Touched by an Angel

In the tradition of Highway To Heaven the Creator/Deity has a trio of angels sent down to earth to give a little comfort and cheer to folks down on their luck. I guess with the death of Michael Landon somebody decided to take up the slack and create a show along the same lines which ran for 8 years.

Using phrases like young and old seem meaningless when you're talking about eternity, but in relative terms old and wise angel Della Reese serves as friend and mentor to Roma Downey a fairly new angel on the job. When someone is about to enter eternity John Dye who is an angel of death is called in as well.

The stories ran just about like Highway To Heaven stories did. A possibly more liberal bent to them. I recall one episode where the angels comfort a man afflicted with AIDS. A disease purportedly restricted to gays and drug addicts. You'd have never seen that on the Landon show.

Of course Della Reese sang in several episodes. Those were a special treat. It's doing well in circulation and may it continue to do so.

While the show has a certain degree of humor from episode to episode, the producers made the show meaningful to the problems of today's world, with each episode addressing a different and difficult topic in life's journey - ranging from gang problems to drugs to cancer to war to racism, with all giving proof in the end that God's intervention and love is always at hand for those who ask for it. Well-known American Jazz singer and actor Della Reese is well-suited in the role of Supervisory Angel Tess, while Irish-born actor Roma Downey stars in her role as Angelic case worker Monica, who is often given a helping hand from Andrew, The Angel of Death, played consistently well by American actor John Dye.

I resisted watching this show for the first few years: too syrupy, too Christian (I'm Jewish), but once I got started (season 3) I was hooked. Yeah, it's predictable, manipulative, extremely Christian(even on the episodes which feature Jewish characters!), but I love it. I can't wait for Monica to glow and say, in that delightful brogue: God loves you so much! However, I think the show 'jumped the shark' when it introduced Valerie Bertinelli as 'Gloria'. She is totally annoying, and unnecessary to the stories. I might have liked her as a guest angel, but enough of her already. As far as the Jewish thing, I'm no expert, but I think that angels sent from God to Jews would not say 'God loves you'. Our relation to God is different than that. Maybe 'God knows you are trying your best' would be more appropriate. Still, I love this show, and now that it's been cancelled, I can't wait for the full set on DVD.

Touched by an Angel still ranks as one of my very favorite shows. Sure, it was a little cheesy and syrupy at times, but you knew that going in, and you watched it for the message it delivered.

But I can sum up the impact it had on me, and could have on you, in one sentence:

"It's the only TV show that regularly made me cry."

It was so good, it spawned another superb show called "Promised Land."

If you've not seen it before, then make a point to catch it re-runs. You won't regret it.

This was a great show. I have known of several people that have changed some of their bad ways and have re-joined the Church. It shouldn't take a TV show to turn people around but if that is what it takes then it is good. Some of the shows story lines were less desirable, but the final message always came through loud and clear. God loves us all. It always made me feel good. Sorry it had to go off the air, but at least we can still enjoy the story and the great message it brought.