Lets Play "How To Fix A TV Show?" - Jericho Edition
 

Most of us aren't TV Producers, writers or even affiliated with the TV Industry, but we have ideas. So what went wrong with Jericho and how would you fix it? Would you change anything? Everything?

The primary issue for me was the "Family Hour" softening of the show. Jericho has to scare the crap out of us to be even remotely successful. I am fairly certain, for sponsor and political reasons, they were afraid to and that is why the show turned out "fluffy".

* Move the show to 9pm. This is a post nuclear destruction rural America. There needs to be an emphasis on gritty realism instead of the Ma & Pa western from the 1970's. More like Battlestar Galactica (drama) and less like Bonanza.

* Ma, Pa and the older son would need to be completely redefined. Maybe even eliminated. Jake had his moments but for the most part were driven by Hawkins.

* The school teacher was one of the best characters and was virtually unused. Jake and the teacher could have been the sole romantic storyline.

* Hawkins family should have been part of the community from the start. The whole 24 vibe was too much and too distracting to the core story. Having so many outside "factions" in the show waters down the character development.

* Recast the kids. Could they find any less intriguing child actors.

* Create more conflict within the community. More stealing, disease and famine and death. The winter was way too easy. They were blindsided by the attack and half the people in the town would probably have died in the first 6 months.

* If you are gonna have battle scenes, please don't make it be a couple yokels at "The Pass". I realize this costs money, but you have a minimum effort to the commitment of the show.

* The Tax Lady, The Farmer and the Deaf Girl. This could have been a great storyline. I would have written this with a much harder edge. Change the Tax Lady to the Farmers wife and make this more of a struggle for a family to survive. I realize they were getting to that point, but the IRS storyline was too fluffy for premise of post-nuke.

* The starting logo looks like Public Access TV and is not very inviting.

i agree with some of the points but I think the show improved so much in the last few episodes, I can't criticize it too much. I watched every episode and the post hiatus episodes were like an entirely different show. I agree, less family drama, more of the outside conspiracy stuff, and a harder edge. The show to me is more about Hawkins, Jake, and what the big conspiracy is than about the internal struggles of Jericho. Having the New Bern plot come to a climax and probably resolve itself will probably mean most of the 7 new episodes will deal with the conspiracy and what is going on in the outside world. at least I hope!

I've made no secret of the fact that I thought most of it has been a yawner, and frankly, I'm still baffled by the outrage over its initial cancellation. The improvement after the hiatus was marginal. For most of the season, they made nuclear apocolypse seemingly a cakewalk - pull up a bar stool and chill because we have unlimited booze.

I want them to focus on Hawkins, the military, the split government and whoever the Daniel Benzali character is. Frankly, I couldn't give two shits about the town and the 'war' with New Bern.

I gave up on Jericho right after the flashback episode right before the bomb went off. The first half of the season was a yawner as Red Dog describe it and I agree and even the flashback episode wasn't very entertaining for me.

Now with all of the hoopla of the cancellation and CBS bringing the show back, I will be watching the remaining episodes on DVD if indeed the show got better or not.

I don't want to get too specific, but this comment indicates to me that you haven't seen the whole season.

Watched every episode. My opinion is that Ma Pa and older brother should be redefined or eliminated and that Jake was strongest when he was with Hawkins or the Teacher.

I think they should redefine the corpse of Pa.

I would spoiler tag that Red Dog, lots of people quit watching after the hiatus and may not know that bit of information.

I agree that the show improved dramatically near the end. The problem was the slow start, then the hiatus that killed it. But the focus on Hawkins and then actual conflict near the end of the show was great.

I said this in the other thread, but I felt the same way about Invasion. I know you need to start off a little slowly so that you can introduce all the characters, but if you lose most of the audience in the process, what's the point. Here's my recommendations for new shows:

1. Don't start off so slowly. If you're going to intersperse all this family drama, that's fine, but do it while there's important stuff going on to advance the plot. A lot of times, the first five minutes and last five minutes were great, but everything in the middle sucked.
2. By "action," I don't mean small town stuff like "the school is on fire" or "the mine shaft's blown." Maybe it was just the way it was handled, but I was bored out of my mind during those "events."
3. Please, please, please stop with the annoying teenagers. Hey, they're moody, great. Maybe they're even necessary, but please, please scale them back. I think I hated every single one of them, and cringed whenever they were on the show. In small doses late in the series, they were fine.

Yeah, I saw the season finale. I was speaking in retrospect. What I would have done differently. Thats why I described the Tax Lady, Farmer and Deaf girl in a totally differently setting than presented in the show. I guess my description was weak. I am talking about how to fix last season. Not next season.

BTW ... Had this been a military show, I would never have watched it. The fact that it was a serial drama is what drew me in.

I stopped reading here, as you lost all credibility.

How to fix Jericho:

1) Fire all writers
2) Kill all teenagers, school teachers, deaf people, and tax collectors in Jericho
3) Have Hawkins and Skeet leave Jericho and travel the country, trying to stop the conspiracy. Screw Kansas.

It happened months ago. Based on the rules of the forum, it's not a spoiler -- it's fair game and should not be spoilerized.

Make it the Jake and Hawkins show. Have the rest of the characters blow up in a horrible center-of-town barbecue accident.

Re-cast the whole cast & find some people that actually know how to act.

I gave up after the 2nd episode because the acting was just to brutal for me to stand watching. I'm not saying I watch the best acted shows on television or anything, Criminal Minds isn't that well acted but at least the writing for the show is stronger than Thomas G.'s performance (He's trying though).

I think I might give this show another chance when It hits DVD. This show was basically made to try the now "Not-so popular" LOST cash In.
I love a good intriguing TV show but the episodes I saw wern't very intresting.

Fair game? No doubt. Against the rules of the forum? Not at all. A total lack of courtesy that could be fixed in less than 10 seconds by typing two simple commands on opposing sides of the text? Yes. I don't see what people have against not spoiling things even if it has already happened, especially when it doesn't take much or hurt a damn thing to do it. I take it by your post that you are one of the people that don't really give a rats ass about spoiling things for other people, meh.

Note: I of course see your point, but with this case, which is a special one, seeing a mass majority of people stopped watching after the hiatus, a lot of those same people have stated numerous times in threads on this board that they will either purchase the DVD or rewatch the series when it is aired again on CBS this summer, I just think it would be nice if everyone put some sort of thought before just posting random things that happened in the finale or otherwise on the show...

I thought the first episode was solid, the rest up until the final three were a little slow, but still kept my interest, if they continue the same formula they have been for the last three I will continue to watch.

While I agree that the show picked up tremendously towards the end as everyone plunged further and further into peril and civilization continued to decline, I am not so sure the beginning is as unrealistic as we may all believe. If you were in Kansas and a Nuclear bomb blew up Denver, most people WOULD probably act like nothing much was different until food and fuel started to run out which is pretty much what happened in this show.

I'm not going to spoiler tag something that has already aired in a thread about that very show in the TV Talk forum. That's beyond ridiculous. If you haven't watched Jericho, then why would one be in this thread to offer suggestions on how to fix the show in the first place - you would have to expect to read plot points? If this was a thread where a member asked whether he should catch the reruns of Jericho during the summer, then that would be a different story.

It's not about spoiling another person's experience. I certainly don't want to do that. The issue is that every show has a user or lurker who hasn't seen it. So you could make a point that every thread should be spoilered.

For instance, a large number of people did not watch Veronica Mars Season 3 -- they are waiting for the DVD set to come out. Does that mean that we should spoilerize every comment in every Veronica Mars season 3 thread?

I know where you're coming from: I TiVo a lot of sports, and I absolutely hate when someone calls me up with the score, or when I go online and see the score before watching the game (I actually can't watch the game after that, I end up deleting it). As a result, I take reasonable precautions to prevent spoiling something. For instance, if I have an incoming call from a friend who I know probably watched the game, I say something before they can spoil it. I don't check SportsTalk until after I watched the game, etc.

The fact is that half of the Jericho season occurred post-hiatus (the more notable half IMO). Asking people to spoilerize everything that happened in that half of the season is excessive and unnecessary and leads to annoying-to-read threads. If you haven't watched that half and don't want to know what happened, it's probably best to not read Jericho threads until after the summer reruns.

Wow, great fixes. I agree with just about everything you suggested.
I couldn't have written a better fix for the show. Hope the new episodes go this way. This could have been a really good show but they did so much wrong & I was so disappointed in it. I do have to say that it was picking up at the end though.

I don't think there is anything that needs to be fixed on this show. Jake and Hawkins are solid lead characters and I really like the supporting cast with Stanley, MiMi (even though she's kind of annoying) and the Mayor. I am also intrigued with Daniel Benzali's involvement in the show and I thought Constantino was a quite mennacing villain. Obviously there quite alot of people out there who were passionate about this show to fight to keep it on the air and enjoyed it for what it is.

"The Tax Lady, The Farmer and the Deaf Girl. "

Great title for a porno flick.

in the final battle the people that were supposed to have military experience didn't seem to
using pallets for cover instead of digging fox holes?
ridiculous. 1/4in of wood won't do shit against rifle fire