JERICHO - Season 1 - COMPLETE BASE SET OF 72 CARDS - MANUFACTURED BY INKWORKS - 2007.


Jericho is an American post-apocalyptic action-drama television series, which centers on the residents of the fictional city of Jericho, Kansas, in the aftermath of a limited nuclear attack on 23 major cities in the contiguous United States. The show was produced by CBS Paramount Network Television and Junction Entertainment, with executive producers Jon Turteltaub, Stephen Chbosky, and Carol Barbee. It was shown in more than 30 countries.

Jericho ran on CBS from September 20, 2006, to March 25, 2008. It was canceled after its first full season, because of poor ratings. A fan campaign persuaded the network to bring the show back for another season, of seven episodes, after which it was canceled again. In November 2008, TV Guide reported that The CW would air repeats of Jericho to replace the canceled series Valentine. In 2007, Jericho was ranked #11 on TV Guide's Top Cult Shows Ever. In 2009, plans were announced for a feature film based on the series, that was later cancelled, and a continuation of the Jericho storylines in a comic-book series. IDW Publishing released a new comic-book series for Season 4 in August 2012.

Synopsis

First season

The storyline centers on the residents of Jericho, a small northwest Kansas town, in the aftermath of a limited nuclear attack on 23 major cities in the contiguous United States. The series begins with a visible nuclear detonation of unknown origin in Denver, Colorado. Despite initial belief that it was an accident, Dale Turner, one of the characters, receives a phone call from his mother in Atlanta, Georgia. The call is then cut out by the sound of a nuclear blast. Upon showing this to others, it is revealed that the bombings were deliberate. Problems are compounded by loss of power and modern communications, effectively isolating Jericho. Later, power is restored to Jericho by what is alluded to as the efforts of the U.S. government but an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) from an unknown source disables all electronics.

While the first few episodes are about restoring life after the attacks, about halfway through the season some of the citizens meet with citizens of a nearby town, New Bern. At first, relations are established, resulting in a trade of windmills (for power), built in New Bern's factory, for supplies for food from Jericho's farms and salt from its mine (neither of which New Bern could supply on its own). Relations sour as New Bern scapegoats Jericho for its problems and the New Bern sheriff eventually declares war, leading to the season's climax.

Several themes regularly addressed in the show included the gathering of information, community identity, public order, limited resources, the value of family, hardships of fatherhood and internal and external threats. The show also features several mysteries involving the backgrounds of major characters, the perpetrators of the attack and the extent of damage to the United States and its government.

The pivotal character in this story is Jake Green, the 32-year-old son of Mayor Johnston Green. Jake had fled the town of Jericho five years earlier, when he became mixed up with the wrong people and was involved in questionable activity. He briefly returns home to claim his inheritance, before being stranded by the catastrophe. After a somewhat awkward return home and a tense reunion with his father, Jake steps up to become a leader in Jericho, fighting to protect the town and its citizens. As the people of Jericho struggle to survive in a changed world, most remain unaware that one of the newest residents, Robert Hawkins, knows a lot more about the attacks than he is letting on. It is later revealed that he is in possession of an unexploded nuclear bomb that was supposed to be used in the attack but how he obtained it and what side he is on remain anything but clear.

Grey Anderson encounters a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) camp outside of Topeka, where he learns that the attack on New York City was foiled by alert New York City Police who shot the bomber before he could detonate the nuclear bomb that he had in the back of a van. Mayor Green reports that the NYPD captured the van in New York with a 20-kiloton nuclear bomb on board but Washington, D.C. has been bombed. On the way back from the FEMA camp, Anderson's car is stolen by 12 looters and he is forced to walk home to Jericho. Anderson also reports that Lawrence, Kansas has been attacked. Robert Hawkins receives a morse code message on a ham radio stating that Denver, Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia, Kansas City, San Diego and several more cities not shown on screen have been attacked. A black box flight data recorder that Jake recovers from a crashed airliner indicates that air traffic control is non-existent, a mushroom cloud is rising 60 km (37 mi) into the atmosphere and that flashes have also been seen towards Texas.

A radiation-burn victim walks into Jericho from Denver, leading a rescue party to Bear Lake but the 20 radiation-burn victims there are dead. Before the unnamed radiation-burn victim dies, while he is interrogated by Hawkins, it is revealed that he is an accomplice of Hawkins and that there is a traitor in the attack. In the season one finale, armed residents of New Bern attack Jericho with crude mortars made at the factories in New Bern. The mortar bombardment injure people in Jericho. Jake and Johnston Green along with Robert Hawkins lead a counter-attack on New Bern's forces outside of town, killing many of the attackers; Johnston Green is mortally wounded. Army units arrive to separate the combatants just as the season ends.

Second season

The military forces of the new Allied States of America (ASA), which now govern most of what was formerly the Western United States, except the independent Republic of Texas, have restored order to Jericho and its hinterland, putting an abrupt end to the conflict between Jericho and its rival town, New Bern. As a sense of normality returns to Jericho, the plot shifts away from day-to-day survival to life and political intrigue under the ASA government.

The garrison commander of the ASA Army's newly established post in Jericho, Major Edward Beck, asks Jake to accept appointment as the Sheriff of Jericho and the county. Jake reluctantly accepts the appointment with reservations about the ASA government's intentions.

Known only to Hawkins and a select few, the September attacks were neither a foreign nor domestic terrorist act but a conspiracy of unknown perpetrators within the highest level of the former U.S. government, including the president and the secretary of defense of the new ASA government in Cheyenne. Hawkins must calculate his every move to avoid capture, piece together the trail of evidence and bring the truth to light, before the conspiracy's mastermind buries it forever.

Jericho's residents deal with the reality of the new ASA government based in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Welcomed as saviors, the government's military and mercenary agents transform life in Jericho into a repressive police state, led a private security contracting firm, Ravenwood, owned by Jennings & Rall, which has major ties to and sponsors, the leaders of the ASA government. When a Ravenwood contractor kills Bonnie, a deaf farm girl from the outskirts of Jericho, to conceal his embezzlement, the town is put on the edge of revolt as Jake and the deputies protect Mimi, the only witness to Bonnie's murder and the embezzlement.

Jake can no longer tolerate the methods of Ravenwood and the ASA government in Jericho and leads an underground movement to remove them from power in the town. He is arrested by Major Beck and interrogated. Jake refuses to break and escapes with the help of his mother and other town residents. The citizens of the town rebel against the local ASA soldiers. All of this causes Major Beck, a decorated former U.S. Army officer, to question his duty to a government that would treat its citizens the way the new ASA government is doing. He orders his men to stand down and return to their garrison.

Hawkins tries to transport the bomb to his contacts in the reborn Republic of Texas. The ASA military is tipped off and after a brief chase, seizes the weapon. Hawkins narrowly escapes and the ASA military then transports the weapon to Cheyenne for safekeeping.

Hawkins makes contact with Jake and the two travel to Cheyenne, where they retake the bomb from J&R contractors. Hawkins is wounded in a brief gun battle. The two make it to the Republic of Texas embassy in Cheyenne with the only undetonated bomb (in ASA territory) from the September attacks. The ASA's military is right behind them. The Republic of Texas is considered the swing state in the struggle for power between the Eastern United States, which is led by the legitimate surviving United States government, now governed from Columbus, Ohio and the Allied States. Texas has not decided which government to back. The Texan ambassador in Cheyenne shelters Jake and Hawkins at his embassy. He informs his military forces at the embassy to tell the ASA forces outside the fence that any incursion into the embassy by ASA troops will be considered an act of war against the Republic of Texas. The ambassador manages to quickly smuggle Jake, Hawkins and the bomb to the Cheyenne airport. At the airport he secures a small diplomatic jet plane to carry Jake, Hawkins and the device to Texas. While they are en route, two ASA F-15 fighter jets intercept Jake and Hawkins and order them to turn around or be shot down. When Jake refuses to be escorted back to Cheyenne, the two jets drop back to open fire. Suddenly, two Republic of Texas Air National Guard F-16 fighters appear and shoot down the ASA planes. Jake and Hawkins make it to Texas with the evidence and Hawkins ominously intones that a second American Civil War was always coming and the two of them have made history by giving the United States a fighting chance in the war to come.

Third season

Season 3 is not a television show, but a six-part comic book series "from the minds" of the original Jericho production team and written by the Jericho writing team.

In April 2013, Jericho creator Stephen Chbosky revealed during a chat with Nerdacy that talks about a live-action season 3 remain ongoing. In his statement, Chbosky noted, "you know William Morris Endeavor Agency, who represents me, executive producer Jon Turteltaub and many other people, and they've been talking to Netflix and you never know. I can't say what it will be in season 3, but I'm excited for the new developments." In 2017, Skeet Ulrich give a reason why the show doesn't move to Netflix: "We were close [to a third season] about four or five years ago. Karim Zreik, one of the producers, called me and said, "Netflix has a schedule, they have budget, they have locations. Are you in?" I said, "Absolutely, with one proviso: That first script back has to time-jump five years, and the world has devolved way lower than we could ever have imagined." And they were on board with it. And CBS wouldn't sell it. The deal wouldn't work for them.

Fourth season

Season 4 is a continuation of the comic book series released by IDW Publishing on August 15, 2012. The five issue story picked up after the events of Jericho: Season Three. The comic was written by Kalinda Vazquez, and the process was overseen by the television series' writers.

Characters and setting

Characters

Main article: List of Jericho characters

Jericho features an ensemble cast of characters, along with a number of minor and recurring roles. The series website listed eleven main cast members. Alicia Coppola moved from a recurring role to a regular character in February 2008. Gerald McRaney did not have a regular role in season 2. Esai Morales was only present in season 2.

Setting

Jericho, Kansas is a fictional town. It is approximately 47 miles east of the Kansas/Colorado border (which would put it near the location of the real Colby, Kansas). However, a map (episode 3: Jericho is Ness City, Kansas on the map) in the series seems to show Jericho near the junctions of I-70 and US 83. That would place it near the real Oakley. Jericho is 90 miles west of the also fictional Rogue River, Kansas, and around 330 miles from the real Wichita. New Bern, Kansas is a neighboring fictional town which starts a war with Jericho in the wake of the national destruction. Jericho is served by one state highway and the (fictional) Cedar Run Road.

The city's population is mentioned to be almost 5,000 as mentioned in season 1 Ep. 2 "Fallout" (1,000 in 1957). But after the great war between New Bern and Jericho, the population was reduced to 3,000. The city has one grocery store, owned by Gracie Leigh (Beth Grant).

Jericho is run by two mayors throughout the series. Johnston Green (Gerald McRaney) was the mayor at the show opening and for most of season one, but loses the election in the show. Gray Anderson (Michael Gaston), the other electoral candidate, wins the election in the show.

Production

Early development

The series originated as a feature film idea of co-creators Jonathan Steinberg and Josh Schaer: a post-apocalyptic plot set amidst the trappings of "a little character drama" movie, in the vein of The Day After, Threads, and Testament. However, they soon realized that a two- or two-and-a-half-hour-long film would still not carry the necessary length they felt such a concept required to properly explore the setting and the characters. Thus, Schaer and Steinberg decided to re-conceive the entire project as a television series, producing a treatment out of the original feature screenplay. Director Jon Turteltaub and producer Carol Barbee then entered the picture, the pair having pitched the project to them. Turteltaub soon commissioned writer Stephen Chbosky to pen the pilot teleplay based upon Schaer and Steinberg's series treatment.

One of Chbosky's major contributions to the structure of the series was the introduction of a greater feminine element to the storyline, opining that, "[We] could use some girls, a little kissing, and some laughs." Another significant developmental influence were the September 11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina, and the sense of "[being] a spectator to a disaster, while not quite being part of it." Co-creator Steinberg in particular felt that after 9/11, the United States saw some of the "best of people," and after Hurricane Katrina, some of the "worst of people," and sought to include both in the fabric of Jericho, with Katrina providing "lots of inspiration" for the show's overall premise.