May 7, 2008
Battlestar Galactica is still well into its final season, but before fans start mourning the loss, there's more news on the Ronald D. Moore spin-off Caprica. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Paula Malcomson and Esai Morales have been cast as two of the leads in the new series.
Malcomson, best known as the prostitute Trixie on HBO's Deadwood, will play the role of Amanda Grayston, a brilliant scientist, which Morales, most recently seen as Major Beck on Jericho, will play Joseph Adama, Bill's father. In Caprica, Amanda and her husband pioneer the creation of the Cylons. In the pilot, their daughter Zoe is killed, but her DNA and consciousness live on as she is the prototype for the next step of humanity, the Cylon equivalent to Eve.
May 2, 2008
When fans were able to bring back Jericho by bombarding CBS with tons of nuts, they thought they made an impression. However, the series has now become double dead with the second season cut short after just seven episodes. Fans were disappointed, and a few are still hopeful that they could pull off another save-the-show campaign. The fact that the show was shut down twice says something about Jericho. The low-rated show just can't survive on CBS.
Nonetheless, some are hoping that Comcast will enter the picture and save the day--or the show, for that matter. Recently, there have been talks that Comcast may enter a similar deal like that of DirecTV for another struggling but highly acclaimed show, Friday Night Lights. But now that the future of Jericho is terribly bleak, the actors and actresses have resigned to pursuing other endeavors than waiting it off in the meantime.
April 22, 2008
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It's been a month since CBS officially axed Jericho for a second and most likely final time. After allowing it an experimental seven-episode second season, the network once again deemed it necessary to send the series to oblivion.
Although fans managed to undo Jericho's fate at the close of its maiden season via an onslaught of nuts hurled at the network powers-that-be, it doesn't appear any such campaign could sway the CBS bigwigs a second time. Nina Tassler, CBS entertainment president, spoke with The Hollywood Reporter and made a reference to Jericho while addressing the question of another show's fate.
April 11, 2008
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A couple of weeks ago, NBC officially announced that they would be bringing back Friday Night Lights for a third season thanks to a new deal with DirecTV. Though the critically acclaimed drama gets low ratings, NBC found a way to make the show profitable by selling the rights to run original episodes to DirecTV. The exciting agreement between the networks allows DirecTV to air the third season beginning in October, while NBC will repeat it in 2009.
This last minute save of Friday Night Lights proved that there are still numerous ways to keep a low-rated show alive. Now word has come out that Comcast may be interested in resurrecting Jericho in a similar deal. Could the twice-canceled CBS drama rise from the dead yet again?
April 2, 2008
I love how quickly most networks are releasing their DVD sets these days. While seasons of Lost and Battlestar Galactica can still take many months to arrive in stores after airing season finales, shows like Friday Night Lights are released so quickly that you barely realize a season has ended by the time the DVDs hit the shelves. I wish every season of television would go on sale so quickly, as waiting does nothing but make me cranky and impatient.
If you happen to be an impatient Jericho fan, today is your lucky day. CBS DVD and Paramount Home Entertainment recently announced that the complete second season of Jericho will go on sale on June 17. The seven episode set will even include the alternate ending that would have been shown had the series been picked up for a third season.
March 28, 2008
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In this day and age, cancellation isn't always the final death blow for a television series. Joss Whedon's Angel was dropped by the WB after five seasons, and is now playing out its sixth season in comic book form. Futurama was axed by FOX years ago, but has since returned in a series of DVD movies. Firefly was given the boot by FOX after only a handful of episodes, then went on to make a splash as a major motion picture. There are numerous examples of shows that somehow continued on after being killed, even if the networks had no desire to support them.
Considering all of the storytelling options available, it seems quite possible that the recently canceled Jericho could return in some form. The executive producers of the series are currently exploring all options, but we have the three best possibilities.
March 26, 2008
Fans of Jericho knew heading into last night's series finale that there would be a good amount of closure. Though the seven-episode second season was filmed before the writers' strike, the Jericho writers, led by executive producer Carol Barber, created two endings for the finale: a cliffhanger in case it was picked up for a third season, and an alternate ending that provided closure if it wasn't.
Jericho was cancelled once again, and so we got last night's finale in which Jake Green (Skeet Ulrich) and Robert Hawkins (Lennie James) saved the day, which in this situation meant starting the Second American Civil War. What, you probably wonder, would the original ending have looked like? In a new interview with TVGuide's Matt Mitovich, Carol Barber clues fans in.
March 25, 2008
Previously on Jericho: 28 episodes of rather entertaining television. Jennings and Rall, in conjunction with members of the Cheyenne government, executed a attack on the U.S. Mastermind John Smith now has the last bomb and is plotting to blow up Cheyenne. Jake Green and Robert Hawkins plan a road trip to stop this.
Tonight is the series finale of Jericho. For real this time. Much as you may hope, I doubt CBS will un-cancel it again. On the bright side, the Jericho team was smart enough to foresee this tragedy and so they filmed two different endings. As such, at least we'll be getting some closure instead of a cliffhanger.