You can’t buy publicity this good.

NBC affiliates; especially those in the south within the so-called Bible belt must be getting hammered these days. I’ve heard that if you try to contact the GM at the station on Union Avenue, the receptionist wants to know if it’s regarding the series “The Book of Daniel”.

The “Hollywood Reporter” describes the series as depicting “ an Episcopalian minister, played by Aidan Quinn, struggling with an addiction to Vicodin, among other problems in his diocese. Jesus is actually a character on the series, depicted in imagined conversations with the minister”. The Reporter goes on to say that two NBC affiliates in Arkansas and Indiana have decided not to carry the show.

There’s nothing like this kind of publicity to drive people to a show that they might have missed otherwise. Remember the movie “The Last Temptation of Christ”? I understand the reason people rally to protest something. But on the other hand, if the movie or show is crap, people won’t watch and it will fade into obscurity. On the other hand, if you rant and rave and try to block it, it just draws attention to the object of the protest. It becomes the forbidden fruit and may whet the appetite of those who otherwise really wouldn’t have bothered to see it. I’ve never seen the show and now I want to see it.

Still, I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of those phone calls from people not wanting to watch it.

I’ve dealt with phone calls down on the river from people who were angry when weather warnings interrupted their favorite soap operas. I’ve had what sounded like elderly women give detailed descriptions of my ancestral lineage because we dared to break into their soap operas. I actually asked one woman if she “ate with that mouth”. She could have embarrassed truck drivers and sailors with the venom she was spewing. Besides, I know who my father is and what the caller was suggesting was not physically possible anyway.