BOB ABERNETHY: Another place where the spiritual is getting more attention is Hollywood. This fall there are several television programs with a spiritual theme, among them ABC's controversial NOTHING SACRED, about a Catholic priest. We asked Martha Bayles for a review. She's been arts and television critic for THE WALL STREET JOURNAL and is the author of the book HOLE IN OUR SOUL. Martha, welcome.MARTHA BAYLES (Critic and Author): Thank you. Bob, there's been enough positive portrayals of religious experiences and characters in recent years to suggest a trend. My question is: Will NOTHING SACRED be part of this positive trend?
Next Thursday, ABC will unveil NOTHING SACRED, a dramatic series about a Catholic priest. Father Ray, played by Kevin Anderson, is portrayed much as the doctors and nurses on ER or the police officers on NYPD Blue are portrayed -- as human, all too human, and struggling with the nitty-gritty reality of his job.A terrific concept, as they say here in Hollywood, but also a terrific challenge, because Hollywood and the Catholic Church have not been on very good terms lately.
Just as confidence in the '40s was the Catholic Church itself, beginning in 1934, the church-sponsored Legion of Decency was Hollywood's most powerful adversary. The legion had box-office clout; many Catholics would avoid the films it condemned. And it had moral clout. Protestants and Jewish groups backed its efforts, and the studios listened.
After 1934, when the legion started to condemn them, gangster films like SCARFACE took a dive. So did Mae West's career as a sexpot.
In the '50s the breakup of the studios and the advent of TV made it harder for any organization to influence Hollywood. By the '60s, all forms of authority were under attack, including that of the Catholic Church. So Hollywood got even. From M*A*S*H in '69 to MONSIGNOR in '82, the Catholic clergy in movies have been spoofed and criticized, mocked and demonized. But lately, change is in the air. On the big screen and the small, positive, confident religious characters are back. DEAD MAN WALKING, a remarkable film about a nun who helped a condemned murderer to repent, was a box-office success last year.
Today's Catholic Church is full of drama, meaning real people in conflict over real issues. If NOTHING SACRED presents a one-sided version of these conflicts, it won't be a drama, it will be a melodrama, and the viewers will lose an opportunity to learn what it means to be a priest in the 1990s.
Ms. BAYLES: In a backhanded way, yes, it shows him wrestling with doubt and doubt is part of faith, of course. But I can understand how some critics would like to see a priest whose faith is not quite as wobbly as Father Ray's.
