiliates to refuse to run the episode and to write letters of protest to NBC executives. It also included an appeal for a "small donation to help us in this effort."

The same organization urged an affiliate and advertising boycott of the recent NBC series "The Book of Daniel," a drama starring Aidan Quinn as a Vicodin-addicted Episcopal minister who talks to Jesus.

At least they're just uptight and insecure people, not uptight and insecure people who are calling in bomb threats.

[Bondo]

The "crucifixins" is actually sort of clever. I have to wait until it airs to see what the big to-do is.

Here is another example, and it has a great quote about how far reaching they're thinking:

Why Was Reality Show Killed?

Quote

In a recent interview, Richard Land, an official with the Southern Baptist Convention involved in the negotiations with Disney last year to end the group's boycott of the company, said he did not recall any mention of "Neighborhood." He added, however, that had the show been broadcast - particularly with an ending that showed Christians literally embracing their gay neighbors - it could have scuttled the Southern Baptists' support for "Narnia."

"I would have considered it a retrograde step," Mr. Land said of the network's plans to broadcast the reality series. "Aside from any moral considerations, it would have been a pretty stupid marketing move."

Paul McCusker, a vice president of Focus on the Family, which had supported the Southern Baptist boycott and reaches millions of evangelical listeners through the daily radio broadcasts of Dr. James Dobson, expressed similar views.

"It would have been a huge misstep for Disney to aggressively do things that would disenfranchise the very people they wanted to go see 'Narnia,' " he said.

It should be noted that the show was also criticized by gay groups and housing groups (they were letting people chose their own neighbors)

But I would never have concieved of anything like this, using one show as a pretext to boycott another. But then, I guess that is just the same as boycotting ABC over one show.

If they are that afraid of images of Christians being nice to gays they have serious issues. It shows something I think they are genuinely afraid of: showing christians that are different than the Religious Right is. But I guess that's not that unsuprising either, because they want a monopoly on religion anyway.

And I think this fear is also the real problem they had with Book of Daniel. That show was a ripoff of the much better "Rescue Me" except Rescue Me has firefighters. Rescue Me has the visions of Jesus (and Rescue adds his girlfriend, Mary Magdalane into the mix) the pill popping, people fighting priests, the gay son, and all the rest. And Rescue me doesn't garner nearly as much criticism of its content. Part of that is its a cable show, but if you think a show is blasphemous, does it really matter if people have to pay to see it?

I think they just didn't want a show that showed christians with the problems that they pretend only liberal secular athiests have.

[Bondo]

Quote

Once more with Bible thumping hilarity:

Quote

A conservative advocacy group that urged a boycott of NBC's recently canceled drama about a pill-popping priest turned its wrath on Thursday to an upcoming "Will & Grace" episode that it says will mock Christ's crucifixion.

That was quick: NBC Spears Britney's "Will & Grace" Story Line

This post has been edited by Bondo: 03 February 2006 - 08:16 PM