Tonight's episode of "Touched by an Angel" opens with a scene almost no one would have expected when the show premiered on Sept. 21, 1994.
The angels - Monica (Roma Downey), Tess (Della Reese) and Andrew (John Dye) - are gathered for a celebration, complete with cake and candles. The fictional occasion? Monica's 100th case as a case-worker angel.The real occasion? "Touched by an Angel's" 100th episode.
It's quite a landmark for any show. And a huge milestone for a show that started with weak ratings, generally weak reviews and pundits predicting it would never survive its first season.
Four years ago, you couldn't find much of anybody inside the television industry who would have bet that "Touched" would ever make it this far. Well, not much of anybody outside of the show itself.
"We had faith," Downey said simply in a recent interview with TV critics.
By all rights, "Touched by an Angel" should never have made it to a second season. But four years ago CBS was having all sorts of ratings problems on all sorts of nights with all sorts of shows.
"Touched by an Angel" was a problem, frankly, but it wasn't as big a problem as a lot of other shows on the network's schedule. And CBS programmers knew it would be total suicide to cancel their entire lineup and start from scratch.
So "Touched" got a second chance. A move from Wednesday nights to Saturday nights helped, making the show a time-slot winner. And a move to Sundays in the fourth season made it a top-10 hit.
"Two years ago, `Touched by an Angel' really hit. It had been on for two years and nobody was really paying attention to it - except for that core audience, who kept coming back and coming back," said executive producer Martha Williamson. "But then the word got out that this is a safe place to watch a show with your family."
Indeed, there are a lot of "Touched by an Angel" fans who truly are fanatical about the show. It's not just a viewing experience for them, it's a spiritual experience.
"You're talking to an audience that either believes what you believe or wants desperately to believe what you believe," Wil-liam-son said.
And, make no mistake about it, Williamson and her writing team do believe.
"I have read some scripts and seen some pilots where people were trying to copy `Touched by an Angel' but they didn't believe it," she said. "And I really do believe in God. I really do believe he loves us. I really do believe he wants to be part of our lives.
"That's what makes it easier to write."
She admits, however, that when she was first approached with the idea of "Touched by an Angel" she was less than enthusiastic. (The original pilot, from creator John Masius, was a very different show that the network rejected.)
"When CBS came to me and said, `Will you write an angel show?' I kind of rolled my eyes and groaned," Williamson said. "And what happened to me is that when I started working on the show, even though I considered myself to be a Christian, to be a very spiritual person and I went to church - but once you start talking about God and writing about God you have to deal with God."
The executive producer shies away from the idea that "Touched" is a religious show, however, preferring to describe it as a "spiritual" show. It does not, after all, promote any specific religion or denomination.
"I don't think denominationalism has a place on `Touched by an Angel' because this is a show that is what I would call seed-planting," Williamson said. "You plant the seed for a person that God exists, and if God is who he says he is, he is totally capable of taking you to the level he wants you to go. And it's up to you to say, `OK, take me.'
"But the first and foremost responsibility of `Touched by an Angel' is to entertain."
There's a certain corniness factor to the show, but no one can deny its uplifting nature. And it does address some of the more unpleasant facets of life, from intolerance to homelessness to disease to death.
The 100th episode itself turns tragic circumstances to triumph. The show (tonight at 7 on Ch. 2) finds Monica, Tess and Andrew coming to the aid of a young boy who's dying of cystic fibrosis and finding a way to comfort his mother, played by guest star Wynonna, of country-music fame.
Wynonna, of course, sings - as does fellow guest star Celine Dion, who appears as herself. And the episode is timed to coincide with the release of the "Touched by an Angel" soundtrack album.
"One of the biggest requests we get is people requesting music from the show," Williamson said.
And she's confident that fans will keep making requests and sticking with the show for some time to come. Not only that, but Williamson is confident "Touched" can continue to widen its audience.
"It took some people a year. It took some people two or three years. But sooner or later, we're going to get them all," she said.