NBC has officially closed The Book of Daniel, and creator Jack Kenny sees it as a potentially dangerous sign for the state of American television.

“I think it's a confluence of occurrences that points to a bad direction for entertainment in this country,” Kenny says, on the phone from his Los Angeles home just a few days after the controversial show's cancellation. The axe formally came down Jan. 23, but Kenny remains charming, friendly and upbeat.

“I think pretty soon we're all going to have to be sitting in a room with these bigots and have to get their approval before a network will sign on to do anything,” he says.

“Imagine if the AFA had been as powerful and felt as empowered in 1970. Would we ever have seen All in the Family or M*A*S*H or Mary Tyler Moore or Hill Street Blues? Any of those shows.”

The Book of Daniel was one of the mid-season's most buzzed-about new programs and drew loud protests from the American Family Association, who launched attacks without even seeing a single episode.

Homosexuality, drug addiction and open marriages were brought to light in only the first two episodes. But at its heart, The Book of Daniel was a heartfelt, intelligent portrait of a family's struggles with faith, forgiveness and redemption.

Kenny says the show's central themes, but not necessarily its specifics, were inspired by the family of his life partner, Michael. The pair has been together for 24 years. Kenny says he was moved by the family's love for each other, their unconditional support no matter what's going on in their lives.”

The talented scribe, who also worked on the shows Titus, Wanda at Large and Caroline in the City, is convinced that the AFA's opposition to the show stemmed from a much more palpable place than they'd like followers to believe.

“This wasn't about the almighty Jesus. It was about the almighty dollar,” Kenny says. “The AFA doesn't make money by endorsing programs. Nobody sends the AFA a donation when they say, ‘Hey, this is a good show that depicts an interesting version of Christianity and man's relationship with Jesus. Take a look.' The AFA only makes money when they say, ‘We're being attacked! Send us money to fend them off!' That's what they did. If you look on their website, right next to the button where it says, ‘(Contact Us),' it says, ‘(Donate).'”

Despite such a swift stop to his show, Kenny feels NBC did the best they could against insurmountable odds.

“I feel badly for NBC because they were put in an untenable position. They were behind me 100-percent the whole way. They believed in the show. They believed in its message,” Kenny says. “They believed in my vision of the way I wanted to do it, and yet they were being cornered by advertisers, who were being cornered by emails. Advertisers don't want emails of any kind. The more emails they get--on either side of the issue--the more they want to run from it.”

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