Jericho is television at its best. That’s why when it was cancelled last season, the fans stood up in unison and said, “Nuts!”
The fans rallied behind the show and used a line from the season finale episode as a battle cry. The way the fans fought for the show mirrored the way the characters fought for their town of Jericho, Kansas.
It worked. Tonight, the show returns for a seven-episode arc. If it does well, it may be picked up for next season. Please tune in, even if you have never seen an episode. The show is brilliantly written and keeps you on the edge of your seat every week. Here’s a brief recap to get you up to speed.
In the first episode of the series a nuclear explosion goes off in the nearby city of Denver. The residents of the small town of Jericho try to cope with the aftermath, but soon discover that Denver was not the only city hit with bombs. Dozens of bombs went off across the United States of America. The country is thrown into shambles and with communication devices down, Jericho is cut off from the rest of the world. It becomes clear through the season that someone orchestrated the attack and that Jericho might not be safe.
Some people come into the town and try to exploit the resources that they have. The town takes in refugees and works together so that everyone in the town can survive.
In the season finale last year, a nearby town tries to seize the town and claim its resources for its own. The leader of other town asks for their surrender by on the radio.
Earlier in the episode, Jake had recounted a story his grandfather told him about General McAuliffe during WWII. The General was asked to surrender to the Germans and he made the one word reply of “Nuts” on the radio. The reply meant that they would not surrender or give up.
Jake had a one-word reply to the request, “Nuts!”
Fans helped to resurrect the show by signing a petition, sending letters and email, and shipping nearly 20 tons of peanuts to CBS. This creative campaign saved the show. The executives asked the fans to stop sending them nuts and announced that the show would return.
The fans proved that they were nuts about the show. We need to keep up the effort that saw us send CBS eight million nuts and show them that we are still committed to this show. If this short second season is a ratings hit, the show will return in the fall. Let’s make that happen.
2 responses to “Jericho Returns”
Interesting post. I have heard of this program but we do not get it in Malaysia. Who is the writer/director? I felt the same about the show “Firefly” by Joss Whedon. The big execs. don’t appreciate good writing.
I took this from Wikipedia,
The series originated as the germ of a feature film idea that co-creators Jonathan Steinberg and Josh Schaer had one day, which was a post-apocalyptic plot line set amidst the trappings of “a little character drama” movie, in the vein of The Day After, Threads, and Testament. However, they soon realized that a two- or two-and-a-half-hour-long film would still not carry the necessary length they felt such a concept required to properly explore the setting and the characters — thus, Schaer and Steinberg decided instead to reconceive the entire project as a television series, producing a treatment out of the original feature screenplay. Director Jon Turteltaub and producer Carol Barbee then entered the picture, the pair having pitched the project to them. Turteltaub soon commissioned writer Stephen Chbosky to pen the pilot teleplay based upon Schaer and Steinberg’s series treatment.