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TV Today 47
to everyday people. Sunday morning services are fine, say
the Franciscans, but religion happens twenty-four hours a
day. Franciscan scripts look like this:
Script No. 1
Scene: Cocktail party.
Situation: Host suggests playing a game of
“Word Association.”
HOST: Money.
GUESTS: Bills. Evil. Las Vegas.
HOST: Freeway.
GUESTS: Death. Ticket. Hurry.
HOST: God.
GUESTS: Dead silence. Stares.
As Time magazine points out: No one knows what to say
about God anymore. Let’s re-think Him.
Script No. 2
Scene: Close-up of Black hand shaking White hand.
The hands hold.
VOICE-OVER:
All things considered, that’s not very much is it?
Typical of their soft psyching, St. Francis Productions cool
their Catholic viewpoint. They ecumenically emphasize the
brotherhood of man and the unity of Christianity rather
than Christian sectarianism.
Pope John XXIII would approve of the interchange abil-
ity of Catholic and Episcopal commercials.
One Episcopal plug dramatizes a middle-aged, middle-
class, middle-western, mid-American flipping TV channels
