Mercy killing

From the Internet movie database:

Controversial new US drama The Book of Daniel, starring actor Aidan Quinn as a pill-popping Episcopal priest, has been cancelled.

Man, with that premise alone you had to know it was doomed.

The show was a target for conservative religious groups who were upset that the main character, Father Daniel Webster, conducted regular chats with Jesus as he popped painkillers.

Beware of the liberals counteracting with a Rush-Limbaugh-on-OxyContin diatribe.

The show also features storylines dealing with drug dealing, alcoholism and homosexuality, which also outraged religious groups, who petitioned to get the show canceled.

For NBC to have cancelled the show, it was a BUSINESS decision. Alienating the majority of Americans (83% identify themselves as Christians) is not smart business. NBC, after all, is in existence for one reason and one reason only: TO MAKE A PROFIT. Despite that fact, you will no doubt hear from the Hollywood left in how it is another loss for “artistic freedom.” But as Lee Habeeb pointed out in his fantastic op-ed on National Review Online, the show would have eventually died a “natural death – the low ratings kind.”

A television station in Indiana had to post security outside their studios after receiving death threats for airing the controversial religious drama.

Only in a red state, huh?

Friday's installment of the show came in a distant third in its time slot and NBC network executives decided to pull the show.

You’ve no doubt heard the query “If a tree falls in a forest with nobody there, does it actually make a sound?” In that mode, if “The Book of Daniel” was cancelled because nobody watched, did an episode ever really air?

The show had filmed eight episodes but no new episodes are scheduled to air and will be replaced by coverage of the Winter Olympics.

NBC has to be asking: “Where’s a Nancy-Tonya saga when you really need one?”