The Book of Daniel (TV series)

The Book of Daniel
Format	Drama
Written by	Jack Kenny
Starring	Aidan Quinn Susanna Thompson Christian Campbell Alison Pill Ivan Shaw Ellen Burstyn
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	8 (+ 4 unaired)
Production
Running time	45 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Original run	January 6, 2006 – January 20, 2006

The Book of Daniel is a television series broadcast on NBC. The network promoted it as a serious drama about Christians and the Christian faith, but it was controversial with some Christians. The show had been proposed for NBC's 2005 fall line-up, but was rescheduled as a 2006 midseason replacement. The program premiered on January 6, 2006 in the US and was scheduled to air in thirteen episodes on Friday nights. NBC called the show "edgy", "challenging", and "courageous" in its promotional material. On January 24, 2006, a spokeswoman for NBC announced the show had been dropped.^[1]

Synopsis

Set in the fictional town of Newbury in Westchester County, New York, the main character is the Reverend Daniel Webster (Aidan Quinn), an unconventional Episcopal priest who is addicted to narcotic painkillers while his wife Judith (Susanna Thompson) fights her dependence on mid-day martinis.

Struggling to be a good husband, father, and minister, Webster regularly sees and talks with a traditional western, white-skinned, white-robed and bearded Jesus (Garret Dillahunt), who nonetheless is rather unconventional. Daniel's Jesus appears only to him and openly questions modern interpretations of church teachings, reminding Daniel of his own strengths and weaknesses.

The Webster family is rounded out by a 23-year-old gay son Peter (Christian Campbell), a 16-year-old daughter Grace (Alison Pill), who is arrested for drug possession in the pilot, and Adam (Ivan Shaw), a 16-year-old adopted Chinese son who dates the daughter of one of Daniel's parishioners, the latter who harbor anti-Asian prejudices. Peter's twin brother, Jimmy, had died of leukemia two years prior to the beginning of the series; Christian Campbell also played the role of Jimmy in flashback scenes in one of the episodes never aired on television, but included in the DVD release.

When Daniel's brother-in-law, Charlie (last name unknown), absconds with church funds and abandons his family, his sister-in-law enters a lesbian relationship with Charlie's bisexual secretary. Bishop Beatrice Congreve (Ellen Burstyn) is involved with Daniel's married father (James Rebhorn) a retired bishop who, despite his gruff exterior, is troubled by dealing with his wife's Alzheimer's disease.

Controversy

The New York Times reported NBC had difficulty selling advertising during the program, even after offering significant rate discounts, because of controversial content.^[2]

Stations refuse to air

Eight of NBC's 232 affiliates refused to carry the program due to consumer complaints: WTWO in Terre Haute, Indiana (owned by Nexstar Broadcasting Group); KARK in Little Rock, Arkansas (also owned by Nexstar); KFTA-TV/KNWA-TV in Fayetteville-Fort Smith, Arkansas (also owned by Nexstar); KBTV in Beaumont, Texas (also owned by Nexstar, now affiliated with Fox); WGBC in Meridian, Mississippi; WTVA in Tupelo, Mississippi; WSMV in Nashville, Tennessee (owned by the Meredith Corporation); and KAMR in Amarillo, Texas (also owned by Nexstar). Most of the affiliates refusing to air the program are located in the Bible Belt, a region known for evangelical Christian activity.

After KARK refused to air the series, what was then WB station KWBF (now myNetworkTV affiliate KARZ-TV) picked up the series. The company stated that it was excited to offer an outlet for viewers in the central Arkansas area who wanted to watch the show. However, the station soon received a number of threats which required it to hire extra security.^[3] On an ironic note, both KARK and KARZ are now owned by Nexstar since 2009, three years after the Book of Daniel was cancelled.

Several stations in Michigan, including WDIV in Detroit (owned by Post-Newsweek), WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids (owned by LIN), WILX in Lansing (owned by Gray Television), WPBN and WTOM in Traverse City and Sault Ste. Marie (owned by Barrington Broadcasting), and WLUC in Marquette (also owned by Barrington), did not air The Book of Daniel's second episode, although this was due to a live broadcast of the 2006 North American International Auto Show Charity Preview and not necessarily the controversy.

NBC's Salt Lake City affiliate, KSL-TV, did carry The Book of Daniel, despite the station's past history of preempting shows claiming that they would offend the religious. The station's recent preemption is The Playboy Club, which, after airing 3 episodes, was the first show of the 2011-12 television season to be cancelled.

Network cancels program mid-season

On January 24, 2006, NBC announced the show had been dropped from the schedule. The last airing of the show was on January 20, 2006. The January 20 episode was the fourth in the series, drawing 5.8 million viewers. NBC gave no official explanation for the cancellation.

Airings on the web

The show held the distinction of being one of the first shows to be streamed on the web after its cancellation. On January 27, 2006 at 8:10pm/ET, NBC.com streamed the first of the unaired episodes.

Episodes continued to be streamed, one a week, for the next three weeks. New episodes were initially made available at around 8pm on Friday night and were viewable until the next episode replaced it on the following Friday. The final episode was streamed on February 10, 2006.

With that streaming, NBC had aired (either on TV or the Web) every episode of the show's initial order (and consequently, every episode that had been produced up to that point).

Revelations - Last episode or series finale

The last episode to air on television was titled “Assignation” and was marked as production number 103 while the first episode to air online was titled “Withdrawal” and was marked as production number 105. This disparity became obvious in the “Previously on…” sequence of “Withdrawal” which contained scenes that had never aired either on television or online.

That led many to believe that NBC had aired the show out of order and that the episode with production number 104, entitled “Revelations”, had been skipped.

This theory seemed to be confirmed by the Book of Daniel Web Site which featured a section titled “Catch up with the unaired episode, “Revelations””. When viewers followed the link, it led to a photo recap of an episode entitled “Episode 3” that contained a sub plot (notably featuring actress Marin Hinkle) where Daniel meets a young girl who speaks to Jesus at a time when he had chosen not to. These scenes were consistent with the recap that aired in “Withdrawal (Production #105).

“Revelations” did eventually air as the very last episode of the series but, contrary to earlier speculation, events that took place in the episode verify it aired in the proper order. The scenes recapped in “Withdrawal” and featured on the web were not present while scenes that could not have predated earlier episodes were.

This has led to speculation that this episode was repositioned as the final episode and that it consisted of newer scenes that were combined with previous material (perhaps replacing those scenes that were recapped earlier on).

DVD release

Cover Art

On September 26, 2006, a complete-series collection of "The Book of Daniel" was released on DVD exclusively on Amazon.com. The set includes two discs featuring all seven episodes, in the traditional hard plastic case.

References

1. ^ http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/13702858.htm^{[dead link]}
2. ^ Elliott, Stuart (January 11, 2006). "Few Are Booking Ads on 'The Book of Daniel'". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/11/business/media/11adco.html?ex=1294635600&en=f76e7a603a76d9ff&ei=5090. Retrieved 2008-11-01. 
3. ^ Shapiro, Beth (2006-01-10). "TV Station Threatened Over Series With Gay Character". 365Gay.com (365GayMedia Inc.). Archived from the original on 2007-04-11. http://web.archive.org/web/20070411003435/http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/01/010906daniel.htm. Retrieved 2008-09-23. 

External links

• The Book of Daniel at the Internet Movie Database
• negative post-mortem by Slate