An hour of the made-in-Utah TV series that probably will never air on CBS. Ever. Because, through circumstances that remain nothing short of "eerie," events in the episode so closely resembled the real-life tragedy of the shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.
This particular installment of "Promised Land," which was originally scheduled to air just days after the tragedy, contains a story line that has a high school student plotting to kill his classmates and teachers. Adding to the weird coincidence is the fact that "Promised" was set in a Denver-area school."I've got to tell you -- I screened it again a couple of times after the Columbine tragedy, and it was eerie how close it was," said CBS Entertainment President Nancy Tellem. "If I didn't know that it had been written and produced long before Columbine, I wouldn't have believed it."
Of course, the message in the family-based "Promised Land" was an uplifting one. It plays out as an anti-violence, pro-social story that would have been a fine counterpoint to the real-life carnage.
But CBS found itself in an uncomfortable and, ultimately, untenable position. Not that network executives and the show's producers didn't try to find a way to get it on the air. CBS even enlisted the aide of the White House, and at one point had President Clinton seemingly on board to tape a message of his own that would accompany "Promised Land."
"I think it had a really positive message, and we tried to do it in an appropriate way and tried to actually involve the president," Tellem said.
But CBS executives were caught between wanting to put out that positive message and fearing that they would appear to be exploiting the Littleton tragedy for their own commercial gain.
"You don't want to be exploitative but you feel that it's really communicating a very important message. And we really attempted to figure out how we could screen this episode and have it viewed as being positive -- not something that's taking advantage of the situation," Tellem said. "Again, looking at the episode, I think it was communicating a very positive message. But the timing wasn't good, and we tried to couch it in an appropriate way. I guess it was too short of a time for it to be presented properly."
At this point, it appears unlikely that the episode will ever be seen on CBS. "I doubt it," Tellem said. "We really tried."
But the network has canceled "Promised Land" and isn't even rerunning it over the summer. Which would make pulling out this episode and putting it on the air perhaps seem even more exploitative at this point.
(The series has been sold to PAX TV, however, so at some point the episode in question may show up amid all the reruns of the show.)
As for Tellem, she remains amazed that the "Promised Land" episode came so close to what really happened in Colorado.
"It was eerie, the parallels. It was just eerie," she said.
GETTING THE AX: The fact that CBS canceled "Promised Land" had absolutely nothing to do with the school-shooting episode. As is usually the case, it had everything to do with ratings.
And the show's ratings weren't good.
"We were looking at it to see how it was growing, as we normally do with all our shows, and, unfortunately, it wasn't growing," Tellem said. "And, as much as we tried to change the emphasis -- instead of it being a Winnebago going across the country we placed it in an urban setting -- it just wasn't performing."
CBS had every reason to hope that "Promised Land" would turn into a hit, given that the network has an ownership position in the show. Tellem, in fact, was running CBS Productions when the show was developed and placed on the air. But, after the show underperformed in the ratings for three seasons, she and the other CBS programmers decided the time had come to move on.
"It was a solid show, and I think (creator/executive producer) Martha (Williamson) did a tremendous job of producing it. And she gave every show a lot of attention, as she does with 'Touched by an Angel,' " Tellem said. "But at a certain point you have to look at it realistically and you've got to say, 'Well, do you stick with something or do you try something else and hope that it has more growth.'
"This was a very tough decision. It's not easy to cancel a show, believe me. You're invested in the series, you're invested in the producers that are producing it. You're looking at what your options are. It's not something that is done lightly. And this is one decision that did not come lightly."
MORE TO COME? Even though "Promised Land" didn't turn out quite the way anyone had hoped, CBS still has confidence in Martha Williamson, the woman who made "Touched by an Angel" into one of TV's most-watched show. CBS is talking with Williamson about creating and producing another series
"Oh, absolutely. We're hopeful that she's going to develop another series for us," Tellem said. "I'm not sure it'll be this year, but she's most definitely going to develop another series for us -- next year, probably.
Whether it, like "Promised" and "Touched," will be produced in Utah remains to be seen.