ABC's 'Good Christian B*tches'

What, did NPR pass it up first?

An ABC pilot called “Good Christian Bitches” has religious and women’s groups up in arms over what they describe as an extremely offensive and distasteful show title.

The dramedy, based on Kim Gatlin’s novel of the same name, will be brought to life by famed “Sex and the City” and “90210” executive producer Darren Star. The plot centers on the life of reformed “mean girl” Amanda, played by “Talladega Nights” actress Leslie Bibb, who returns to her hometown of Dallas to find herself fodder for malicious gossip from the women in the Christian community.

I’m not going to bang my spoon over this. It’s beyond annoying that ABC thinks it appropriate to put foul language right in the title of a prime time program. The bigotry inherent in the show’s title is duly noted, too, as is the rank cowardice: They wouldn’t dare go anywhere near anything like this if it was pointed at, say, Muslims.  They just wouldn’t do it, both because they like the current position of their own heads atop their necks, and because in their own world view Christians are to be mocked, everyone else is to be coddled and “understood” if not celebrated. That’s just life in the modern age.

I am going to point out a slippery slope aspect of this, though. Back in the 1980s, the ABC series Moonlighting pushed the boundaries of prime time language standards by frequently deploying the b-word. They even got an OK from the FCC to include the word in their scripts. There was much noise at the time that this would lead to more and more coarse language in prime time shows, which should be plain now to anyone who has been around long enough to see how prime time TV has changed over the years. Now, re-runs of Moonlighting seem tame, even quaint. And this show’s title arrives as if to put the exclamation point on the end of the argument.