-
May 23, 2007 10:39 am US/Pacific
-
Digg |
Facebook |
E-mail
|
Print
'Jericho' Fans To CBS: 'Nuts!'
Over 8,600 Pounds Of Nuts Shipped To CBS In Manhattan
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
You might say fans of the recently canceled CBS drama "Jericho" have gone nuts.
With the help of distributor NutsOnline.com, supporters of the show have ordered thousands of pounds of peanuts and other nuts, and have had them shipped to the network's headquarters on 52nd Street in Manhattan to protest the cancellation.
The idea stemmed from the final episode of the show in which Jake Green, a character played by actor Skeet Ulrich, was asked to surrender. He responded by saying, "Nuts!"
The line was an homage to the famous reply from Gen. Anthony McAuliffe, U.S. commander at the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, when his German counterpart demanded that he surrender his besieged American troops in the cold Belgian forest.
"Jericho" fans are pooling their money online to order the nuts, which are mostly peanuts, but have also included walnuts, almonds and sunflower seeds. The grassroots campaign had shipped 8,681 pounds of nuts as of Wednesday, according to NutsOnline.com, including 4,042 pounds Tuesday and another 3,133 pounds Wednesday morning.
CEO Jeffrey Braverman was stunned when he saw the orders suddenly pouring.
"It caught us a little by surprise when we had the first few orders come in," he told WCBS-TV. "I thought, 'What the heck is this?' I thought it might be fraudulent, but I looked around and saw this battle cry of nuts."
"We jammed away, put up a Web page and then things went nuts, no pun intended," chuckled Braverman. "And the crazy thing is there are hundreds if not thousands of people clicking on this thing and I've received hundreds and hundreds of e-mails and over 1,000 orders from all over the world. It's insane!"
To monitor the shipments, NutsOnline created a special Web page designated for the campaign, which includes a log of the shipments being sent to CBS as well as their arrival, and pictures of the NutsOnline workers posing with the massive shipments.
Jericho fans were inspired by the 2002 campaign to save the WB series "Roswell." Disgruntled fans of that program sent 6,000 bottles of Tabasco sauce to network executives because it was the favorite condiment of aliens on the show. Unfortunately for the fans, however, the show did not make a return.
Will the same happen for Jericho? Nina Tassler, President of CBS Entertainment, released a statement to Jericho fans that seems to hint that there could be a future for Jericho, albeit a short one.
"Thank you for supporting Jericho with such passion," her statement read. "We truly appreciate the commitment you made to the series and we are humbled by your disappointment. In the coming weeks, we hope to develop a way to provide closure to the compelling drama that was the Jericho story."
What the network is planning for that "closure" is not known.
In the meantime, Braverman is pleased with the publicity that the campaign has brought to his company. Although he admits he's never watched the show, he says the intrigue created by the die-hard fans would certainly bring him to start if it were brought back.
"Something is going to happen. Are they gonna bring back Jericho? I don't know, I certainly hope so because now I'm extremely interested in watching this, and I think this campaign will bring others to start watching it too," he said. "I'm enjoying the excitement of this, these fans are passionate and they're not going to stop anytime soon. These are people who you think are crazy, but they're real people. They're mothers and fathers and grandmothers and students. It's just phenomenal how this happens."
The initial batch of nuts, totaling just 89 pounds, was sent on May 17. Another 24 pounds was shipped the following day, and on Monday the first pooled order of 1,393 pounds was sent out.
"Yesterday we shipped out 4,042 pounds which is a sick amount of nuts, more than you can imagine," Braverman said Wednesday. "That's 160 25-pound cases."
It's not yet known what CBS officials plan to do with the nuts, but Braverman is asking that at the very least that they be distributed to charity and not thrown away.
Jericho was canceled May 16.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)