Brent Bozell on ABC's GCB

At NewsBusters:

Anyone wasting a whole hour waiting for one good character would place their hopes on widowed Amanda, played by the actress Leslie Bibb. For most of the show, she’s renouncing how badly she behaved in high school and wants a job to pay for her own house. But when she can’t find a job, we get a ridiculous 180-degree turn. She starts working at a Hooters-aping restaurant called “Boobylicious,” which she discovers is owned by Chenoweth’s husband.

This badly contrived plot sets up the final battle of the GCBs. When Chenoweth protests “we live in a righteous community,” Bibb’s character rips up Dallas. “Fun fact. Dallas has more churches per capita than anywhere on earth. Also, Dallas has more strip clubs per capita than anywhere on earth. Two plus two equals a double standard.”

Ignore whether the “fun fact” is true – multiple cities claim to have the most churches per capita. Also, Portland claims the title of most strip clubs. This line neatly summarizes ABC’s take on churchy Christians. Anywhere they gather in great numbers, their badly hidden sins and perversions naturally trail closely behind. Christians, the audience at home should believe, are nothing but phonies. No other faith in America gets lined up for this kind of bashing.

As anyone could have predicted, ABC is clearly pitching “GCB” as a replacement for the dying soap “Desperate Housewives,” merely adding the Texas Christian angle to make the plots extra-scandalous. Hollywood seems to think everyone is a selfish and cynical hypocrite. But not everyone lives in a gaudy piranha bowl like they do in Tinseltown.

Too bad. I’m a big fan of Chenoweth, especially in the late, lamented “Pushing Daisies.”