March 19, 2003
Dear Concerned Citizen,

"If you want to do the supernatural, that's one thing, and I enjoy that genre, but we're trying to dramatize something that, from my vantage point, could be real. It's not some force, or energy, or the hellmouth---it's God."
   - Barbara Hall

This year Joan of Arcadia has proven it can attract a wide audience and keep their interest. It has already been renewed for a second season next fall.

Barbara Hall is the creator and co-executive producer of this new CBS drama. She has a long list of producing and writing credits for shows such as Judging Amy, Chicago Hope and Northern Exposure.

Though raised a strict Methodist, Hall went through a long period when she rejected religion, though she remained a voracious reader with a penchant for metaphysics and physics. In an article for only connect, she describes her decision to become a Catholic: “Then came the events of September 11th. Until then, I had been someone who could not choose God until I understood every aspect of Him and what He was up to. In that moment, I decided to go ahead and choose God and worry about the details later. I was relying on a philosophy that a devout Catholic had offered an agnostic friend of mine: 'Maybe what God is doing is none of your business.'”

Such frank anti-subjectivism, a refreshing change from the deeply held narcissism that grips our culture, is just one reason Joan of Arcadia is enjoying success. The point of each show is not about Joan (played by Amber Tamblyn). Instead, it is about the people Joan can help if she listens to God and to others around her. In every episode Joan must care about someone other than herself for something good to take place.

Another theme of the series is that Hall, the primary writer for the series, emphasizes reality based story lines. Joan’s father is the Chief of Police for Arcadia, California. Her mother works in the administrative office of Joan’s High School. The plot lines involve both characters, not only as Joan’s parents, but in their professional lives as well.

Did I mention that Joan’s older brother (played by Jason Ritter, the real life son of the recently deceased John Ritter) has just been paralyzed in an automobile accident? The audience soon gets the message that there are no easy answers to life’s problems.

Joan receives visits from God in the guise of various people. A sanitation worker in one scene. A small child on the swing-set in another. It is reminiscent of Joan Osborne’s 1995 hit, What If God Was One Of Us? The song works so well with the show’s premise that Hall asked Osborne to re-record it for the series’ theme song.

If you have decried the lack of TV programming reflecting positive values—well here it is! tothesource recommends that you fight the urge to criticize the series because it doesn’t explicitly articulate the exact tenets of your religious beliefs. This seems to be an impossible standard for television to meet.

Instead, be thankful writers and producers like Barbara Hall have a gift for posing good questions about matters of faith in an entertaining way.

And tune in, Fridays at 8 p.m. on CBS.

From the Supernatural to the Sacred, Hollywood Explores the Spiritual Realm

ABC's THE PRACTICE: "Sharon Stone plays a lawyer fired for claiming that God speaks to her. 'Imagine being considered insane for endeavoring to communicate with God,' Stone's character says. 'I've been so ostracized these days that only God will talk to me.'"

Showtime's JERIMIAH: Set in the future, Sean Astin plays a prophet in a post apocalyptic world where everyone died except those who had not yet reached puberty. Survivors must now live without the guidance of those who came before them.

Fox's TRU CALLING: "A young woman gets messages that direct her to save lives."

HBO's "Carnivale": Set against a Depression-era backdrop, a travelling carny disguises itself as a revivalist show. A young fugitive and a charismatic preacher share supernatural powers that set them on a collisium course through which God and Satan battle for the world's soul.

Mel Gibson's PASSION: Depicts the last 12 hours in the life of Jesus.

HBO's SIX FEET UNDER: "...the dead talk to their morticians."

WB's 7TH HEAVEN: "A minister and his family struggle weekly to do the right thing. The show became one of the most-watched dramas on the WB network, and the most popular with teens."

"We have tiny little pea brains, and God is enormous," says "Joan of Arcadia" creator Hall. "So the show is really a lot about posing theological and philosophical questions and not answering them."

Matters of theology are handled seriously, but with irony and humor. In the first episode, Joan asks God (the one listed in the credits as "Cute Boy God"): "Why are you appearing to me?" "I'm not appearing to you," he responds. "You're seeing me."

By Gail Pennington
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Joan’s extraordinary life is one of the best documented stories in pre-modern history

Born on Epiphany in 1412, Joan began to have visions of saints who gave her instruction when she was just 12 years old. Initially she was just directed to be good, and to go to church regularly but as she matured she was directed persistently to ask a relative to take her to the Royal Court with a message for the King. Her requests were ignored for years before she succeeded in gaining and audience with Charles.

When she told him, “Most illustrious lord Dauphin I have come and am sent in the name of God to bring aid to yourself and to the kingdom.” he was skeptical. She then told him details of a prayer he made in private that was so accurate he was reported to appear radiant after the disclosure. Still he insisted she be grilled by the clergy before she was finally granted authority to lead the army in many successful battles against the English. Her life came to a tragic end when she was betrayed and convicted on trumped up charges of cross- dressing by Inquisitors and ordered to be burned at the stake. The trial was later deemed illegal and she was eventually canonized as a saint in 1920.

Keeping the Faith in Tinseltown

Last spring a delegation of writers and producers of movies such as Mission Impossible, Batman Forever, and That 70’s Show represented Act One on Capital Hill. Both groups agree there is much to criticize in Hollywood, but Producer Dean Batali encouraged lawmakers to “seek out and discuss shows that are good”. Barbara Nicolosi said she wants to “challenge the Hollywood climate by encouraging writers to produce scripts that will give the audience something more than simply the ‘gritty and raw’ entertainment so commonplace today. She also urged lawmakers to “get involved by giving plugs to quality, responsible television shows and movies-praise she believes would go a long way in inspiring writers and producers to generate more of the same.”

Act One offers intensive writing workshops and mentorships. "The grand goal", says Associate director Zena Dell Schroeder, " is to simply affect culture in a positive way."

"What made you want to do the show?" An Interview with Barbara Hall

My longtime interest in Joan of Arc is really the jumping-off point, but I've always been interested in metaphysics and physics. I wanted to create a show in which I use the fact that I spend all my free time reading about this stuff. I thought, "Wouldn't it be great if that were just homework, research?"

From there it grew into this show about a family recovering from a tragedy and how it affects their spiritual lives, and this girl who is a modern day Joan of Arc, who hears from God in a time when that's the most unacceptable thing, when it can be used in court as evidence of insanity. I wanted to update that dilemma.”

'God's Available To All of Us'
beliefnet.com