Robbie Thompson is a name many of us may not know, although he worked on both seasons of Jericho in the writer’s room. Over the last month plus, I’ve gotten to know Robbie, and like so many others in the Jericho family, he’s an amazing guy.

Robbie started out as a writers’ assistant, and on Episode 18 (AKA), Carol Barbee gave him the reins to craft the story. This episode showed us Robert and Darcy Hawkins in love, the beginning of Jake’s and Hawkins’ relationship in those intense scenes in the basement, and who could forget Mimi and the chicken?

Robbie was kind enough to donate a signed script (which also includes signatures from Jon Steinberg, Matt Federman, and Steve Scaia) for the effort to raise funds to get the ad back on the air. He also wanted to share a few words with everyone:

“Hey, Robbie Thompson here. I just wanted to say thank you all for everything you’ve done for Jericho. I’m so proud to be a part of this show’s legacy - a legacy that simply would not exist without your creativity, hard work and belief in the show. You made television history - twice! First by bringing the show back from the dead, and again by creating the first ever fan created television ad. I’m just blown away by the quality and craftsmanship of the work Jason did on the ad, and I hope auctioning off this signed copy of Episode 18, “A.K.A.” will help raise the necessary funds to get your amazing ad back on the air and keep the fight to save Jericho alive. Thanks again, Robbie Thompson”

 

Thanks, Robbie. We appreciate all that you’ve done for Jericho and its fans!

-Rubberpoultry

I know how anxious everyone is about what’s happening right now with Jericho. I’m right there with you.

I checked in with Carol, and she told me that some of the members of the Jericho team had been out of the country and have just gotten back into town. In fact, they had a little impromptu meeting in the hallway to catch up on the Jericho front, and it sounds like things will start moving forward again fairly quickly.

While not a huge revelation, this confirms for me that things are still happening. With important team members out of the country, things probably slowed down a bit, but now they should start hopping again.

Thanks, Carol, for being so great to us and offering what you can!

-Rubberpoultry

For many of us, CBS.com is the main place we stay plugged in to what’s happening on the Jericho front. While  a lot of fans seem to be unable to log in and or post, the fight is not over. It looks as if they’re having problems board-wide. I’ve got an e-mail out trying to see what’s going on.

At the suggestion of someone in the fandom, I’m setting up this blog entry as a place to check in for those who normally call CBS home.

Feel free to check in by commenting.

-Rubberpoultry

I think we’d all agree that Brad Beyer is pretty awesome for helping us get our message out by providing a voiceover for the TV ad (not to mention about a million other reasons). After checking out the site, and keeping up with all of our various efforts to get Jericho back into production, Brad wanted to send a quick note to the fans to encourage us as we wait for more on Jericho’s future. Here’s what he had to say:

“Love the website, love the billboard, love the commercial!  Thanks again everyone.  You are THE BEST FANS ever!”

 

—Brad Beyer

In the week or so after the spot was released, I received some reactions that I thought I’d share. It’s always nice to hear from cast and crew:

“RP…that’s DAMN fine work. Well done, once again! You all should be very proud with what you’ve done, no matter the outcome. Really impressive!”

Steve Scaia
Executive Story Editor/Producer

“Well done, Jason.
Let’s hope it works somehow.”

Esai Morales (from the set of Caprica)
Major Beck

“As we say in my family…HOLY CANOLI!
You all are unbelieveably wonderful to have put your time, money and passion into Jericho.
I am speechless actually.
I thank you very much.”

Love,
Alicia (Coppola)
Mimi Clark

“Fabulous! Congratulations! The billboard is up near my house! I love it!”

Shoshannah Stern
Bonnie Richmond

“Brad and I had a great time recording the VO for the Jericho commercial.  We both can’t believe and love what you and the fans  are doing.  Keep up the fight….you never know what may happen.”

Phil Palmer
Production Sound Mixer

This is yet another example of how amazing our extended Jericho family is. Thanks for continuing to fan our flames!

-Rubberpoultry

How many shows do you watch that you know the producers’ names? Probably not too many, and yet the majority of our people in this fandom know the names/faces of our producers, writers, and crew the way we do those with starring credits at the beginning of each episode.

One of the greatest things about the Jericho experience is the incredible interaction we have had with those who create the show. Dan Shotz has always been one of our greatest supporters, and he wanted to send us all a message about the campaign to save Jericho again.

Keep in mind as you read his words that Dan is up to his eyeballs in the development of Harper’s Island (a show we should give a chance). Here’s what he had to say:

The love and support for Jericho still amazes me every day. You guys have gone so above and beyond.  I personally stood by the billboard on Ventura and stared up at it so proud.  I watched Rubberpoultry’s perfectly designed commercial on the Discovery Channel, which is better than the actual content on the Discovery Channel. The blogs, the posts, the ads, the letters… thank you.

We miss making this show so much and are doing everything we can to bring it back.   

Dan

—

Thanks, Dan, for always being so generous with your time when it comes to Jericho. We wish you much success in all of your endeavors, and we hope we will see the Jericho story being told again soon.

What say you all?

-Rubberpoultry

As our fight continues, we’re hearing from many of our Jericho family behind the scenes. I wanted to share some of the inspiring words here on the blog over the coming days. I’m so excited about the first one.

My good buddy Shelby (www.jericho4kids.com) forwarded me a message today from our very own Bob Stephenson. He wanted to share some thoughts with us about what we’re all doing together as a fandom. I’ll let Bob’s words speak for themselves:

So here we are – another waiting game, another reality television season – UGH! I’m so tired of this stuff. I think it is important to let you all know how much it means to the cast that you keep hope alive. Not only for Jericho, but for television in general. When this fight began just after the first season, what struck me was how fed up everyone was - fed up with shows being pulled off the air for no reason. Sure, some shows fail, and those shows need to be pulled (they lose money and sponsorship), but many do well and are pulled just because the network doesn’t understand them and they don’t care about how you feel. To them, it’s just a widget that can be replaced – as if one painting can easily substitute another. Well, it can’t.

I am so happy to see/hear our fans scream “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!” The cast of the show watches television too, believe it or not, and we say the same things you guys are saying all the time - “I can’t believe they canceled this show or that show…” We hate it. As viewers, as actors, as a union…we hate it. We want to work.  It’s a job to us – a job we love. We are hired to entertain and when a show comes along that we believe in, that we feel is worthy of 12- to 18-hour days, that we care about…it means something, something special and we don’t want it to go away – especially if the show’s FANS, in the millions, don’t want it to go away. “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it, anymore,” as the movie “Network” so brilliantly put it.

Anyway, thank you so much for fighting the good fight. I am hoping that someday soon we will all be back in Bailey’s drinking beer, resisting Jennings & Rall, and celebrating weddings. You guys are great!

Your friend,

Bob Stephenson
“Jimmy Taylor”

 

—

Thanks Bob! We want you back in Jericho ASAP!

-Rubberpoultry

Most of the time, waiting is the hardest part. Here we are again waiting to learn the fate of our favorite show, and some days are harder than others. I’ve always found laughter to be the best medicine for the tough times, so I put together a little craft project for anyone who wants to start the day off right with Jerich-o’s cereal.

I put this together first as an illustration for the CBS boards, and then when Jerichon rolled around, I made real cereal boxes for our guests (Matt Federman and Mike Loomer). Here’s how the final art looks wrapped around a real mini-cereal box:

And here are the finished boxes after being presented to our Jericho guests (photo by Kestral):

After several requests to make the art available, I’ve finally come up for air after finishing the spot and all of my regular work. You can download your own copy of the artwork here. It looks like this (minus the watermark):

Here are a few tips to getting a realistic looking box:

1. Carefully take apart a real mini-cereal box. Use an X-acto knife.
2. Do a rough cut of the artwork with scissors leaving 1/4″ or so around all of the art.
3. Glue the artwork to the box (using rubber cement). Match up outline as best you can with the edges of your real box.
4. Cut the artwork on the outlines using a straight edge and an X-acto knife (scissors will not give you straight enough lines). Cutting slightly into the real box will make your covering look even more realistic. In other words. Cut on the inside of the black outline, rather than the outside of it.
5. Once your box is cut, use super glue it together where the old box was once glued (except for the top flaps).
6. Finally, insert the prepackaged cereal, or partially fill a sandwich bag with cereal, for that realistic sound and weight. Super glue the top flap, and you’ve just made your very own box of novelty Jerich-o’s cereal

  Enjoy

-Rubberpoultry

Not that I’m the sharpest knife in the drawer or the most educated in all that is the World Wide Web, but I’m still pretty impressed with today’s stats related to hits on this Save Jericho Again site.  Since I’m no expert, I will let the universal Jericho love speak for itself:

•  7,380 Visits
• 22, 531 Page Views
• 5,035 Absolute Unique Visitors (that means if you visited here only once or even 20 times from the same IP address, you are counted as one unique visitor)
• Views from 59 countries and territories

Let’s take a look at who’s interested in Save Jericho Again, ranked by number of hits:

1. USA
2. Canada
3. United Kingdom
4. Poland
5. Germany
6. France
7. Spain
8. Australia
9. Hungary
10. Romania
11. Croatia
12. Ireland
13. Czech Republic
14. Sweden
15. Italy
16. Slovenia
17. Brazil
18. Netherlands
19. Belgium
20. New Zealand
21. Norway
22. Slovakia
23. Portugal
24. Israel
25. Greece

Other countries represented include: Serbia, Denmark, Mexico, Switzerland, Austria, Russia, Japan, Algeria, Lithuania, Iceland, Finland, Ukraine, Chile, Hong Kong, South Africa, South Korea, Peru, Uruguay, Luxembourg, Ghana, Reunion (WHERE is Reunion??), China, Argentina, Panama, Latvia, Cyprus, Guam, China, Egypt, Malaysia, Maldives, Taiwan, and the Phillipines. 

It IS a small world, after all!  Let’s keep fighting for Jericho!  This story of love, family, and community that sustains us even in the toughest of times is truly universal. 

One other exciting tidbit for the day — Jericho, The Second Season DVD is on the move, as of 8:00 PM 6/18:

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #16 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Popular in these categories: (What’s this?)

 – Julie/Welcome2CHO

There are many jobs in the world of entertainment production that many of us never think about. One of them is in the capturing and mixing of sound on set, and in the studio. There are probably a lot of us in the fandom who don’t know the name Phil Palmer, but it’s time we should all get to know the man behind the sound of Jericho, National Treasure 2, Swingtown and the upcoming Star Trek movie (among others).

Phil was approached on very short notice and asked if he could help us by recording Brad’s VO for our spot. Like so many others in the Jericho family he agreed to do whatever he could to help. Without him, we’d have nothing. He donated his time just as everyone else involved has. Please join me in thanking Phil for being part of this project, and for helping us hear 2 seasons of Jericho!

-Rubberpoultry