“Touched By an Angel” could be considered a Jewish show. Since it is about God but not Christ. “Charmed” is kinda of wicca show.**
If a show deals with magic and calls some of its members witches, that doesn’t mean it’s about Wicca. Bewitched used the same thing but had nothing to do with historical Wicca.
The magic is a plot device and to allow for it, they call the people who do it witches. While the two words are related, the are NOT synonomous. To draw an analogy, it’s like calling someone a Christian because they eat crackers and drink wine on Sunday.
But the point I was trying to make was, in your original post, you were asking why isn’t there some show set up specifically about Christians and Christian life, with the “hook” being that they’re Christians.
I was pointing out that no show has ever been set up specifically around a particular religion. Thinking about it, the reason is most probably it would open up such a theological can of worms no network would ever want to try it. While it may affirm Christian belief, it’d probably end up insulting every other religion and the characters would be based on stereotypes, not people.
Otherwise, you come back to what we already have on TV, shows about people who just happen to be Christian.
I’d love to see someone come up with a workable concept that the networks would like.
Polycarp, I think your show idea is quite workable, but it really won’t be much different than any other show on the air. Prehaps there’d be a slightly great emphasis on Christianity, but otherwise, shrug
Freyr’s point is absolutely true. Even more to the point, on Charmed they have explicitly stated that the girls are not Wiccan and know nothing about it. <Please don’t ask how I know that. :o>
As I said before, WB, if you’re going to count these types of shows as ‘Wiccan’, we get to count all of the vaguely religious shows mentioned as explicitly Christian. You can’t eat your cake and have it too.
Seriously, Redtail beat me to the point I would have made --If Wildest Bill gets to count Charmed as Wiccan, then he’s gotta count Seventh Heaven and Amen and all those others as Christian. In fact, those shows are even more ‘Christian’ than Charmed is ‘Wiccan’ because they are set in and around Christian churches whereas the witches on Charmed have (apparently) specified that they are NOT Wiccan.
As for Touched by an Angel I wouldn’t call it Christian OR Jewish – I would call it pseudo-generic-spiritualish crapola. But hey, that could just be me.
To answer a question goboy asked that I missed in all the discussion about why Christ is important to a Christian, what a Christian character might do on TV, and whether stereotypology is appropriate for a network show or not…
The Pizza Palace is a message board much like this one, somewhat smaller in membership and with a less “aggressive” tone, created by a group of, uh, refugees from the LDMB, including the people who ended up belonging to both boards after the Shootout at the GD Corral last New Years. While the tone is quite a bit more conservative and the posters are in general Christians of a relatively conservative bent (with a few of us liberal heretics;) and a smattering of agnostics/pagans/NOTA with an interest in Christianity), it’s a very open group – startlingly so to anyone who has their opinion of evangelical Christianity shaped by televangelists and “religion politicans” and the drive-by witnessers.
That link is to a thread that Poly posted at the somewhat conservative evangelical Christian message board.
As one of the administrators at the Parlor, I welcome any that wish to come and discuss any issues, and want to get a fair representation of a Christian response, instead of stereotypical ‘i think this is the way a Christian would respond’.
We had that semi-funny cartoon God, The Devil and Bob not too long ago. Remember the debates on LBMB, Bill, as people either said that it was a funny how that might get people to look at the Bible, to those who thought it was nothing short of blasphemy and the creators of said show should be drawn & quartered, and everything in between?
*TIME ELAPSED SINCE I QUIT SMOKING:
Five months, two weeks, four days, 2 hours, 13 minutes and 0 seconds.
6843 cigarettes not smoked, saving $855.46.
Extra time with Drain Bead: 3 weeks, 2 days, 18 hours, 15 minutes.
*“I’m a big Genesis fan.”-David B. (Amen, brother!)
–Once upon a time a long time ago in a different land there was a gentle, humorous radio program called “The Goldbergs.”
Starring Gertrude Berg (who also wrote it), it lasted for 17 years on NBC. In 1947 the show made to move to TV and through changes in networks and formatting lasted until 1955
(or 1956, I’m a little dim on this).
–Once upon a time a long time ago in a different land there was a gentle, humorous radio program called “The Goldbergs.”
Starring Gertrude Berg (who also wrote it), it lasted for 17 years on NBC. In 1947 the show made to move to TV and through changes in networks and formatting lasted until 1955 (or 1956, I’m a little dim on this).**
Fascinating. What was the premise of the show?
**Palm Cove wrote:
The ancient romans used to run a really popular christian show at the Colesseum.
I am sure if it could be revived it would rate its pants off.
Real Christians v Real Lions , great.**
Yes, there were Christians in the Colesseum, as were political dissendents or any other unpopular group at the time.
Sure there were other unpopular groups in the colesseum.
So maybe we could also have other events too.
Christians v telemarketers would be a good start!
Wow what ratings!!
I’m sure that you could get the “Looky here, I’m a Christian”, type Christians to actually volunteer to “prove their faith” by going ten rounds with a hungry lion.
Personally I don’t see much problem with adult volunteers doing this, particurlarly in a country that already has and uses the death penalty.
There is no good evidence that Pagan Romans threw Christians to the lions in the Colosseum. There is less evidence that the Pagan Romans of the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D. slaughtered Christians in any manner in the Colosseum, than there is that the Christian Romans of the 4th and following centuries A.D. slaughtered Pagans in the Colosseum.
One particulary gory episode involved about 1500 pagans being invited to the Colosseum for a special festival of some sort. Once they were inside, Roman soldiers (who were all Christian by this time) locked the doors and went through the crowds killing each and every one of them.
Regarding religions represented on television shows, who could forget that short-lived '70s sitcom Mohammed and the Professor?
In deference to Islamic sensibilities the title character was never shown on-screen. The machinations needed to have him talk with the other characters from a different room, or be just leaving as they entered, became strained after only three episodes and the show was cancelled…
Regarding religions represented on television shows, who could forget that short-lived '70s sitcom Mohammed and the Professor?
In deference to Islamic sensibilities the title character was never shown on-screen. The machinations needed to have him talk with the other characters from a different room, or be just leaving as they entered, became strained after only three episodes and the show was cancelled…**
Ye Ghods! What the premise of THAT show? The ghost of The Prophet comes back and speaks to a certain professor? Which network at the gall to put that one into production!?
–Here we go. From “Television Archives” dated February, 1949 (much edited)
…a weekly TV series showing Americans a working class Jewish Family who lived in a small apartment in the Bronx.
…The seder episode bothered the TV critic for Variety, while another episode in 1949 that focused on anti-semitism upset the reviewer for Television. In this case, the Goldbergs were snubbed and scorned while visiting the non-Jewish residents of an upper-class park Avenue apartment.
And as a nod to Freyer, the article concluded years before his post:
…But American culture itself was uneasy about the Jewish subculture and others in its midst, and TV in general steered clear of any controversy by rarely portraying them. Gertrude Berg was clearly the exception here, and, of the hundreds of TV series featuring American families that followed The Goldbergs, only a handful ever delt with the problems of a specific ethnic group.
What I find fascinating about all of the supposedly “Christian” shows on networks such as PAX is how un-Christian they are in one certain aspect: Though the Christian religion is supposed to teach that we should believe on faith and not fact, the shows regularly present people who don’t believe until a MIRACLE* is handed to them on a silver platter. On Touched By An Angel alone, hundreds of people now have proof that angels exist, and the names of two or three of them! Mysterious Ways presents oddities that provide enough proof to wipe out most other religions, and I’m sure that there are many others.
