That Catholic Show

18 thoughts on “That Catholic Show”

1. SPQN and the Rosary army do great work. Keep it up! I especially hope many Catholics will follow their and others’ example in making use of podcasts as a tool of evangelization.

2. Thanks for sharing, Jimmy. I had seen a previous episode, but never could remember where I saw it!

3. I like it, even the blooper reel. Nicely done, to the point, short and orthodox. And a touch of humour. Well done.

4. Thanks a ton, Jimmy, for helping to get the word out!

5. SQPN in general is awesome! If you have a chance, you should really check out some of their various shows. Fr. Roderick is really paving a new road in the “new evangelization”. My 8 yr old daughter just loves “That Catholic Show”.

6. Well, I hate to be the party pooper here, but I thought it was weak. The humor didn’t register with me, and the presentation, while competent, was distracting. Mrs. Willis is pleasant enough but it seemed pretty obvious, even before her real personality came through in the bloopers, that she was just trying real hard to pull off “documentary speak”. Overall, the impression I got was “trite and ineffective”. The intro was especially cheezy.
   I’m also wondering what the target audience is. Teens won’t want to touch it. It’ll go over the heads of younger kids. Catholics looking to be informed would get better results from Catholic Answers. The general public surfing the net and perhaps mildly curious about Catholicism, are used to far more saavy presentations and won’t give it a second look.
   I think it’s the same problem I have with EWTN. You couldn’t ask for better human beings or better Catholics then the people involved in that channel, but the entertainment programming generally ranges from mediocre to terrible. Most of the documentaries are so dry I need to drink a gallon of water just to get through a half an hour. If you remove content from the equation and look just at presentation, production values, and direction, it’s no where near the standard quality of other small time cable channels.
   I guess I feel like Catholics shouldn’t have to sacrifice quality presentation in order to get quality content. Why can’t we get both? I realize that, granting the fact that generally only Catholics are interested in Catholic entertainment, we only have a limited talent pool to draw from. And “That Catholic Show” was better than most. But is that saying something good, or does that make the situation all the more stark?
   The Willis family shouldn’t give up. But they need to change things up if they want to capture the short attention spans of our media-obsessed culture.

7. I thought it was nice, I think it will go over well with my teenagers and this is exactly what young people to day are looking for: Information presented lively that doesn’t speak down to them. Well that’s my two cents worth.

8. Sifu Jones –
   The Willits are producing that show on a shoestring. They literally work out of a closet!
   I’m actually amazed at what they’ve accomplished given such limited resources. They understand the new media very well, and understand the potential of reaching a fairly large audience with some pretty basic tools: prosumer level video camera, a few computers, some sound equipment.
   I’m sure with a real budget they could do some even better things. It takes millions of dollars to produce the kind of production value that you’re talking about. They’re doing it basically on nothing.
   My hat’s off to the Willits!
   – Don

9. Clearly inferior as it wasn’t in Latin. Just kidding! 😉

10. Sifu,
    It is good of you to provide suggestions for improvement, but I think you are wrong about the lack of audience for this type of presentation. Plenty of teens and young adults (and not-so young adults) are intrigued by spiritual things, but aren’t ready for the “meat” of shows like Catholic Answers. Personally, I like the blend of professionalism, accurate and reverent teaching, and handcrafted style that SQPN provides.
    But hey, that’s why my local coffee shop has three dozen flavor syrups; we aren’t all the same!

11. Exactly TVS. To a lesser extent, I think we need to even recognize this in having the ordinary and extraordinary forms of the Latin Rite.
    And hey, sometimes someone moves from preferring vanilla to pistachio. I’m looking forward to getting to try Mass in the extraordinary form and see how that goes. No promises though, I’ve always been big on vanilla. 🙂

12. Sifu Jones-
    I am a teenager and I like the show VERY much. I thought they put a lot of content into a short amount of time, and the humor added sometimes (although a little cheesy) was a wonderfully added dose! I think they have a great apostolate going, and I am looking forward to seeing more episodes. God Bless!

13. I’m 18, and I find the shows fun to watch. I usually learn a thing or two.

14. I thought that was lovely.
    I mean well done, appealing to different audiences, and she seems like a wonderful, person with a good sense of humor.
    And she is darned pretty! Reminds me of Dana Delaney!
    It is an interesting start!

15. Sifu-
    All I can say is that you are just plain wrong. “That Catholic Show” is a breath of fresh air in Catholic media. I think you should view all of the episodes to get a better perspective. And as far as production value is concerned, I think that it’s first rate, even though they are on a very tight budget.

16. The end of was the best!!! :-)))))

17. So let me get this straight teenagers don’t have Ipods? Who knew?

18. I’m an eighth grade teacher in a Catholic school, and my students love watching anything the Willits do.

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