Will CBS Rebuild Jericho? Get the Scoop on the Fan Fave's Future!
Nielsen can measure butts in seats, but it sure can't measure hearts and minds. In further proof (as if we needed more) that the numbers don't tell the whole story about the popularity of a show, Jericho fans are making like the characters on the show and refusing to go down without a fight.
Taking a cue from Roswell's bottles of Tabasco, Arrested Development's bananas and Jake Green's "Nuts!" battle cry in the finale, Jericho fans are inundating CBS with nuts—eight tons of nuts so far! Nutsonline.com (in business—but presumably not online—since 1929) has been the semi-official hub of this effort, so if you would like to toss a few Brazil nuts in the general direction of the Eye network (is it just me or did that sound dirty?), check out the nutsonline.com Jericho support page—and while you're there, don't miss the awesome YouTube video of a Nuts! delivery.
Furthermore, the save Jericho petition currently has nearly 80,000 signatures! If you want to participate in the campaign, sign your name on the digital dotted line and then swing by jerichorallypoint.com and jericholives.com to join forces with other fans!
My inbox is full of reports about your progress, so I thought a rundown might be in order to tie it all together and keep the ball in play. Go Panthers! Er, wait, that's the wrong show. Anyway, I tracked down to a bunch of Jericho peeps to get the scoop on the show's future, and here's what I know:
The Fallout: Jericho castmember Brad Beyer (Stanley Richmond) and I spoke yesterday afternoon, and he told me, "We consistently held 8 or 9 million viewers, even going up against Idol, so everyone was really surprised and shocked that we were canceled. You have to move on and let go, but you see all this fan support and you keep that tiny bit of hope in your heart." And Jericho producer Karim Zreik emailed me to this effect: "We were all stunned when we didn't get the second-season pickup, but our fans have completely surprised us. This outpouring of support means the world to the Jericho cast and crew. Knowing that Jericho touches so many people has completely humbled us. I don't know what's going to happen next. CBS and Paramount are still weighing their options. We hope to know more by next week."
Postapocalyptic Landscape: Brad tells me: "People are auditioning, and the writers are trying to find work. I think our great producers have been really hanging in with the show. They're really still fighting for us." Show runner Carol Barbee has a deal with CBS Paramount, so if the network wants more Jericho from her, she's ready and willing to serve up more story. That said, I'm told Carol's best friend created the new series Swingtown, which is also set up at CBS Paramount, and if Jericho does not continue, Carol would join Swingtown as an executive producer… (If she goes, can Skeet at least become a swinger?)
CBS Has Heard You: As Brad points out, "I think in the end it's CBS' decision, because they own the show." Given that most of their shows cater to the geriatric set, I honestly think CBS had no idea how many young, web-savvy fans Jericho had. CBS president Nina Tassler posted a note praising your efforts on behalf of the show. However, as of press time, CBS was still telling me there had been "no change" in the status of the show.
What Next? As Brad told me, "There are so many different things kicking around right now; I don't know how realistic it is for any of them, but I hope we can wrap it up for the fans—and for us, because we all love doing it so much!"
And if you ask me, leaving the fans cliffhanging for all of eternity would just be plain…nuts. Ba-dum-bump.
HBO’s Recount: A review
After the first 15 minutes of the HBO movie Recount, I was so upset, so filled with rage that I wondered if I wanted to watch the rest of the movie. Did I want to relive the events of November 7, 2000? Did I want to watch what happened, the craziest election fiasco in the last 25 years? I was compelled to stick with it because I had lived through it and I was dying to know what I didn’t know when it unfolded in real time. I thought the HBO movie might teach me something, and, in fact, it did.
For those who don’t want to know what happened in Recount, I won’t reveal any spoilers until after the jump. Of course, if you don’t already know how the election turned out, you’ve either been in a coma or are woefully out of touch. Suffice to say that Recount doesn’t rewrite history. The ending is exactly as it was in 2000.
In some ways, Recount is like All The President’s Men, although not nearly has epic or cinematic. Jay Roach (Meet the Fockers) is no Alan J. Pakula, but he’s pretty good with Recount. What he does right is set the time and place and add suspense to a story that we all know. That’s pretty good directing, and he and writer Danny Strong are to be commended. They take what could have been a tedious subject — the counting of votes and the legal wrangling over whether to do it or not — and made it intense and exciting.
If I have a complaint about Recount it’s only this: I wanted to know what was going on in George W. Bush’s head and Al Gore’s head through all of this business. We hear an occasional voice on a phone, but Bush and Gore are not characters in Recount. This isn’t like The Late Shift, the HBO movie about how David Letterman left NBC and Jay Leno became the host of The Tonight Show. In that film, actors playing Letterman and Leno gave us insight into their hearts and minds. We don’t have that with Recount.
Minus the main men, it’s left to their surrogates to step up and carry the film. That means Tom Wilkinson as James Baker, a former cabinet secretary for George Bush (President #41), to represent W., and Kevin Spacey as Ron Klain, Al Gore’s former chief of staff. They’re both really good.
Ironically, neither Baker nor Klain is completely enamored with their candidate — Klain at one point admits, “You know what’s really funny about all this? I’m not sure I really like Al Gore.” And Baker explains that his motivation is linked to W.’s father, an old friend who turned him from a Democrat into a Republican. Those shades of gray help with the storytelling.
Still, there’s no question the seconds, Denis Leary’s character and Bob Balaban’s, are strongly left and right, respectively. Balaban’s Ben Ginsberg (and he really looks like the guy) is so anti-Dem that he says they steal elections. When Bill Dailey, the son of former Chicago Mayor Richard Dailey, is shown talking on TV, Ginsberg claims, “He’s trying to steal the election for Gore like his father did for JFK.”
The movie suggests that the Democrats lost the fight for the recount early on. Gore’s choice to head his team is former Secretary of State Warren Christopher (played by John Hurt); he is all about diplomacy and being fair. He’s a gentleman. He says, “No shame in placing country above party.” Meanwhile, on the other side, James Baker declares that this is a street fight. The Republicans were determined to win; they didn’t want the results changed, so they were anti-recount and every step. By the way, Christopher and Baker, two famous Americans, were played by two British actors — with not a touch of England in their voices.
The story turns to the Florida Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, to rule on legalities, and that’s when Laura Dern enters the picture — and steals it. She’s terrific. Her interpretation of Harris reveals her to be a woman ill-equipped to do the job. She’s manipulated by a Republican lobbyist (the always-fun Bruce McGill) to continually put obstacles in the path of those who want the recount — the Gore camp. My favorite Dern moment is right before she announces that the State of Florida certified the election and gave Bush the victory. She stands in the wings before going to face the media, takes a big breath like she’s a singer ready to face a concert audience, plasters on a smile, and strides to the microphones. Katherine Harris sets the women’s movement back 100 years, she’s that inept as depicted here.
In the end, Baker and company best Klain’s team. The film leans in the direction of the Gore camp — they are the underdogs after all — but as Baker points out about the Bush team, “We won every single recount. The system worked. No tanks on the street. Peaceful transfer of power. The strength of the constitution and the rule of law.”
He says this, but in one of the strongest sequences in the film, you see the Miami-Dade canvassing board being intimidated into shutting down the hand recount by a mob that’s allowed to go into the building and storm the hallway. Those protesters were orchestrated and financed by the Bush campaign. Those tactics, including turning the recount atmosphere into a circus with grown men dressed like babies, holding signs that say Gore is whining like a baby, and kids in tee-shirts that said “Gore lies,” undermined the process. It was right out of the Nixon dirty tricks playbook. You don’t see anything like that from the Gore side. The Gore camp is all about strategy, turning the law inside out to get the votes counted. Their cause is not to give Gore the win, but the count the votes. The Bush camp simply wants the win they think they’ve already won.
Spacey gives an excellent, controlled performance. No histronics here, his most moving moment occurs at the end when Gore calls him to say it’s over. “Even if I win, I can’t win,” Gore says, and Spacey is in tears. The character blames himself for not getting every vote counted.
Even though the film lacks Gore and Bush as characters (although there is one exchange when Gore rescinds his concession), they do appear in real news clips. Also included are all the major network talking heads, and those news people and their real reports add a lot to the verisimilitude.
In the end, you’re left with the same feeling that you’ve been hoodwinked, the public was cheated. Why wasn’t every ballot counted? Why did the Supreme Court interfere in Florida’s business? How can you believe that they weren’t playing politics when it was so clear that this was the most important political issue of all at stake?
“Did the best man win?” that’s the question Klain asks Baker near the end of the film. Neither can say for sure.
And as for the votes, in a scene that evokes Raiders of the Lost Ark, Roach shows us the boxes and boxes of ballots in a Florida warehouse. Still there, still uncounted. Who the hell really won that election after all?
Other points of interest
— David Boies, the best appellate attorney in the land, is played by Ed Begley Jr. A brilliant lawyer, he can’t scoop ice cream onto a cone without dropping the scoop onto the kitchen table.
— In a subtle indictment, after the case is done, two of the principals from the Bush team — Ted Olsen and Joe Allbaugh — are shown in headlines to be appointed to the new President’s staff as Solicitor General and head of FEMA. The implication is clear.
— By cross-cutting from the Christopher lead Gore team to the Baker lead Bush team, Roach shows how the tone was set early. Christopher didn’t want to get their hands dirty; Baker did.
— At one point, Spacey’s character says to Leary’s, “You like to say f*ck a lot.” Good inside shot at Leary — and true!
— Just use of the CSI-style forensics camera-work (you know, when they show a bullet going through a body) to explain how the ballots could have hanging chad (which is the plural for chad) and dimpled chad. Also how the machines could be clogged with chad so that it wouldn’t register every vote.
— Ginsberg said early on when Bush was given Florida by the networks, and they declared him the winner, “The stains of Bill Clinton will be washed away.” Talk about anti-Clinton fervor.
— Klain is established early on as having been dissed by Gore, offered a demotion to stay with the campaign once Gore was President. This set up the fact that Klain wasn’t doing the recount for selfish motives; he really didn’t have a reason to be as passionate as he was accept to see every vote counted.
— How goofy was Katherine Harris? She compared her part in the proceedings to Queen Esther from the Old Testament. Esther gave herself to a King to save the Jewish people. Where was the connection except in her head?
— When Klain gets to Palm Beach county and sees the old people — mostly Jews — complaining about their votes not being registered properly because of the butterfly ballot, he refers to the scene as Night of the Living Bubbies. (Bubbies is Yiddish for grandmother).
– The exchange between Bush and Gore on the phone, shown from the backs of their heads, had a nice nastiness to it, when Bush claims his little brother — Jeb, the governor of Florida — said he’d won the state. Gore replies that his little brother isn’t the final authority.
Attention! Army Wives back in training
Cynopsis reports that now that the writers’ strike is over — hallelujah! — Lifetime Television will soon begin production on the second season of Army Wives with episodes scheduled to air in early summer. This is great news for fans of the Lifetime original drama series that was a ratings juggernaut when it premiered last summer. In fact, Army Wives was the most successful series in Lifetime’s 23-year history! During its 13-episode run, Army Wives was the highest rated drama on cable among women, establishing new Lifetime marks for an original scripted series. The soapy-drama was scheduled to return in April, but then the writers struck and the show has been in hibernation — I mean, hiatus — ever since.
With familiar TV faces heading up the cast, including Catherine Bell (JAG) and Kim Delaney (NYPD Blue), Army Wives was a bit of a surprise success. Not many in the know anticipated a “Desperate Housewives in military fatigues” would capture the hearts and minds of viewers, but it did. Said Susanne Daniels, President, Entertainment, Lifetime Networks: “It is incredibly gratifying when a critically acclaimed show is also a successful show, and we are grateful to the four million loyal viewers who tuned in every Sunday to make this series a huge hit for Lifetime.” And now all four million — and more — can look forward to a summer-filled with fresh, new episodes.
Angelina Jolie Calls Out… The World
Angelina Jolie Calls Out… The World
Yesterday was a big day for Angelina Jolie. She spoke at the Clinton Global Initiative organized by former US president Bill Clinton. And the Girl Interrupted actress had plenty of admonishments to hand out to the UN.
At the event, the Lara Croft actress promoted her own brand of foreign relations. She unveiled a 150-million-dollar program to help educate one million children in conflict, refugee and emergency situations.
The mother of four spoke boldly and clearly, commanding the respect of all in attendance. “To put things into perspective and maybe help to understand why we maybe need to adjust the way we’re doing things in the world, the conflict in Iraq has displaced over four million people,” she reported, calling for a change of priorities.
Jolie stated that the amount of money spent in Iraq in just a few hours could educate thousands of children. “The entire appeal equals about eight hours of current spending in Iraq. So just a few hours would send 150,000 children to school. Nothing wins more hearts and minds and nothing gives more freedom than education and nothing is a better deterrent for conflict than an educated child.”