CNS STORY: Crime sped up 'Joan of Arcadia' creator's move to join church

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CNS Story:

HALL Mar-17-2005 (770 words) With photo. xxxn

Crime sped up 'Joan of Arcadia' creator's move to join church

By Mark Pattison
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Some people who consider joining the Catholic Church move at the pace that best suits them. For Barbara Hall, creator and executive producer of "Joan of Arcadia," however, it was crime that helped speed up the process.

"I had this life-threatening experience. I was a victim of a violent crime," Hall told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview from Los Angeles, where she was wrapping up the last episode of the second season of "Joan of Arcadia."

Raised a Methodist, "I was 'nothing' for a long time. I was an intellectual in college," Hall recalled, "And then when I came to California, I started researching all kinds of metaphysical stuff, and all the world religions."

Before the crime incident, which she did not elaborate on, Hall said she was already considering Catholicism, but the crime "accelerated my search. I found a church nearby and I went to a Mass, and that did it for me."

Hall has been a Catholic for about four years. She told CNS she had been developing the idea for "Joan of Arcadia" even before she joined the church. She said she "actually got started about three years before."

While many would be surprised to hear that it was crime that spurred Hall's decision to join the Catholic Church, "I think people would be aghast if they found out that 'Joan' might not be back next season," she noted.

The series, which deals with Joan of Arc-like visions of God -- but with a present-day teenage girl -- is completing its second season, but it may not return for a third. "People who see it love it and think it's doing well, but they don't know the whole story," Hall said.

"Joan of Arcadia," which airs 8-9 p.m. Eastern time Fridays on CBS, ranks 71st of 180 series that have been placed in more or less permanent time slots this season on the six commercial broadcast networks, with 8.11 million on average tuning in each week. "This is good enough for Friday nights," which are second only to Saturdays as the least-watched night of prime-time TV, Hall said.

"JAG," a CBS warhorse now in its 10th season, which follows "Joan of Arcadia," is 51st overall in the ratings. "Networks tend to think in terms of nights, and not in terms of (individual) shows," Hall told CNS, adding that CBS has eight to 10 new dramas in development for the 2005-06 season.

There is no guarantee that one of them -- or all of them -- would make the fall schedule, but if CBS believes it has developed a strong string of new dramas, a series like "Joan of Arcadia" could find itself on the outs after only two seasons, Hall said.

Still, "I don't fidget. If I had any fidgeting, it would have been in the middle of the season when I tried to get the (ratings) numbers up," she added. "I have a Catholic attitude about it. I've done my job. There's nothing I can do anymore. I've done my best."

Last year when she was honored by Catholics in Media Associates for the show, Hall said she felt compelled to create it to "initiate a conversation with the rest of the country or the world to begin a dialogue about the possibility of God. This is a show also for the alienated, the disenfranchised, the hopeful but doubting public."

"Joan of Arcadia" heaps much attention on Amber Tamblyn, who plays the title character; she is the daughter of Hollywood actor Russ Tamblyn. But the actor who portrays Joan's brother, Kevin, is Jason Ritter, son of John Ritter, who died in 2003 following rehearsals for an episode of his own series, "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter."

"It was very difficult" on the "Joan of Arcadia" set in the wake of the elder Ritter's death, Hall said. "Ironically, it happened as we were doing our show about death. ... It was very unsettling for us.

"But I think he found it was helpful, in a weird way. It was a tough time in an otherwise weird situation, to lose his father before John got a chance to see the show."

When she's not producing "Joan of Arcadia," Hall has an alternative-country band, the Enablers, for which she plays guitar and sings. A couple of Enablers' songs have served as background music for "Joan" episodes, and the band is preparing its third album release this year, in addition to engagements at clubs in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

END

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