CBS is putting enough faith in its family drama “Promised Land” to air an original episode on Thanksgiving night, traditionally an evening when people are too stuffed and lethargic to concentrate on anything more than a football game or reruns.
In recent weeks the series has earned some network faith, even if it isn’t the most compelling drama on the air. Airing at 7 p.m. Thursdays on WBBM-Ch. 2, “Promised Land” is a spinoff of the hugely popular “Touched by an Angel,” and like that show, “Promised” boldly embraces the spirituality and wholesomeness that has made “Touched” a success.
Despite weak ratings when it aired on Tuesdays last season, “Promised Land” got a surprise second-season renewal from CBS. It is holding its own on Thursdays as a solid No. 2 in its hourlong time period, which is routinely won by “Friends” and “Union Square” on NBC. Overall, “Promised” ranked a respectable 32nd out of 119 shows for the week of Nov. 10.
Thursday’s episode finds the Greene family of Russell and Claire (Gerald McRaney, Wendy Phillips), their two kids (Austin O’Brien, Sarah Schaub), Russell’s nephew (Eddie Karr) and mother (Celeste Holm) making a stop during the Thanksgiving holiday to visit Claire’s sister and brother-in-law, Laura and Steve Dunbar (guest stars Kate McNeil and Michael Reilly Burke).
The Dunbars fit the profile of the people the Greenes encounter while traveling around the country seeking all that is good in America. However, the couple’s marriage is in serious disrepair because of their desperate attempts to have a child. Claire unwittingly complicates matters because she herself is unexpectedly expecting.
“It’s going to be the best Thanksgiving ever,” Laura says before hearing her sister’s news, and whenever a phrase like that is uttered, you know that won’t be the case. Laura is emotionally and physically shaken over her sister’s pregnancy, which creates a rift between the two families.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Greenes volunteer at a boys’ shelter in town, which is in danger of closing, partly because some vandalism at the mall that Steve is building is blamed on shelter kids.
The episode has “the same theme that all of our shows are ultimately about, which is the family,” says McRaney, 50, who has previously been in the series “Simon & Simon” and “Major Dad.”
“Ultimately, at the end of every episode, that’s what the message has been, one way or another,” he says, “and how everybody — direct family, indirect family, community — are all connected.”
Big surprise — everything turns out all right in the end. The episode is predictable, the acting serviceable but not spectacular, and the writing pedestrian and at times so saccharine you feel a trip to the dentist coming on.
“Different times in your life, you’re going to belong in different places,” Russell says to his nephew, Nathaniel. “One of these days you’re going to grow up and you’ll move on, but for right now, you make our family complete.”
It’s not as challenging as “Law & Order” or “Nothing Sacred,” but “Promised Land” is enticing to a segment of the audience that, McRaney believes, is tired of a perceived negativity that some of television conveys.
“I think as much as anything else, there’s an audience of people out there who have had so much of, in a way, cynicism on television, that they’re just ready for a dose of optimism,” he says.
McRaney agrees that “Promised Land” espouses religion and a faith in God, beliefs which he as a Christian “happens to share.” What he won’t agree with is how the show should be dismissed simply because it puts its spirituality on display each week.
“There’s some pretty fair writing that goes on here, and some decent production values that go into it.” McRaney says. “So just theatrically I was drawn to this project. It’s a matter of coincidence (that I) share some of the core beliefs that the show’s expressed.”
– Where’s the remote: It was somewhat of a surprise when ABC left “Grace Under Fire” off its fall schedule. “Grace” is a dependable family comedy with a little more bite than the usual parent-with-kids fare, thanks largely to series star/standup comic Brett Butler. Originally penciled as a midseason replacement, it returns to the lineup early, at 7 p.m. Tuesday on WLS-Ch. 7, to fill the vacancy created by the failed sitcom “Over the Top.”
– Khandi Alexander, who deserved to shine more than she did on the wickedly funny “NewsRadio,” bids farewell to the NBC comedy at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday (WMAQ-Ch. 5), as her character Catherine Duke abruptly quits the station for another job. (It had been reported that Alexander, who also has a recurring role on “ER,” clashed with producers of the series.)
– Program note: ABC, which pulled its Tuesday comedy “Hiller and Diller” for the November sweeps, is airing a fresh episode of that series at 8:30 p.m. Thursday on WLS-Ch. 7. Whether that’s a sign of faith, or merely an attempt to bury a once-promising series that has fallen on hard ratings times, is hard to determine.
