Real stories that have turned into movies or serials have always attracted the audience. Public figures such as politicians, preachers or any kind of authority have always transferred some kind of intimate interest in every watcher. To discover their secrets, their drug addictions and their sexual lives, well, that it something worth to watch!

That is the case of “The Trials of Ted Haggard,” the TV series that start tonight on HBO. Produced by Alexandra Pelosi, daughter of Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, the series tell the story of Ted Haggard, the preacher nullified by the church after he had had a sexual relationship with a male prostitute. Later, Haggard also admitted the drug use.

The determined advertising made on Haggard’s story actually promoted the story otherwise. The male prostitute was the one who had been obliged to disclose the kind of relationship he and Pastor Ted had had. “The Oprah Winfrey Show” also hosted the former minister so the series might be a little irrelevant, concerning the fact that the press and the minister himself had already disclosed all the spicy information.

Still, the series might become a nice and heartbreaking weekly show which could win the hearts of many viewers. Its intention is not to reveal Ted Haggard’s secrets like making a documentary, but to show the inner sensations felt by a man who had strongly struggled to destroy two identities inside him.

After several episodes, the audience might also forget from where the story came once they reveal their minds to see inside Haggard’s deceptions, prayers and struggles. The most awkward thing about the making of the series is that Pelosi had encountered Pastor Ted when she wanted to make a movie about evangelicals. At that time, the scandal didn’t break and Haggard acted like a tour guide of the evangelicals’ lives.

When Pelosi finished the series “Friends of God,” all about Haggard’s actions came to surface. The director said that she had been in shock but decided to follow the minister and his family on their way from Colorado to Arizona, where they had been sent in exile.

After the New Life Church expelled Haggard, his family was also banished from the ministry and the state of Colorado. Another agreement between Haggard and the church was that including the payment of more than $100,000.

Haggard was banished from the leadership positions he used to have in November 2006 after he had admitted his sexual affairs with Mike Jones. In addition, Haggard also admitted the use of methamphetamine. At first, the ex-Pastor Ted tried to deny all of it, but as the investigations proceeded in finding him guilty, he had no other choice than to add the “sexual immortality” to his list of confessions.

Haggard had to enter three weeks of intensive counseling which had been overseen by four ministers.