{"id":1690,"date":"2011-11-29T12:34:53","date_gmt":"2011-11-29T17:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=1690"},"modified":"2011-11-29T14:55:29","modified_gmt":"2011-11-29T19:55:29","slug":"odyssey-networks-stuart-dunbar-building-creative-bridges-between-hollywood-and-people-of-all-faiths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2011\/11\/odyssey-networks-stuart-dunbar-building-creative-bridges-between-hollywood-and-people-of-all-faiths.html","title":{"rendered":"Odyssey Networks&#8217; Stuart &amp; Dunbar: building creative bridges between Hollywood and people of all faiths"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s today&#8217;s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture.<\/p>\n<p>Following up on <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/faithmediaandculture\/2011\/09\/nick-stuart-and-odyssey-networks-on-a-journey-toward-faith-and-media-future.html\">my recent interview with Odyssey Networks CEO Nick Stuart<\/a>, I recently had the opportunity to sit down with him again, this time joined by Maura Dunbar, the multi-faith media group&#8217;s executive in charge of content development. Between them, the pair brings a complementary wealth of experience\u00a0 to the business of creating quality multi-faith driven media.<\/p>\n<p>Nick Stuart&#8217;s eclectic TV background includes several documentaries,\u00a0 <em>God Is Green <\/em>(focusing on Christian, Muslim and Hindu leaders engaged in the issue of climate change), <em>Clash of the Worlds<\/em> (examining the roots of the divide between Christianity and Islam) and <em>Victim 0001<\/em> (about Mychal Judge,\u00a0 the NYFD chaplain who perished on 9\/11).The latter film won the prestigious Sandford St. Martin Religious Television Award in 2005.<\/p>\n<p>Maura Dunbar comes to her post with over two decades of experience producing hundreds of hours of TV movies and miniseries. Her impressive resume include the biopic<em>s Me and My Shadow: The Judy Garland Story <\/em>and <em>The Beat Goes On: The Sonny and Cher Story<\/em>, three Stephen King titles (<em>Storm of the Century, The Stand<\/em> and\u00a0<em>The Shining<\/em>), a remake of the Alfred Hitchcock\/Jimmy Stewart classic <em>Rear Window<\/em> (starring Christopher Reeve) and several episodes of the rotating <em>ABC Mystery Movie<\/em> franchise (that included new editions of <em>Columbo<\/em> and<em> Kojak<\/em>).<\/p>\n<p>Our conversation covered everything from what the company has in the pipeline to a general discussion of what makes good faith-based entertainment and the genre&#8217;s growing influence on mainstream Hollywood.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: <\/strong>So, what&#8217;s new?<\/p>\n<p><strong>NICK STUART: <\/strong>We\u2019re going to be putting Call on Faith on Over-the-Top (internet-delivered television) solutions next year. We\u2019re moving bit by bit.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/callonfaith.com\/\"><em>Call on Faith<\/em><\/a> has proved very popular. It\u2019s sort of religion and lifestyle geared toward the individual. You can get that on the move. We always want to try and reach families so (our programs are) a shared experience and to do that we need to get back into the living rooms of America and that\u2019s what Over the Top lets us do.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK:<\/strong> And what is the Odyssey philosophy on what makes good faith-based entertainment?<\/p>\n<p><strong>NICK STUART: <\/strong>What makes good entertainment per se really makes good faith-based entertainment.\u00a0 Strong characters, believable characters, believable stories.\u00a0 It always bugs me that somehow faith is separated&#8230;People of faith are people who watch TV anyway and they apply that same interest. We\u2019ve been telling stories for centuries . The Bible is full of fantastic stories. All the sacred texts are filled with fantastic stories. \u00a0And they play out. Is it a good tale? Is it a good story? Do we believe in the person? Do we care about that person? And is it well produced?\u00a0 Because if it isn\u2019t, it ain\u2019t gonna work and it will do no good saying \u201cOh, don\u2019t worry. It\u2019s faith based.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MAURA DUNBAR:<\/strong>\u00a0 There are a lot of different trends\u00a0 in faith programming and faith films. We have the phenomenon that\u2019s happening with films like <em>Fireproof\u00a0<\/em> by the Sherwood Baptist group, and recently <em>Courageous<\/em>, and then you have on the other side films like <em>The Blind Side<\/em> and films like we\u2019ve done for Hallmark Channel, such as <em>The Note<\/em> series and <em>The Shunning<\/em> series. And I think the difference in those two types of faith-based films is that one tends to lean heavily on a proselytizing message. There\u2019s something there more of their intrinsic dogma&#8230;They want to get a message out whereas, on the other side,\u00a0 I call them general entertainment with a faith inspiration&#8230;I also think the thing for us, when we look at scripted, is\u00a0 we\u2019re looking for those common denominators\u00a0 that unite us regardless of which walk of faith we come from or what background we come from. And these are the values that we share as human beings, the virtues we all look for &#8212; hope, charity, compassion, forgiveness.\u00a0 (Those virtues are particularly important) in a world right now where there is so much at risk and in question&#8230;Just like in the depression era, people want relief and encouragement.\u00a0 Faith-based film, when done in the broader sense, <em>The Blind Side<\/em> and those types of films, give people hope, inspiration and reconnect them to these intrinsic virtues that we share and I think there\u2019s a feel-good opportunity with that. We\u2019ve seen it .\u00a0 You know, recently <em>Soul Surfer<\/em> did very well at the box office. <em>Secretariat<\/em> didn\u2019t do as well but I think it will have a stronger after market home video&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;It\u2019s interesting that Sherwood Baptist is going toward films and telling stories for a very specific\u00a0 audience. And you find that audience has quite a large purchasing power.\u00a0 <em>Couragious<\/em>\u00a0 was made for 2 million dollars. The opening weekend was 9 million. It&#8217;s already grossed 30 million but it\u2019s really driven\u00a0 by that specific market, whereas, <em>Blind Side<\/em> had a bigger general audience.\u00a0 We\u2019re finding that films\u00a0 we did like <em>Love Comes Softly, Love&#8217;s Enduring Promise,<\/em> <em>The Note<\/em> movies (and) <em>The Shunning<\/em>&#8230;appeal not only to a faith-based audience but to a general audience who share the (connection to ) these&#8230;great redemptive qualities that they\u2019re looking for in great stories.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NICK STUART:<\/strong> What\u2019s really interesting about that \u00a0is that it reflects the change in the faith scene in America. We talk about post-denominationism. We\u2019ve looked at what is happening\u00a0 to the traditional denominations and the way individuals relate to faith and their personal faith\u00a0 and, clearly, in\u00a0 the last 20 years we\u2019ve seen a weakening in (sectarianism).\u00a0\u00a0 And the films have reacted to this.<\/p>\n<p>One\u00a0 (sector), as more Maura says, go for the more general\u00a0 shared feelings and emotions&#8230;that we all share in as spiritual and moral beings and then there are the groups who fight the change and always try to ameliorate it. They try to dig in and theirs is a much more targeted message. So you have films that&#8230;reflect the exact evolution of faith in America.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: <\/strong> To me it seems that movies run the gamut from being quite cynical about religion to\u00a0 films that respect and support faith in general to movies that are strongly religious in a more sectarian way.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MAURA DUNBAR:<\/strong> I grew up in television and, for me, television had that wonderful ability to entertain and enlighten and that\u2019s why you have such a broad spectrum of different types of genres because you can send a message in very meaningful ways in entertaining ways whether it\u2019s a drama, whether it\u2019s a comedy, whether it&#8217;s an action adventure. So , people like variety.<\/p>\n<p>In the heyday of the TV movie business, we used to have the relatability\u00a0 hook. I called it the backyard factor \u2013 that it either has to have happened\u00a0 to me or it has to have emotional relevance. You know, in those days during the nineties and the big TV movies, a lot of times it was\u00a0 primal fears to be honest with you. The TV movies were based on\u00a0 (things like) if I could make you afraid, if you got on a plane this would happen, if the stranger came to the door of your house, this could happen. All primal fears.<\/p>\n<p>In addition though, I got you to care because it was relatable. It could happen to you, it could happen to me, it could happen to my family &#8212; all in my own backward. So, there\u2019s the relatability factor.<\/p>\n<p>The other relatabilities are the iconic things that we share as a (cultural) phenomenon&#8230;the wider appeal of big movies like <em>The Beach Boys<\/em> or the movies about different figures in history. We all have a relative emotional relationship to it in terms of how it impacted our personal lives. So, I may not be able to identify with Dennis and Brian Wilson but I am able to identify and know exactly where I was when I heard <em>Surfer Girl<\/em>. That music was sort of a shared cultural experience.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NICK STUART:<\/strong> I like what you say about identification (and) the backyard experience because there are two ways that you could divide this up additionally if you\u2019re talking about faith programming.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2018ve got someone so like you or so unlike you, you know someone so different and special and you make programs about them.\u00a0 And I did those at the beginning of my career.\u00a0 I changed because&#8230;I did a program on Mother Teresa. Could I ever be like her? Could my daughter? No. I mean they were inspirational figures in a way but I felt distance from them. I admired them but from a distance.<\/p>\n<p>What I\u2019ve tried to do since is to make programs about ordinary people who do extraordinary things.\u00a0 So, I can look at my wife on the sofa&#8230;.and my daughters and say &#8220;Hey, we could do that.&#8221;&#8230;What are we called to be? The best we can be, to fulfill our potential as spiritual beings. And, if the example is just so far away, it\u2019s like if I\u2019m running a marathon and if the finishing post is too far away I might give up. But, if I think s possible to get there in the end, I\u2019m gonna stick it out.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MAURA DUNBAR:<\/strong> That\u2019s the wonderful thing about inspiration. It\u2019s the immediacy and the relevancy &#8212; that I can make a difference. I may not be able to go be and have the attributes and live a life like Mother Teresa but I can, with my small acts of compassion, make a difference and make a change.\u00a0 It\u2019s the simple acts of forgiveness , of relationship, of reconciliation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NICK STUART:<\/strong> You\u2019re right. The doc we did for the Oprah Channel, <em>Serving Life<\/em>, was around the lines that, if killers can care, the rest of us have no excuse. It was (about) the transformation of people who will spend their life in jail&#8230;at the Angola Jail in Louisiana&#8230;yet we saw amazing transformation as they cared for the dying inmates in the prison hospice. So changing diapers, getting up at 2 AM to hold a guy\u2019s hand, take their abuse when, you know, when the pain is too much and they would lash out at them. Those are saints in there in many ways.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK:<\/strong>\u00a0I know what you mean. My favorite shows tend to be about flawed characters who end up doing good.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MAURA DUNBAR:<\/strong> I call it the Thomas\u2019 English Muffin Theory. I know, why don\u2019t we bring a food group into this? It\u2019s the people in the middle, it\u2019s neither black nor white, it\u2019s the gray that\u2019s really the most interesting. It\u2019s not the flat store-bought English muffin that is the tastiest and most interesting and flavorful. It\u2019s the ones with the bigger nooks and crannies. It\u2019s the idiosyncrasies, the contradictions\u00a0 that make great storytelling . Very few of us live in all black or all\u00a0 white. It\u2019s not as simplistic as that and faith, in particular, is not as simplistic as that.\u00a0 We\u2019re challenged to experience and live our faith in probably the most dynamic ways that I can recall in my lifetime now because of all the challenges our country is experiencing.\u00a0 And so we have to find ways we can live our faith not just by what we read on Sundays in the Gospel but how we interpret that, person to person, one on one&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;Technology&#8230;is a double-edged sword&#8230;it has taken us in a sort of separation&#8230;I can reach more people with the push of a button and send more information but where does compassion live then in that technology. You have to put a personal face on it.\u00a0 Because I may have given a donation\u00a0 and signed on to these different blogs&#8230; but during the day when I\u2019m walking and someone has tripped on the street will I stop and help that person?<\/p>\n<p><strong>NICK STUART:\u00a0 <\/strong>It\u2019s like when someone sends you a Christmas card or a birthday card as opposed to an ecard. That bugs me. Because, you know, two buttons. What does it take? What does it cost me?<\/p>\n<p><strong>MAURA DUNBAR: <\/strong>It\u2019s not the same thing as &#8220;I\u2019ve gone to the store. I\u2019ve thought of you. I\u2019ve bought a card for you.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>NICK STUART:<\/strong> Going back to what makes good TV, good faith-based TV, you said something a second ago about the importance of flawed characters and everything we try and do we try and base on theological perspectives . We look for theological perspectives.<\/p>\n<p>Now, to me , it\u2019s the Incarnation. Why am I Christian? One of the things that excites me most \u2013 apart from my cultural upbringing which led me to that anyway \u2013 was the incarnational nature of Christianity and Christ and the Godhead&#8230;.There is God (coming) down&#8230;to embrace the weakness and the flawed nature of humanity that is, I think, theologically very important.<\/p>\n<p>Otherwise, God is aloof.\u00a0 We wonder am I looking at something\u2026that is so unattainable?\u00a0 Or am I watching something that I relate to?\u00a0 It acknowledges my weakness but it shows me a way out.\u00a0 Those prisoners in that program (<em>Serving Life<\/em>) are people for whom most people would throw away the key.\u00a0 This program acknowledges that in their very weakness there was a potential for incredible transformation. And that\u2019s what happened<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK:<\/strong>\u00a0 Whatever happened to those TV movies that were at were derisively labeled as Disease-0f-the-Week films. The thing I actually miss about them is that they emphasized the values of empathy and compassion.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MAURA DUNBAR: <\/strong>A lot of those were longer versions of morality tales. When I was at ABC\u00a0 \u2013 I\u2019ve actually in my career in television overseen the production of 250 television movies \u2013 &#8230;(former ABC Entertainment President) Brandon Stoddard (was a champion) of long-form television.<\/p>\n<p>So, he looked at this as an opportunity to really make morality tales&#8230;There was a period of time when you had the very first movie that explored incest , you had the very first movie that explored teen suicide. Remember Carol Burnett in <em>Friendly Fire<\/em>? These were major films that opened the door&#8230;(Today) there isn\u2019t always necessarily the patience for good storytelling\u00a0 that you let a story unfold .<\/p>\n<p>In a Disease of-the-Week you have to kind of let the story unfold\u00a0 and there&#8217;s much more of an internal emotional journey going on (that&#8217;s) more transformational than physical.\u00a0 The circumstances and obstacles that you have to overcome in an adventure\u00a0 are very physically driven&#8230;and then, of course, the economics of the television movie business for the networks just broke down completely.\u00a0 So, you\u2019re left now with Hallmark\u00a0 and Lifetime and, to a degree, interestingly enough, Michael Wright over at TNT is taking a page out of the old ABC mystery wheel, the Mystery Movies (that go even further back to) NBC .\u00a0 I oversaw the Mystery Movies with <em>Columb0, Kojak<\/em> and those films.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK:<\/strong> I loved <em>Columbo<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MAURA DUNBAR:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, I made many of them. Peter was an amazing guy. Very idiosyncratic, a perfectionist. He would do 17 takes of a very long scene and he would always do it over and over again. So, you see TNT starting to do some of these two-hour backdoor crime\u00a0 pilots, like a mystery movie.<\/p>\n<p>Hallmark has been a great partner to us for our content. If you think about the Hallmark brand, it is values based. It is great storytelling and family connection.\u00a0 So, it\u2019s a great fit for us.\u00a0 But it\u2019s really as a result of the fragmentation of the marketplace \u2013 that and the nature of the business that you no longer get to have those kind of other films.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NICK STUART:<\/strong>\u00a0There&#8217;s something about the art of storytelling that goes back to what I was saying earlier about this goes back centuries. Interestingly we come from different parts of the entertainment world. (Maura) come from (scripted) films.\u00a0 I come from news and current affairs.\u00a0 In news and current affairs the watch word is tell them what you\u2019re about to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you\u2019ve told them.\u00a0 So, you\u2019re always telling them.<\/p>\n<p>The opposite is true in the skill of (dramatic) storytelling.\u00a0 It\u2019s what you don\u2019t tell them\u00a0 which makes you think &#8220;Ooh, what\u2019s happening there?&#8221; That\u2019s how you engage them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK:<\/strong> Recent box office results seem to indicate that people are looking for kinder and more inspirational storytelling. And I think you are seeing more movies that reflect this. Do you see that trend jumping over to television &#8212; which, to my eye, has become more cynical than theatrical movies.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MAURA DUNBAR:<\/strong> I think it absolutely is and it is right now. You see the Martha Williamson series at Lifetime that\u2019s being developed, actually with our producing partner Joel Rice who worked with us on <em>The Note<\/em> films. I believe you have the Rob Bell-Carlton Cuse project at ABC. And you have Marc Cherry working on (a project). I don\u2019t think they are going to be as sort of quintessentially wholesome\u00a0 as what you would think of as a <em>Touched by an Angel <\/em>but those redemptive themes of hope and inspiration I absolutely do think that that\u2019s gonna come back. As I said&#8230;at times of great stress people want relief.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NICK STUART:<\/strong> TV, to a greater degree, I think, than feature films, are a mirror image of reality. Because you do not want to be reminded of what you just lived though.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK:<\/strong> Life can be hard enough..<\/p>\n<p><strong>NICK STUART:<\/strong> Exactly.\u00a0 It also goes the other way, I think, as well because if you look at things like Discovery, there&#8217;s an escapism there, especially about what\u00a0 it is to be male.\u00a0 There\u2019s a lot of things about extreme climbing, river monsters, being out there in the outdoors.\u00a0 It&#8217;s adventure for the male of the species.\u00a0 We don\u2019t the that anymore. I ain\u2019t gonna wrestle a bear of a fish.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MAURA DUNBAR:<\/strong>\u00a0When I was\u00a0 senior in college and studying television criticism \u2013 I was a TV film writing major \u2013 in the TV criticism class everyone was basically quoting Newton Minnow (the one-time FCC commissioner who famously called TV a &#8220;vast wasteland&#8221;)&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><em><\/em>&#8230;And I thought about my parent. My parents were quintessentially sort of All-American,\u00a0 My father was very, very smart. He worked in the aerospace industry. My mother was\u2026an armchair theologian. She read theology\u00a0 and philosophy books and could talk to about any world religion and topic. She was also very involved in raising a family&#8230;At the end of a hard week of taking care of three kids&#8230;they would love to sit down. And escape and they escaped with <em>Love Boat<\/em> and <em>Fantasy Island<\/em>&#8230;If you think about it, even in shows like <em>Fantasy Island<\/em>, there were little morality tales.<\/p>\n<p>We got even better in comedy at entertaining and inspiring with <em>All in the Family<\/em>.\u00a0 We\u2019ve actually sort of taken many steps back from that where now&#8230;(For instance) I was a major <em>Two and a Half Men <\/em>fan previously but now, if you\u2019ve seen it, it\u2019s just one sort of sex gag after another.<\/p>\n<p>So, I think the time is right. This country is at a place where it is under such stress&#8230;I think its 60 or 70 percent think the country is going in the wrong direction, that they are worse off than they were&#8230;The people of America want hope and want positive messaging.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NICK STUART:<\/strong> The country needs it. I mean with a capital N-E-E-D-S. We need to rediscover that part of us. Economically, the western countries we have&#8230;given over the responsibility\u00a0 to help the poor to government \u2013 from England to Europe and, to a slightly lesser degree. America. The government picks up the tab. The government should look to help the weak but it can\u2019t (always) because of the cost. So, who\u2019s gonna do that? It\u2019s got to be us. It\u2019s got to be that people rediscover that element in their soul.<\/p>\n<p>So, I\u2019ve been really heartened to see stories and come across where people have reached out to the neighbor whose lost his house. Everyone has been touched by this .What I find is my generation\u00a0\u2013 &#8212; our generation\u00a0\u2013 is spoiled&#8230;People could get mortgages and second mortgages and it rolled on. And, if there was a blip, as occasionally there would be, in six months it had gone.\u00a0 You just borrowed more. But what has happened?\u00a0 I keep expecting the downturn to end\u00a0 and it doesn\u2019t . And it\u2019s dawning on us that it won\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MAURA DUNBAR:<\/strong>\u00a0 And that\u2019s why it\u2019s (about) that inclusiveness&#8230; It is broader story of\u00a0 inclusiveness, of relatability,\u00a0 of\u00a0 shared virtues and shared values&#8230; It\u2019s reassurance. We find\u00a0 reassurance in these types of stories that reaffirm our virtues and our values which are the core of our faith beliefs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK:<\/strong> Can you tell me about the Judah Maccabee movie you&#8217;re working on?<\/p>\n<p><strong>MAURA DUNBAR:<\/strong> Yes, I\u2019m glad you\u2019ve asked. That can be an article in and of its own.<\/p>\n<p>(And it will be. Tomorrow.)<\/p>\n<p>Encourage one another and build each other up \u2013 1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s today&#8217;s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. Following up on my recent interview with Odyssey Networks CEO Nick Stuart, I recently had the opportunity to sit down with him again, this time joined by Maura Dunbar, the multi-faith media group&#8217;s executive in charge of content development. Between them, the pair brings&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1085,15,17,19,21,24,31,1],"tags":[2026,35,2033,2008,42,2024,1440,2027,2009,1999,1562,2013,2021,2028,2016,362,1998,1445,2034,2011,2032,2036,2010,2018,2019,2031,2029,1444,2003,2001,2035,1997,1428,916,2030,2002,2017,1429,2012,2005,2006,2022,2023,2004,545,2020,2014,2015,2007,2025,329,324,289,2000],"class_list":["post-1690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-forgiveness","category-history","category-interfaith-dialogue","category-islam","category-judaism","category-movies","category-television","category-uncategorized","tag-former-abc-entertainment-president-brandon-stoddard","tag-1-thessalonians-511","tag-abc-mystery-wheel","tag-alfred-hitchockjimmy-stewart-classic-rear-window","tag-all-in-the-family","tag-angola-jail-in-louisiana","tag-call-on-faith","tag-carol-burnett-in-friendly-fire","tag-christopher-reeve","tag-clash-of-the-worlds","tag-columbo","tag-couragious","tag-dennis-and-brian-wilson","tag-disease-0f-the-week-films","tag-faith-based-entertainment","tag-fireproof","tag-god-is-green","tag-hallmark-channel","tag-highway-to-heaven","tag-internet-delivered-television","tag-joel-rice","tag-judah-maccabee-movie","tag-kojak","tag-love-comes-softly","tag-loves-enduring-promise","tag-marc-cherry","tag-marianne-williamson-series-at-lifetime","tag-maura-dunbar","tag-me-and-my-shadow-the-judy-garland-story","tag-mychal-judge","tag-newton-minnow","tag-odyssey-networks-ceo-nick-stuart","tag-oprah-channel","tag-peter-falk","tag-rob-bell-carlton-cuse-project-at-abc","tag-sandford-st-martin-religious-television-award","tag-secretariat","tag-serving-life","tag-sherwood-baptist-group","tag-stephen-king","tag-storm-of-the-century","tag-surfer-girl","tag-the-beach-boys","tag-the-beat-goes-on-the-sonny-and-cher-story","tag-the-blind-side","tag-the-note-movies","tag-the-note-series","tag-the-shunning-series","tag-the-stand-and-the-shining","tag-thomas-english-muffin-theory","tag-touched-by-an-angel","tag-two-and-a-half-men","tag-vast-wasteland","tag-victim-0001"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Odyssey Networks&#039; Stuart &amp; Dunbar: building creative bridges between Hollywood and people of all faiths<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2011\/11\/odyssey-networks-stuart-dunbar-building-creative-bridges-between-hollywood-and-people-of-all-faiths.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Odyssey Networks&#039; Stuart &amp; Dunbar: building creative bridges between Hollywood and people of all faiths\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here&#8217;s today&#8217;s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. Following up on my recent interview with Odyssey Networks CEO Nick Stuart, I recently had the opportunity to sit down with him again, this time joined by Maura Dunbar, the multi-faith media group&#8217;s executive in charge of content development. Between them, the pair brings&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2011\/11\/odyssey-networks-stuart-dunbar-building-creative-bridges-between-hollywood-and-people-of-all-faiths.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-11-29T17:34:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-11-29T19:55:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. 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Following up on my recent interview with Odyssey Networks CEO Nick Stuart, I recently had the opportunity to sit down with him again, this time joined by Maura Dunbar, the multi-faith media group&#8217;s executive in charge of content development. Between them, the pair brings&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2011\/11\/odyssey-networks-stuart-dunbar-building-creative-bridges-between-hollywood-and-people-of-all-faiths.html","og_site_name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","article_published_time":"2011-11-29T17:34:53+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-11-29T19:55:29+00:00","author":"John W. 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Kennedy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations &amp; Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1690"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1695,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1690\/revisions\/1695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}