This Writer Wrote

On the corner of Ventura and Vineland in the Los Angeles area, not that far from NBC Universal and CBS Radford, relatively speaking, is this towering billboard that attracted my attention.

One is used to seeing For Sale signs all over the place, but on a billboard? Needless to say, it attracted my attention immediately. “TV Show for Sale” it said on its white plaque and on the board holding the plaque up, it said “Network Needed, Loyal Fans Will Follow.”  The rest of the billboard had Jericho in big letters and a blurb about Jericho and more than 6 million fans needing a new home.

You guys did good. It’s a great billboard and easily attracts attention. I hope it works, because I like that show, too.

I first became aware of Skeet Ulrich in one of my all time favorite movies, As Good As It Gets, where he had a small, kind of a bad guy role. And I admit I noticed him more because he looked so much like Johnny Depp, I just went, who is this guy? In Miracles, he was an added pleasure, but I was really watching the show for Angus MacFadyen.

Then Skeet did The Magic of Ordinary Days and Into the West and I was blown away. After that I was watching Skeet for Skeet.

I hope these billboards work, because like you, I feel the show ended way too soon. But if it had to end, the writers, directors, and actors did a great job ending it. The heroes accomplished their goal, they won, and yet the door was open for more episodes, because the battle to reclaim the country was just beginning. It’s a great ending, unlike, in my opinion, the dreadful and disappointing ending to Stargate SG-1 and Ally McBeal, to name a couple.

I saw the cliffhanger ending they were planning as a season ending on You Tube and even that they did right. I hate cliffhangers, I think they are useless. No cliffhanger in the world will get me to watch a show I don’t like or haven’t watched. I think the only one that really worked was the ‘who killed JR?’ one and that was because it was the first.

And if I like a show and have invested watching in it all season, I don’t need a cliffhanger to bring me back. Take Boston Legal, I love their endings… “See you next season” or “See you next year” the two main stars toast each other… and they always do see me the next season/year.

Chances are, I’m not going to remember the cliffhanger ending over the months of watching something else in its stead anyway.

But back to what Jericho did right. It wasn’t that much of a cliffhanger because once again the heroes achieved their objective, which pleases me no end. The cliffhanger was Hawkins getting caught and Jake saying, I’m going back for him. Are you coming? For me, that could have easily been the series ender as well, for it isn’t that much of a nail-biter. Why? Because as soon as Jake said he was going back for Hawkins, I knew the hellhounds of the Underworld couldn’t stop that rescue. I didn’t need to see it happen.

But I’d like to. I’d also like to see them take back the country. So I hope this billboard and the others like it do the trick. Because this show is written right. This show is written well. And then it is acted brilliantly.

So my hat’s off to you, Jericho fans, for your second campaign. It’s as noticeable as the first, even if you can’t eat eye-catching billboards.

This article was first posted on my  TVGuide.com blog,  Fireside Chats From Hollywood: http://community.tvguide.com/blog/Fireside-Chats-Hollywood/700152230

It is reprinted here with the hopes of reaching other fans interested in Jericho who might not read TVGuide.com.  If you are interested in seeing the show return, please visit, www.savejerichoagain.com or follow the instructions on the billboard.

I’m not connected with the website or the campaign, so I thank jeanine123 for alerting me to it and to TrishTheDish for finding the billboard photo.  Trish also posted a YouTube vid about the installing of the billboard, so if you are interested in seeing that, you can find it in the comments section of my TVGuide.com blog.  I don’t know how to link to it here.