Watching Jericho

NOTE: The following is just an opinion piece from your friendly neighborhood blog writer. Take that as you will.

I’ve been trying to think of why it is that I seem to be the Kiss of Death to some TV shows (See: The 4400, Journeyman, Dresden Files, etc.). I’m sure that I’m not alone in this feeling, as I hear it quite often from friends and even strangers. While I can’t shake the feeling that I am this Harbinger of Doom to some series, I really think I can lay the second cancellation of Jericho mainly at CBS’s feet, not at mine. Ok, maybe not “mainly”, but there were some seemingly purposeful “mistakes” on CBS’s part that truly hurt the show.

Item 1 – Waiting until the Writer’s Strike was nearly over to actually show the 7 episode drama which had already been shot Pre-Writer’s Strike.
Ok, ok… we get it, CBS. You were just waiting for the “right moment”… but you know what, the right moment would have been to show it when people were truly in a fix to watch something on television, say, early December? You’ve got a ready-made audience that you could have tapped who were looking for Good Television around that time.

Item 2 – 10p.m. Tuesday Time Slot
10 p.m. on a Tuesday is usually a time reserved in my house of prepping for the next day, then going to sleep. Who’s bright and shiny idea was it to put it in a slot which most people only have the option of recording the show for playback later, completely missing their voice? This, beyond most everything else, showed me that CBS was pandering to the Nuts Campaign and just wanted us to go away quietly.

Item 3 – Spectacularly Bad Return Episode(s)
So this one isn’t actually CBS’s fault, but I have to include it in my list. As I’ve said before, the first two episodes stunk for me. That was not the show that I fell in love with last season, the show that I fought for, and felt elated when we actually won. Up until the third episode, I wondered who had gotten a hold of the Jericho name and put some random crap up on my television screen.

Those are my Top Three Reasons as to why Jericho got axed. I know that I have more, but after writing those out, I think I need a breather and some meditation to calm down.

Why do you think they cancelled it again? Am I completely off-base here, or do I have a point?

And here we are again… CBS has canceled Jericho, the Hollywood Reporter is reporting.

To be perfectly honest, it doesn’t really surprise me at all. The post on the cancellation over at TV Squad brings up some of the reasons why I’m not surprised.

I guess this was inevitable. CBS only OK’d seven episodes for the second season, and it was probably going to take enormous ratings for the show to see a third season, and we knew that wasn’t going to happen. The ratings for the second season were lower than ratings for the first season. Which is really too bad, since this was a quite a good little drama.

They also bring up the fact that this time, sending out the nuts probably won’t be helping… which I agree with. Maybe it’s just that I’m a little jaded at this point, but the only thing that I really see as a survival for this show at this point is simply moving to a new network. Let’s just make sure that the first episodes over at its new home are a little more interesting than the ones on our short season, ya hear, Powers That Be?

Carol Barbee recently gave an interview with SCI FI Wire which lends itself to what happens if CBS drops the ball again, which could be a move to the SciFi Channel.

Just in case CBS does pull the trigger on Jericho, Barbee said she’s already begun looking for a new home on cable television. “There were other people who were interested in us to begin with, and now, I think, with the whole nuts [fan] campaign, and also with the amazing reviews that we’ve gotten for these seven episodes, I feel like we have made this franchise more valuable to a cable network who would want to take us on as a niche market,” Barbee said.

She goes on to talk about the fact that SciFi is a natural network to look to, since they have been airing reruns from the first season.

So tell me, what do you think of the possibility of moving to SciFi? I know that some of my favorite shows have done this before (Stargate: SG1, anyone?) with success.

So, with the close of this week, we’re now officially over half-way through the season, and I have to say…. I finally like it.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m over the moon when it comes to the fact that it’s just back on the air at all, but I truly didn’t like the first two episodes (Reconstruction and Condor), and had you asked me after watching just those two episodes, the only redeeming value I found from them were Chavez and Beck. All of our tried and true returning characters dropped the ball, in my opinion. Which I think is why I’ve had such a hard time getting up the energy to write up any true recaps for these episodes for the second season.

Then came Jennings & Rall, and I finally saw a good chunk of the great storytelling and the characters that I fell in love with back and ready to roll. I came back to caring as to whether or not Jericho Kansas existed in my mind, and wondered with everyone else what the hell was going to happen.

That’s right… search through the archives over on your right, and you’ll see how much energy I’ve invested in this show and these characters over the past year and a half, and I just couldn’t seem to care about them for the first two episodes.

I was almost afraid that Jennings & Rall was a fluke, given that the first two episodes were disappointing to me, so I didn’t stress when I missed watching Oversight and just made sure it was on my DVR. I played it last night, and I’ve only got three no, four words for y’all.

Oh. My. God. Wow.

I couldn’t escape that I knew that someone was going to die, and even who it was* (Nope, not placing that one above the fold, just in case there’s folks out there who haven’t seen it yet) because, well, I live (and work) on the internet. But even knowing, it was still one of those moments in television that comes up and knocks you upside the head. And not only that scene in this episode, but most every bit of this episode was spectacular. Really spectacular.

I’m just hoping that the first two episodes were a fluke instead of the other way ’round. What do y’all think?

Read the rest of this entry »

… Long time between talks, eh?

But, our conversations are going to need to wait just a little while longer, as I’ve recorded Jericho, but I fell asleep too early due to a nasty migraine and didn’t get a chance to actually watch it.

Stay tuned, guys, ok?

If you’re like most Jericho fans, you just can’t get enough of Skeet Ulrich, our adorable Jake Green, never fear, because not only is Jericho returning in February, but we also have a new movie which Skeet will be appearing in called Armored, also starring Matt Dillion (Crash), Zap2It is reporting.

Looking over the IMDB profile set up for the movie doesn’t really give us much of any information (including the fact that Skeet has been signed on for this picture) as most of the movies listed as “in production” end up with on IMDB’s site, and a quick Google search doesn’t provide much more information outside of the synopsis (read one of the more in-depth synopsises), I have this odd feeling that Jericho fans will be out in droves to see Skeet return to the big screen when this is released.

In the interest of full disclosure, though, I have to say that this movie sounds a touch like Chill Factor, also starring Mr. Ulrich, and I truly, truly disliked that movie. Not even having Skeet in it really made it any better for me to sit through, and that’s saying something. But, I’m still holding out high hopes that this Armored kicks Chill Factor’s derrière. I can already tell from the cast that I’ve got nothing to worry about on that end. (And, no, I really wasn’t working for that pun at all)

Read the article here from Zap2It and check out the IMDB profile for the movie Armored.

NOTE: Please don’t click “Play” on the video below unless you would like to see a sneak peek of what’s going to happen (and have some questions answered on the time directly after the end of season one).

In other words, this video needs a splash screen that says “SPOILER ALERT”.

After reading and hearing about this season two preview on the most wonderful youtube, I finally got a blissful moment this morning to go on the hunt for CBS’s Jericho Season Two Preview set to “Tick Tick Boom” by the Hives (one of my favorite bands of the moment to make this just a little more special).

As I sat around doing overtime at my day job during the holidays, weeping into my festive alcoholic beverage of choice when I could because of the 4400 getting canceled (along with Journeyman not getting picked up for more episodes, for those playing at home), and trying to figure out how best to spend my time to help out those glorious causes and get even more decent programming to stay on the air, the one thing that really kept my spirits up was the announcement that I would only have to wait until February to see my beloved Jericho back on the air. And now to keep me just a little more patient CBS has given me something to keep me going in this season two preview, which I appreciate.

My thoughts on some of the scenes (ok, actually just one that blew me away) in this preview are below the fold, in case anyone doesn’t want to know at least some of the outcome after the end of season one.

Read the rest of this entry »

And here’s something I can’t tell you how long I’ve wanted to post here.

seattlepi.com is reporting that Jericho will be returning to television on February 12, 2008, at what could possibly be its new regular time slot of 10pm ET that Tuesday.

The Press Release that the article shows announcing Jericho’s return doesn’t seem to give any more information outside of the fact that we’re finally getting our seven episodes, but on a selfish level I do hope that they keep Jericho at Tuesdays at 10pm, since I currently don’t have anything that I watch at that time. I would and will shuffle schedules for Jericho, but it is somewhat nice to not have to worry about it.

That Great Sigh of Relief you heard coming from Atlanta? Yeah, that was me this morning.

Read the whole article here, as it also has some information on Law and Order and some other shows that I enjoy.

Jericho, television, Second Season, TV, Nuts, CBS

I’ve cross-posted something in a similar vein over at Watching the 4400. If you’re like me and adore both Jericho and the 4400, go on and check it out.

I’m hoping that since you’re a reader of this blog, that you, like me, love a good television show that keeps you on your toes and keeps you thinking. If so, please tell me that you’ve checked out Journeyman over at NBC. I’m not the only one of the people that were involved in the Save Jericho Campaign that has become really invested in this new show on NBC, as Shaun over at Shaun O’Mac Radio tonight will be talking about a new campaign that he’d love to see get off the ground to Save Journeyman by sending Aspirin to NBC.

I’ve been getting into Journeyman lately, first as something that snagged my attention away from obsessing about when CBS was going to start showing the seven Jericho episodes that were in the can (listen, if there’s a Writer’s Strike going on, wouldn’t you be putting on things that are already done instead of more Reality Television?). Now I’m completely invested in Journeyman, for the same reasons that I’m invested in Jericho and The 4400. If you haven’t seen Journeyman yet, you can check out the episodes online at NBC.com.

So, check in to Shaun’s show tonight (10pm ET or 7pm PT) on Blog Talk Radio and I’m going to try and get my voice back enough to call in and you might hear something special that I’ll be doing with this blog and the Watching the 4400 blog to help support Journeyman. I’ve got a bad cold, so if my voice just isn’t up to it, just check back tomorrow here or on Watching the 4400, ok?

Jericho, television, Journeyman, TV, 4400, CBS

Yeah, I’m just a little behind lately.

It hasn’t helped that the Writer’s Strike, while starting to wind down, is the only thing that I can find anything about on the Great and Powerful Interwebs when it comes to Entertainment News. Jericho made a little bit of a splash in regards to the Strike when it first began, because it’s one of those shows that CBS could pull out of the can and show if the Strike lasts longer than what’s on its current schedule, but I have this strange feeling that they are trying very hard not to recognize that. Maybe it’s my latent pessimism.

On a more optimistic note, I noticed that Hannah over at Watching Supernatural had a wonderful post a little while back about a new group called We Are Fandom. What’s it about? The promote_spn community over at LiveJournal has much to say on this.

There are lots of different fandoms online, and some of them are in the same boat we’re in — their show is in danger of not coming back, or has already been cancelled. We’ve all seen ‘Save Our Show’ campaigns mounted by hopeful fandoms, and some of them seem to be successful. At their core, those fandoms are a lot like us, and they need the same thing we need — viewers. So we thought, what if we combined our numbers? Why not get fans of a couple of shows working together to support both shows? Both shows will benefit, both fandoms will benefit.

They cite The Nuts Campaign as one of the shining points of fans bonding together to save a show, and propose a collective grouping for Jericho and Supernatural fans to support one another.

Arabelle’s Alley has been posting Jericho/Supernatural posts over on their blog, getting the ball rolling, so to speak. Why don’t you help out too?

P.S. I am planning a big Christmas in Jericho Giveaway starting in the beginning of December… keep your eyes peeled for some great stuff.

I received this email this morning, and thought I should share it.

have received the following message and been asked to spread it far and wide. The message is authentic. Please feel free to post it on your respective boards and blogs. (Also note that because of the content and the YouTube link, posting this on CBS might be an instant recipe for deletion and banning. I’m not going to do that, but feel free to try if you’re so inclined.)

The message didn’t come from me; it comes from the “creative family of Jericho” and should be credited as such. I have not yet seen the video.

Dear Jericho Rangers:

As you probably know, the writers’ union has gone on strike against the studios and now your favorite TV shows, including JERICHO, are in jeopardy.

But what you may not know, is the truth behind it all.

Last summer, the Jericho Rangers ran one of the most successful grassroots campaigns in history. With that in mind, we would be so grateful if you could post the following link wherever you can:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=oJ55Ir2jCxk

This video, appropriately entitled WHY WE FIGHT, is a very accurate and fair description of why the writers are striking.

If after you’ve watched this video, you would like to make a difference, please let the studios and networks know that you support the writers in their fight for a fair contract in order to get your shows back on the air. The writers also ask that you do not purchase and download TV shows and/or watch the TV shows that are streamed online by their networks until this strike is resolved.

Thank you for all you have done!

Signed,
Your Jericho Family

“Getting answers is easy… It’s getting the truth that takes work”
–Robert Hawkins

Things are just a touch hectic around my own personal world right now, but here are some links to keep your appetite up for all things Jericho while I try and work on some real posts. Mainly this list is in thanks to the Jericho Times, which helps keep me on my toes and in the know (sue me, I HAD to do that) in regards to news of Jericho. Why aren’t you subscribed yet?

• Jericho Junction breaks down the major timelines for the Save Jericho campaign and asks Where is CBS now?
• The Randomness Blog is asking for Everyone to Digg Jericho and gives you some great reasons why you should.
• Copywrite, Ink, one of the best blogs out there who’s been with the Nuts Campaign since it began, also chimes in about Digging Jericho, with Digging In: Jericho Rangers.
• Jericho Central has a great Jericho Scavenger Hunt going on, which I adore the idea of. Of course, I’m just a sucker for a good Scavenger Hunt.
• Watch with Kristen may have some good news for us if this lead pans out, when she tells us that Jericho may just be back on Sundays, at 8 p.m., which would put it opposite of football and Extreme Home Makeover. So, somewhat good and somewhat not - so - good news. (story is about half-way down page)
• BuddyTV has a sweet article about how Skeet Ulrich is really proud of Jericho’s Success, spotlighting the fans as the best asset to the Nuts Campaign.

Have you read anything really great recently in regards to News about Jericho that I haven’t spotlighted above? Leave a link in the comments.

Jericho, TV, television, CBS

Alicia Coppola, our favorite sympathetic chicken neck wringing Mimi Clark on Jericho, is set to star in the movie “Black Widow” on Lifetime Television with Elizabeth Berkley (Saved By the Bell, Showgirls), says Reuters Online. Now, I won’t beat around the bush, I am looking forward to her role in “National Treasure: Book of Secrets” a touch more than say, a Lifetime “Woman in Peril” Movie of the Week, but at least this one seems a little bit interesting via the plot listed on Reuters Online.

“The thriller revolves around a journalist (Coppola) who suspects that her close friend has fallen for a woman (Berkley) who murdered her previous husbands.”

Yeah, I know, there has to be a murder and first off, a woman who’s up to No Good along with a woman who’s On To Her, but it is called “Black Widow”, so what do you want?

I went looking for more information on the movie via IMDB, but came up a little short, with the “complete plot synopsis” just being someone who seems to have some unresolved issues when it come to Elizabeth Berkley. Going through the Official Lifetime Television site seems to lead to nothing also, since every time I tried their search function it would return a blank screen instead of results. With the release date posted on the IMDB Profile for the movie, though (November 15, for those interested), I would have thought that I could find some promo information easier. Maybe it’s just me, though.

Jericho, Alicia Coppola, Mimi Clark, Black Widow, TV, television, CBS

I would be filing this post under the “WHAT are they thinking?!?!?!” category…

SyFy Portal is reporting that Pamela Reed, the rock of the town of Jericho as Gail Green, will not be returning to the show after the short, seven - episode season due to the fact that she was never offered a new contract by CBS. Why are they not offering her a new contract? Because of ageism, Pamela said at a recent panel on ageism at the Los Angeles Femme Film Festival.

“The average age of actors on that show is under 40, and those of us over 40 are gone,” the 58-year-old actress said, according to Film Stew.

SyFy Portal does go on to say that this doesn’t mean that she won’t be in the upcoming seven – episode short season, because those were shot before her contract expired, which makes me feel a little better about this, but only by a slim margin. I’m extremely disturbed that they decided not to extend her a contract because the character of Gail Green really is a cornerstone for the town of Jericho, and I’m trying to figure out how they will be able to not completely change the show and everything to do with the general feel since the characters will have lost both Johnston and now Gail. I’m also upset at this news because Gail, while occasionally a bit irritating, was one of those characters that I really loved and thought always moved the plot along for this atmosphere, and I think that the show will suffer from “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” disease if they only show the under - 40 crowd and how they deal with what has happened. (Disclaimer: I am part of that under – 40 crowd.)

Read the whole article here.

Jericho, Pamela Reed, Gail+Green, ageism, TV, television, CBS

Yesterday we posted about Shaun of Shaun O’ Mac Radio was hospitalized on Monday. I’m happy to say that he has been released now, and he posted to his Blog Talk Radio blog that he’ll be back on the air Monday, October 15.

I am so happy to see that’s he is back in the comfort of his home, and that he is taking some time off to help get better. Feel better, ok?