Religious TV Needs Network Inspiration

I read with fascination Rick Du Brow’s column, “Restoring Faith in the New TV Pulpit” (Feb. 8). I wrote for the final two years of its existence for “This Is the Life,” the longest-running (35 years) syndicated TV show.

The reason the show is no longer in production is a simple money matter. The “electronic church” (TV evangelists) was able to pay for the time that for many years had been donated by the networks to more mainstream religious programs.

As anyone knows, the cost of producing a show is very high, especially one that honors all the guild pay scales. To add the cost of buying network time made this show impossible to continue. Although they tried to raise the money in legitimate ways through the least offensive kind of commercials, this didn’t produce enough revenue to continue.

Perhaps, as Du Brow has observed, we are so hungry for honest inspiration that the networks might consider the spiritual blight caused by the absence of such shows and cough up a meager half hour at 7 a.m. on Sunday morning once again.

Reading the Du Brow column made me hope again that television could be persuaded to be the gift it was originally envisioned to be: a powerful means of inspiring, teaching and delighting people, and not just a way for a few to get rich while plundering the souls of millions.

SUSAN STEWART POTTER

Santa Barbara