NYT: Few Are Booking Ads on 'The Book of Daniel'

[DeepModem Mom]

Few Are Booking Ads on 'The Book of Daniel'
By STUART ELLIOTT
Published: January 11, 2006


ONE of the few advertisers that bought commercial time during the premiere last week of "The Book of Daniel" on NBC will not be back. The series, about a priest, was singled out before its debut by a conservative activist organization, the American Family Association, which condemned it as anti-Christian.

The advertiser is Combe Inc., a company in White Plains that sells personal care products, which bought a 30-second commercial for Just for Men hair coloring. It was one of only about two dozen national spots that ran during the two-hour back-to-back episodes that composed the premiere of "The Book of Daniel" from 9 to 11 p.m. (Eastern and Pacific times) last Friday.

Asked yesterday by a reporter if consumers had reacted to Combe's sponsorship of "The Book of Daniel," the company replied with a statement sent by e-mail that described the advertising buy as "a one-time event."

"The company will not be advertising on the show in the future," the statement concluded, without elaborating. It appears that consumers have called the company, though; when the reporter reached the Combe switchboard, asking only to speak to a company representative, an operator asked, "This wouldn't have anything to do with 'The Book of Daniel,' would it?"

Many mainstream advertisers have long been skittish about television programs with plot lines deemed contentious or provocative. Still, the paucity of marketers buying commercial time during the debut of "The Book of Daniel" was particularly pronounced - despite lower prices for the spots, which reflected a week's worth of media attention devoted to complaints from the American Family Association about the contents of the program....


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/11/business/media/11adco.html

[warrens]

1. There's always the possibility

That it's just a crap show. And from the reviews, it's supposed to be awful.

[phantom power]

2. I thought it was not too bad.

But then, I'm nobody's target demographic.

[Avalux]

3. I watched it, wasn't impressed.

As far as I'm concerned, not a good show and I won't watch it again.

[politicat]

5. It wasn't a bad show....

If they can sell ad space for Days of Our Lives (which has all the drug abuse, drug dealing, sex, lies, stealing, etc that BoD has) there's no reason they can't sell ads for this.

The only real difference between this and something like Desperate Housewives is that Desperate Housewives doesn't have a theologically sound Jesus.

[DrDan]

7. that is exactly right

I was looking forward to watching it. Boy was I disappointed. It is lousy. If I were buying commercial time, it would not be with that trash.

[LostinVA]

16. I thought it was quite good, and every review I've read has been great

[RaulGroom]

24. It's not deeply terrible

But it isn't very good at all.

[johnnie]

4. From what I saw

There is a leader of a church who talks to God (Jesus) and uses drugs, he has a drunk for a wife and the kids are on drugs.

Sounds just like georgie, Laura and the girls to me.

[The White Tree]

6. That's why they are up in arms

Hits too close to home maybe... Hmmm.

Actually, most of the foibles of the family are not as bad as the Christian Right purport them to be.

For example, the priest is taking Vicodin. Just about every time he tries to pop a pill to escape dealing with a family/church problem Jesus shows up and tries to get him to deal with the problem and not take the drug. (though I guess when the leaders of your party are in bed with the drug companies, maybe that's not a good message to send.):sarcasm:

Another example, in the first episode, the daughter was selling marijuana, but she was doing it so that she could buy computer equipment to create an online comic strip about here family. it was a one time thing because she thought her family would not approve of her choice to spend money on computers and would judge her for it.

I watched most of the first half of this show before I started falling asleep. My take was that I really didn't find it enjoyable enough to continue watching. The multiple issues plaguing the family do seem too unrealistic even if the father wasn't a priest.

It certainly is no Joan of Arcadia, which toad a pretty liberal line (including an episode that seemed to have God appearing on earth as a somewhat flaming, possibly gay drama teacher) yet managed to avoid the same type of Chritian conservative criticism, although it did lose a significant amount of ratings which led to it's ultimate cancellation.

Still the uproar over the show is totally rediculous and hypocritical. After all these are the same people who complained about critics of The Passion of the Christ's sado-masochistic and overly violent tone, complaining that the artist of that flick should be entitled to his vision of Jesus.

They certainly show their True Colors.

[saigon68]

9. You forgot the Priest who anally expores young boys

Like Father Feeney

[skypilot]

8. The show's whole "Jesus" thing got old...

...after only a half hour or so. If Jesus is going to keep appearing to this guy, then you'd think it would only be when he has something REALLY interesting to say. There was one scene in the pilot where Jesus shows up holding a golf club only to tell Daniel where his headache pills were. They are making Jesus come off as incredibly boring. That's about the most "anti-Christian" thing about the show.

[Gunit_Sangh]

10. the Jesus thing

Yeah ... maybe they need Jesus to come on and denounce Tinky Winky and Spongebob Squarepants as a menance to our children.

Maybe advocate the assassination of a world leader.

Point out a few illnesses or deaths as God's revenge.

That's more like real life ... right?

[skypilot]

11. "That's more like real life...right?"

What??? I truly hope that I am misreading the tone of your post. It's coming off as kind of snarky and sarcastic when I never suggested that the show use Jesus's appearances to push any kind of agenda. I merely suggested that the way they used his appearances in the pilot was not interesting and the conversations he had with Daniel were not interesting. And Jesus showing up for about two seconds, holding a golf club, only to tell Daniel where his pills were was just silly. I felt as though Jesus was in danger of suffering from overexposure on this show. And the actor who is playing him is not especially good.

[liam_laddie]

13. the casting....

Actually, if you like to watch certain actors, the show was okay,
not good, mind you. Quinn is decent, IMHO.
My main beef is that the Jesus role should have been played
by a more Eastern Mediterranean type; y'know, more like the
historic Christ. :eyes:

[bajamary]

12. Bring back Joan of Arcadia

The Book of Daniel is just awful. Bad writing is really the problem as those poor actors try to work with a terrible script.

Bring back the great Joan of Arcadia TV show which was innovative and extremely well done.

[KittyWampus]

18. Have to agree. And the storyline put way too many issues in the foreground

to start with.

Every character had problems.

Listen, we all do have problems but on TVLand, you have to allow some rotation and have some stability.

[Frank Cannon]

14. It's best to have a controversial TV show if it's A GOOD SHOW

... as the makers of the erstwhile (and highly controversial) "NYPD Blue" and the current "Battlestar Galactica" have learned.

But controversial and bad? That ain't good.

[pinerow]

15. Crappy show...Joan of Arcadia was much better...

nt

[yebrent]

17. I liked it!

IMO it has lots of potential, although I think it will be canceled right quick because of lack of advertising. Almost all the commercials were for other NBC shows, including 1+ minute long adds for the Olympics.

I definitely got a desperate housewives vibe from it, but more creative having the main character a "flawed" priest trying to hold his family together. The rest of the characters were interesting and have lots of potential. I thought it was humorous that the bishop are having an affair (the female is Daniel's boss and the male bishop is his father) It seemed obvious to me that Jesus just represented the Daniel's conscious. That is why he didn't add anything that wasn't already in his head and may have seemed boring to people.

[LostinVA]

20. I loved the "manga marijuana" joke

It's SO something my Dad would say.

[xxqqqzme]

19. I only saw the 2nd hour

but I didn't think it was awful. There is room 2 improve - 2 B sure - toooooo many characters toooo much going on at the beginning but it probably will not get a chance 2 develop because those RW fundies are sooooo put upon and ostracized.

:sarcasm:

[barb162]

21. I missed it and want to see it. After it was over I heard some

peple say it was a potboiler (like now they tell me)

[NC_Nurse]

22. I liked it and I think that most other TV shows

are bullshit. Excuse me, but if you have teens at home, you know that EVERYONE has problems. Yes, Jesus' character needs to be fleshed out, but come on, if he wasn't Jesus most people would give him a chance to develop the character.

[clspector]

23. I liked it

and I found it hilarious that the actor they hired to play Jesus played a demented prostitute killer on "Deadwood." (His character was murdered at the end of last season.)

This is a limited run show -- 8 episodes long. More to the point, I liked the fact that no one on the show is portrayed as perfect. And every character's personality is more complicated than you think they are at first blush. As for the portrayal of Jesus, this is obviously how Daniel sees him. Sorry if it doesn't conform to the imagery that you wanted.