Friday, April 03, 2009

The battle of Jericho

Let me tell you about television shows with cult status! I know a thing or two about them, and about being on the fan side of it. There are people in this world who, hearing me utter the words "The Monkees" sends them running as fast as their feet will carry them. At least that was the reaction at one time. I had it pretty bad. If I ever get around to posting the pictures you will all have a good laugh at me.

The Monkees is about as cult as a TV show gets.

Recently however, I came across a little show called Jericho, a CBS production. Glenn and I became fans after the first episode and the more we watched the more hooked we became. We got through the first season, 22 episodes, in under a week. As of this writing we have also watched the first episode of the second season.


There aren't many TV shows I've watched that I rave about as much as this one. This one is truly a keeper. Even if CBS never gets past the mere 29 episodes they did produce, the show has accomplished much on many levels. For entertainment value it is second to none. The acting, the writing, directing, cinematography ... all of it fantastic! The storyline, while not unique (post-apocalyptic America), still gets unique treatment in the hands of this particular cast and crew. I'm not the biggest fan of the post-apocalyptic storyline simply because it usually winds up being too "out there", too hard for me to believe. But Jericho does for the post-apocalypse what Stargate SG-1 did for sci-fi space shows: makes it hit very close to home, and in doing so they hit a grand slam.

I was just reading about the incident where fans of Jericho rallied against the show's cancellation by sending thousands of pounds of nuts to the CBS executive offices in NY. The nuts was a direct reference to a pivotal line from Jericho's final episode, "Why We Fight" (which I won't give away here, just go watch the show). Well tonight I decided to see if I could find any articles on the incident and found a lot more than I expected, not the least of which being a YouTube video of "wave 3" of the shipments of nuts! It's not a very good video, but I can tell you I was not expecting to find something like that regarding this phenomenon.

Even nuttier (sorry, I couldn't resist!) was the website Nuts Online who I'm guessing was the company where all the nuts came from. They have a page dedicated to the show Jericho and there you can see the original letter sent from CBS to the company wherein they fly the white flag so to speak, acknowledging how impressed they were by the fans' effort to save the show.

So I'm sitting here poring through all this information and now I'm wondering if there is any hope the show will see the light of day again, as there is (or was at one time) a push to get Jericho back in production.

I sincerely hope the effort is successful. It's a great show.

7 comments:

  1. Hi New Jericho Fans,

    Waves! The story of Jericho will continue in the form of a graphic novel which will be published in October. There is also a Jericho movie in developement:

    Article http://www.iesb.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6416&Itemid=99

    Video http://www.jericho-kansas.org/wondercon/index.html

    You can find our current campaign efforts here:
    http://www.jericho-kansas.com/Community/Forums/tabid/74/forumid/27/postid/2148/view/topic/Default.aspx

    Gwen
    Jericho-Kansas.com

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  2. It was wonderful to be a part of the effort to save Jericho It is quality television. We haven't given up. I am sure you found our many websites in your search. We welcome you to our nutty group.
    Debby

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  3. Jericho lives on in comic season 3 storyline. Movie is in the works.

    Google Nuts to Nielsen and you will see 2008 fan initiatives to bring this great show back!

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  4. Welcome to the Jericho family of fans! We are growing every day, including fans overseas. The fans donated countless dvd's to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan so now our troops are fans too.

    The Jericho efforts are not over: countless charitable donations, nuts to everyone!, billboard, tv commercial, and magazine ads have put Jericho on the front burner. Coming Fall 2009 is a comic/ graphic novel with a movie in development!

    Jericho fans are going to LA at the end of April to meet one another and cast/crew. Join us!

    Welcome to the world of Jericho where we never sit still. Efforts to promote Jericho are always in the works!

    Susan
    www.stgeorgessocietyofpalmbeach.org

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  5. Wow this is incredible. No other post I've made in this blog has received this many comments, lol. Thank you all for taking the time to write me a note here. Believe me, I've been pushing the issue at work as much as possible, and to everyone I get into conversation with. This TV show is as fundamental to the fabric of our country's history as any bill signed into law ever was - more than many, I dare say.

    I will check out the websites you've directed me to. Thanks again for your feedback. :)

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  6. from mvm

    SolarSoda! Glad to see that you have found one of the best shows on TV. People keep finding Jericho and falling in love with it. Facebook fan sites are exploding and continue to show how it is catching on exponentially. The 'little show' that 'is' is truly TV at it's best for so many reasons. That is 'why we fight' to see new seasons. The network that takes it on will not be sorry. The fan base is every-growing and is about as faithful as they get.
    Thanks for the post and welcome to the Jericho Ranger family. :)

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  7. Thanks for your wonderful article!! It is nice to know we have a new fan! :)

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