What Could Have Been Done?

[Guest MissMarie]

"When faced the option to surrender his town on the season finale of Jericho, Skeet Ulrich's character responded, "Nuts." That's what fans said too when CBS didn't renew Jericho for a second season: They shipped 20 tons of peanuts to network execs as part of an Internet campaign to save the show. Even more nutty? It worked! On June 6 CBS announced it will bring back the post-Apolalyptic series for a seven episodes. "I don't think I've fully processed it," Ulrich, 37, tells Scoop. "There's nothing I could do to thank the fans enough." -June 25, 2007, People Magazine

If a show like Jericho can be brought back, was there ever a chance that NS could have been in the following weeks after the cancellation? Was there even talk to do something like this amongst fans?

[Guest MillenniumIsBliss]

"When faced the option to surrender his town on the season finale of Jericho, Skeet Ulrich's character responded, "Nuts." That's what fans said too when CBS didn't renew Jericho for a second season: They shipped 20 tons of peanuts to network execs as part of an Internet campaign to save the show. Even more nutty? It worked! On June 6 CBS announced it will bring back the post-Apolalyptic series for a seven episodes. "I don't think I've fully processed it," Ulrich, 37, tells Scoop. "There's nothing I could do to thank the fans enough." -June 25, 2007, People Magazine

If a show like Jericho can be brought back, was there ever a chance that NS could have been in the following weeks after the cancellation? Was there even talk to do something like this amongst fans?

I'm embarrassed to admit that I never watched Jericho, mostly because I could never find it and never ran across it. From what I heard, it sounds pretty good. Maybe I can add that to my want list for DVDs. By the way, did you know that the phrase "nuts" was a famous phrase from World War 2. In the historic "Battle of the Bulge" in Europe (Belgium if I remember correctly), one of the U.S. officers was asked by a German officer for his surrender. The response that he gave to the messenger to return to the German's was simply "nuts".

[Guest SouthernCelt]

I'm embarrassed to admit that I never watched Jericho, mostly because I could never find it and never ran across it. From what I heard, it sounds pretty good. Maybe I can add that to my want list for DVDs. By the way, did you know that the phrase "nuts" was a famous phrase from World War 2. In the historic "Battle of the Bulge" in Europe (Belgium if I remember correctly), one of the U.S. officers was asked by a German officer for his surrender. The response that he gave to the messenger to return to the German's was simply "nuts".

CBS also announced they would be rerunning episodes until the new season premiers (I figure the production co. is having to reassemble the cast and crew to start new filming since they thought it was all over). Obviously there aren't enough weeks left before the new season to rerun every episode, but they can probably get in the really critical ones.

The use of "nuts" as a response to the surrender demand wasn't just a general gesture to the Bastogne defenders in WWII, the original event had been discussed already in the storyline to show some of the townspeople who favored surrender (even before any fighting started) that 'true Americans' never surrender to despotic forces so when the Jericho defenders found themselves in similar straits, that seemed the most appropriate response. Also the de facto leader of the defenders had been the now out-of-office mayor of Jericho who was the father (played by Gerald McRaney, a Mississippian BTW) of two of the primary characters including the character played by Ulrich. McRaney had told the story of Bastogne earlier in the last episode, and, if my memory is right, stated that his father had been at Bastogne and intimated that his survival was due to resisting the Germans, not surrendering. When McRaney was mortally wounded in the first "battle" he turned his command over to Ulrich who chose to respond "nuts" when he took the radio call for their surrender.

Hope that's not confusing to those who didn't see the show but, yes, I thought it was one of the best new shows on TV. Of course, I'm a sucker for the "doomsday" genre anyway so I might have given it a pass on some things that I wouldn't have in other storylines. It turned out to have a very good cast with a lot of recognizable faces from movies and TV and they seemed to work well together in making the viewer believe they were from a small Kansas town.

[Guest MillenniumIsBliss]

CBS also announced they would be rerunning episodes until the new season premiers (I figure the production co. is having to reassemble the cast and crew to start new filming since they thought it was all over). Obviously there aren't enough weeks left before the new season to rerun every episode, but they can probably get in the really critical ones.

The use of "nuts" as a response to the surrender demand wasn't just a general gesture to the Bastogne defenders in WWII, the original event had been discussed already in the storyline to show some of the townspeople who favored surrender (even before any fighting started) that 'true Americans' never surrender to despotic forces so when the Jericho defenders found themselves in similar straits, that seemed the most appropriate response. Also the de facto leader of the defenders had been the now out-of-office mayor of Jericho who was the father (played by Gerald McRaney, a Mississippian BTW) of two of the primary characters including the character played by Ulrich. McRaney had told the story of Bastogne earlier in the last episode, and, if my memory is right, stated that his father had been at Bastogne and intimated that his survival was due to resisting the Germans, not surrendering. When McRaney was mortally wounded in the first "battle" he turned his command over to Ulrich who chose to respond "nuts" when he took the radio call for their surrender.

Hope that's not confusing to those who didn't see the show but, yes, I thought it was one of the best new shows on TV. Of course, I'm a sucker for the "doomsday" genre anyway so I might have given it a pass on some things that I wouldn't have in other storylines. It turned out to have a very good cast with a lot of recognizable faces from movies and TV and they seemed to work well together in making the viewer believe they were from a small Kansas town.

Thanks for the additional insight. I still can't imagine how I missed it, but maybe I can find it on reruns or DVD. I guess I very rarely check in on network television these days.

[Guest SouthernCelt]

Thanks for the additional insight. I still can't imagine how I missed it, but maybe I can find it on reruns or DVD. I guess I very rarely check in on network television these days.

I guess that's one "advantage" of having only local broadcast programming available, you have to choose between network programming and DVDs.

[Guest MillenniumIsBliss]

I guess that's one "advantage" of having only local broadcast programming available, you have to choose between network programming and DVDs.

Yeah, I'm not sure I could do that, although, I guess if I didn't have cable, I wouldn't know what I was missing. I can say, however, if I didn't have to pay for cable, I could probably buy a few DVDs or a couple DVD box sets every month. I have really gotten dependent on many of the "reality" shows (for lack of a better word) on TDC, TLC, Bravo and THC. For example, Top Chef, Deadliest Catch etc. The great variety of programing on these channels is a big reason why I sometimes forget about the network channels.

[HighPlainsDrifter]

Before you all say "Its about time that Drifter guy dropped in to moderate his forum and make a comment"

Well little do you all know since Tuesday i have been fighting a temp of 101...throwing up and horrible body aches. I am fine now, i called a young priest and a old priest to drive the sickness out...lol

To help MissMarie comment about if anything was gonna be done about the poor demise of Night Stalker?

The few things i have read and heard are from Spotnitz's interviews on TV and Magazines. Here is the info:

After the cancelation Frank looked into possibly wanting to move the series to a cable network channel. Then he decided to make a deal with Sci-Fi to show reruns and if Night Stalker did well in reruns Sci-Fi might pick it up as an original programme. Spotnitz would offer the original role back to Stuart Townsend if he wanted it. If not he would recast the whole series. Well Night Stalker aired and dissappeared on Sci-Fi. As of right now Spotnitz has no further plans on revisting Night Stalker.

My take on this, i think Night Stalker would be a perfect fit on a channel called Chiller thats shown on Direct TV. Or even F/X could be a good channel to revive this show. Hey i loved this series, but i dont see it being revived anytime soon.

I saw the first episode of Jericho and didnt find it intresting at all

[Guest MissMarie]

After the cancelation Frank looked into possibly wanting to move the series to a cable network channel. Then he decided to make a deal with Sci-Fi to show reruns and if Night Stalker did well in reruns Sci-Fi might pick it up as an original programme. Spotnitz would offer the original role back to Stuart Townsend if he wanted it. If not he would recast the whole series. Well Night Stalker aired and dissappeared on Sci-Fi. As of right now Spotnitz has no further plans on revisting Night Stalker.

My take on this, i think Night Stalker would be a perfect fit on a channel called Chiller thats shown on Direct TV. Or even F/X could be a good channel to revive this show. Hey i loved this series, but i dont see it being revived anytime soon.

Thank you for the info. I wasn't aware of that possibility. That just makes me even more disappointed because I thought it would at least generate some attention at Sci-Fi considering it fits better there. But was there even any advertisement when it began airing? That was one of the problems in the beginning, that it wasn't advertised enough.

But I think you're right about going to FX or some other station like USA maybe. It would do well at either of those cable stations, but if it did poorly at Sci-Fi, what's the chance it'll do better?

Anyway, thanks for the info. And I hope you're feeling better.

[Guest ZeusFaber]

It never really had a chance. ABC scheduled it against CSI, and only gave it six episodes before making up their minds.

If established shows that have been allowed to build-up a fan base over multiple seasons like Carnivale can't be spared the axe, what hope does a series that has barely begun have when it is aired in a timeslot that has already been conquered by a rival network?

Those are the breaks, these days.

[HighPlainsDrifter]

i am not even sure why Spotnitz chose ABC to carry Night Stalker. I know it was the original airing of the 70's version but with its tight regulations on content and wanting to slot it up against CSI there was no chance. Sometimes i think this series wasnt well planned out