Lentorama 2009: Great(?) Moments in Catholics on Television

March 29, 1983: Father Ralph and Meggie break at least one commandment on The Thorn Birds

A multi-generational story of love and loss set (primarily) in the Australian outback, The Thorn Birds focused on the relationship between Father Ralph de Bricassart (Richard Chamberlain), a priest sent into the wild due to past transgressions, and Meggie Cleary (Rachel Ward), the neice of sheep station owner Mary Carson (Barbara Stanwyck).

When Father Ralph rejects Mary's advances, she (seeing his developing relationship with Meggie) leaves her substantial fortune to the Catholic church with Father Ralph as executor. This will secure his rapid advancement, but only if he leaves Meggie behind. His ambition trumps his heart, and he leaves. Meggie would fall into a loveless marriage, bear a daughter, and eventually move away from the station.

Years later, Father Ralph returns and joins Meggie while she is away from home, and at the end of their time together they finally consummate their relationship. Nine months later, Meggie has a son, Dane, who is understood to be Father Ralph's son, although he's not aware of it - even when, as an adult, Dane travels to Rome to become a priest under his father's tutelage.

Not surprisingly, ABC ran into a little trouble with sponsors over the adulterous priest angle of the story, with some sponsors either dropping ads altogether or only advertising during earlier, non-adulterous episodes. That the miniseries aired during Holy Week was also a point of contention with Catholic organizations. And while it wasn't known at the time, you have to figure that a couple people were retroactively irked when Chamberlain finally outed himself.

None of this stopped the viewers from tuning in, as the miniseries averaged a 41 rating and 59 share, with this episode ranking as one of the most-watched broadcasts in TV history. Thus reinforcing the adage that there's no such thing as bad publicity.