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Some Cancelled Series Find Themselves Resuscitated
5-Jun-2007
Written by: Jackson Reeves
Outraged fans force CBS to reconsider bringing back recently cancelled TV series “Jericho.“
Some cancelled TV series find themselves on top of a large pile of similar shows from days-of-yore, a pile that rests on a repeatedly bloodied cutting room floor, or should we say upcoming-network-line-up room floor. All of this just adds to the chagrin of the vexed former viewer of said series.
But sometimes diehard viewers manage to champion campaigns to the networks to get their formerly deceased – and probably maniacally decapitated after failed attempts at reconfiguration, as with recently axed Veronica Mars – shows back on air, if only briefly. It happened back in 1991 when ABC caved to the demands of Twin Peaks aficionados, who relentlessly mailed the network Barbie dolls wrapped in plastic (an allusion to one of the defining initial shots of the series) and logs (an allusion to the series’ legendarily cryptic Log Lady), and agreed to air the final episodes of the series’ second season, thus providing some semblance of closure.
And such guerrilla tactics seem to have triumphed again as CBS caves to the outcries of numerous fans of its ratings-challenged Jericho and agrees to reconsider what its diehard fans deem its premature cancellation this May. As a series rife with mysteries (what show in our Lost-era isn’t?) about an isolated community in the quasi-post-apocalyptic town of Jericho, Kansas trying to escape seemingly imminent nuclear or electronic demise, Jericho doesn’t read like an easy sell. But the writing and acting, particularly by star Skeet Ulrich (formerly the villain in Scream) as prodigal son and hero Jake, demand attention, according to spokesperson for activist-website jericholives.com Clarke Ingram.
After fans mailed 50,000 pounds of peanuts (an allusion to a flippantly mock-triumphant comment in the season one/series finale’s cliffhanger, which leaves Jake’s and the city’s fate unclear) CBS, the overwhelmed network conceded to consider resuscitating the series, possibly with a brief midseason stint in 2008, or so an anonymous insider reported to Lynn Elber of the Associated Press. But it’s no done deal; it’s merely in the speculation phase.
Here’s hoping that love (more specifically: fan power) really can solve any problem.
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