So, back from a few days off and it takes me half a day to plow through 400+ e-mails (I kid you not; I wish I was), check voice mail, do some housekeeping and figure out what news took place in my absence. Thank goodness the new season of Jericho was announced before I headed out!

Anyway, I promised to discuss various ways we could get behind our beloved show and make sure enough folks see it so it gets renewed for a full third season, but it appears I have lots of Jericho goodness to share before getting to that. I’ll hit ‘em fast:

First off, our favorite network president, Nina Tassler, put this announcement on the Jericho boards to inform all of Jericho’s new timeslot (10 p.m. Tuesdays beginning Feb. 12).

Here’s a bit of what she had to say:

We hope you will rally around the new episodes of Jericho with the same passion and volume you displayed this summer to bring the show back. The writers and producers have crafted an exciting second season that picks up immediately following the battle with New Bern, as the town begins the rebuilding process, and along the way discovers why their small community is so important to the newly formed government, and what the true intentions of this new government might be.

CBS also created a great recap “in a nutshell” of Jericho’s first season and posted it on YouTube:

Then we have the NutsOnline Jericho Peanut Assault. This fun game is too addictive, so don’t log on at work. You can choose your character (Jake, Hawkins, Emily or Mimi — what? No Heather?!?) and drive up in a tank, firing a giant peanut at New Bern. And though it’s addictive, the actual game itself lasts about 15 seconds, so it’s not too bad.

Speaking of not too bad (sorry, lame transition), Jericho’s best friend, Rubber Poultry (IMHO), posted on the boards that the Jericho writers were on United Hollywood’s radio program (supporting the Hollywood writer’s strike) last Wednesday. I was on computer silence last week, so missed this. But the good news is that the chat’s archived here.

Thanks to Radio Free Jericho for posting the highlights of Jericho showrunner Carol Barbee’s chat with Shaun OMac, on RFJ. Here’s some of what she had to say; go here for all the info:

Carol – all 7 episodes are going to play in a row. Jericho is on during sweeps.
…
Carol – Jake and Hawkins will be heavily featured in season 2. There is a lot of Ashley Scott and a lot of Sprague Grayden. Carol referred to them as the “Jericho Babes”
Carol – “huge things happen in every single episode”
Carol – “Fully believes there still be a season 3”
…
Carol – Jericho sets are neatly put away and can be brought out at a moment’s notice…
…
Carol – the Jericho Rangers are legends to the writers
…
Carol – There will be an event in Boston on Dec 14th.
Fans can march with the show runners and the actors. Carol invites all Rangers to come and support of the Writer’s Guild.

Last, but not least, a bit of potentially disheartening news:

It appears not only possible, but probable, that the official Jericho blog is being censored by CBS. I was alerted to this by the modsuperstar blog.

Here’s the deal: While Season 2 was in production, I was checking the Salty Scoop, the official blog of the show’s writers and crew, pretty much daily. But once the Season 1 DVD set came out, there didn’t seem to be any updates, so I only very occasionally checked it out.

On Nov. 28, I found the writers had done a strike-related update on the blog, with several photos of cast members walking the picket line, including this one:

But check out the blog now. Goneski. The post is MIA, as if it never existed.

Now, in CBS’ defense, the network does own the site and probably wasn’t all that into the show’s writers using the blog to bash the network. Even though the Jericho writers have a lot of class and hadn’t used the site to do that, I can understand in these heated strike times that the network might be a wee bit leery of that.

However, the blog’s explainer at the top says this:

JERICHO is back in production! For the first time ever, the producers, writers and cast will have free reign on our site. They’ll be posting daily from set. Dig in for the next chapter in the Jericho revolution.

What, exactly, is free reign? (And it really should be rein, but that’s another issue entirely and is up for debate anyhow, I guess.)

Would that just be for the period of time while the show was in production? Was that in perpetuity (at least as long as Jericho lasts)? Was that only regarding production issues? Do the writers and crew even have the right to post on the blog owned by the network while they’re on strike? Or was it the writers themselves who felt it was wrong to do this and therefore removed their post.

Whatever the case is, it’s an interesting intellectual exercise for these bloggy times, and it sure would be nice if there were some post on the blog to even recognize that the post was once there.

PS: I almost forgot — Thanks to Jericho Junction for pointing me to a few of these links.