Watching Jericho

Brad Beyer, who plays “Nice Guy” Stanley Richmond on Jericho, recently sat down for an interview with Megan Cherkezian from TVGuide.com, talking about the direction that last night’s episode, Winter’s End, took for his character and the show.

TVGuide.com spoke with Beyer about his character’s friendly disposition, and how that might change in upcoming episodes. Tight-lipped with regard to the big bombshells, Beyer couldn’t divulge too much, but shares enough to get us excited for the rest of the season — and hope for the show’s renewal.

What I love is him giving a glimpse into Stanley’s character, in particular with doing the responsible thing when Bonnie and he lost their parents and he took over the running of the farm, versus going off on a grand adventure. He also talks about the characters interaction with the people of New Bern, including some scoop on Heather and the turbines.

Read the whole article here.

Jericho, Brad Beyer, Stanley Richmond, interview, TV, television, CBS

Watch the full episode online

Opening Morse Code - A COSTLY DEAL

From CBS.com:
Faced with a catastrophic complication in April’s pregnancy, Jake forces Kenchy to confront his post-traumatic stress syndrome and perform a heroic operation. Bonnie and Mimi, volunteering at the medical center, begin to bond while Johnston desperately searches for Eric so he can be at his wife’s side. Gray, moved by April’s circumstance, fights with a trading party from the town of Myles to get more power-generating windmills. Meanwhile, Hawkins covers up Sarah’s murder as the very bureaucratic Jimmy noses around.

Originally aired: Wednesday March 28, 2007 on CBS
Writer: Frank Military
Director: Kevin Dowling

Recap below the fold…

Jericho, Winter’s End, TV, television, CBS

(more…)

The woman who was the inspiration for Holly Hunter’s character in the 1987 movie, Broadcast News, Susan Zirinsky, is in charge of the “webumentaries” available on the Jericho Official Site called Countdown.

“A lot of the Internet stuff is a recitation of what we already know,” said Ghen Maynard, the CBS executive vice president who oversees the network’s new media programming. “To do it in a way that’s really original to what is airing, but not a boring recitation of facts - that’s really what we’re going for.”

Zirinsky said that merging the genres doesn’t undermine the series’ journalistic value. “What we want is, in an interesting way, to impart a nugget of information,” she said. “The drama? It’s just the appetizer. The meat of the course is still what we do for a living.

I’ve talked about the Countdown webisodes in the past on this site, and I do really like them, though sometimes their “edgy” look makes me a little dizzy. Of course, so did the Blair Witch Project, so maybe it’s just me.

Read the whole article here, and watch the Countdown webisodes here.

Jericho, Countdown, Susan Zirinsky, Broadcast News, webumentaries, webisodes, TV, CBS, television

Kristen Vietch over at E! Online has begun her annual Save One Show push, where you can vote on one show to help save, and have the backing of E! Online as the push. The Save One Show campaign has been extemely successful in the past, and there are some really great shows on the list this year, including Jericho, which makes this so hard.

Welcome to our seventh annual Save One Show campaign—where, you, the fans, get to decide which one endangered series is most deserving of rescue. It is the best way for you to make your voice heard with the powers that be—before it’s too late.

Now, lest you think this silly little poll doesn’t really make a difference, let me remind you that our Save One Show campaign has a solid track record, having successfully rescued five out of six winning shows. And if I had a nickel for every time a castmember or producer told me our SOS singlehandedly saved them…well, I bet I’d have a whole dollar.

While Jericho doesn’t head the list, it does currently have an uncertain future, mainly due to trying to go head-to-head with American Idol after their hiatus, and it’s made the list for Save Our Show. So I need a favor from all of y’all that read Watching Jericho, and that is to go and vote for Jericho to be saved on E!’s online poll. You can only vote once, so if you really would like to see Jericho stay on the air, this is one of the ways that you can help. S

So go vote, ok?

Jericho, Save One Show, Kristen Veitch, Second Season, TV, CBS, television

It’s really not a secret that I adore the character of Heather, played by Sprague Grayden, and the fact that it’s been a little irritating that she disappeared for so long only to come back for one episode (1.13 - Black Jack) just to disappear again off to her hometown to work on creating windmill parts. At least Kristen over at E! Entertainment is looking out for me.

SPOILER WARNING! – SPOILER WARNING!

We’ve gotten quite a few questions in this vein, and when I pressed Skeet Ulrich for info, he told me, “We definitely see Heather again, [but] I don’t know what the chances are of us hooking up. I’m not saying we won’t, but I’d give it about 10 to 1 odds right now.”

While it does make me a little sad that Jake and Heather aren’t on the horizon of following up that kiss, at least Heather will be back.

Now, we’ve got to run out and work on making sure that we get a second season of Jericho to see what happens in more detail with those two.

Read the whole thing here. (Near the bottom of the page)

Jericho, Sprague Grayden, Heather Lipinski, Skeet Ulrich, Jake Green, TV, CBS, television

So, after some intense googling, I finally found out a real explanation as to why Jericho wasn’t on this past Wednesday, when I had completely forgotten. It was because of the OTHER Reality TV juggernaut, Survivor. They had “rested” Survivor because of the NCAA Men’s Tournament, and then brought it back this week on Wednesday, temporarily replacing Jericho.

Yes, never fear, Dear Reader, it is temporary from everything that I’ve been able to read. Winter’s End comes back next week, and everything should be hunky-dory for the rest of the season, in regards to the time slot.

From a technical standpoint, there have been some hiccups on the server that Watching Jericho is hosted on. Everything seems to be working alright now, but in case you have any problems, I thought y’all might like to know. They’re working on it, I promise.

Jericho, Survivor, NCAA, TV, CBS, television

So, there I was, last night, getting my daughter ready for bed, and preparing everything in my head for getting the recap to Winter’s End up and running. And then I sit down and check my Tivo, and nothing’s been recorded. What?!?!

Yeah, I completely blanked that there was no episode last night. Did you?

To keep us occupied, though, CBS has a sneak peek and a preview for next week’s episode, Winter’s End. While from everything I’ve read, the big thing is with April and the complications with her pregnancy, the sneak peek that they have up is for a Hawkins-centric scene, where he’s trying to hide Sara’s body. I do love that the guy from Psych (another favorite of mine) who plays Detective Lassiter, Timothy Omundson makes an appearance, even though it’s not on his IMDB profile.

Sneak Peek found here.

Preview found here.

Jericho, Darby Stanchfield, April Green, Lennie James, Robert Hawkins, Sneak Peek, preview, Psych, Detective Lassiter, Timothy Omundson, TV, CBS, television

Jericho panel at PaleyFest 2007 - Source: WireImage

The cast and crew of Jericho got a warm reception back on March 15, 2007 at the Museum of Television and Radio’s William S. Paley Television Festival, IGN reports. They presented a panel and advance screening of Semper Fidelis the night before it aired nationally.

Steinberg recalled how Jericho began as an idea he and Schaer had for a “little character drama” film, where the characters would exist with the post-Nuclear setting as a backdrop. However, they realized that story didn’t have a natural ending after two hours, “So why not keep going?” - Thus the idea of turning it into a TV series began. The pair brought the idea to Jon Turteltaub, who then commissioned Chbosky to write the pilot. The producers recalled that Chbosky’s reaction to the initial treatment was, “It’s great, [but] we could use some girls, a little kissing, and some laughs.”

I would have loved to have been able to have gone to Paleyfest, but I’m unfortunately on the wrong coast to make that a viable option. I do hope that Jericho got great coverage there, and it helps their numbers recover from the American Idol juggernaut.

Read the whole article here.

Jericho, Carol Barbee, Stephen Chbosky, Lennie James, Erik Knudsen, Gerald McRaney, Pamela Reed, Josh Schaer, Jon Steinberg, Skeet Ulrich, TV, television

Brian Montopoli at CBS News questions how shows like Jericho and 24 are warping the way that people see the world, especially in regards to terrorism and the government. He uses the example of the Countdown episodes available on the official Jericho site, saying that they first seem a little too contrived, but there are probably people who are taking the dramatizations that they show as gospel.

“24″ is a fictional show that feels real, if outlandish. “Countdown” is something else – a (admittedly bare bones) fictional drama infused with actual journalism. As the Times notes, “[e]ditor Tom Costantino relies heavily on CBS’ archival footage, splicing interviews with analysts from the Council on Foreign Relations and the New York City Fire Department’s hazmat team with scenes of nuclear bomb detonations and military maneuvers.”

I wonder sometimes that I’m a little too well-read, because of my upbringing, because I’m a tad too cynical when it comes to any kind of information available, but I do know that there are grown adults that are a marketer’s dream as much as my 5-year-old is, wanting anything and everything that she sees a commercial for on television. I find the “warning labels” put on many things a bit of overkill, but I do know why they are there.

Am I unique in this, or am I underestimating the majority of people out there?

Read the whole article here.

Jericho, internet, TV, television, CBS

Brian Lowry over at Variety has an article about how he thinks that the networks, including CBS, are stressing on the internet too much, by catering to us “internet nuts” and neglecting all the others that aren’t terribly web-savvy.

Buoyed by their novelty, producer podcasts and online games, deleted scenes and character blogs have become all the rage. Still, this whole trend is bubbling along without much mind to its inevitable limits, as defined by the majority of consumers with little demonstrable appetite for chatting, playing along or making their own films using pre-approved toolkits.

As evidence, consider a new survey by Knowledge Networks/SRI, analyzing use of network Web sites. Despite the many new features available, the report notes, the most-used attribute “is quite pedestrian: checking the broadcast schedule” to see when shows are airing. By contrast, less than 5% of Web site users polled said they use the sexiest, most-discussed elements — among them podcasts and user-generated content.

My first question in reading his numbers is who are they talking to when it comes to these “Web site users”? Because everyone I talk to that goes on to CBS’s official Jericho site at least stops into the Wiki, though they don’t use the message boards all that much.

I do have a couple of more questions, but I’m not terribly sure if they wouldn’t get a little vulgar, because Mr. Lowry’s tone irritates me, making me think of some Luddite who hates those tubes that run the internet or something.

What do you think? Are the networks making too much for a small group, or are they adapting to the new technologies available to garner a wider audience that couldn’t be done without the internet?

Read the whole article here.

Jericho, internet, TV, television, CBS

Variety seems to think that there’s a possibility that Jericho may get cancelled at the end of the season.

Eye execs are keeping a close watch on the show. If things don’t get better once “Idol” moves out of its path, this promising hour might be in jeopardy — despite strong internal support for the skein.

Of course, I think it was a poor choice to bring Jericho back right after American Idol started up for the season, hoping that they would get an episode or two of the Spring Season under their belt before that juggernaut AI got up and running, but as that didn’t happen, I don’t think that a strong second place behind American Idol would mean that they’re doing badly. I am afraid of what they’re saying though, thinking that many people, once they’ve decided they’ve lost the plot-line will just not go back to the show, but I still have hope left out for this great show.

Read the whole article here.

Jericho, ratings, American Idol, winter break, TV, television, CBS

Watch the full episode online

Opening Morse Code - THEY WILL NEED IT

From CBS.com:
When U.S. Marines come to town, the citizens of Jericho consider what their lives will be like when law and order is restored and the nation begins to recover from the bombings. The soldiers also bring word of a great victory by the military in the war abroad. But not all is what it seems as Jake and Johnston begin to ask some tough questions. Meanwhile, Hawkins discovers that Sarah may not be who he thinks she is.

Originally aired: Wednesday March 14, 2007 on CBS
Writer: Stephen Scaia & Matthew Federman
Director: James Whitmore

Recap below the fold…

Jericho, Semper Fidelis, TV, television, CBS

(more…)

While coming in second to American Idol is no mean feat, there’s still a wide gap between first and second place when it comes to the behemoth that is American Idol.

But it’s not just Jericho that’s suffering against American Idol, it’s most shows that have come back from winter break.

Jericho’s split schedule may have damaged its ratings, but returning it against Idol didn’t help either. CBS execs declined to comment for this article, but several advertisers agreed that the network should counter-program the time slot more aggressively, perhaps with another episodic series. “There’s enough occasional viewing of Idol to interrupt the serialized pattern of a show like Jericho,� Rash explained.

Like I’ve said around here before, I’ve never been a fan of American Idol, and while I wasn’t terribly happy about the winter break in Jericho, I don’t see how it’s really hurt the show as much as the article suggests. The fan-base doesn’t seem to have gone anywhere, and in fact, if you do a technorati search, you’ll see more and more people who are getting involved with the show because of the hype from the winter break.

Do you think the show was hurt by the hiatus?

Read the whole article here.

Jericho, ratings, American Idol, winter break, TV, television, CBS

While I was stressing and talking about being interviewed for the first time, Winnie over at Watching The View got to see Skeet Ulrich on the show last week, which is about half-way down in the post.

Skeet was there to promote Jericho, of course, and there were a few great nuggets of what to expect in some coming episodes, in particular about Episode 18.

He said that episode 18, which will air in a few weeks, will be a “big deal,� and viewers will learn a little about why Jericho is still there and other mysteries. Skeet said that viewers will get a lot of clues this season, but it won’t answer all of their questions.

He’s been on The View before back in November, but I’ve not been able to sit down and watch the video yet.

I found a video on YouTube for the interview here.

Hat-tip to Watching The View.

Jericho, The View, Skeet Ulrich, Jake Green, interview, TV, television, CBS

While not exactly dealing with Jericho, CBS News announced that they’re pulling all of the illegal copies on YouTube for their shows, but instead of just leaving people hanging, they’ll be adding in their own versions on YouTube at their channel.

“We’ve got a team of lawyers that goes through pirated CBS News videos on YouTube and calls up YouTube every day and says ‘you’ve got to take down these clips’. Every pirated 60 Minutes clip that goes up on YouTube, we’re putting up the authentic, authorized version of that clip. We’re sensitive. If we’re going to take down that illegal video, we are certainly going to give you the experience of that piece [by supplying a new clip] and often the quality is considerably better.�

The fact that they’re putting up their own versions on YouTube really speaks for the fact that they’re really aware of the way the web is changing the way to promote things.

CBS YouTube channel.
Read the article here.
Forbes article here.

Hat-tip to TV Squad.

Jericho, CBS News,YouTube, TV, television, CBS