ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 4, 1997 TAG: 9703040038
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE DUFFY KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
It wasn't divine intervention that moved ``Touched by an Angel'' to Sunday nights this season.
It was Les Moonves, the president of CBS Entertainment. And now the network's top program executive is counting his schedule-bingo blessings.
Three years after a low-key arrival amid negative reviews and predictions of an early cancellation, ``Touched by an Angel'' has become a heavenly hit for CBS. It ranks No. 10 among all shows this season and is the second-highest-rated drama series behind NBC's medical powerhouse ``ER.''
``I think people want feel-good shows,'' Moonves says. ``I think people want to believe in religion. I think they want to believe in the goodness of their fellow man.
``All those corny things people don't like to say in public, I think they're embracing.''
At the very least, ``Touched by an Angel'' has been embraced by millions of TV viewers who respond favorably to the show's family-friendly entertainment values. This isn't the first time this type of celestial chord has been struck.
A decade ago, the late Michael Landon was cruising along in ``Highway to Heaven,'' a popular NBC series in which he portrayed a probationary angel named Jonathan Smith. Jonathan was sent to Earth on a mission of heavenly mercy to sprinkle a little love and understanding into the troubled lives of everyday people.
Sounds familiar. And ``Touched by an Angel,'' like ``Highway to Heaven,'' offers a sweet-natured mix of spiritual optimism and human tales of everyday hardship and redemption.
Only this time the angelic missionaries travel in groups.
Monica (Roma Downey, ``A Woman Named Jackie''), transformed into human form and given an assignment on Earth, offers inspiration to people at anxiety-filled crossroads in their lives. She reports to Tess (Della Reese), a wise, experienced supervising angel.
This season, Monica and Tess have been joined by Andrew (John Dye, ``Tour of Duty''), a special agent from heaven who also serves as the angel of death.
``We always had faith in the show,'' says Martha Williamson, executive producer of ``Touched by an Angel.'' ``We always knew we had a good show. We read the letters that we received from people who were watching the show and realized we weren't getting letters that said, `Gee, Roma's really cute.'
``We were getting the letters that said, `Gee, what Monica said changed my life.' ''
Last year, ``Touched by an Angel'' evolved into a sleeper success on Saturday nights following ``Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.'' And Moonves sensed that the same older, ``60 Minutes''-watching audience that loved Angela Lansbury's ``Murder, She Wrote'' on Sunday nights for a decade also would adore ``Touched by an Angel.''
And that's exactly what happened.
``Touched'' is the top-rated show at 8 p.m. ET Sundays, and its audience has expanded way beyond its original devoted following. ``What's really gratifying,'' says Williamson, ``is having people who had not discovered the show before, the people who were out partying on Saturday night, saying: `Wow! I never knew! I never saw that show before. It's great.' ''
CBS had enough confidence in the show's long-range potential that Moonves commissioned Williamson to create a spin-off, ``Promised Land,'' (8 p.m. ET Tuesdays) starring Gerald McRaney. And slowly, that first-year series is also being discovered by the family audience and others who might not warm up to harder-edged dramas such as ``NYPD Blue'' and ``The X-Files.''
``The amount of mail we get on `Touched by an Angel' and `Promised Land' is more than all the rest of our schedule combined,'' Moonves says. ``And it's 99 percent positive.
``So there's something happening out there. And we're glad we're in the center of it.''
Williamson says a big reason for the series' expanding appeal is its old-fashioned virtues: Goodness matters, honesty is the best policy, love heals. That sort of positive message often reverberates in odd places, the producer says. Even prison.
Williamson cites one letter she received from a prison inmate who wrote, ``Every Sunday night, the whole cell block goes dead quiet watching `Touched by an Angel.'
``You can say, `Yeah, sure, a bunch of guys in prison are sitting around watching `Touched by an Angel,' '' Williamson says. ``But it's not lurid at all. It's very deeply touching. What this man said was, `It's the only time all week long that I ever hear the words, `I love you.' ''
Snarky cynicism is chic in much of the modern world, where the rude attitudes of everyone from Beavis and Butt-head to Dennis Rodman are basking in endless media attention.
But Downey, Williamson and Reese firmly believe their show has connected with viewers on a special celestial and emotional level.
``We're aware of the power of the show,'' Downey says. ``The sum is greater than the parts. Della has a great expression. She always says, `It's a God thing.' We're a show on prime time, and we're not afraid to mention God. And we're not afraid to tell the world that God loves you.''
Les Moonves and CBS will offer an amen to all that.
When it comes to ``Touched by an Angel,'' they're true believers.
LENGTH: Medium: 96 linesby CNB