Faith, Media & Culture

Here’s today’s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture.

Drawing on faith. With a goal of becoming the world’s largest publisher of Christian-themed graphic novels,  Kingstone Comics will debut Eternity, the first graphic novel by New York Times best-selling author Randy Alcorn, in June.

Kingstone CEO Art Ayris sees graphic novels as the next great frontier in the rise of faith-based popular culture.  “Comics are booming as well as Christian themes in entertainment,” he says. “Anywhere you want to look—TV and Internet shows, movies, books . . . The Bible as the No. 1 rated cable show, or the growing line of faith-based movies. Now – why not comics?

Here’s Randy Alcorn introducing Eternity in his own unique way:

Programming Note: The American Bible Challenge season finale airs tonight (Thursday) at 9:00 PM (ET) on GSN. The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist face off against the Wagner Warriors and the Girls of Grace face off in the big final competition. Each team is playing for their chosen charity with a $100,000  donation at stake.

Encourage one another and build each other up – 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Here’s today’s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture.

Here are the details: Variety’s second-annual Faith and Family Entertainment Summit, in association with Rogers & Cowan,  will be held June 21st at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles. Events will include a keynote conversation with Mark Burnett and Roma Downey in which they’ll talk about the awesome success of their Bible miniseries and their plans for future faith-based productions.  In addition, other top entertainment execs will talk about their own approaches to creating, developing and marketing faith-based hits. The Summit will also look at how technology is being used to reach families and help them connect to the projects in innovative ways. Successful producers, directors, actors and others who believe in the value of faith-driven entertainment will gather in forums to discuss their crafts.

BTW, I attended last year and found it to be time very well spent. If you’re interested in registering, you can go here. If you’re going to be staying at the Four Seasons Hotel, be sure to mention that you’ll be attending the Faith and Family Entertainment Summit. For information on sponsoring, contact Brooke Bauguess at brooke.bauguess@variety.com.

Encourage one another and build each other up – 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Here’s today’s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture.

They’ve got game. This Thursday (May 23^rd) at 9pm (ET), the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist will square off against the Wagner Warriors and the Girls of Grace face off in a final competition on the season finale of  GSN’s American Bible Challenge.

What you gotta admire about these contestants is that the teams are playing for help others and not to enrich themselves. The show’s a lot of fun too.

Thursday’s season finale, BTW, will also feature a performance by the Grammy Award-winning Mary Mary, singing their chart-topping hit Go Get It alongside the show’s musical co-host Kirk Franklin.

Encourage one another and build each other up – 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Here’s today’s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture.

The rant ends. My five-day rambling imagining what the newly-announced 2013-2014 broadcast network schedules would look like if designed by someone (like me) who believes they would find renewed audience interest by offering programming that the universal values of faith in God, kindness, forgiveness, gratitude, tolerance, wisdom, personal responsibility and the all-important ability to laugh at one’s own foibles (as opposed to spitefully mocking those with whom we differ).

By researching ratings and development product each network has on hand, I created my fantasy schedules just for the fun of it (yes, I consider that to be fun). Here’s what I came up with for NBC, Fox, ABC and CBS.

Finally, now, The CW. First off, I think, from a purely business standpoint, it needs to become a real network by broadcasting seven nights a week (rather than five). And, since it a partnership between CBS and Time Warner, I’d make greater use of the development on hand a Time Warner cable networks like, TBS, TNT and even CNN. Here goes. NEW SHOWS ARE IN CAPS. (In some cases, I’ve taken the liberty of changing the titles.) You can view what the five broadcast networks actually came up with here and read about the shows that actually made the The CW schedule here.

7:00 – WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY? (Monday-Friday)
7:30 – HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU! (Monday-Friday)
8:00 – Hart of Dixie
9:00 – The Wedding Band
11:00 – Conan
12:00 – THE MIDNIGHT SHOW WITH PETER HOLMES
Note: First of all, if it were up to me, I’d add an inexpensive hour of humorous game shows leading into the prime-time lineup to give the network a bit of a boost going in. Whose Line… is a remake of the old Drew Carey/Wayne Brady improv program. News is a current events driven quiz show with celebrities (currently under development at TBS. I’d seek out Adam Carolla to host and grab Norm MacDonald as a regular panelist. I’d also take TBS’ planned late-night line-up and put it on broadcast.   In prime time, I’d go a night of warmhearted dramedies. The Wedding Band, starring Brian Austin Green and about a group of wedding musicians, was actually cancelled by TBS but it had a small following. I think the show actually has hit potential. 

TUESDAY
8:00 – THE SELECTION (Hunger Games-like fantasy about a contest to choose a nation’s queen)/WINTER: REIGN (fictionalized miniseries about a young Mary, Queen of Scots)

9:00 – Beauty & the Beast
Note: The goal would be a night of parables geared toward young women.

WEDNESDAY
8:00 – Arrow
9:00 – Supernatural

THURSDAY
8:00 –  The Vampire Diaries
9:00 – THE ORIGINALS (more vampires in a Vampire Diaries spinoff)
Note: Both Wednesday and Thursday is made up of programming that is darker than my taste. In an attempt to subtly move the network in another direction, I’d gather them into nights and nudge their content toward positive messages that would shine through their darker tones.

FRIDAY
8:00 – BLINK (warm family drama about a family whose patriarch is in a coma)
9:00 – COMPANY TOWN (drama about a military town)
Note: There’s potential for positive storytelling in both concepts.

SATURDAY
7:00 – America’s Next Top Model/Winter: The Next List
7:30 – America’s Next Top Model/Winter: Heroes
8:00 – The CW MOVIE OF THE WEEK
Note: Imported from CNN, both The Next List and Heroes tell stories of people changing the world for the better. The CW Movie of the Week would rely primarily on great films from the Time-Warner library. 

SUNDAY
7:00 – THE TOMORROW PEOPLE (based on a British show about a new generation of superheroes)

8:00 –  STAR CROSSED (Space alien teens are integrated into a suburban high school on Earth)
9:00 – Falling Skies (I’d move the TNT drama about an Alien invasion of Earth to The CW.)
Note: Market is as Sci-Fi Sunday and utilize the storied tradition of using the genre to tell insightful stories about the human condition.

That’s it. I’m done. Carry on and have a nice day.

Encourage one another and build each other up – 1 Thessalonians 5:11