Critics Didn’t Need to Be Prophets to Know ‘Daniel’ Was Doomed

Notes and quotes from Lalaland:

No Miracles for Daniel: NBC’s decision to prematurely close the controversial “Book of Daniel” was foretold days before the official announcement came from above.

NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly conceded the end was near Sunday at a party in Pasadena, Calif. When I suggested the very people most likely to be interested in the show about an Episcopal priest and his problem family were probably the most repelled by it, Reilly said he thought I was probably right.

I initially labeled the series “7th Heaven on Acid.” Stephen Collins, who plays the minister on “7th Heaven,” told me that he was a fan of “Daniel.”

Unfortunately, there weren’t many others out there like him. And last week’s low-rated episode had such a startling lack of advertisers that you knew NBC was taking a bath on the show. That’s why it was washed off the schedule.

*Dr. McDreamy’s Airplane Adventure: When the cast of “Grey’s Anatomy” was asked if they’ve ever been mistaken for real doctors, Patrick Dempsey, a k a Dr. McDreamy, stepped up with an airplane emergency just before take-off. When someone asked “is there a doctor on board?” Dempsey said all passengers looked at him.

“Seriously, I was like debating whether or not I should get up,” said Dempsey. “I’m like, ‘well, should I just go and look and see what’s going on?’ Then I just sat back and said, ‘I’m a neurosurgeon . . . I don’t do emergencies.’ “

“And it was a seizure and I could have probably handled that case,” he jokingly added. “I’m sad I didn’t stand up.”

*Call Emily the $10 Million Woman: ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson was candid when asked why the network pulled the Heather Graham series, “Emily’s Reasons Why Not,” after one low- rated episode despite running a multimillion dollar promotional campaign. McPherson said the millions were spent before the network saw a script and realized the show wasn’t very good and was not getting better.

On the other hand, he isn’t ready to say goodbye to John Stamos’ series, “Jake in Progress,” which also was pulled after one episode after flopping last spring. McPherson says he believes in the show and that it expanded its appeal. He’d like to find a third spot for it.

*Signs of Trouble: In hindsight, there were signs in Pasadena that WB and UPN were going to be shuttered and a new network combining them, the CW, would be created this fall. UPN had only one session featuring a new midseason show and it was a reality series.

WB’s panels were focused on four shows that critics previewed last summer, including Tom Fontana’s “The Bedford Diaries,” about college students taking a controversial sexual education course. The presidents of both broadcast networks also didn’t have much to say about future programs, perhaps because they knew the future was going to be very different.

It is unclear what the new network from CBS (which owns UPN) and Time Warner (which owns the WB) will look like, whether series like the WB’s “Everwood,”"One Tree Hill” and “Related” and UPN’s comedy block will survive and whether the spring series will even get a chance to succeed in this climate. Fontana’s show does at least have one thing going for it — it is trying to appeal to a younger, college-aged audience that the new network is trying to attract.

*Sick Call: Critics would have liked to have seen a note from Paula Abdul’s doctor after she bailed out of a press session for “American Idol” with a supposed eye problem. But no one questioned Jason Lee’s absence from a panel for “My Name is Earl” because he caught the chicken pox. At his age, that was too creative of an excuse to question.

*Raining Quotes: The star of a panel for NBC’s “The Office” was Rainn Wilson, who plays the goofy Dwight on the series. Asked if Dwight was supposed to be the smartest or dumbest man in the room, Wilson replied: “Well, this is all a big set-up for the spinoff, ‘My Name is Dwight.’”

“Well, Dwight was born to be No. 2 and I don’t think he would know what to do as a leader,” added Wilson. “But he loves following. He would have made a great fascist.”

*Fed Up: Bradley Whitford, Josh on “The West Wing,” stepped up when asked if the cast had heard from real people in the government: “[Fed Chairman] Alan Greenspan once said to me, with that face that is just trained not to express anything, that he was really upset that when our Fed chairman died, nobody cared . . . It wasn’t even the ‘A’ [primary] story.”

*Surface Opinion: NBC has announced the season finale of “Surface” will air Feb. 6 but NBC’s Reilly said the show “has done a pretty good job” on Monday, is creative and has a very loyal audience. He added no decision has been made about whether it will be renewed for next season. I’m thinking it is more likely that Paula Abdul will appear before TV critics at a press conference.

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