The TV Zone

There's really nothing to be gained from posting an entry on "Jericho." All this'll do is bring more fans to my cyber door - offering nuts, raisins, whatever - as inducement to keep writing about this thing. So be it. Just one time...and then, a "Jericho" ban. Go bother some other TV critic, preferably one who doesn't have a peanut allergy.

But I suppose there is plenty to say. Three cast members - Ashley Scott (Emily Sullivan), Lennie James (Rob Hawkins), Skeet Ulrich (Jake Green)- turned up a couple hours ago here at the all-things-CBS portion of The Tour, alongside creator, Carol Barbee, to talk about the miraculous fan intervention from May (twenty tons of nuts, as if you need to be reminded.) She said "when the fans started to roll on this nuts campaign, it only took a couple of days before we started having conversations about, 'is there something more we can do to sort of keep the story going?' And that's when I thought there was a possibility. I still thought it was a long shot."

The second season storyline she pitched to CBS before the plug was pulled "was going to take place in three different locations - Jericho, this new Cheyenne [Wy.] government, and also from New York, which survived [the nuke.] [But] when we got the short order [for new episodes] we said 'okay, we'll focus [only] on Jericho...'" That was for money reasons, presumably, and logistical ones too because "it would have been a 22-episode arc, and now it's seven...Because it's a short order, because we have less time to do it, we had to become lean and mean. The
stories are much more focused on a couple of people, and I don't think it will be hard [for newcomers] to follow."

So let's say another miracle happens - viewership does grow, and CBS extends the order, and "Jericho" quickly becomes the highest-rated drama on TV, exceeding "Grey's Anatomy" and...there really is a Santa Claus after all?

Said Barbee: "We're ready, willing and able, and have the stories already planned out. So we would love nothing better than to keep going." The show, by the way, jumpstarts production on Monday...

Persistent writers in the audience tried to tease new season details out of Carol. She obliged, to a point. What happens after that battle with New Bern? "We set up a big cliffhanger...a couple of big cliffhangers at the end of [last season] and we pay them off in the beginning. We start with the battle. You see what happened, and then we time jump to a couple weeks later, and we're rebuilding, and you see what happens to the town."

More details, courtesy Carol: "We leave them [the characters] with the new government from Cheyenne to stop the battle between Jericho and New Bern. There's still problems there. They're sort of like, warring tribes a little bit, but there's this occupying force that's trying to bring stability to the area, and then that becomes the new [story line]: Are these good guys or are these guys bad?"

And more detail still: "With the new season, part of what happens is we get back on the grid. Cheyenne is back - to help us rebuild and they have everything we need. So we get lights back. We get power. We get communication. Laundry. Make-up."

By the way, I think she was kidding about "make-up," but maybe not. "Laundry" is a must though. Said Skeet Ulrich, "my jeans stood on end at the end of last season..."

Cast members had plenty to say as well, but not so much about plot. Their ruminations were mostly about the amazing - and it was amazing, indeed - reversal by CBS.

Here, for example, is Lennie's: "Everything [in TV] becomes about the figures and I think the one thing that happened over the fight to save 'Jericho' was that our audiences became faces and people and lives, and it became real. It wasn't just a number that appears in the fast nationals or whatever it is the next morning. These" - the Nut People - "are kind of going, hold on a minute. This is my show. I enjoyed watching it. Stop treating me like I'm a number. This is a show I tuned in for...' One of the things I think was really exciting about the campaign is all those people to whom it kind of matters - they showed what THEIR demographic was."

That's right: The Nuts demographic.