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January 07, 2006
Oh Daniel
Posted at January 7, 2006 09:30 AM in Television .
To say this week was grueling would be an understatement. Back to work from my mini-vacation brought forth a big “Happy New Year” to me. My emotions spanned the gamut from happy, to sad, to depressed. Emotional rollercoaster would not represent what I felt. In truth, it was an emotional bungee jump, from a high flying helicopter, flying over the Grand Canyon and both the bungee cord and my free fall was much too long before finally experiencing the shocking snap of the cord. A harrowing and horrible emotional experience is more like it.
Alas, there was one something good about the week. A co-worker spent the fall in New York filming a new show for NBC—The Book of Daniel. In the weeks leading up to last night’s two-hour pilot, the right did everything it could to cancel the show. Terming it a show put on by a “practicing homosexual”—one would hope, at his age, he should be a pro by now. They sent out petitions and asked their members to flood NBC with phone calls in an attempt to cancel the show. Of course, being a rebellious sort, I had to watch the complete two hours.
The Book of Daniel stars Aidan Quinn as an Episcopal minister
(Daniel) who talks and jokes with Jesus in human form while trying to
cope with his dysfunctional family, which includes a drug-dealing teen-aged
daughter, a gay son, an adopted son who is promiscuous, and a wife who
prefers martinis in the morning to orange juice. Additionally, my co-worker, Cheryl White plays
Victoria, Daniel’s sister-in-law, and her character is lesbian or
bi-sexual.
This week, many NBC affiliates stated they would not air the show in their areas. One station, KSNW, issued a statement saying Channel 3 would drop the show because of the more than 300 protests received from viewers and local church leaders. On Friday, however, after the station received another flood of calls and e-mails protesting the cancellation, it reinstated the show. KSNW programmer Betty Erickson, who estimated the counter-protests “in the hundreds,” said the reprieve was only for the two-hour pilot episode.
Leading the fight against the Book of Daniel is the Christian watchdog group American Family Association (AFC) which has called on people to protest the show by contacting their local NBC affiliates, sending e-mails to NBC and spreading the word about its content via church bulletins and newsletters.
I don’t know, maybe it’s me, but I grew up seeing a lot of dysfunction in the families of those in the church. In fact, as kids we had a little joke about these families—the children of ministers were the worse—womanizing sons, kids who sold drugs, the mysterious pregnancies, etc. Kids in my neighborhood found some – and I emphasize some – kids of these so-called church families were really bad.
The worse of the stories I knew about involved a very beautiful family—and I mean absolutely, exquisitely beautiful daughters and one very handsome son—who said the rosary every night with their deacon father. Yes and just about every night, the deacon had “relations” with his daughters and yes again, his son. The deacon eventually disowned his son because he came out as gay. As for the daughters, they have all been through counseling, repeatedly, and one took to self-mutilation. I can tell even more stories of dysfunctional Christian, church-going families, including my own.
What I have seen thus far from the Book of Daniel is nothing new to me; in fact, it covered about three or four families I knew growing up. I feel the right protest too much.
Personally, I do not see the show as an indictment against the religious, nor do I see it as a mockery of God. Actually, it is a fictitious show with fictitious characters and it spans the gamut of life, anyone’s life, anyone’s family—in the church or out of the church.
Cheryl’s character is too funny. I particularly loved her run across the cemetery as she ran after her lover while shouting a certain obscenity about a female dog. You would have to know Cheryl to understand her comedic timing and sensibilities. I will watch the show again.
Unfortunately, due to the emotional bungee ride I was on this week,
I ended up sleeping through most of the show waking only to see
Cheryl’s run across the cemetary and talk of her homosexual
tendencies, which was hilarious. Thankfully, it re-airs tonight and
tonight I will sit down—instead of lying down—and watch the show again.
I do hope NBC picks up The Book of Daniel for a full season. If nothing else, I hope it will cause many to see ministers and their families as human. The recent news stories of ministers being arrested for abusing children—their own or the children of others—the drug abuse, etc. is something we should all take a long, hard look at. Instead of trusting our children to men and women just because they wear the cloth of Christianity can cause more harm than good for the child. Unfortunately, I have seen too much of the reality of this throughout my life and grieve daily at the results of such conduct.
The Book of Daniel is nothing more than comedic relief—it ain’t that serious. Instead of the religious right going after a television show, they really should police their own, provide counseling, and instead of sweeping the bad apples under a table, let it be known that all are guilty of sin and deal with it appropriately. Otherwise, some of us—which has nothing to do with being gay or straight—will tell our stories of what we experienced growing up, like it or not, and we’ll make fun of the “Do Rights” who secretly “Did Wrong” because, in truth, it was kind of funny. Like the one boy I knew growing up. We called him the “master fornicator” because he was sexually active with “a lot” of girls. He got “a lot” of girls pregnant and dad paid for “a lot” of abortions. We did not know it then but I bet you dad, the very reverent preacher, was “pro life.” Now how funny is that?
In the meantime, and if iTunes has the show ready for download, I will definitely have it on my video iPod. How nice is that?