Jericho-related stories
Posted Oct 5th 2009 11:28AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, OpEd, Reality-Free, Gone Too Soon
The modern poster-child for a show that's "gone too soon" is
Jericho. The impassioned fans buried CBS under a ton of nuts, which got the show renewed for a shortened second season. Your mileage of the quality of that season may vary, but the fact remains that the fans did something none of these internet campaigns today will be able to.
What people don't realize is that when
Jericho came back for the second run, the ratings weren't any better than when the first season ended. So when they cancel your favorite show and you start mailing in bizarre objects and setting up your web petitions because "it worked for
Jericho," remember that the networks remember
Jericho as well. They remember that it failed to find a sizable audience twice.
Continue reading Gone Too Soon: Jericho
Posted Jul 27th 2009 9:04AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Reality-Free, Comic-Con
At a special panel over the weekend at
Comic-Con, Devil's Due Publishing presented the
new "season" of Jericho, coming this October to a comic shop near you. And they've brought the original writing team from the series to the comic book. Which means, this will be about as true a continuation of the true ongoing vision for
Jericho as you can imagine.
Executive producers Jon Steinberg and Dan Shotz revealed that the new series will take the characters right into the
Civil War that was brewing in the second season. They're excited about the possibilities the comic format allows them. As a comparable example, when IDW brought "season six" of
Angel to comics, they transported much of L.A. to a plane of hell, something that would have been cost prohibitive in a live action series.
Continue reading Jericho: Season Three kicks off in October from Devil's Due Publishing
Posted May 29th 2009 12:28PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Pickups and Renewals, Chuck, Reality-Free
Defying all odds and the
writers' strike curse,
Chuck has managed to snag a third season on NBC. So what now? Obviously, new episodes won't start airing until after the Winter Olympics, so fans and those associated with the show and NBC have a few months before they need to begin obsessively tracking the ratings. But that doesn't mean that fans are taking the summer off.
Chucktv.net, a
Chuck fansite, is hosting "
Chuck Me Mondays," starting June 1st. They're inviting both current fans and those who are just wanting to know what all the
Chuck fuss is about to watch the spy comedy as a group Monday nights at 9 PM. While you watch, you can comment on the episode right on their site, or on
Twitter, with the objective being to make
Chuck a trending topic on the micro-blogging site every Monday. They're starting with the pilot and working all the way up to the season 2 finale-- it's a crash-course in all things
Chuck.
Continue reading Now that Chuck is saved, how about you watch it?
Posted Mar 18th 2009 7:00PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Reality-Free
Yes, there are plans to move forward with that
comic adaptation of CBS's post-apocalyptic series Jericho. But that doesn't mean that the proposed movie is dead in the water. Of course, it doesn't sound like it's exactly moving forward either. Co-executive producer of
Jericho Dan Shotz said things like "we've been developing a feature to hopefully make" and how they'd like to "hopefully get that launched" in his interview with Sci Fi Wire.
So it looks like they're hoping the comic will keep the momentum alive and help them get this move greenlit. Maybe they don't realize that the best-selling comic book each month barely breaks 100,000 copies sold unless there's a major event (like Barack Obama appearing on the cover of
The Amazing Spider-Man). Still, anything that will keep the story alive is better than nothing. I can't help but think, though, that jumping into the comic deal is an indication that the
proposed movie adaptation of Jericho wasn't going well.
Continue reading Don't give up on that Jericho movie just yet; the producers haven't
Posted Mar 10th 2009 8:34AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Pickups and Renewals
It's hard to deny the passion that fans of CBS's late apocalyptic drama
Jericho had. Their "nuts" campaign prompted the network to reverse order and bring back the show after officially canceling it. That second season did provide some closure on many of the dangling plot threads, but some fans felt it didn't live up to the quality of the first. Whether this had to do with the reduced episode order or the reduced budget is uncertain, but none of that matters now.
Thanks to the ongoing dedication of those fans, Devil's Due Publishing has inked a deal with CBS Consumer Products to
continue the story of Jericho in comic book format. Both
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and
Angel have had amazing success publishing their new "seasons" in the comic book medium. More recently, Sci Fi's
Farscape launched a comic continuation of its own, while many other properties are telling original tales in comics (
Eureka,
Supernatural and
Fringe come to mind). But with
Jericho being far less sci-fi/fantasy in its presentation, it'll be interesting to see if its fans follow it to this new medium.
Continue reading Jericho makes another comeback, just not to your television
Posted Jan 15th 2009 1:04PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, TV on the Bigscreen, Reality-Free
If
According To Jim is the comedy show that will not die,
Jericho might be the drama.
The canceled CBS drama (
saved by a nut campaign which helped it come back for short second season) is not only airing Sunday nights on The CW (and getting better ratings than some shows the network has had on that night), they're going to make a big-screen movie. Producer Jon Turteltaub tells IfMagazine.com that
a feature film is indeed in the works, and that the original cast will be back.
Continue reading Yup, they're making a Jericho big-screen movie
Posted Dec 14th 2008 2:49PM by Debra McDuffee
Filed under: TV on DVD, Festivus, Reality-Free
... Ten shows on DVDSince there are
twelve shows a-stinkin' on TV this year (well, that's the low estimate), you might be glad to hear that 2008 brought us some spectacular TV on DVD. You knew there had to be a bright spot, right?
Whether you want to re-watch your favorite classic shows from the '50s or '60s (or earlier), or catch up on one of the hottest shows on current TV (yeah, there are a few) by starting with the first season, they've been released on DVD in 2008. It was actually hard to pick just ten, but for better or for worse, here are my picks:
Continue reading On the 10th day of Festivus, TV gave to me ...
Posted Dec 5th 2008 2:09PM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Watercooler Talk, Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone, Reality-Free
I want to talk to you about a grass roots campaign to save Eli Stone. You see, I had this idea where fans of the program would send George Michael paraphernalia - CDs, MP3s, T-Shirts, programs, videos - to the executive mugwumps over at ABC in order to express their frustration that they were not picking up the back nine episodes of the series. It would have been similar in scope to the Great Peanut Campaign of 2007 that ending up (temporarily) saving Jericho.
Then I got to thinking, which is always a bad sign. While a campaign such as this could result in programming executives opening their minds for just a minuscule amount of time to the possibilities of continuin the series, I'm not too sure it would be worth it. Not 'worth' in the terms that the campaign would fall on the deaf ears of the tailor-suited wonks. I'm talking about 'worth' in what it would cost the fans of the show to get the materials and ship them out to send a message. We are in a recession, after all.
Continue reading The grass roots costs of saving a television show
Posted Nov 26th 2008 10:03AM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Programming, OpEd, Reality-Free
To the programming monkeys over at The CW: Do you really believe that you are an honest-to-goodness competitor in the market right now? Because, if you were, then you would probably be doing something more than just relying on the teen angst shows that populate your weekday schedule.You would probably be trying again to get original programming up and running on the weekends, as well. Particularly on Sunday nights.
Sadly, you're not doing this. In fact, according to the most recent press release you sent out, you're pretty much caving in on Sundays. Instead of giving viewers some new shows to try out, or even reruns (or, as you say, encores) of your more popular programs, from 5-8 pm you're giving us first season episodes of Everybody Hates Chris and The Game, second season episodes of The Drew Carey Show and first season episodes of Jericho. The only people I can see being even remotely happy about this schedule are Jericho fans.
Continue reading The CW's new Sunday lineup...complete with pooper scooper
Posted Oct 23rd 2008 8:28PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Cancellations, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Has anyone else noticed the lack of hair trigger cancellations thus far this season? We're a good month or more in now and only
Opportunity Knocks and
Do Not Disturb have had the plug pulled. And believe me those needed to happen. By now, though, your high quality shows that have underperformed like
Pushing Daisies usually would be doing just that ... pushing up daisies. But, for some reason, not this year. At least not yet.
Hell, ratings-challenged shows like
Knight Rider and
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles are even getting full season pick-ups. And that's FOX giving
Sarah Connor a chance to find an audience! FOX!! I think what we're seeing is the continuing fallout from the Writer's Strike last year. Remember when the execs were talking about how they were going to rethink their approach to television, ordering fewer pilots and possibly even altering the landscape of television in regards to seasons and sweeps? Well, the fall season started up pretty much like it always has, but I do believe there are far fewer shows waiting in the wings to replace this season's failures.
Continue reading Did TV execs get kinder and gentler this year?
Posted Sep 12th 2008 11:01AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, OpEd, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
Sure
Lost is a bona fide hit, but who remembers
Invasion? In fact, none of the sci fi series premiering that year (
Surface and
Threshold) made it beyond a single season. And yet, as Brad reported,
ABC is developing The Return, a series focusing on how the world handles an "alien landing." You know, like the classic
V mini-series of the '80s. In fact, the last episode of
V: The Series was called "The Return." Maybe this is a secret code name for the long teased
V return!
But that announcement got me thinking about all those sci fi and fantasy shows that never finish on television. It's a phenomenon us long-time science fiction/fantasy fans have learned to live with. We jump on any new genre show on television hoping against hope that the ratings will be strong enough that we'll get the whole story. Alas, we know that more often than not the plug will be pulled mid-stream and we'll be left wanting. And for every Joss Whedon who continues
Buffy and
Angel in comics, there are tons more who don't.
Continue reading Ten unfinished sci fi/fantasy series ... and I'm dying for resolution
Posted Jun 27th 2008 3:04PM by Brett Love
Filed under: TV on DVD, OpEd, Video, Web, Celebrities, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel
Technically it is Buffy/Angel week, but all things Whedon have a way of just melding together into one big stew. So it's a fortuitous bit of timing that a trailer for Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog was released this week. For those still unaware of just what Dr. Horrible is, I think it was summed up best by Nathan Fillion in a recent interview. It's about a super-villain (Neil Patrick Harris) who falls in love with a girl (Felicia Day), and the super-hero (Nathan Fillion) who blows it for him. The super-hero is kind of a dick. And... it's a musical. I think it could be very much more than that. More on that, and the new trailer, after the jump.
Continue reading Is Dr Horrible the One? - VIDEO
Posted Jun 16th 2008 6:04PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: TV on DVD, Reality-Free
Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.
- The All-New Popeye Hour - Popeye and Friends
- Burn Notice - Season 1
- Californication - Season 1
- Dynasty - Season 3, Vol. 1
- ER - Season 9
- Galaxy High School - The Collection
- The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle - Complete Series
- Jericho - Season 2 and Complete Series
- Meerkat Manor - Season 3
- The Naked Brothers Band - Polar Bears
- Popeye - Vol. 2: 1938-40
- The Real McCoys - Season 3
- Sabrina The Teenage Witch - Season 4
- The Suite Life of Zack and Cody - Lip Synchin in the Rain
- Transformers: Animated - Tranform and Roll Out
- Wanted: Dead or Alive - Best Of
Posted Jun 12th 2008 1:05PM by Erin Martell
Filed under: Video, Jericho, Reality-Free
Most
Jericho fans already know that two finales were filmed: one series finale and one season finale. When CBS canceled the show, viewers were given a neat, positive end to the series. Video of
Jericho's alternate ending was recently released, and now we know what the season's cliffhanger would have looked like.
If you read Carol Barbee's description of
the original Jericho finale, the clip won't tell you anything you don't already know. It's still cool to watch how everything plays out, though. I don't expect to see Lennie James as Robert Hawkins ever again, so I'll take what I can get. Check out the video after the jump.
Continue reading Jericho alternate ending - VIDEO
Posted Jun 3rd 2008 2:01PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: 24, Celebrities, Jericho, Casting, Reality-Free
If by some miracle Jericho does indeed come back, it will be without one cast member.
Sprague Grayden, who played Heather on the CBS show, has joined the cast of FOX's 24 prequel. She'll play the First Daughter, the daughter of the President of the United States.
This news comes on the heels of more casting news announced last week. It's an interesting cast: Grayden joins Cherry Jones, Janeane Garofalo, Robert Carlyle, Tony Todd, Gil Bellows, and Eric Lively (oh, and Kiefer Sutherland). The new season of 24 starts in January, but this prequel will air this fall.
Of course, maybe she could come back to Jericho too When she was on that CBS show, she had a role on Weeds as well. And while she's on 24 she's also going to be on FX's Sons of Anarchy. Now that's job security. She also had regular gigs on John Doe, Joan of Arcadia, Over There, and Six Feet Under.
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