A Producer

For the past few years or so, I've harbored two ideas for new television shows. Both play to my own interests, but might hopefully have some contact with a larger audience.

Hard to say.

Both are simple concepts (sort of). The first focuses on Jesus, but neither the Christmas "baby version" nor the fully grown prophetic model of the gospels. Rather, it seeks to fill in the "in-between" time...you guessed it---Jesus' teenage years. The way I see things, it would be a great option for the WB Network to pick up. It could be called "Nazareth" and follow the same model as so many other coming-of-age teen dramas.

In the show Jesus would know that he was special, understand his calling, but not yet understand completely that He was God. In addition to being occasionally funny, it would be a unique and humanizing look at the Messiah who, for all our devotion, still often seems far too distant from us.

Both the show and that last sentence will keep the theologians tied up for some time.

The other concept isn't as fraught with biblical peril, but is interesting. It would draw on an important human emotion--regret--and ask the question "What would happen if you could change the past?" In the style of "Law and Order" or "The Twilight Zone" each week would feature a new episode set in a universe where a person could choose--at any point in their life--to change one (and only one) mistake from the past.

Some would waste their chance far too soon. Others would save it up until the end and not get to use it at all. Others? Well, you'd just have to watch the show to find out.

So these are my ideas. Both ask questions of humanity. One wonders what a human being would be like if they were God. The other broaches the topic of whether humans should have occasional godlike powers and what their use of those powers would look like.

Something to think about, at least.