Television: The Show Nobody Saw

• Share

The TV show that made the biggest splash in Chicago last week was one that nobody got to see. When the Chicago Tribune's WGN scheduled the biographical film Martin Luther for its U.S. TV première, Roman Catholics swamped the station with protesting letters, postcards and telephone calls. Sample: "We object to you showing the film because it makes a hero out of a rat." WGN abruptly canceled the movie. That set up a new clamor. Lutherans, other Protestants, some Jewish groups objected furiously, sent 1,000 telegrams of protest in a single day. The National Council of Churches called the cancellation "a blow to religious liberty." Cried an American Civil Liberties Union spokesman: "This thing is outrageous! If people don't like a TV movie, they can turn it off, but they have no business trying to coerce a TV station into keeping others from seeing it."

Even WGN's avowed reason for canceling the film raised doubts as to its wisdom in knuckling under to what it called "an emotional reaction." The station ex plained lamely that it merely wanted to avoid being "a party to the development of any misunderstanding or ill will among persons of the Christian faith."