{"id":21425,"date":"2014-03-11T13:32:24","date_gmt":"2014-03-11T17:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=21425"},"modified":"2014-03-11T13:32:24","modified_gmt":"2014-03-11T17:32:24","slug":"touched-by-an-angel-a-guide-to-the-religious-appeal-of-tvs-knights-errant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/03\/11\/touched-by-an-angel-a-guide-to-the-religious-appeal-of-tvs-knights-errant\/","title":{"rendered":"Touched by an Angel: A guide to the religious appeal of TV’s knights errant"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I watched the premiere episode of NBC\u2019s new show Believe<\/em> last night, partly because of the involvement of some interesting people \u2014 J.J. Abrams, Alfonso Cuar\u00f3n, Delroy Lindo \u2014 and partly because at this point I kind of feel sorry for NBC due to the network\u2019s flailing attempts to find \u201cthe next Lost<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Believe<\/em> was, well, kind of unremarkably OK,<\/em> I guess. Willa Paskin<\/a> calls it a \u201cclich\u00e9-ridden mess,\u201d and she\u2019s not wrong.<\/p>\n

For all the show\u2019s hints of shadowy conspiracies of good and evil and its portentous talk of \u201cwhoever controls her ability will control the world,\u201d the first episode ended with the suggestion that this show may be something more conventional. \u201cThink of all the people she\u2019ll help along the way,\u201d Lindo\u2019s character says, laying out the likely structure of the series. Believe, it seems, is the latest return to the formula of a picaresque anthology series in which our heroes will, \u201cYou know, walk the Earth, meet people \u2014 get into adventures. Like Caine from Kung Fu.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s promising. Yes, that format sometimes means, as Paskin says, \u201ca cheeseball case of the week,\u201d but when it\u2019s done well, it can be a vehicle for terrific storytelling.<\/p>\n

The show\u2019s title \u2014 Believe<\/em> \u2014 suggests religious overtones, and this wandering-do-gooder formula has often been a favorite for religiously themed shows. The fierce tribal loyalty of a religious audience can make a TV show a lasting hit, but it\u2019s impossible to say yet whether Believe<\/em> will appeal to that audience because we don\u2019t yet know anything about the source of the supernatural powers displayed by the little girl at the heart of its story.<\/p>\n

If cherubic little Bo turns out to be a literal<\/em> cherub, then this show could become a huge hit. That\u2019s probably true even if her powers are just vaguely attributed as a \u201cmiracle\u201d or a \u201cgift from God.\u201d But if the source of her powers is explained in some kind of New Age-y way, or as a leap forward in human evolution, then that same religious audience will likely reject this show.<\/p>\n

For a sense of what I mean, here\u2019s a brief survey of some earlier TV shows that followed this wandering-hero format, in descending order of their appeal to religious audiences:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Highway to Heaven<\/em><\/strong> (1984-1989). Pa Ingalls as an angel on a mission from God was more than enough to convince religious audiences to forget all about Michael Landon\u2019s ugly divorce. The only downside was the show aired on Wednesday nights, when much of its potential audience was at prayer meeting.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u2022 Touched by an Angel<\/em><\/strong> (1994-2003). Before she became the virgin Mary, Roma Downey played an angel doing divine case-work. Supernatural levels of sappy schmaltz made this a huge hit.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Millionaire<\/em><\/strong> (1955-1960). The main character was named \u201cMichael,\u201d but he wasn\u2019t an angel serving as a messenger of God. He was, rather, the personal assistant of mysterious gazillionaire John Beresford Tipton, who sent Michael forth to rain $1 million checks upon the just and the unjust. But whether or not Tipton was, strictly speaking, divine, the fantasy of such miraculous providence was the same.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The A-Team<\/strong><\/em> (1983-1987). The remnants of a \u201ccrack commando\u201d unit did not possess the supernatural powers of angels or billionaires, but they did have a preternatural ability to spray bullets with no one ever getting shot. The show\u2019s appeal to religious audiences was also enhanced by the casting of former bodyguard Nathaniel Tureaud<\/a> \u2014 an outspoken born-again Christian and sometime evangelist who pities any fool who doesn\u2019t know Jesus. More than 25 years later, \u201cMr. T\u201d remains a popular figure in the evangelical subculture<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Fugitive<\/em><\/strong> (1963-1967). \u201cRichard Kimble ponders his fate as he looks at the world for the last time, and sees only darkness. But in that darkness, fate moves its huge hand.\u201d Talk of \u201cfate\u201d is, of course, not an acceptable substitute for talk of providence and God\u2019s plan. On the other hand (no pun intended), Kimble\u2019s quest to catch his wife\u2019s killer could be seen as \u201cpro-family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Incredible Hulk<\/em><\/strong> (1978-1982). David Banner was not an angel and he was not on a mission from God. He was, rather, a lonely man cursed by gamma radiation to become a green rage-machine. But if his supernatural powers were not divine, neither were they nefariously occult. And religious audiences, like everyone else, were willing to forgive the show\u2019s shortcomings whenever they saw poor Bill Bixby walking down the highway to Joe Harnell\u2019s mournful piano.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Have Gun Will Travel<\/strong><\/em> (1957-1963). Westerns tend to embody the \u201ctraditional morality\u201d that appeals to religious audiences, but this Paladin wasn\u2019t quite their idea of lawful good. This black knight was a wine-drinking, urbane liberal who fought on the wrong side in the Civil War (i.e., the winning side, the American<\/em> side, the anti-slavery<\/em> side). That\u2019s a far cry from Pa Ingalls as an angel.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Kung Fu<\/strong><\/em> (1972-1975). Eastern philosophy is dangerous, grasshopper, a lie from the devil that lures good people away from the One True Truth.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Route 66<\/strong> <\/em>(1960-1964). Restless, rootless youth hitting the highway in a search for meaning? There\u2019s nothing at all angelic about that. This is where the 1960s came from \u2014 the beginning of the end for godly America. Plus most episodes didn\u2019t take place on the iconic highway of the title, so why call the show that? Could it be because that\u2019s just one digit away from you know what?<\/em><\/p>\n

(Note: I\u2019m only considering here shows with wandering<\/em> heroes who travel from place to place. There are also a host of shows that employ a similar anthology formula, with similar supernatural overtones, but in a single setting \u2014 think Early Edition,<\/em>\u00a0Joan of Arcadia,<\/em> or The Ghost Whisperer.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If cherubic little Bo turns out to be a literal cherub, then NBC’s “Believe” could become a huge hit. That’s probably true even if her powers are just vaguely attributed as a “miracle” or a “gift from God.” But if the source of her powers is explained in some kind of New Age-y way, or as a leap forward in human evolution, then that same religious audience will likely reject this show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[167,65],"class_list":["post-21425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelicals","tag-television","tag-tribalism"],"yoast_head":"\nTouched by an Angel: A guide to the religious appeal of TV's knights errant<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If cherubic little Bo turns out to be a literal cherub, then NBC's "Believe" could become a huge hit. That's probably true even if her powers are just vaguely attributed as a "miracle" or a "gift from God." But if the source of her powers is explained in some kind of New Age-y way, or as a leap forward in human evolution, then that same religious audience will likely reject this show.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/03\/11\/touched-by-an-angel-a-guide-to-the-religious-appeal-of-tvs-knights-errant\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Touched by an Angel: A guide to the religious appeal of TV's knights errant\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If cherubic little Bo turns out to be a literal cherub, then NBC's "Believe" could become a huge hit. That's probably true even if her powers are just vaguely attributed as a "miracle" or a "gift from God." But if the source of her powers is explained in some kind of New Age-y way, or as a leap forward in human evolution, then that same religious audience will likely reject this show.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/03\/11\/touched-by-an-angel-a-guide-to-the-religious-appeal-of-tvs-knights-errant\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"slacktivist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-03-11T17:32:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/files\/2014\/03\/bill_bixby_hulk_ending-300x172.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/03\/11\/touched-by-an-angel-a-guide-to-the-religious-appeal-of-tvs-knights-errant\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/03\/11\/touched-by-an-angel-a-guide-to-the-religious-appeal-of-tvs-knights-errant\/\",\"name\":\"Touched by an Angel: A guide to the religious appeal of TV's knights errant\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-03-11T17:32:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-03-11T17:32:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\"},\"description\":\"If cherubic little Bo turns out to be a literal cherub, then NBC's \\\"Believe\\\" could become a huge hit. That's probably true even if her powers are just vaguely attributed as a \\\"miracle\\\" or a \\\"gift from God.\\\" But if the source of her powers is explained in some kind of New Age-y way, or as a leap forward in human evolution, then that same religious audience will likely reject this show.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/03\/11\/touched-by-an-angel-a-guide-to-the-religious-appeal-of-tvs-knights-errant\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/03\/11\/touched-by-an-angel-a-guide-to-the-religious-appeal-of-tvs-knights-errant\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/03\/11\/touched-by-an-angel-a-guide-to-the-religious-appeal-of-tvs-knights-errant\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Touched by an Angel: A guide to the religious appeal of TV’s knights errant\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\",\"name\":\"slacktivist\",\"description\":\""Test everything; hold fast to what is good."\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\",\"name\":\"Fred Clark\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Fred Clark\"},\"description\":\"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Touched by an Angel: A guide to the religious appeal of TV's knights errant","description":"If cherubic little Bo turns out to be a literal cherub, then NBC's \"Believe\" could become a huge hit. That's probably true even if her powers are just vaguely attributed as a \"miracle\" or a \"gift from God.\" But if the source of her powers is explained in some kind of New Age-y way, or as a leap forward in human evolution, then that same religious audience will likely reject this show.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/03\/11\/touched-by-an-angel-a-guide-to-the-religious-appeal-of-tvs-knights-errant\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Touched by an Angel: A guide to the religious appeal of TV's knights errant","og_description":"If cherubic little Bo turns out to be a literal cherub, then NBC's \"Believe\" could become a huge hit. That's probably true even if her powers are just vaguely attributed as a \"miracle\" or a \"gift from God.\" But if the source of her powers is explained in some kind of New Age-y way, or as a leap forward in human evolution, then that same religious audience will likely reject this show.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/03\/11\/touched-by-an-angel-a-guide-to-the-religious-appeal-of-tvs-knights-errant\/","og_site_name":"slacktivist","article_published_time":"2014-03-11T17:32:24+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/files\/2014\/03\/bill_bixby_hulk_ending-300x172.jpg"}],"author":"Fred Clark","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fred Clark","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/03\/11\/touched-by-an-angel-a-guide-to-the-religious-appeal-of-tvs-knights-errant\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/03\/11\/touched-by-an-angel-a-guide-to-the-religious-appeal-of-tvs-knights-errant\/","name":"Touched by an Angel: A guide to the religious appeal of TV's knights errant","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-03-11T17:32:24+00:00","dateModified":"2014-03-11T17:32:24+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47"},"description":"If cherubic little Bo turns out to be a literal cherub, then NBC's \"Believe\" could become a huge hit. That's probably true even if her powers are just vaguely attributed as a \"miracle\" or a \"gift from God.\" But if the source of her powers is explained in some kind of New Age-y way, or as a leap forward in human evolution, then that same religious audience will likely reject this show.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/03\/11\/touched-by-an-angel-a-guide-to-the-religious-appeal-of-tvs-knights-errant\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/03\/11\/touched-by-an-angel-a-guide-to-the-religious-appeal-of-tvs-knights-errant\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/03\/11\/touched-by-an-angel-a-guide-to-the-religious-appeal-of-tvs-knights-errant\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Touched by an Angel: A guide to the religious appeal of TV’s knights errant"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/","name":"slacktivist","description":""Test everything; hold fast to what is good."","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47","name":"Fred Clark","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Fred Clark"},"description":"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21425\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}