Aaron Spelling is on fire. The man responsible for bringing television some of its sauciest hymns to the flesh — Models Inc., Melrose Place, Beverly Hills, 90210 — is suddenly boiling over with the power of the spirit.
''This year Tori, my little daughter, came over to the house and said, 'I've got a concept for a series, Dad!' '' says Spelling, rolling with the enthusiasm of a Pentecostal preacher. ''And she had a series about a teenage angel. It's so strange what is happening! I don't know what it is. Maybe,'' he offers, ''we're all just looking for angels.''
The veteran producer isn't just looking for seraphim — he's banking on them. Spelling's new syndicated series, Heaven Help Us, is only a slight variation on his daughter's theme: It follows the paranormal adventures of two babelicious newlyweds who, after a fatal plane crash en route to their honeymoon, find out that they're going to have to earn their wings through a series of good deeds.
Their guide? ''Super Angel'' Ricardo Montalban.
If it seems a mite weird that Spelling, the same guy who once blessed America with the heavenly bodies of Charlie's Angels, is now giving more marketing weight to the ''heavenly'' than to the ''bodies,'' consider the climate. In a year when the TV airwaves are aflutter with winged spirits, the best- seller lists are clogged with divine manuscripts and visions of the afterlife, and gangsta rappers are elbowed aside on the pop charts for the hushed prayers of Benedictine monks, you don't have to look hard to find that pop culture is going gaga for spirituality.
''It is a huge awakening,'' intones the prophet Spelling. ''A huge awakening! And I think we're going to see more of it instead of less.''
He may be right — but then again, how much more can we take? These days, the Supreme Being seems to have His magic fingers in everything.
Of course, actually defining Spirituality '94 presents a challenge. Seekers of the day are apt to peel away the tough theological stuff and pluck out the most dulcet elements of faith, coming up with a soothing sampler of Judeo-Christian imagery (monks and angels, sans the righteous anger and guilt), Eastern meditation, self-help lingo, a vaguely conservative craving for ''virtue,'' and a loopy New Age pursuit of ''peace.'' This happy free-for-all, appealing to Baptists and stargazers alike, comes off more like Forrest Gump's ubiquitous ''boxa choclits'' than like any real system of belief. You never know what you're gonna get.
Lately, in fact, Hollywood's version of the Shroud of Turin could be Forrest Gump itself. With that film chugging toward a whopping $300 million take at the box office — and spinning off both the resurrection of Winston Groom's 1986 novel and its own book of soul-enriching proverbs (piously called Gumpisms) — it's no surprise that some of Hollywood's luminaries are starting to see Tom Hanks' good-natured moron as the Messiah. ''I got a call from my grandmother in Brooklyn on Saturday,'' says Gump coproducer Wendy Finerman. ''She told me that the rabbi said at temple that we all have to be much kinder to each other, just like Forrest Gump.''
Thus inspired, publishers and producers are stepping up the quest for the next soulful blockbuster. Joan of Arc is once again a hot movie subject, intriguing the likes of Winona Ryder; Michael Tolkin's darkly comic movie about L.A. seekers, The New Age, just hit theaters; and God's Army — a ''theological thriller'' about a renegade pack of angels, starring Eric Stoltz and Christopher Walken — is in the can.
Of the film projects in development, would you believe:
*On the Wings of Giants. A TV journalist makes his way into the
mountains of Tibet in this $40 million tale of ''monks, metaphysics,
and love'' from Douglas Day Stewart, screenwriter of the upcoming Scarlet Letter.
*The Postman. The tale of a postapocalyptic mailman who develops a
messianic following. (Big surprise: Forrest Gump's Steve Tisch is one
of this film's producers.)
*Paradise, Kansas. One Hollywood producer calls this script about
storm trackers and a teenage boy with the gift of prophecy ''half
action picture, half religious picture.''
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