[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]
A show, to me, needs to earn its quality through a variety of things: writing, acting, directing, plot, etc. And it seems to me that the best series are those that truly earn it: the writing is sharp, the acting is nuanced, the directing is innovative, the plot treads new ground. And, if they don’t have these elements, I want to be able to see a series grow into them: something like Friday Night Lights, as an example, started small and built these elements through hard work and dedication.
Cultural Learnings 