Catholic themes abounding

Other than "Nothing Sacred," nothing worthwhile has shown up among the new programs on TV this fall. But within five days of one another, season premieres of three returning shows on three separate networks carried strong Catholic themes that were extremely well handled.

That's more evidence that television is starting to understand that serious treatment of religion should not be excluded from programming.

The fall premiere of "Law & Order" on NBC fictionalized the real-life Oregon case of the district attorney who audiotaped a sacramental confession in a jail and tried to use it against a murder suspect. In real life, the DA was -- quite rightly -- not permitted to use the evidence. In the dramatic version, however, as the complicated plot unfurled, the tape was used in one case and not in another.

Rare display

Throughout the show, the Catholic characters on "Law & Order" debated their differing opinions about the appropriateness of using the tape, a rare display of religious ideas on a dramatic series.

The episode ended quite surprisingly: with the murder victim's mother saying to his killer that she forgave him and that she would pray for him.

Afterwards, when two DAs said they could never do what she did, one of them asked rhetorically, as the final line of the show: "What does that say about us?"

Euthanasia and abortion

A few days later, the plot of another show about lawyers, ABC's "The Practice," involved a doctor who had helped a patient kill herself. All of the pro and con arguments about physician-assisted suicide were given equal time, but the program ended with the jury convicting the doctor. They had been convinced by the prosecutor's plea to protect "the sanctity of life."

The next night, on "Touched by an Angel" on CBS, a family considered aborting their unborn child because he had Down Syndrome. Was he a miracle or a mistake? the show asked.

The answer, through the testimony of other parents with retarded children, through ultrasound images of a child in the womb and through their own growth as parents-to-be, was clear. And the underlying message of the episode was obvious: Human life has value even when it isn't perfect.

Bob's bobble

While those returning series were doing well, new ones were not bowling me over. Perhaps the most appealing is "George and Leo," the CBS comedy starring Bob Newhart and Judd Hirsch as opposite in-laws. Bob still knows how to stammer hilariously, making even the most mundane line of dialogue into a memorable phrase. "Goodbye," spoken to a departing mob hitman, is an example that had to be heard to be believed.

But Mr. Newhart disappointed me terribly with an episode in which a priest appeared. All of the objections which have been wrongheadedly aimed at "Nothing Sacred" should have been directed at "George and Leo." That's especially disturbing because Bob is a Catholic who has said that he would never do anything on TV to disgrace his faith.

Well, we all fail, and Newhart failed to stop the episode in which a priest who was a stereotype from the 1970s -- guitar and jeans and an attitude of "Whatever" -- was portrayed by comedian Dave Coulier.

Other than that misstep, the sitcom is amusing and seems to have a direction in which to grow as the two leads conflict over the marriage of their children.

(10-16-97)