Caemeron Crain
Jericho premiered on CBS in September 2006, and was cancelled after its first season. However, the series had already amassed enough of a following for fans to be able to convince the network to change their minds. The show returned for a second season, and then was cancelled again. It remains, however, an exemplar of cult TV.
Now, 20 years later, fans of Jericho can dig into the story behind the scenes with a new book from Byron Lafayette. Per the press release, After the Bombs: A Jericho Retrospective (published by White Starship Publishing) is “the first and definitive account of how Jericho was made, why it was canceled, and how an army of fans refused to let it die.”
The heart of the book is a compiled record of firsthand conversations with the show’s key creative voices, including executive producer Jon Turteltaub, co-creator Jonathan Steinberg, executive producer Dan Shotz, showrunner Carol Barbee, director Guy Norman Bee, and cast members including Alicia Coppola, Beth Grant, and Clayne Crawford. The retrospective also features a foreword by Guy Norman Bee, Jericho’s most prolific director.
To this, Lafayette adds a series of critical essays examining the show’s enduring themes of survival, community, and moral reckoning.
About the Author
Byron Lafayette is the Chairman of the Independent Film Critics of America, the largest independent critics organization in the United States. He is the best-selling author of Claws in the Dark and Of Existential and Monolithic Ideals and has spent a decade as a film critic and journalist writing for numerous publications. He holds a PhD in Psychology, an influence that, in After the Bombs, informs the retrospective with the psychology of survival and community, as well as the mechanics of television production.
After the Bombs: A Jericho Retrospective is available in paperback and eBook editions. The full-length retrospective runs approximately 330 pages.
