Tocados por un ángel

Cloying, sentimental, manipulative and possibly the most beautiful show on TV.

When I was young I watched all kinds of TV. Then, at 29, I had a conversion to Christianity and stopped watching TV in 1990. I had other things to do, like mix with real people and study so I knew everything about my newfound faith. Not hard, since my background was in journalism and history. I loved doing research (genuine research, not "Lieutenant Colonel" stuff) and still do.

I was up on angelology when this program started and I feared it was giving people a wrong-headed notion about angels. I was right and I was wrong.

After the turn of the century I caught up with a lot of programs I missed and I found this lovely TV show.

Manipulative? Sure. But every novel, movie and TV show ever has been manipulative. "The Man From UNCLE" is manipulative. So are newspapers, NPR and other talk radio, PBS and the News Hour. So what? We live in a society eager to twist our emotions. At he worst, too many Americans vote with our hearts rather than our heads.

The wider trouble with "Touched by an Angel" is that whoever writes and produces and directs it takes for granted a lot of "common knowledge" (historical and otherwise) and as a student of history and in history, as well as doing research in journalism, I've found lots of common knowledge is incorrect.

"Touched" also tackles social issues but generally with a leftist slant (this is not being pedantic it's simply true). And while tackling POPULAR social issues it avoided others, like the largest under-reported crime in America, spousal abuse against husbands. With insufficient research presenting history pocked with holes, or presented with what's accepted rather than with fact, it's the same as lying.

For instance, in one episode the show revisits Orson Welles' famous "War of the Worlds" broadcast and the ensuing panic. Except, some modern researchers have found little evidence to support any widespread panic and suggest it was Orson Welles' PR. That's not my field but I understand PR and its minions and I'd like to have seen a little research done for the show from more recent sources, and perhaps a new take on it if it's justified. But one thing "Touched" was short on was new takes. Its mendacity is appalling.

But IT'S FICTION, for God's sake. That was a lesson I had to learn. Fiction, by definition, is untrue. And I've seen more mendacious and anti-historical rubbish in great novels. Was Captain Ahab real? Pierre and Natasha? Raskolnikov? Yet, as we may learn from the mendacious lies of great fiction, we can learn a lot from "Touched" if we open our minds and hearts. And though my mind is open (or I'd never have had a Conversion) my heart is occasionally a tad myopic.

It's welcome to have at least one show on the air (in 24/7 network TV of the time) that says God is real. You can accept or reject that premise as we may accept or reject novels and movies, the news, or the nonsense talked by politicians of any stripe.

My lesson is that "Touched" isn't about angelology or history or theology or even current events, which never stay current long. It uses stories, the way Christ did, to reach higher truths.

Not only is my background in journalism and history I also write fiction so I should have been clued in. But I was disdainful of TV when this show originally aired and it was on TV so . . . QED.

I was wrong. This show is great even if I don't always agree with it (whom do I always agree with? No one.) Thank you, Monica. You've helped a lot of people, on the show and in real life. Any program that helps heal the broken is all right by me. I was broken, too. And still am. In my sixties I'm still a work in progress. But I'm glad, as Carol Burnett used to say, we had this time together.

While the show has a certain degree of humor from episode to episode, the producers made the show meaningful to the problems of today's world, with each episode addressing a different and difficult topic in life's journey - ranging from gang problems to drugs to cancer to war to racism, with all giving proof in the end that God's intervention and love is always at hand for those who ask for it. Well-known American Jazz singer and actor Della Reese is well-suited in the role of Supervisory Angel Tess, while Irish-born actor Roma Downey stars in her role as Angelic case worker Monica, who is often given a helping hand from Andrew, The Angel of Death, played consistently well by American actor John Dye.

In the tradition of Highway To Heaven the Creator/Deity has a trio of angels sent down to earth to give a little comfort and cheer to folks down on their luck. I guess with the death of Michael Landon somebody decided to take up the slack and create a show along the same lines which ran for 8 years.

Using phrases like young and old seem meaningless when you're talking about eternity, but in relative terms old and wise angel Della Reese serves as friend and mentor to Roma Downey a fairly new angel on the job. When someone is about to enter eternity John Dye who is an angel of death is called in as well.

The stories ran just about like Highway To Heaven stories did. A possibly more liberal bent to them. I recall one episode where the angels comfort a man afflicted with AIDS. A disease purportedly restricted to gays and drug addicts. You'd have never seen that on the Landon show.

Of course Della Reese sang in several episodes. Those were a special treat. It's doing well in circulation and may it continue to do so.

Touched by an Angel still ranks as one of my very favorite shows. Sure, it was a little cheesy and syrupy at times, but you knew that going in, and you watched it for the message it delivered.

But I can sum up the impact it had on me, and could have on you, in one sentence:

"It's the only TV show that regularly made me cry."

It was so good, it spawned another superb show called "Promised Land."

If you've not seen it before, then make a point to catch it re-runs. You won't regret it.

I resisted watching this show for the first few years: too syrupy, too Christian (I'm Jewish), but once I got started (season 3) I was hooked. Yeah, it's predictable, manipulative, extremely Christian(even on the episodes which feature Jewish characters!), but I love it. I can't wait for Monica to glow and say, in that delightful brogue: God loves you so much! However, I think the show 'jumped the shark' when it introduced Valerie Bertinelli as 'Gloria'. She is totally annoying, and unnecessary to the stories. I might have liked her as a guest angel, but enough of her already. As far as the Jewish thing, I'm no expert, but I think that angels sent from God to Jews would not say 'God loves you'. Our relation to God is different than that. Maybe 'God knows you are trying your best' would be more appropriate. Still, I love this show, and now that it's been cancelled, I can't wait for the full set on DVD.