Jericho: Tonight is the night

There is no way the summer viewings of Jericho can live up to the hype. They’re showing on Friday nights and starting halfway through the season. But finally, at long last, Jericho will be in prime time for all of America. I highly recommend watching this. In fact, you should tape it and watch it again later. Get all your friends to watch. Watch it online. Write to CBS and tell them you liked it. Send them nuts. All of these things are very good ideas.

Seriously, just watch. You’ll be glad you did.

Jericho Returns! July 6th, 2007

A note on the Jericho website proudly proclaims:

JERICHO, CBS’s drama about how residents of a small, peaceful, Kansas town band together to survive in the wake of a nuclear explosion, will return to the Network beginning Friday, July 6 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT). Rebroadcasts of episodes from the first season will air in the Friday, 9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT time period for the remainder of the summer.

JERICHO, which last week received a seven episode mid-season order following an impassioned display of fan support, will return on July 6 with a rebroadcast of the pilot episode. On July 13, CBS will present back-to-back broadcasts beginning with “Return to Jericho” (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT), which recapped the first 11 episodes, followed by episode 12, “The Day Before” (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT), which launched “Jericho’s” spring return.

The remaining summer broadcasts will consist of episodes 13–22, in which tensions continue to escalate between Jericho and the neighboring town of New Bern as they battle the Kansas winter, dwindling resources and the uncertainty of a new world. The citizens of Jericho must now find a way to unite against these hardships, working together to preserve their community and their way of life as they prepare for an all out battle for survival in the season finale.

Given the shortened schedule, showing Return to Jericho seems quite reasonable. That way, fans will see what happened and get right into the meat of things. I hope dearly that fans are not confused when they settle down to watch Episode 13. The good news is that all of the episodes are available online through CBS InnerTube, so fans that want to get caught up have a way to do that.

Obviously, I encourage everyone who reads this to watch the show, although the Friday night slot seems rough. CBS seemed pretty steadfast in their opposition to online views and time-delayed views, and I would think that Friday at 9 PM would lead to a lot of both.

Either way, it’s good to see Jericho back on the air, and I hope it garners a big following this summer.

Saved Jericho

In a statement from CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler to fans of the show, it was confirmed that Jericho is back:

Over the past few weeks you have put forth an impressive and probably unprecedented display of passion in support of a prime time television series. You got our attention; your emails and collective voice have been heard.

As a result, CBS has ordered seven episodes of “Jericho” for mid-season next year.

Obviously, this is good news. We get answers to all of the questions we thought we’d ponder forever. The full text of the statement is available on the CBS message board.

Jericho: “The Beard” speaks!

Tim Omundson, who plays Phil Constantino, the baddest of the bad guys on Jericho, posted on the CBS message board with his thoughts on the show’s cancellation. It’s been interesting to hear from all of the cast members, but Omundson really stole the show.

Guest Starring can be a lonely thing. It’s like being invited to a great party where you have to mingle but you don’t know anyone…except for maybe one or two of the caterers. This job was the exact opposite. The JERICHO Family (cast, crew, writers, production staff) was one of the best groups of people I’ve had the pleasure to work.

Here’s hoping Timmy gets to have that experience a few more times… before he meets a gruesome death sometime in Season 2.

Incidentally, we will definitely be getting more Timothy Omunson soon… he will return this summer as the good-guy foil on Psych.

Jericho: A matter of time

At this point, I am fairly convinced that Jericho is going to be renewed for Season 2. There are a lot of intricacies here, not the least of which is the schedule; if Jericho gets put into a fall timeslot, another show will lose that timeslot. That means CBS is on the hook to explain to viewers, and to people involved with that show, exactly why they were cut. That can’t be fun.

Or maybe Jericho will be the replacement for the first show canceled. But that kills a lot of marketing potential, and the timeslot might not be ideal anyway.

And clearly, there are contract issues. I am sure the cast and crew of Jericho have been searching for other opportunities in the two weeks since the cancellation. What if a major character got another deal? CBS would have to buy out the other contract, which takes a lot of money, a lot of goodwill, and most importantly, a lot of time. But when it’s that or a season without, say, Stanley Richmond, I think the answer is obvious.

All of these solutions are possible and generally straightforward, but they all take time. And until all of the pieces are in place, nothing should be announced. That’s why CBS has been quiet. It takes time to make these things happen, and possibly a lot of time. I am guessing that sometime around the end of June, the particulars will be worked out and Jericho will be on the way back. I mean, that’s the logical answer, right? All the polls and petitions and nuts and message board posts and magazine ads and podcasts are pretty strong evidence. CBS can’t possibly pass up that kind of passion, publicity and population. It will just take time.

The battle should continue, as intensely as ever. Here is a good place to have your voice heard. But hopefully, the war has already been won.

“Save Jericho” is officially a phenomenon

The Save Jericho campaign is in full steam. To recap, a lot of fans have:
- Created YouTube tribute videos
- Sent many pounds of nuts to CBS offices
- Made several executives change email addresses

And, now, according to one blog, the fans have changed Googles result-count the for “Save Jericho” phrase. A blog called Find The Boots has some very intelligent insight on viral marketing and what has happened in the last week. And one other interesting thought:

I’d like to think that this was a masterful stroke on the part of CBS — they announced the cancellation without the intent of actually canceling it, so they could bring it back with a huge groundswell. They may have known how dedicated the fans were based upon the web activity. In which case they have pulled off the most amazing viral marketing campaign in the history of the web, but they can’t tell anyone about it.

Is it working? It seems we might have to wait awhile to find out.

L.A. Times article about Jericho campaign

Maria Elena Fernandez of the L.A. Times has found a way to fill up her mailbox. She wrote an article about the Nina Tassler website post, and apparently it has filled her mailbox. Here is the response I got:

If you are a Jericho junkie, please read this. If you are not and are
trying to reach me for business purposes, I am sorry to bog you down with this and I will write back to you as soon as I can. Thank you for understanding.

Jericho junkies: I admire your passion and appreciate the feedback on my story but so many of you are contacting me that my InBox is shutting down repeatedly. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE direct your thoughts to the message board next to the Jericho story on www.latimes.com. We appreciate it.

There it is. She obviously found a great topic to write about, and after her email box clears out in a few months, she’ll look back on her moment in the sun and smile. I can only hope she’s a fan of the show and will help in the battle to get it back on television.

The article also mentions that CBS plans to bring closure to fans. I envision this as a piece of fiction on the website, and am not expecting much more. But perhaps there could be a movie, or a miniseries, or even a reconsidered second season. I don’t really feel like settling for much less than that.

More Jericho from CBS

Here’s an official statement from CBS about fan reaction to the cancellation of Jericho

To the fans of Jericho:

We have read your emails over the past few days and have been touched by the depth and passion with which you have expressed your disappointment. Please know that canceling a television series is a very difficult decision. Hundreds of people at the Network, the production company and the incredibly-talented creative team worked very hard to build and serve the community for this show — both on-air and online. It is a show we loved too.

Thank you for supporting Jericho with such passion. We truly appreciate the commitment you made to the series and we are humbled by your disappointment. In the coming weeks, we hope to develop a way to provide closure to the compelling drama that was the Jericho story.

Sincerely,

Nina Tassler, President of CBS Entertainment

Closure is good, I guess. There’s really been a ton of support, including several YouTube mashups, and I’m guessing CBS has taken notice.

I am trying to imagine the conversation between CBS execs. I mean, what were the arguments for scrapping the show? Surely, there had to be other shows to get rid of…

Jericho: The Mayor responds to cancellation

Michael Gaston who played Gray Anderson on Jericho, posted on the message board of the show’s official website. In the Mayor’s post, he reveals a little about the state of mind of the Jericho family.

Many of you have posted here that you’re curious about how we are taking the cancellation and why we haven’t posted anything in these boards. The fact is that most of us are devastated. I wouldn’t dare try to speak for all of the cast and crew, but I can tell you that I’ve spoken to or exchanged e-mails with about 50 people from the JERICHO family and we are shocked and depressed by the networks decision.

Interestingly enough, we thought the biggest disaster in Jericho was nuclear war…

RIP Jericho: Johnston wasn’t the only death

The biggest bummer of late has to be the cancellation of Jericho, perhaps the best show on television. An outrageous premise definitely lived up to it’s promise. Great acting, and a very intriguing plot that basically ran itself. I guess we’ll be left wondering about the storylines: Who will win the war with New Bern? Will Mimi and Stanley ever get married? Will Dale ever take his rightful place as the main villain? What really happened in Jake’s past? Or Hawkins’ past?

I guess we’ll never get the answers to these questions. It’s a shame. Maybe they’ll bring his show back somehow, either on another channel or in the summer or something. All I know is that I will miss it.

One of the more underrated elements of this show was the opening sequence. The morse code always spelled something out, and it always meant something. Wikipedia has a list of the morse code words. The most interesting one is from the episode Semper Fidelis, the code is THEY WILL NEED IT. This, of couse, is the episode in which Jericho acquired a tank. The same tank that, seven episodes later, was really needed, and helped in the war against New Bern.