In the Temple of Television

By HOWARD ROSENBERG

Dec. 31, 1997 12 AM PT

TIMES TELEVISION CRITIC

Word last week that “Seinfeld” would end production after this season summoned overreacting commentators to the pulpit of hyperbole where they eulogized the sitcom as defining a generation of Americans.

Hardly. Although an epic ratings and financial boon for NBC and a huge hoot touching funny bones, “Seinfeld” has not been as deeply influential nor as relevant to U.S. culture as “Touched by an Angel,” the popular CBS drama that at 8 p.m. Sundays is tapping a vast spirituality among viewers that entertainment programs for decades either distorted or stubbornly refused to acknowledge.

“Touched by an Angel” stars Roma Downey as Monica and Della Reese as Tess, angels--without wings or halos--who each week bring hope to mortals facing crossroads in their lives. Just as hopeful, somehow, is John Dye as their comrade, Andrew, the soothing angel of death.

The show’s comforting message: No matter how bleak things seem, you are loved. There’s a plan for you.

Since its opening run in fall 1994, “Touched by an Angel” has earned a heavenly grace, proving to devoutly skeptical network programmers that a series aggressively positive and sentimental about God can attract a wide following in prime time. So wide that, blessed by a time slot following “60 Minutes,” executive producer Martha Williamson’s angelic hour is now as boffo commercially as spiritually, given its regularity in the Nielsen top 10. Its success, in fact, prompted the creation of two other sacred-minded reverential series, the WB network’s “7th Heaven” and Williamson’s “Promised Land,” a “Touched by an Angel” spinoff on CBS that has yet to approach the magnetism of its progenitor.

The fame of “Touched by an Angel” has rubbed off on the 42-year-old Williamson, who, after 13 years of relative anonymity writing or producing for series ranging from the hit NBC sitcom “The Facts of Life” to the short-lived CBS drama “Under One Roof,” is now admired as someone who has achieved the improbable by making God fashionable in prime time.

Williamson, a self-defined “committed Christian,” chatted about this TV phenomenon by phone from her home in Salt Lake City, refusing comment only on Reese’s recent pay dispute with the series.

Question: Has TV suddenly found God?

Answer: TV has found that God works. Unfortunately, God is the flavor of the month in television. What they [the networks] are going to discover is that God is not the flavor of the month for people who are watching these shows. God is the flavor of their lives.

Q: Why did TV take so long to acknowledge the significance of religion in America?

A: It’s hard selling faith [to programmers]. You will see on certain television shows--”NYPD Blue,” “ER,” anything David Kelley has written--wonderful inquiries into faith that reflect a lot of people in Hollywood. They’re more comfortable reflecting their degree of doubt than their level of faith. Fear drives professions in which the results must be instantaneous. Faith takes years and years to pay off.

Q: Do you think a significant segment of Hollywood is spiritually corrupt?

A: I think spiritually bereft is correct. I think that a lot of people don’t ever consider that there is a power at work in their lives other than their own.

Q: How accepting is Hollywood of devout Christians?

A: It has to do with how Christians behave. I don’t make a big deal about being a Christian. I don’t impose my Christianity on anybody. In some ways, people will look at a Christian, waiting for you to screw up so they can call you a hypocrite. I think a lot of people are threatened by people who are religious. We are a work in progress. Unfortunately, there’s always the cynic out there, standing ready to say, “Where’s the finished product?”

Q: Would you describe yourself as a born-again Christian?

A: I use “committed” to avoid that term. Having chosen to become Christian, I felt I had a new life. This happened in 1981. I was raised in a Protestant family that attended church regularly. When I got out of college--I was a philosophy major--I was very much on a spiritual journey, and at one point considered converting to Judaism. For some people it’s an epiphany. For me it was a commitment that took a lot of years, a lot of prayer, a lot of setbacks. I only find myself talking about my faith now because they handed me a show about angels. I think someone said, “Give it to Martha. She goes to church.”

Q: How did you come to “Touched by an Angel”?

A: I never have been an angel freak. I think angels exist, but I never had given that much thought until my show. And I was never driven to put spirituality into a television show. Things just kept coming my way.

I had a conversation with CBS in 1992. I told them I was interested in getting into drama, and someone brought up a survey in Time magazine that said 80% of Americans had some sort of religious experience once a month. I began talking about my own experience. I had recently joined a small church in South-Central. They asked me why. I said I don’t know, that I think God wants me there. It was such a shocking statement to make in a television pitch meeting, but I felt it was true. And from that, oddly enough, developed a two-hour pilot starring Lou Gossett [that was not picked up] and ultimately “Touched by an Angel.”

Q: How so?

A: Jeff Sagansky [then president of CBS Entertainment] said I want you to do an angel show. That was in 1993. He was responding to a trend on angels. But I got a call from someone else to do another pilot, so John Masius got the [unaired original] “Touched by an Angel” pilot. I was offended when I saw the original pilot. Angels were treated like a fantasy. Religion is not a fantasy.

Q: How do you mean, exactly?

A: Angels are typically thrown into the same bag as wizards, fairies, genies, fix-it-all fantasy characters who wiggle their noses. They are traditionally irreverent because irreverence is cool. Sincerity is considered soft. So I don’t think there’s been a taboo [in TV] against religion as much as against anything soft. Sincere religion fell into that category.

Q: But you later agreed to take over the show, and you shaped it your way before it premiered. Why did you reconsider?

A: I prayed about it. I said, “God, am I doing the right thing?” I said, “I turned it down and I didn’t ask you about it.” I just got back the strongest sense of the word “angel.” It was very clear to me this is what I was to do.

Q: You have been quoted saying, “Our show is God’s truth.” How?

A: I really make every attempt to ask myself in every script, “What does God think about this?” The solutions have to be spiritual ones, not human ones.

Q: Jesus Christ is not mentioned in “Touched by an Angel.” Nor salvation being attainable only through acceptance of Christ as savior or that just believing in a supreme being is not sufficient. Why is that?

A: The job is first and foremost to provide CBS with one hour of quality entertainment. CBS never gave me any parameters, but the job is to include, not exclude. It’s a very simple message that we’re giving, that God will always meet you where you are. God is totally capable of telling you if he wants you to be a Christian or not, but that’s not my job on “Touched by an Angel.”

Q: Have you been surprised by the extent of the show’s success?

A: I never thought we’d get a line of calendars, books, a soundtrack, thoughts for the day. But I never, ever questioned that we would be successful if they would just keep us on the air long enough. I knew we would be embraced by a huge family audience. What has surprised and gratified me are the additional demographics. We continue to expand in men 18 to 49, teenagers, people you normally would not expect to watch this show.

Q: Do you feel God had a hand in that success?

A: I certainly pray for the show, that God will help me do the best job I can, but I never prayed for ratings. The remarkable confluence of events and chemistries are God-given. Roma, Della, John, Martha--we were all brought together when we were ready to tell this story, individually and as a group. “Touched by an Angel” is more than just a television series.

Q: Why hasn’t God been kinder, in generating an audience, to “7th Heaven,” your own “Promised Land” and ABC’s “Nothing Sacred”?

A: “God moves in mysterious ways.”

Q: “Nothing Sacred” has been attacked by some Catholics who feel it’s anti-Catholic. Do you feel any kinship with this show?

A: Yes. I think it’s a very well-done show. I just couldn’t connect with the character [the irreverent young priest/protagonist]. He just seems angry to me. It’s a show that might have succeeded a long time ago, but people are looking for hope. They want an answer.

Q: “Touched by an Angel” is said to have had a big impact individually. True?

A: You cannot see it without having an emotional response. When I was a little girl, I remember asking God to give me something important to do with my life. I wanted to help other people. And now I get letters from people who say, “After I saw your show, I called my estranged brother and asked him to come home.” Or “I saw your show, and stopped smoking.” That’s inspiring.

Q: How has the success of “Touched by an Angel” empowered you personally?

A: It’s amazing how people come to me with tears in their eyes and relate their favorite episode. I am in a position to encourage and support them. The danger is thinking that I have the answers or the wisdom outside of the episode to give to them.

Q: Do you think TV’s religious renaissance will last?

A: Nothing lasts forever on television. God is going to last a lot longer than “Touched by an Angel” will.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

CROSSROADS

The daily Calendar section is presenting a series of interviews, which began Monday and will conclude Jan. 8, with arts and entertainment leaders. Here is the schedule:

Monday

Film: Harvey Weinstein

Tuesday

Architecture: Zaha Hadid

Today

Television: Martha Williamson

Thursday

Restaurants: Nancy Silverton

Friday

Theater: Peter Schneider

Saturday

Jazz: Bruce Lundvall