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EMERALD POINT

"To me, religion and psychology are not separate," M. Scott Peck told journalist David Sheff in the March 1991 'Playboy' interview. "Part of my own religious development actually came about through my psychiatric work. In 'People of the Lie', I wrote, 'Faith is the choice of the nobler alternative.' A.A. works because it's a program of religious or spiritual conversion.

"I suspect that many people who do not profess to be religious have a sense of a higher power, even when they're not yet on friendly terms with it, and A.A. helps them discover that. It works because it's a psychological program that helps uncover the motivations behind unhealthy symptoms. It teaches people not only why they should go forward through the desert toward God but also how they should go forward through the desert. It teaches people how to support one another. Joining A.A. is obviously not an easy decision. When you have made the decision, there is some sadness in being in this minority who have transcended the culture."

It was explained people in A.A. and therapy "make up 4 or 5% of the population (in the U.S.) now (in 1991), which is significant. The bigger the number, the more we can go forward as a race. We take control of our own lives and become intolerant of irresponsible governments. People become more compassionate and at the same time more competent (or consciousness expanding).

"Being awake involves an appreciation of life, of the environment, of our fellow man. And an intolerance of waste, of incompetent bureaucracy, of prejudice. I used to tell my patients that therapy is not about happiness, it is about power. I can't guarantee that you'll leave therapy one jot happier. What I can guarantee is that you will leave more competent (or headexpanding). There is a certain joy that comes from knowing you're worrying about the big things and no longer getting bent out of shape over the little ones."

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who died on Easter Sunday 1955, viewed evolution as growth in consciousness and the whole evolutionary process of the universe would culminate in the Omega Point. He described the origin of all things the 'Alpha point' (with man as the axis) and 'Omega' (or the Noosphere, 'mind-sphere') being the center (presently the Internet of all things).

M. Scott Peck continued, "God is love, God is light, God is truth. And so science is very godly. But it doesn’t answer all questions. My experience is that I am being manipulated by a power beyond me. I think many people have that experience. What some people do is to ignore it. I choose to cooperate with it, because as far as I can ascertain, this manipulative power is infinitely more intelligent than I am and seems to have my best interests at heart. That doesn’t mean I’m powerless, but I see us as being co-creators. For me, that makes more sense than secular humanism, which says that we create everything, or some kind of Calvinism, which says that God predetermines everything."

M. Scott Peck also made the point, "To me, sex and God are inherently connected, which is why the American ideal of romantic love is so troublesome. It holds that it ought to be possible for Cinderella to ride off with her prince into an endless sunset of endless orgasms. Well, anyone who buys that is doomed to disappointment. Such people are looking to their spouse or their lover to fulfill them, to be their God, their heaven on earth. It violates the First Commandment.

"Idolatry of human romantic love is no less a form of idolatry. The older I’ve gotten, the more impressed I have become by sexuality, by what the mysterious essence of the difference between men and women is, which we don’t understand. Science doesn’t even begin to understand what the nonanatomical differences between men and women are – to what extent they’re genetic, to what extent they’re cultural, and what not. But I’m profoundly impressed by the differences.

"People have the fantasy that once they get married, they will no longer be lonely. Then, when they find themselves still lonely, they think, 'Well, gee, the marriage must be bad, it must not be working.' But the healthiest marriages can, at times, be lonely places. The answer is learning and growing, and your marriage can help you do that. When we look to a spouse or a lover to meet all of our needs, to fulfill us, to bring us a lasting heaven on earth, it never works, does it? It’s very natural for us to want to do that, because it’s natural to want to have a tangible God, one we can touch and hold and embrace and sleep with and maybe even possess. But it doesn’t work. I’ve said before that there are only two valid reasons to get married. Lots of invalid ones but only two valid ones.

"One is for the care and raising of children. The only other valid reason is for the friction marriage provides. A marriage ought to consist of two people who are gathered for some purpose higher than that mere pleasure of being together. Namely, to help each other on their own journeys of spiritual growth, through and with the friction. We’re supposedly a Christian culture, yet Jesus wasn’t terribly happy. He never had much peace of mind.

"The common image of him that Christians try to create is what my (ex) wife, Lily, calls the wimpy Jesus – someone who went around with this sweet smile on his face, doing very little other than patting children on the head. But that’s not at all the Jesus of the Gospels. The fact is, life is difficult and there is often much to worry about. That’s very disillusioning for people who think that we’re here to be happy."

On the TV series, 'Emerald Point N.A.S', Susan Dey played a woman coming to term with her unhappiness by going to therapy. Esther Shapiro described the show as "the warrior class. There's a feeling in the country involving a return to tradition, a search for heroes." M. Scott Peck believed, "I think that one of our primitive needs is to have heroes rather than to be heroes ourselves. This supposedly Christian culture emphasizes family values – the family that prays together stays together – as if Jesus had been some kind of a great family man.

"I don’t necessarily want to knock family values, but the fact is that the Jesus of the Gospels was not a great family man. If anything, he was a breaker-up of families. He set siblings against siblings and children against parents. And he did that because he was fighting against the idolatry of family – where family togetherness becomes sacred at all costs, where it becomes more important to do what will keep the family matriarch or patriarch happy than to do what God wants you to do."

Esther Shapiro continued, "The linchpin of the show is the admiral. He's King Lear with three daughters." In one scene, Tom Mallory told Celia Warren, "You're my first born. That mean you will always be special to me. But I swear to God, sometimes I have never understood you. You know why we name you Celia? Because it means from the heaven. You were a gift from heaven for your mother and me … I wouldn't trade my girls for any sons." Celia countered, "Are you sure? Think about it. A son carrying on the family name, the family tradition. Three for one wouldn't be a bad trade?"

Speaking to 'Movie Mirror', Susan Dey talked about her role, "The whole schedule of receiving new scripts every six days was hard to adjust to. First of all the plot is non-ending. It's like life, there is no ending, it just keeps going. It's more realistic. Celia started off as really a frightened, very confused woman who broke away from what she thought her unhappiness was: her first husband (Jack), and her father. She has this tremendous amount of freedom.

"This happens in therapy a lot: you find solution to one of your problems, and you feel, 'Oh great, I'll never have to deal with again,' and then a couple of months later (you find yourself confronting) the same thing all over again. Now Celia is discovering that she really needs help. There is something that is very deep-rooted that has caused unhappiness in her life, and that her relationship with these other men (after Jack) is not going to make a difference, and breaking up with her husband is not going to make a difference.

"She realizes that it is something else that she has to deal with, which is a tremendous amount of growth. Instead of drinking, and instead of being like time-bomb … So I feel that there has been a lot of emotional growth in the character. She is not as frightened, she is willing to face her problems and try and find out about this power over her that lets her keep making the same mistakes."

Filmed at 20th Century-Fox Studios, 'Emerald Point N.A.S.' sought to explore "all the conflicts and pressures of military life and the mutually beneficial but antagonistic relationship between the military base and the local community." World War II naval aviator Dennis Weaver played widowed Rear Admiral Thomas Mallory, the commander of 30,000 sailors at the naval air station in Annapolis. "I flew the F4F Wildcat, but I never got overseas," Dennis Weaver disclosed.

"I fought the battles of Baffin Bay, Alameda and Opalocka. I had orders to go overseas but then they dropped the bomb and the war was over. This military man is nothing like the colonel I played in ‘Pearl’. That man was a real climber. He was happy when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the war started. This guy is very concerned about the future of the world. He’s a strong man with good morals. He’s a man of compassion, but he’s also devoted to his duty. I’m sure he’s tempted but he doesn’t yield to it. He’s not going to be jumping around from woman to woman."

"This is my first serial and I find it kind of interesting. Every time we get a new script I want to know how the story is going to come out. I guess that’s how the audience gets hooked, too. I want to see how he gets out of a predicament. Since I play (the guitar) and sing, we’re trying to work that into the story. I have a house guest who’s my equivalent in the Soviet navy. Esther wants to make it human and have me play something on the guitar and he’ll play something on the balalaika."

Against the NBC's Monday night movie and ABC's 'Monday Night Football', 'Emerald Point N.A.S.' attracted between 19 and 26% share of the audience, however running last in its time period. The first 2-hour episode attracted the highest ratings (19.2% households and 29% audience share). In March 1984, 'Falcon Crest' was preempted so 'Emerald Point N.A.S.' could be shown following 'Dallas' but only attracted 24% audience share compared to its lead-in, 41% audience share.

Bud Grant lamented, "I thought 'Emerald Point' was going to work. I really did. I think it didn't work in retrospect because of the background. I think that the military or naval background was too limiting to be broadly identified by the general public. But I thought that program was going to work. I thought it was in the proper time period opposite football on Monday night and I thought it had a very attractive cast. I thought it would work, but it didn’t."

Esther Shapiro recounted, "In conceiving a program, we ask ourselves whether we can find a fresh arena and give the characters a broad base in which to act. A naval station, with its large numbers of personnel permanently based there and those constantly coming and going, along with the structured military class system, seems an ideal forum. Besides, I've always been attracted to uniforms, particularly white uniforms.

"Mostly, we will be showing the tradition inherent in the story's setting. The navy is the top gun of the services. It encompasses all those romantic fantasies about the military. Dennis' character is the prototype. Despite the pressures and problems, he must set the standard for those around him. We wanted to set the series in the South because there are so many bases there, and so much of Navy tradition comes from there. Also, in the South, the high officers' houses are likely to be former mansions held by the National Trust, which provides us with an opportunity to inject some glamor."

Richard Shapiro added, "The form allows basically a new show every couple of years. Characters move in and out of the story, which keeps it fresh and interesting for the audience and for us." Dennis Weaver offered, "When that tradition, that honor is bent, that's where the drama and the story come from. I was the first one hired. I think this whole cycle that we're going through now (in 1983), of military stories being acceptable again, makes the possibility of this being a success even greater. The feeling has changed since Vietnam. The military can be heroes again. We (Tom and Maggie Farrell) have an antagonistic kind of relationship. It's a love-hate relationship. At least, I hope love will enter into it. She's to be my romantic interest. I'm a widower and she has a husband, a Navy captain, who's been missing in action for 10 years."

Jill St. John played Deanna Kincaid, "What's the point of not enjoying the way you live? I've lived in Hollywood, Paris, Aspen, London and Honolulu, and I’ve traveled all over the world with the men in my life. Glamor is a great commodity. I enjoy looking good and feeling good and alluring. More women should feel that way about themselves and not be apologetic about it. (Around 1978) I took time off just to enjoy living. I worked once a year so my name wouldn't be forgotten. And I launched my Smith-St.John sweater company. I made some investments, and I traveled all over.

"The 6-year respite was good for me. I love skiing, hiking and rafting, but it got to be too much of a good thing. I began to lose touch with show business. I don't even get television reception at my house. I read books. Can you believe this? I agreed to appear in an episode of 'Magnum, p.i.' and I had never seen the show. When I arrived in Hawaii I had never laid eyes on Tom Selleck. When I returned to Aspen I realized that I missed acting and decided to go for a full time career again. I wanted to make a commitment to acting.

"When I heard 'Emerald Point N.A.S.' was written by Esther Shapiro, who wrote those great female roles for 'Dynasty', I changed my mind. And with such a big cast I only work 2 or 3 days a week. I get back to Aspen once or twice a month. During the ski season, I'll be going there every weekend. The woman I play is a very glamorous good-bad girl with fabulous clothes and jewels. I also have a lot of steamy love scenes with Patrick O'Neal. I hope the part matches my own glamor image. I work hard to believe that."

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