Ocular Fusion

"...take a deep breath, relax and vote with your remote rather than play the protest game. Do that, and "The Book of Daniel" and its desperate priest will be dead on the vine within the month."

I wrote those words on January 7th. Not that I'm a prophet or anything (who, after all, didn't see this coming?), but just remember, I told ya so!

If you haven't heard, NBC has pulled the plug on the desperately lacking and controversial show "The Book of Daniel" after only four episodes. The folks at Focus on the Family and the American Family Association are already taking credit for forcing the network's hand on this, and others are whining and complaining about all those drunk-on-religion Red State right-wing nut cases who have struck once again and spoiled everyone's fun.

I suspect both groups have overestimated the influence of the "Christian Right" in this instance. The show was cancelled because no one watched it (the American free enterprise system at work). The reason no one watched it was because it was poorly written and acted and an insult to the average person's intelligence and morality. In short, it was bad art. Add to that the fact that NBC placed it in a loser Friday night time slot and essentially the show was doomed from the start.

I still believe the show would have disappeared without all the phone calls, emails and boycott threats, but I guess I'll never be able to prove it since Donald Wildmon and James Dobson don't take their marching orders from me. Call me crazy, but I still have faith enough in the "collective wisdom of the American people" to believe that they don't need Wildmon and Dobson whipping them into a frenzy in order to do the right thing.

As we say in postmodern, partially-post-Christian America, "Whatever..." So, now we move on to other more enlightening and culturally rich fare such as "American Idol."

What was that I was saying about the collective wisdom of the American people?