Watching Jericho

Fallout! (part of Kryptonsite) has some spoilers up at their site in regards to tonight’s episode. I’m posting the quote below because you could find this information out from just watching the ads for tonight’s episode.

“Black Jack” — As winter approaches, Jake and Johnston are joined by Dale and Heather on a trip to a trading post several hours outside of town in search of equipment to fix the local windmill, on JERICHO, Wednesday, Feb. 28 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

All I have to say is Yeah, Heather’s (Sprague Grayden) back!

See all the spoilers here for this and upcoming episodes.

Jericho, Black Jack, spoilers, Sprague Grayden, Heather Lisinski, TV, television, CBS

Attention all Stanley and Mimi (Steamy!) fans! Alicia Coppola, who plays Mimi Clark, has been moved from a recurring guest character on Jericho to a regular cast member, says the Hollywood Reporter (link is to movieweb.com, since it doesn’t require paid registration).

I’m so glad that we’ll be seeing more of everyone’s favorite Fish Out of Water IRS auditor, especially to see how the relationship between Stanley (Brad Beyer) and her grows. Maybe it’s just that I’m partial to non-triangle relationships, a la the Jake/Heather/Emily (and now adding in Roger - does that make it a square relationship?) relationship, which I’ve not been terribly fond of. While Stanley and Mimi’s relationship is a touch textbook in its opposites-attract theory, it seems less contrived than Jake and his “playa” status. Of course, if we could just have Sprague Grayden (Heather) back in the show…

As to Alicia Coppola the actress, I’ve been a fan of hers since my college-era soap opera marathons, with her playing the wonderfully wicked Lorna Devon on Another World, and she’s got a long career with playing a multitude of characters on television. While Alicia shares the famous Coppola name, she isn’t a relation to Francis Ford.

Alicia Coppola’s IMDB listing.

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

While I love doing recaps of the shows, I’m short on time to really devote to doing a lot with them at the moment. Thankfully, there are plenty of places out there in the wonderful world of the internet that you can read all the recaps that you can handle.

• Television Without Pity - Jericho Recaps
• Taking Action: Jericho
• Fangasm - Jericho
• TV.com - Jericho

Have you found a recap site for Jericho that I don’t have listed here? Let me know!

Jericho, Jericho+Recap, TV, television, CBS

While I would love to say that Jericho held its own with American Idol last week, but I’d be lying.

In the fall, Jericho did not have to compete against the unstoppable ratings juggernaut that is American Idol. I’m sure CBS was hoping that the American Idol viewers wouldn’t overlap with the Jericho fans. They thought wrong. Everybody watches American Idol, and no one seems willing to give up their Idol fix in favor of anything else being offered on TV.
Jericho is just one in the line of many shows who have been decimated by the American Idol empire. It’s unfortunate. This bizarre scenario is getting to the point where other networks might as well not even try to put anything against American Idol. It’s not Jericho’s fault, really. No one wants a piece of Idol these days, nor should they. Even Lost, one of the most popular shows on TV, boasting maybe the most loyal fan base in all of television, had to change time slots to avoid American Idol.

So, Jericho fans, don’t worry. Your show isn’t getting less popular, it’s just being steamrolled by Idol. Like every other show on TV.

I’ve actually never watched an episode of American Idol, but I know that I’m a strange anomaly out there in America right now. But, I’ve never been terribly fond of a lot of reality TV anyway.

Here’s to hoping that this week is much kinder to Jericho.

Read the whole article here.

Jericho, Michael Gaston, Gray Anderson, TV, television, CBS

BuddyTV has an exclusive interview with Michael Gaston, who plays Gray Anderson, newly-elected mayor and salt mine owner of Jericho. He talks about how he got into acting (He initially wanted to be a teacher, but the teachers that he talked to said that it was a thankless career) and how he got involved with Jericho. He said that he was initially approached to play Johnston, but after reading through the pilot script, decided that Gray Anderson looked more interesting, and closer to his age. They told him to prep both for the audition, and ended up getting the offer from Jericho at the same time as an offer came through for another TV show.

I actually auditioned for a show called Standoff and had been offered a part on that, and so this was the first time in my life that I had two people that wanted me at the same time and it really worked in my favor. Jericho made an offer really fast and I was ecstatic because I was so thrilled by the idea and the part, and John Turtletaub, who I’m just a huge fan of, and there couldn’t be a better guy who was going to direct it and executive produce it and put together the whole team, and I’m not kidding when I say that it’s the best professional experience I’ve had in the 20 years of doing this. It’s the greatest group of people, the material is great. Really smart smart actors who are really dedicated. Even one of the grips told me he’s been doing this for 30 years; he said it’s the most fun he’s had going to work his career. It’s just a great situation.

I, for one, think that he made the right decision in going with Jericho. Of course, Gray’s the guy we love to hate, but that just makes him more memorable.

Read the whole interview here.

Jericho, Michael Gaston, Gray Anderson, TV, television, CBS

Watch the full episode here.

From CBS.com:
Parts of Jake and Hawkins’ pasts are revealed with a flashback to 36 hours before the bombs went off. The day before the explosions, Jake is in San Diego trying unsuccessfully to make an honest living, while Hawkins’ mysterious past is furthered by his association with a woman named Sarah. Emily’s fiancé, Roger, heads to Chicago for a job interview that Emily is not happy about. Meanwhile, in the present day, refugees including Roger and Sarah arrive in Jericho bringing more questions with them.

Originally aired: Wednesday February 21, 2007 on CBS
Writer: Mike Kelley
Director: Matt Earl Beesley

Recap below the fold…

Jericho, The Day Before, TV, television, CBS

(more…)

While not as successful as Lost, Jericho has garnered a nomination from the Academy of Science Fiction Fantasy and Horror with their 32nd Annual Saturn Awards for “Best Network Television Series (about half way down the page).

The Full List is below in this category:

HEROES (NBC/Universal)
JERICHO (CBS)
LOST (ABC)
SMALLVILLE (CW)
24 (Fox)
VERONICA MARS (CW)

To share the spotlight with such breakout hits as Heroes, Lost and 24 and the others is more than I could have hoped for this freshman hit, and I’m really really hoping that they end up getting the award.

See the complete list here.

Jericho, Saturn Awards, Academy of Science Fiction Fantasy and Horror, Lost, Heroes, Smallville, 24, Veronica Mars, TV, television, CBS

Can’t wait until tomorrow to get a sneak peek at what’s going to happen for Jericho’s new episode, “The Day Before”? Well, wait no longer… (Mild Spoilers in the quote, but nothing that you weren’t aware of if you saw any ads for the episode)

“The Day Before” takes steps to change that. The episode begins 36 hours before the bombs go off and fills in gaps that I’ve been hoping they would fill in for months. We learn about Jake Green (Skeet Ulrich), the prodigal son of Jericho’s mayor, and his mysterious dealings with the private defense contractor Ravenwood. We learn about Robert Hawkins (Lennie James) and his association with the bomb plot.

Read the whole thing here.

Jericho, The Day Before, TV, television, CBS

As I received in a comment to a past post, the people of Jericho will be hosting a live chat at the official site on Tuesday, February 20th.

It will be hosted by Entertainment Weekly’s Lynette Rice, and there will be guest speaker appearances by Jericho’s producer/writer/actor Carol Barbee and actor Skeet Ulrich. Don’t miss out! Be sure to go on at 10am pt/1pm et.

While the quote above is pulled from the comment that was left, on the main site the times listed are 11am pt/2pm et for Tuesday, February 20th, 10am pt/1pm et on February 22nd and 10am pt/1pm et on March 1st. You can call in with questions or comments to the cast and to producers at that time, and I do hope that everyone that reads this here lets me know via comments what questions you have asked and how they all answered them.

Jericho, Live Chat, TV, television, CBS

Jericho fans rejoice! For not “a real new episode“, Jericho pulled in 7.4 million viewers for its recap episode, “Return to Jericho”. While not beating out Bones at 12.3 million viewers, that’s a more than respectable showing for just a recap episode, especially without the lead-in of American Idol, which Bones had a-plenty. While Fox came away as the big winner for Wednesday night’s overall ratings, CBS didn’t do badly against them at all, with 12.4 million, coming in a strong second for the night.

Were you one of the 7.4 million viewers watching “Return to Jericho” on Wednesday? If these are the kind of numbers that can be pulled in on a recap episode, what do you think the numbers are going to look like for the “real” episode on February 21st? If Jericho can keep up with these kind of numbers, there’s a strong possibility that we’ll see a second season from our favorite apocalypse survivors in Kansas.

See all the numbers breakdown here.

Jericho, Spring Season, Return to Jericho, TV, television, CBS

Wow. Just wow. Yes, it was a recap show, which are usually a waste of time unless you haven’t seen an episode or such, but just having Hawkins (Lennie James) tying it all together with his voice over throughout this episode was well worth it.

There were a few items that I missed on the first few viewings, such as Hawkins using the fact that everyone were in some kind of fallout shelter to protect themselves from the potentially radioactive rain coming from Denver (Fallout - Episode 1.2) so he could get to a rented storage shed to move his oil drum that could hold something potentially dangerous.

Of course, the moment that I had been waiting for all hour was the teaser commercial for next week’s episode… again, Wow. I know that all of that wasn’t going to be thrown into just one episode, but I’m completely fan-girl excited for the spring season.

Jericho, Spring Season, Return to Jericho, TV, television, CBS

While I’m grueling through work today, waiting patiently for “Return to Jericho”, the first new thing since we went on haitus twelve years ago… ok, not twelve years, but sometimes it really feels that way, especially when you look at the fact that I started posting here at this blog right around when hiatus started. So while I’m waiting (patiently… patiently… ) I’m not seeing as much blogging about the return tonight. Maybe because it’s a recap show, maybe it’s just that the only people that seem to want to talk about Jericho are all sitting on the Wiki chatting about it.

Someone, though, got to see “Return to Jericho” early, and has some really great things to say about tonight’s episode.

Now, I have seen episode 12, and I can tell you that it’s a good one. We find a lot, A LOT, out about what was going on just before the bombs hit. There will be new and critical information for you about Hawkins and his family, about Jake and what he was doing that got him put on a no-fly list, we will see a friend of Jake’s from the Middle East that sheds light on many things, and we will meet the mystery woman…

What I didn’t realize was that we’d be seeing so much about Sara (AKA Mystery Woman) so early in the spring season, which makes me happy.

Now, back to waiting… patiently.

Read the whole article here.

Jericho, Spring Season, Return to Jericho, TV, television, CBS

Skeet Ulrich (Jake Green) talked to Kate O’Hare about Wednesday’s first new episode since going on hiatus, “Return to Jericho”, and gives us a glimpse of what we’ll see with that episode, and with the character of Jake Green.

“I think he’s got a bit of anger-management problems,� Ulrich says during a break in filming. “There’s a lot of stuff withheld. There was, obviously, a lot of stuff going on previous to the event that he doesn’t have a place to speak about anymore. There is a lot of bottled-up stuff, and he’s willing to do anything to make up for the guilt he feels about it.�

There’s more, in regards to some of the more spoiler-like in regards to Jake’s past.

Are you getting as excited as I am, waiting for Wednesday?

Read the whole article here.

Jericho, Spring Season, Jake Green, Skeet Ulrich, TV, television, CBS

Prepping you for the recap episode on Wednesday, there’s a new sneak peek up at the official Jericho site that’s entitled “Deadly Chase“, from the third episode of the spring season, Heart of Winter.

While the sneak peek is interesting, out of all of the sneak peeks, this one leaves you hanging the most with the lack of lead-up in it. In the sneak peek, you see Jake (Skeet Ulrich), Mimi (Coppola) and Stanley (Brad Beyer) driving frantically away from a decidedly unfriendly looking black truck, which proceeds to try to run them off the road. Mimi asks at one point how far it is to Jericho, but that’s the only real background that you get from the clip.

They’re really making it hard to patiently wait for the spring season premiere.

Watch the whole clip here.

Jericho, Spring Season, Spoilers, TV, television, CBS

Matt Roush over at TV Guide.com says yes at his column, Ask Matt.

When he was asked what shows he expected to come back next season, this was his response:

Five other sure bets: Ugly Betty and Brothers & Sisters on ABC, Shark and Jericho on CBS and probably 30 Rock on NBC (preserving the “comedy night done right” lineup).

So what do you think? Will Jericho come back for a second season, or will it end up being relegated to “Freaks and Geeks” status of a one season show?

Also, for more spoilers, check out Ask Ausiello for some great Jericho news. Kinda.

Jericho, Second Season, Spoilers, TV, television, CBS