{"id":2137,"date":"2012-04-10T08:34:45","date_gmt":"2012-04-10T12:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=2137"},"modified":"2012-04-10T09:23:47","modified_gmt":"2012-04-10T13:23:47","slug":"harold-finch-journey-from-nasa-scientist-to-faith-based-film-producer-ten-commandments-still-a-ratings-winner-orthodox-jews-get-reality-tv-treatment-bible-based-game-show-planned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2012\/04\/harold-finch-journey-from-nasa-scientist-to-faith-based-film-producer-ten-commandments-still-a-ratings-winner-orthodox-jews-get-reality-tv-treatment-bible-based-game-show-planned.html","title":{"rendered":"Harold Finch&#8217;s journey from NASA scientist to faith-based film producer + &#8220;Ten Commandments&#8221; still a ratings winner + Orthodox Jews get reality TV treatment + Bible-based game show planned"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here are today&#8217;s dispatches from the crossroads of faith, media and culture.<\/p>\n<p>1. <strong>The man behind <em>Unlimited. <\/em><\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kshb.com\/dpp\/news\/region_missouri\/lees_summit\/lees-summit-man-produces-movie-about-unlimited-hope\">From KSHB.com<\/a>: <em>Harold Finch hasn\u2019t had a successful career. He\u2019s had several of them. He worked as a NASA scientist, he was an educator, corporate trainer and he now lectures on the keys to success&#8230;Now he is executive producer of a movie called \u201cUnlimited\u201d. They just finished shooting in El Paso, where Fred Thompson played the part of Harold himself, who inspires the main character. <\/em>Checkout the\u00a0 video report <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kshb.com\/dpp\/news\/region_missouri\/lees_summit\/lees-summit-man-produces-movie-about-unlimited-hope\">here<\/a>.<em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<div><strong>FYI: <\/strong>Harold Finch will be sharing his <a href=\"http:\/\/finchsuccess.com\/books.html\">principles of success<\/a> this <a href=\"http:\/\/finchsuccess.com\/seminars\">Thursday (April 12) at 8:00 PM (ET) at the University of South Florida<\/a>.\u00a0 As I <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/faithmediaandculture\/2012\/04\/unlimited-positive-power-unleashed-in-el-paso.html\">reported here earlier,<\/a> I recently had the opportunity to meet him on the set of <em>Unlimited<\/em>.\u00a0 A truly inspiring guy.<\/div>\n<p>2. <strong>Speaking of success principles&#8230;<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.orlandosentinel.com\/entertainment_tv_tvblog\/2011\/04\/holy-moses-charlton-heston-wins-saturday-ratings-race.html\">From The Orlando Sentinel<\/a>: <em>ABC won the Saturday prime-time ratings race with \u201cThe Ten Commandments,\u201d Charlton Heston as Moses and the still-stunning parting of the Red Sea. In prime time, the 1956 epic averaged 7 million viewers for the Disney-owned network.<\/em><br \/>\n<strong>Comment: <\/strong>A 56-year-old classic beats such modern fare as <em>Cops, How I Met Your Mother, Mike &amp; Molly, Criminal Minds, Bones, 48 Hours Mystery, Law &amp; Order: SVU, Best Friends Forever, Betty White&#8217;s Off Their Rocker<\/em>s <em><\/em><em><\/em>and the new NBC reality show\u00a0 <em>Escape Routes<\/em>. That should tell the networks something.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"The Ten Commandments - Movie Trailer\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1LKUpWvnubU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>3. <strong>Harsh reality.<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nypost.com\/p\/news\/local\/jewsy_shore_PaEySYamcjVZCX41eE4ztN?utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_content=Local\">From The New York Post<\/a>: <em>Three ultra-Orthodox Jews ditch their strict religious lifestyle and join the sin-city world of secularism in a docudrama, called \u201cShunned,\u201d about their new lives&#8230;Noah Scheinmann, an executive producer at No Regrets Entertainment, said the company is now shopping \u201cShunned\u201d to the networks, and is searching for a fourth cast member leaving the faith.<br \/>\n<\/em><strong>Comment:<\/strong> If the networks have learned anything from the durability of <em><\/em>the Cecil B. DeMille\u00a0 film above, they might opt to pass on this one. Chances are 56 years from now it won&#8217;t be winning any ratings races &#8212; or even one year from now.\u00a0 By and large, mainstream audiences want to see their own faith &#8212; as well as the faiths of others &#8212; presented with respect. I, of course, make no judgment about the women deciding to move on with their lives but turning those decisions into fodder for weekly so-called &#8220;reality&#8221; entertainment, to me, smacks of possible gratuitous bashing a particular religious sect and exploitation of the women themselves (though, I&#8217;m sure, they don&#8217;t see it that way).\u00a0 I, personally, find the whole voyeuristic <em>Real Housewives<\/em>-type genre to be unhealthy for participants and viewers alike. <em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p>4. <strong>Bible-based game show pilot in the works. <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/Big-Hollywood\/2012\/03\/23\/american-bible-challenge\">From Big Hollywood<\/a>: (Comedian Jeff) <em>Foxworthy will host the upcoming show &#8220;The American Bible Challenge,&#8221; to air on The Game Show Network&#8230;Each week, a church or ministry will be featured on the show, with the winnings going to a faith-based charity.<br \/>\n<\/em><strong>Comment: <\/strong>This might, in fact, be an entertaining show but it wouldn&#8217;t be the first TV game show with a faith theme. Check this out from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.telecaretv.org\/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=24700&amp;ATCLID=204970444\">Telecare<\/a>.\u00a0<em> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Encourage one another and build each other up \u2013 <\/em>1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here are today&#8217;s dispatches from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. 1. The man behind Unlimited. From KSHB.com: Harold Finch hasn\u2019t had a successful career. He\u2019s had several of them. He worked as a NASA scientist, he was an educator, corporate trainer and he now lectures on the keys to success&#8230;Now he is executive&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,21,24,1031,31,1],"tags":[2730,35,2721,1858,2723,2724,1141,2720,1957,2714,364,2719,2715,2677,2676,2717,2709,2722,2718,2710,2725,2728,2727,2716,2711,2729,2733,2731,2732,1534,2713,2643,2712,2726],"class_list":["post-2137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-judaism","category-movies","category-science","category-television","category-uncategorized","tag-comedian-jeff-foxworthy","tag-1-thessalonians-511","tag-48-hours-mystery","tag-abc","tag-best-friends-forever","tag-betty-whites-off-their-rockers","tag-big-hollywood","tag-bones","tag-cecil-b-demille","tag-charlton-heston-as-moses","tag-cops","tag-criminal-minds","tag-disney-owned-network","tag-fred-thompson","tag-harold-finch","tag-how-i-met-your-mother","tag-kshb-com","tag-law-order-svu","tag-mike-molly","tag-movie-called-unlimited","tag-nbc-reality-show-escape-routes","tag-no-regrets-entertainment","tag-noah-scheinmann","tag-parting-of-the-red-sea","tag-principles-of-success","tag-real-housewives","tag-telecare","tag-the-american-bible-challenge","tag-the-game-show-network","tag-the-new-york-post","tag-the-orlando-sentinel","tag-the-ten-commandments","tag-university-of-south-florida","tag-shunned"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Harold Finch&#039;s journey from NASA scientist to faith-based film producer + &quot;Ten Commandments&quot; still a ratings winner + Orthodox Jews get reality TV treatment + Bible-based game show planned<\/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\/2012\/04\/harold-finch-journey-from-nasa-scientist-to-faith-based-film-producer-ten-commandments-still-a-ratings-winner-orthodox-jews-get-reality-tv-treatment-bible-based-game-show-planned.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Harold Finch&#039;s journey from NASA scientist to faith-based film producer + &quot;Ten Commandments&quot; still a ratings winner + Orthodox Jews get reality TV treatment + Bible-based game show planned\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here are today&#8217;s dispatches from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. 1. 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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\/2137","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=2137"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2143,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2137\/revisions\/2143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}