[As part of Jericho Friday, Cultural Learnings has gotten some great feedback from fans who want to get the word out about their efforts in the era after the nuts barrage that saved their show. It’s a tougher road now, with many fans having stepped back from message boards and fan groups, but some fans are working hard and making their voices heard. These are their stories of the Post-Nuts Era.]
Jericho in the Post-Nuts Era
DVDs for Troops: Sending ‘Jericho’ to Real-Life War Zones
While there is certainly political and social turmoil in the world of Jericho, it is admittedly nothing compared to the real life war facing the countries of Iraq and Afghanistan. No matter one’s opinion of the politics of the wars being fought in either country, it is impossible not to empathize with the soldiers who are fighting there. And, some Jericho fans want to give them something to help them through.
A group of Jericho fans are working with Staten Island Project Homefront to ship Jericho DVDs to the troops overseas through fan donations, much in the vein of the nuts shipments sent to CBS earlier this year. In fact, many of those nuts actually made it over to the Middle East via CBS and Project Homefront, so this partnership is not new. However, it is a great way for fans of the series to continue to both spread the word about Jericho and spread some much-needed love to the troops.
For more information on the campaign, and how to donate, head to this thread on the Jericho Message Boards. While this could end up being a good PR opportunity, more importantly it’s a good cause. The A special thanks to Jackie (Ahma, on the Jericho boards) for bringing this to my attention! She says that Project Homefront reports that the troops loved the nuts, so they might just love DVDs even more.
Jericho on the Big Screen: Fans and CBS Unite
For two Jericho fans in Massachusetts, the post-Nuts era was about celebration: celebrating their show being saved, celebrating the show itself, and celebrating the men and women who came together during the campaign to get ‘er done, if you will, in the New England area. But while they might be working on a small scale compared to nationwide nuts campaigns, they’re dealing with a big screen. In fact, they’re taking Jericho to the Movies.
I’ll post a link to all of the information in a second, but this is really the perfect example of synergy between fans and CBS. The fans needed to get permission, and the high-resolution copies of the show, from CBS in order to make it work, and through a lot of hard work forum members Rhinogirl1 and ccpdppr pulled it together. This might not be a nationwide campaign, but it’s a powerful symbol of working with CBS to promote Jericho, and they should be commended for their creativity.
The result is the screening of two episodes of Jericho at a theatre in Milbury, Massachusetts at 2pm on Sunday, August 19th.
[For all of the information, see this thread on the Jericho Boards]
However, Alison (ccpdppr) notes that their event is facing a problem: the lack of people posting on the Jericho Message Boards, and therefore a lack of people who know about the event. Despite having a great experience working with CBS, it seems as if there are only a small number of dedicated people who are doing the same on a regular basis.
“Although many have said it is a great idea, we have heard from maybe a dozen people that they are coming,” Alison says. “We will have a great time regardless, I’m not worried about Sunday. But, how do we get all these fans back to where CBS can see them?”
Alison raises an important issue, and one that I think should be the goal at the moment: taking those potential fans out there, those who turned up to buy nuts and post in droves, and making them a partner in promotional efforts. This fantastic event proves that CBS is willing to put their money where their mouth is: it’s up to fans to follow this example and find their own way to promote Jericho. If I wasn’t in a different country, I’d be there in a heartbeat.
Maybe expanding this initiative to a nationwide screening program would be something to consider for the future.
[Do you have a story about promoting Jericho that could inspire fans? Send me an email at cultural.learnings @ gmail.com, and it might make Jericho Friday next week!]
Cultural Learnings 
Myles, Thank you for this article. I have noticed that we have lost many posters to the CBS board but am hoping they come back once summer is over. I wish I lived in Massachusetts so I could attend the movie this Sunday. Our South Carolina group tried to meet the night the reruns started and only had a few show. I think the groups that got together while we were fighting to save the show are having more success than those that planned events after the 7 episodes were announced. I am recruiting new viewers and I know CBS is doing their job too.
These are really interesting things the fans are doing to keep the Jericho message up and running. If I was closer to Massachusetts and didn’t have all my money tied up in my summer vacations and visits, I would have loved to make the trip for the show.
I think the summer has got a lot of people occupied with family and vacation related thigns, and now that it’s winding down, there are a lot of people preparing for Back to School. This is why I am not supremely concerned with the quiet on the CBS boards right now. I think once the DVDs are released, and we all have the first season in our hands, things will start picking up. As well as once we know the start of the new episodes, and CBS starts up the PR machine.
I think that some the exodus from the CBS board is simply a result of summer vacations and such but I wonder if it doesn’t also have to do with schisms, disillusionment and just plain uncertainty as to how to proceed.
Schisms and disillusionment in my opinion are unavoidable in a movement as large as this one but uncertainty can be addressed and overcome.
I think that individuals are no less certain of their love of and willingness to fight for this program but we lack the connectedness we once felt. This is why I am extremely interested in the phenomena of Digging stories.
We have such a wonderful opportunity with Digging for collective accomplishment. In the same way that the fans have been moving Jericho up the through the top 40 shows of all time on the Rich Labonte site, we have the ability to Digg Jericho related stories in such numbers that they will be placed before the eyes of those who may never have heard of Jericho. Also when we Digg we give ourselves more power because we are actively creating BUZZ and taking all aspects of the show to the people so they can see and judge for themselves the triumphs and tribulations of Jericho. I think that watching that DUGG number rise is a great way to reconnect with the strength in our numbers.
Thank you from the very bottom of my heart for mentioning the DVDs for Troops campaign we are working on. This is something that will help Jericho (with increased DVD sales and exposing more people to the show!), but more importantly, this is something that will show the Troops we care and that we are thinking of them! We are close to $1,000 donated so far and are hoping to break that amount this week! Donations can be made through September 23!
In a related story – one of our Jericho message board regulars who’s also a military mom gave us this wonderful idea to create a gift snacker (7 yummy pounds of our snacks) that people here at home can mail inexpensively to troops overseas who don’t get much mail. It’s called NUTS for our Troops.
We ran with the idea and our Jericho friends are helping us to get the word out. It’s pretty awesome – check it out at http://www.nutsonline.com/gifts/soldiers.html
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