Closed Book

Today's Studio Briefing reports that NBC's Book of Daniel won't be on the airwaves any longer:

Assailed from all sides -- critics, Christian conservatives, advertisers, and particularly by viewers, who made their views known with their remotes -- NBC slammed the book shut on The Book of Daniel Tuesday, removing it from its schedule after three episodes. The controversial show, which starred Aidan Quinn as a pill-popping Episcopal minister and head of a dysfunctional family, was yanked after conservative Christian groups, including the American Family Association and Focus on the Family, had flooded advertisers and affiliates with complaints. On Tuesday they cheered the network's cancellation announcement. The Rev. Don Wildmon, head of the AFA, said, "We want to thank the 678,394 individuals who sent emails to NBC and the thousands who called and emailed their local affiliates." But in conservative Knoxville, TN, where the show debuted with a whopping 13.0 rating, the highest it received in the country, but dropped precipitously afterwards, Jeff Lee, manager of NBC affiliate WBIR, told the News Sentinel: "It proves the system works. ... If a show works, people will watch it. If it doesn't, then it goes away."

Indeed. Mrs. F and I gave the premiere a try. It had good intentions, and I especially liked the attempt to have the main character played by Aiden Quinn casually converse with an imagined Jesus. But it just didn't come together and felt oddly straitjacketed despite having so many different "sinful" angles to play with (homosexuality, promiscuity, drug and alcohol use).