Main cast: Gary Busey (Reverend Nolan Powers), Geraldine Page (Lynette Powers), Robert Ito (Eric Sato), Brioni Farrell (Darlene), and Page Fletcher (The Hitchhiker)
Director: Mike Hodges

W.G.O.D. is the radio station owned by evangelist Reverend Nolan Powers, which comes complete with the “tower of power”, as he puts it. His radio show is very successful, and he’s made a lot of money out of it. Clearly, the big dude upstairs is generous when it comes to his employees’ salaries.

Unfortunately, nosy Eric Sato of the Weekend Watchdog show is determined to profile him on the show. Nolan tells him, hey, the hero of the story is god, and that fellow has nothing to hide. However, like most famous people, Nolan has skeletons in his closet, skeletons that will damage his reputation and maybe even get him in deep trouble with the law if they were to be made public. Uh oh, indeed.

Then comes the weird calls from listeners that accuse him of things related to his skeletons, as if these folks knew him in the most disturbing ways…

W.G.O.D. completes the transformation of The Hitchhiker from soft porn prime time to a more mainstream, semi-respectable show, as it shies completely from even making any half-hearted pretense to gratuitous nudity and sex. Instead, this one is all about the suspense, and it is lucky that they have Gary Busey in the lead role because Mr Busey on his own carries this episode on his shoulders straight to the finish line.

Mr Busey’s manic yet charismatic turn as Nolan makes up 90% of why one would ever want to keep watching this episode after the opening scene of Page Fletcher, with his legs splayed and basket thrust forward at the audience, ends. He can do crazy well when the scene calls for it—well, it is Gary Busey we’re talking about here—and he can also a wounded kind of manic that makes his character somewhat sympathetic as well.

However, the episode itself is nothing special. It’s basically another take on the whole not-so-holier-than-thou preacher man story line that has been many times before, and it is actually pretty easy to guess the big reveal at the end of the episode, or how the whole thing will play out.

Hence, this episode is basically what happens when these people have a pedestrian script and then decide to get Gary Busey to carry the whole thing on his own. Sure, he succeeds, but folks looking for something fresh and different may be disappointed nonetheless. Come for the Busey, stay for the Busey.