The Top Eleven Christian Television Shows

     How about another list?  Again, we're looking for shows that embody the Christian ethos, and not necessarily shows that are explicitly about Christianity.  Here goes, for me, in ascending order:

11. The Honeymooners.  Actually, I almost wrote in The Red Skelton Show, or the first incarnation of The Jackie Gleason Show.  The reasoning's the same: these are shows featuring the clown (Freddie the Freeloader, The Poor Soul, Ralph Kramden) whom the world would consider unworthy of our attention or affection.  The Honeymooners is probably the best show ever made about a blue-collar Joe.  It is diagnostic of our materialism that we haven't had a character like that on television in more than a generation.  The title character of Everyone Loves Raymond does not really make the grade.  As a comedy show alone, all other considerations aside, I'd rank The Honeymooners higher, even first or second.

10. The Loretta Young Show.  It was Miss Young's avowed intent to preach by means of her weekly dramatic sketches, and preach she did.  But she did it well -- she was an accomplished actress, and the roles she played covered an impressively wide range.  The show was very popular in its time.

9. Leave It To Beaver.  Easy to make fun of this show, especially when you haven't seen it in a long time, but the writing was consistently clever, the boys were boys (and not smart-mouthed imitation adults), and the purpose of the family was clearly to bring up the next generation in integrity and love.  Hugh Beaumont, who played Ward Cleaver, was a Methodist minister, and it shows.

8. Marcus Welby, M. D.  Conservative for the time; reliably pro-life not only in the matter of abortion but in affirming the dignity of all human lives, even those of the handicapped or the psychologically troubled or the mentally retarded.  Medicine with a human face.  St. Elsewhere, edgy and salacious though it often was, might well have been included on this list.

7. Davey and Goliath.  Early clay-mation -- and excellent.  I can still hear the trumpets playing A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.  The Lutherans produced this show, but Christians of all sorts loved it.  It had a moral and dogmatic intent, and could move you close to tears, but it was also genuinely funny.  "I'm queen of the May, I'm queen of the May," sings Goliath, as he runs around the maypole with a streamer in his mouth.

6. Fulton Sheen.  The most human and humorous and shrewdly learned of all the television preachers.  It says something about the time that for a while Bishop Sheen was the most popular figure on television, beating out that hard-bitten Milton Berle.

5. Father Knows Best.  Another Robert Young show, and another show people belittle, who have not watched it in decades, or who have never watched it.  The joke was that Father often did not know best, but he was still the Father, and somehow or other elicited both reverence and love from his children.  Robert Young and Jane Wyatt have never been excelled, for showing in a comedy the love of husband and wife.

4. Bonanza.  A fine cast, and a fine idea, often carrying second-rate writing farther than it had any right to go; yet it was always entertaining.  The show was consistently about moral rectitude, including personal sacrifice, and it was clear that the Cartwrights were devout Bible-reading Christians.

3. Star Trek.  Strange choice, at first glance; the producer Gene Roddenberry was Jewish, I believe, as are William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.  But it's hard not to include somewhere a show whose two principal influences are The Book of Genesis and Paradise Lost, and whose opening episode affirms the singleness of God and the fall of man.

2. Gunsmoke.  This show started off great, and got better as the seasons went on; the very best episodes are those of its second decade, in color, with Ken Curtis as Festus, the wise fool and television's greatest sidekick.  Yes, there were saloon girls, and yes, Miss Kitty was (in the early shows especially) obviously Matt Dillon's woman.  But it is hard to find a show more affirmative of the holiness of marriage, or the need to uphold the law, or the terrible beauty of a man willing to put his life on the line  for his fellows -- and often his unappreciative fellows.  Possibly the greatest show in television history, or it would be, were it not for

1. The Twilight Zone.  Not science fiction, this!  These were half-hour morality plays, laying bare the shame of man, but also celebrating his dignity.  Rod Serling was a liberal back in the day when that meant an uncompromising affirmation of the value of every individual, including the weakest and the least among us, as against the brazen claims of technocrats, social engineers of the right and the left, and the power of brute nature.  The writing ranges from very good to stupendous, as does the acting -- by an astonishing medley of old stars (Gladys Cooper, Buster Keaton, Cedric Hardwicke), new stars (Lee Marvin, Robert Redford, Anne Francis, Dennis Weaver, Cliff Robertson), and incomparable character actors (Burgess Meredith, Nehemiah Persoff, Jeannette Nolan, Jack Klugman, Jack Warden, John Dehner, John Anderson).  A down-and-out boxer who can't believe; a young woman who doesn't want to be made pretty; a man stranded alone on a planet; a little boy who wants everybody to think only happy thoughts --it seems that there was not a single human situation that this show did not probe. 

Honorable Mention: The Beverly Hillbillies, Misterogers, Make Room for Daddy, Have Gun Will Travel, Columbo, The Donna Reed Show, The Fugitive, Little House on the Prairie, The Waltons (first few seasons only), Law and Order, My Three Sons.

Comments

[Phil]

Law & Order???

I'd like to hear your reasoning behind that.

I did like Jerry Orbach (RIP) as Lennie Briscoe.

[Keith Mathison]

The Andy Griffith Show?

[Kamilla]

Phil,

I'd nominate it for the opening narration alone:

""In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime, and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories."

I've long wondered why the Egals don't gin up a protest against such an obvious inegalitarian philosophy.

Kamilla

P.S. I'd give a tentative nod to NCIS because the cast works very much like a family and simply because it is so unapologetically unPC.

[T. Chan]

L&O The Michael Moriarty years are very good.

[Christopher Hathaway]

I have to stand with Phil on questioning Law and Order. There are few shows that go so out of their way to malign Christians as this show. The first couple of seasons might have been more neutral but with the coming of Sam Waterson I noticed a ratcheting up of an anti-Christian bias.

I would add Life Goes On and the short lived Christy.

[Clifford Simon]

I had always thought that Coyote was Man, and Road Runner was Life, and the chase was all that the futile desires of the flesh do to Man...

[Tony Esolen]

On Law and Order: I haven't watched a network television show since the early 1990's. Mainly from that show I remember the Michael Moriarty years, with George Dzundza and Paul Sorvino teaming up with Chris Noth. Moriarty is reputed to be a faithful Catholic. I don't know much of what happened to the show after that, though I think I did see episodes with Sam Waterston.

I should have included Andy Griffith under Honorable Mention at least. I just plumb forgot about it.

[Arnold]

I would nominate "Medium" for the strong family life portrayed in the series and for what seems a subtle pro life emphasis. The show has two strong and loving parental characters and the interaction with the children is excellent. The original Star Trek acknowledged Christianity and even had one episode with the idea of a Christ on an alien planet. Strangely, in the sequel series Star Trek TNG Christianity, Judaism and other religions had all somehow disappeared. Respect was shown for American Indian and Klingon spirituality and there was one oblique indication that Huinduism had survived (Data mentions the Hindy Festival of Light)but otherwise agnosticism reigned.

[Kamilla]

I completely forgot about "Life Goes On" -- I used to be late for choir practice because I would have to watch that show.

Medium might be a good honorable mention because of the family life portrayed. The character of Joe Dubois might be the only sensible portrayal of a husband on television - not some go-getter always running off somewhere or other and not some hopeless dolt.

On L&O, I'd have to agree that the Michael Moriarty years were the best - though I did enjoy Fred Thompson so very much.

Kamilla

[fat albert]

There was a short lived (2 season) show with Joe Mantegna and Mary Steenbergen titled Joan of Arcadia which was very good. It asked good questions and wrestled with big issues while being simultaneously entertaining and thought provoking. Just for providing a great example of a normal family with a father who wasn't a dolt, I'd nominate the Cosby Show.

For a variety show, I don't think you could find better than "The Carl Burnett Show". The subject matter was not always perfect, but there was a consistent commitment to quality - a defining craftsmanship that made it exceptional.

[Michael]

I would second Kamilla's nomination of NCIS not only for the family elements of the investigative team, but for the principles embodied in Mark Harmon's character Gibbs' rules. He made these after his wife Shannon, upon first meeting, answers his query as to whether she has a rule for everything: "Working on it! Everybody needs a code they can live by."

I would give a tentative nod to Joss Whedon's Angel, which is ultimately a story about one man's quest for redemption dealing with the demon (literally) within against the guilt imposed by his human soul. Its progenitor show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, was once called "the most religious show on television" by star Sarah Michelle Gellar. Whedon's Firefly was sadly short-lived, but it--along with its spinoff movie Serenity--was very much about faith and doubt and man in the universe. It is unabashedly science fiction, but that's not a bad thing. Actually, I would tentatively recommend every Whedon project--the three aforementioned as well as the short-lived Dollhouse, which saw its demise after two seasons on Fox this spring.

Law & Order and at least its one spin-off (Special Victims Unit) are both very much about what their title implies. I cannot count how many times they have eschewed and scoffed at special treatment for the sake of justice.

CBS' The Good Wife deals with a woman caught up in the fallout of her politico husband's sexual misconduct who nonetheless remains faithful to her marital vows while working as a lawyer herself and staying at home raising two kids.

It seems in general shows dealing with the American legal system tend to be a little more conservative and inherently spiritual than others. The only other genre this can be said about is science fiction. I'm too young to comment on the old shows.

[Lars Walker]

I heard Gene Roddenberry speak once, and he informed us he was the son of a Christian preacher. He himself, however (I understand) was an atheist. I'm fairly sure any pro-Christian messages in the Star Trek: TOS (of which I was a fan) came in spite of, not because of, his influence.

[Todd]

Interesting choices--nostalgic for me, anyway.

Count me surprised by the omission of Life Goes On, and 7th Heaven.

[Kathy Hanneman]

For years I have been referring to "The Twilight Zone" as a series of "morality plays" to my young nieces and nephews, who think of the Disney thrill ride, and to older people, who never watched it think sci-fi. I have often thought that one could make a great Christian education series using episodes from this series.

Among the best episodes are:

"Changing of the Guard" Every teacher, especially those who fear that they've never made any difference, should see this one.

"The Obsolete Man" About the failure of a Nazi-like state and the strength of a single man of faith to fight it.

"The Trade-Ins" The strength of married love to overcome the hardships of life.

"Time Enough at Last" Getting everything we think we want may not be all it appears to be.

"A Nice Place to Visit" A thief discovers what Hell really is. (Reminds me of "The Great Divorce."

"The Hunt" The beauty of married love and the love of a man and his dog. Maybe not a profound message but one of the most feel-good episodes.

"A Quality of Mercy" and "Judgment Night" both deal with seeing the perspective from your enemies vantage point.

There are many others but if you've never seen "The Twilight Zone" you can't do wrong to start with these.

[Robert Espe]

Smallville. More obvious in the earlier seasons.

[Tony Esolen]

Kathy,

Thank you for listing those episodes. "The Changing of the Guard" is one of my favorites, and not least because it captures the essence of what a boys' school can be. Donald Pleasance is the elderly teacher, and he is perfect. That is an episode to make your throat clutch.

I'd like to add to your list one of the latest episodes, "In Praise of Pip." Jack Klugman plays a low-life bookie whose only love in life is for his little boy, Pip. The boy grows up and goes off to war -- and his father is notified that he is dying.

Gosh, over and over they give us episodes that probe the heart of sin and repentance, mercy and forgiveness, arrogance and justice. There's the episode with the player piano, or the one where the man wants to get off the commuter train and stop at Willoughby, a little idyllic town in the nineteenth century, or the man in the gentlemen's club who challenges a loudmouth he despises to remain speechless for one year, or the man who's just gotten married but who can't take himself from the shadow of his deceased mother ....

[Michael]

Smallville. More obvious in the earlier seasons.

It's become better over the last season or two. Has really returned to its comic book roots, moving away from the teenage soap opera it was in the middle seasons.

But for what it's worth, how could a series based on the Superman mythos not be profoundly Christian (or at the very least messianic)? An omniscient character, disembodied and removed from physical interaction with Earth, sends his one and only son--empowered by this alien heritage to be omnipotent--to be a protector and guide the people of the world away from evil. He assumes the humble form of a man (a journalist, no less, whose job it is to write to and for people, educating them--and occasionally editorializing, inputting values that the people ought to hear as a point of instruction) and constantly sacrifices his own desires, with dedication to both truth and justice.*

Brian Singer, director of the horrendously bad Superman Returns, being a rather clever fellow, illustrated this repeatedly throughout the film--demnstrating at the very least that he "gets it."

*And the American Way, though being of the millennial generation, I'm not entirely sure what that is supposed to mean.

[Lindsay]

The Dick van Dyke Show. Great series, but there is even one wonderful episode with a priest who was a former boyfriend of Laura's and his choosing God over her.

[Karen]

"The Honeymooners" depended for most of its "laughs" on threats of wife-beating. How anyone would think that relationship an exemplar of anything good is beyond me.

[Christopher Hathaway]

Michael, "the American way" that the original Superman defends is the way of liberty and limited government. America used to be a beacon of that kind of freedom. Alas, such days appear to be numbered as so many Americans no longer see being different from the rest of the world as a virtue.

I am amused by the Sarah Gellar quote. If Buffy was the "most religious show on television" it can only be by defining religion as that kind that Roddenberry tolerated: the godless variety. Demons and "powers" abounded on that show, but there was no divine power in control, no one in heaven who had a plan for the world and the will to bring it about. Nothing rose to the level of even respectable pagan religion. These shows like flirting with the idea of spiritual realities but their mundane and materialist worldview makes Bugs Bunny look like Thomas Aquinas.

[James Kabala]

I think the movies and later sequels of Star Trek brought to the fore a secularist message that was less fully expressed in the original series.

I would like to put in a word for The Simpsons (in its prime pre-2000 or so) - I would hardly call it a Christian series, but they deserve credit for Ned Flanders, who is often gently mocked but (unlike in most modern Hollyood product where any good Christian is bound to be a secret hypocrite) is acknowledged to be a good husband, a good father, and a better man than Homer. And the Simpsons themselves do go to church. (The portrayal of the minister, Rev. Lovejoy, varies from episode to episode. In some he is a bit of a phony, in others a basically decent man like Ned.)

[Tony Esolen]

James,

I thought about The Simpsons -- which I haven't watched since about 1993 or so. Matt Groening made fun of almost everything, but he seems to have had a sneaky respect for religious faith, and he does not make fun at all of marital fidelity.

[Michael]

Mr. Hathaway--

I was being mostly facetious about the American Way. A screenwriter friend of mine is currently working on a script about searching for the American Dream, a concept he thinks is dead and requires shattering and rebuilding a la Chesterton. I just feel like my generation has lost very much the sense of culture, duty, independence and humility.

As to Buffy, I do not want to get in too much of an argument over the issue. I find it is generally true of those who have not viewed the series in its entirety to be dismissive of it. I will openly admit it is a feminist touchstone (indeed, a collection of scholarly essays on the show is known as Buffy the Patriarchy Slayer), but its themes regarding family, redemption, calling (and Buffy's identity as and struggle with being the Chosen One), humanity and death are not to be beat.

In the fifth season, there is a running theme on the salvific power of blood, and also the bond it insures. When Buffy asks "why does it have to be blood?", Spike replies "'Cause it's always blood...Blood is life, lackbrain." This hearkens back to an episode when Buffy tells her sister that they share blood--Summers blood, and it binds them--which is what ultimately allows Buffy to sacrifice herself to literally save the world. Blood.

Not that one should ever take The Wittenburg Door too seriously, but they did name Buffy theologian of the year.

[Hunter Baker]

Back when I was a summer law associate for the Rutherford Institute, we were all treated to a showing of Mr. Whitehead's favorite episode of The Twilight Zone. It featured a gray fascist state declaring those with humanist (in the best sense of that word) tendencies to be "obsolete" and thus sentenced to death. It has a rather delightful ending.

[Jerry]

I have to highly recommend King of the Hill. Mike Judge and crew really had something special with that one.

[Margo B]

"Mad About You" deserves a place on that list, or at least an Honorable Mention :) It was good at showing commitment in a married relationship, and not afraid to show that Paul really was crazy for Jamie.

[Tony Esolen]

Hunter,

That's the episode "The Obsolete Man," mentioned by Kathy above. One of the best moments in television is when, locked in an apartment about to be blown up, the "Nazi" sweats and stews, while the "obsolete" Burgess Meredith takes out his Bible and reads, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." And it continues that way.

[Christopher Hathaway]

Michael, please do not confuse me with some who comment without knowledge. I watched and mostly enjoyed the entire series. I found Angel to have a superior moral vision to Buffy but neither would I credit with much theological sense. Since God, and faith in him, are the warp and woof of reality one need only raise one's eyes from the dirt and gaze on the world around (something many shows, and people, manage to avoid) to wrestle with profound philosophical and religious issues. But raising one's eyes to the heavens is a step further than that. Whedon seems wholly oblivious to that reality.

[Michael]

Mr. Hathaway--

Fair enough, but as Dr. Esolen said, he is looking for shows that are not explicitly Christian but that "embody the Christian ethos." Given the centrality of the supernatural and Buffy's relationship to her calling, her peers and the world at large, I can scarcely think of a bolder vision in the last 10 years than Whedon's own.

Yes, the show has its philosophical flaws--just as Star Trek does--rooted in Whedon's own humanist-atheist world view. Unlike Roddenberry, however, whose work was expressly hostile to religion--ever notice how all the "god" characters, such as those found in "Who Mourns for Adonis?", "Day of the Dove" and "The Apple", are either manmade or completely hostile?--Whedon comes across as downright sympathetic.

I wasn't here talking about some high theological implications of the show, but then again I don't think Dr. Esolen would watch The Honeymooners with the same rigor one would dedicate to reading Aquinas.

[Tony Esolen]

Hmm... This discussion is making me reconsider whether Star Trek belongs on the list. Bump everybody up and put Andy Griffith at number 7?

[Therese Z]

I second, third and fourth the Andy Griffith Show.

Andy more than once would allow himself to be ridiculed so that someone else would learn a lesson, or find some patience. He was gentle and thoughtful when all about him were freaking out. He dated chastely and I don't mean because TV wouldn't let them make out, I mean that he honored and celebrated boundaries. He taught his son and Aunt Bee life lessons about caring for the "least of these" but did it without blaring his own horn.

That show upon re-viewing gets more marvellous in its subtext of loyalty and love and patience.

[Maclin Horton]

Well, Tony, I would not have included Star Trek, but my experience of it is fairly limited. It always struck me as basic secular-progressive stuff.

I totally concur about The Twilight Zone. It, too, was fundamentally secular-progressive, but was more grounded in fundamental truths (difference between the late '50s and the late '60s?). I wrote about it a while back, here, and I said pretty much the same thing about Serling's brand of liberalism (alas, now seldom seen).

[Patrick O]

I'll second the mention of Whedon. I too found Angel to be one of the most "Christian" shows on television, more so than Buffy. It's not true to suggest there was only mention of negative spiritual forces. All throughout there was the vague "Powers that Be" who seemed to have a plan and goals. There were also moments in which a clearly positive divine power worked miracles. It was quite clearly one of the strongest, most insightful shows about the reality of redemption and the 'already/not yet' aspect of our present condition in the face of temptations and struggles.

Whedon's Firefly was notable not only for similar kinds of themes, but also because it had an explicitly Christian minister who was himself a complex character but one full of hope and faith.

"Honeymooners is probably the best show ever made about a blue-collar Joe"
Maybe for the era. In the same vein, we might also say All in the Family was good for its era.

But, for today, I think The Middle is really a topnotch, funny, insightful show about a blue collar family. Everybody Hates Chris is also good (is it still on?), especially the earliest seasons.

[James]

A few no one has yet mentioned:

-All Creatures Great & Small
-The Prisoner
-Lost
-Merrie Melodies/Looney Tunes

[Bill R]

"The Waltons (first few seasons only)"

The Waltons had some of the most favorable presentations of the warp and woof of a deeply-felt Christian family life ever. The preachers were generally good and sympathetic characters--try to get THAT on the tube today. Strong faith ran through the influence of the mother and the grandmother, which influence even the agnostic father and skeptical grandfather were forced to acknowledge.

[Maggie]

While I also admire Joss Whedon's shows (the man's a character genius, if nothing else), I'm puzzled as to why specific themes of spirituality, providence, or even redemption should make his shows more "Christian" than others. Pagans believe in all those things, to one extent or another. His shows are _very_ spiritual - but that doesn't make them Christian, specifically. Evil forces, in these shows, are portrayed as pervasive and nearly invincible except for the last ditch efforts of rather-alone-in-the-universe humans/souled-vampires, etc. "The Powers That Be," supposedly the "good-guy" side of the spiritual coin, always seemed cold, aloof, and prone to high-tail it when the going got tough. Like the Greek gods, except less interesting. I'm not sure there was ever any real sense of an All-Powerful Good which watches out for its creation and is willing to die in its stead, which is what Christians believe. Whedon portrays an artful and interesting _Pagan_ universe, but not much beyond that.

[Ralph Smith]

Great idea for discussion. Bizarre original list and even more strange responses.

Three of your top four shows fight with guns, as do some of your honorable mentions. I'm unsure how that reflects the "Christian ethos." Honeymooners is absolutely one of the least Christian sitcoms ever--it's shocking that anyone could consider anything Christian about the weekly threats of violence and spouse abuse.

Father Knows Best absolutely should be near the top of the list, as well as Leave It to Beaver, Andy Griffith, Dick Van Dyke Show and Little House on the Prairie (all strong father programs). There is probably no stronger program with Christian themes than Little House--and if you read a Landon biography you'll discover his inner struggle between a Christian and Jewish family background.

Add Home Improvement (read up on the history of the creation of the show--neighbor Wilson is actually a representation of God) and a few seasons of Family Matters (Urkel accepts Christ in an episode).

You have to wonder about some of the responses--NCIS? Buffy? King of the Hill? Are these people serious? That says a lot about how people perceive Christianity today. Even The Simpsons is way too over-rated and not as spiritual as people have tried to make it. What's next? South Park? The Sopranos? Sex and the City?

Is there any scripted program on TV today that would make this list? There are a number of reality shows that are more Christian than any scripted program. Some reality competition programs have a variety of characters that have to make moral decisions in an attempt to stay alive in the competition. Usually some participants profess Christianity and struggle with their faith. Give these shows a chance instead of picking old science fiction programs that only have Christian themes if you stretch your imagination. It's all in the eye of the beholder.

Thanks for the discussion.

[Michael Bauman]

Mr. Smith, Christianity is not pacifist so shows that use force to overcome evil would not be automatically excluded. Of the shows on the list, Gunsmoke and Twilight Zone were clearly well crafted morality tales. That does not make them Christian.
Kung-fu was much the same. It more than any other show on the list induced me to think in terms of the divine actually making a difference in one's manner of life. But it was not Chrisitan.

Certainly I would heartedly disagree with Buffy and its off-shoots (lesbainism and a general celebration of sexual promiscuity), and any of the animated shows--scarcasm is an inherently destructive tool that denigrates those who use it as well as those at whom it is aimed. I've never watched any of them, but the promos alone are enough for me to stear clear of them. Rude, crude and offensive.

Law & Order has become specifically anti-Christian. Its 'Law' more an imposition of the character's individual moral code than anything else. They lie, cheat, steal and brutalize to get the conviction of the person they decide is guilty. It 'Order' the liberal vision of government utopia 'cause the real folk are too dumb.

Star-Trek had one virtue, it was pro-life. In Deep Space Nine, specific types of spirituality were dealt with but the main idea was the elevation of consciousness and the evolution of the human to a higher plane. I can't quite call it secular, but Christian it was not.

Horatio, the main character on CSI-Miami has a clear Christian foundation as a character and his approach is often fueled by his quest for redemption, but it is always a human redemption which is why it is never achieved no matter what. The sexual promiscuity on the show remove it from any chance of being classified as even remotely Christian.

Four shows that dealt/deal directly with God and our response to Him, via angels: Touched by an Angel, Highway to Heaven, Saving Grace which appears to be an excuse for Holly Hunter to get as nude as possible), and Drop Dead Diva (reincarnation of a sort).

At the end of every single Touched by an Angel the protaginists were always told that "God has a plan for thier lives and they had better repent and get with the program." It was pretty clear than God was some version of the Christian understanding of Him. However, no mention of Jesus Christ specifically that I recall.

Never really watched Highway to Heaven.

What makes something Chrisitan is the person of Jesus Christ, nothing else.

Main trouble with television shows is that they all feed the beast of consumption and self-agrandizement. TV is, after all, an advertising medium. Even the morality tales have to be put into the context of their sponsors don't they?

Clearly, I watch too much of it.

[Michael]

Dr. Bauman, Mr. Smith and Maggie--

Given that no specific TV show is "Christian" in nature, and recognizing that The Honeymooners certainly had questionable elements to it, I did not take this list to be a list of shows conforming to the ideal biblical archetype. If you were to do this, almost all things consumable in popular culture are immediately off the list. I would challenge anyone to find a scripted serial that would fit the narrow vision you are giving the list. Dr. Esolen's list was broad, and my thoughts reflect that.

We all acknowledge there are elements of any individual show that are questionable and sometimes even detestable. This doesn't mean that the sum whole should be discarded. Unless you are saying television should be discarded, which is certainly one fork this discussion could take. You'd have to do away with Dr. Esolen's whole list for individually distressing elements.

[laura]

I see no one mentioned Joan of Arcadia which was a specifically Christian show with Catholic theology. As the mother of girls, many of the pitfalls and joys of adolescence were dealt with in a thought provoking and careful way. The family was believable and whole. Barbara Hall, the creator and producer of the show, is a Catholic convert who doesn't shy away from her religion.

[John Flickinger]

I liked the list you put up but personally I would have Little House on the Prairie on the top 11. Little House on the Prairie not only is on moralities but on great tragedies that a classic Christian family faces. Also the director Micheal Langston was on Bonanza and himself directs all the episodes of Little House on the Prairie.