In the Beginning

Painfully unfunny "religious" comedy pitting stuffed shirt conservative dopey dad, er, minister against liberal minded daughter, er, nun. McLean Stevenson had a brief run in this before being stuck in the hell that was "Hello Larry" for what seemed like forever. Network execs (CBS)actually had high hopes for "In the Beginning" before it aired. Priscilla Lopez was a Tony award winner on Broadway and McLean Stevenson was still only recently removed from his success on "M*A*S*H." Ironically as bad as it was this show was quickly axed while the arguably worse "Hello Larry" ran forever because network execs cheerfully admitted that as bad as it was they didn't have anything any better to run. For a network (NBC) whose flagship show at the time was "Diffrent Strokes" this was undoubtedly true.

McLean Stevenson took a leap of faith with this brilliant comedy that took humor and plugged it into a morality tale dealing lightly with religion and social justice. Humor is the best way to make a point and In The Beginning does just that saying again in a breezy way that we are all responsible for how we relate to each other. Why can't the streaming services make these old shows available?