A Monster German Fan Interview: TrapperJohnD

I first saw TrapperJohnD on the CBS message board then he announced he had a petition he would like Americans to sign. I also posted the petition on one of my blogs and visited his website which is very nice. I began having so many visitors to my blogs from Germany that I felt I had to do this interview. Trapper kindly agreed. Here's an interesting look at Jericho from a German fan.
( 2 parts)



1. My blogs have a lot of visitors from Germany. Why do Germans love Jericho?

I'm sure, German fans love the show because of the same reasons all fans worldwide love it. Jericho is very different from all other shows on tv. It created a unique genre, the (realistic)
postapocalyptic drama; there are many elements from very different genres (like sf (the classic what-if scenario), crime, soap opera, adventure, action, thriller and many more...) united in ONE huge
story arc with many lovely characters.

I guess the show has an additional attraction to some European fans that are 30 years or older. We grew up during the (end of the) Cold War and were targeted by the USA AND the USSR. We saw the
amount of nuclear weapons, their positions and their targets in the news daily, that's pretty scary for a kid.
Bad enough, but then there was the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 with real nuclear fallout across Europe and something like that scares kids (like me at that time) to death. I'll never forget
the informations and shocking pictures about the radiation and its effects that surrounded me and my whole world then.
Jericho might be special for some European fans, because we know a similar scenario from our darkest dreams come true as we were kids, to watch it on tv now is like riding the ghost train :-).


2. What is the status of Jericho in Germany right now?

No good news from Germany. We watched the last episode on August, 20th. The public station that airs Jericho here stopped the show after "Heart of Winter" due to poor ratings. Some weeks ago the
station also announced to continue the show next summer together with the second season but the ratings are worse now and we hope the station won't change its mind.

3. Will you be able to buy the DVD?

Yes, we will. Fans are able to import the original dvd via Amazon from the UK or US.
A German version of the DVD is scheduled for the beginning of next year.


4. What attracted you to Jericho?

Definitely the mushroom cloud. "Yesssss, I've got my weekly entertaining apocalypse" was my first thought when i saw a banner on a site while surfing (that was last October). I'm a huge fan of the
apocalyptic genre and to watch a tv show about this scenario was the best thing that can happen to a dedicated fan. So i played around with proxy servers and watched every episode online and was
totally amazed by that fantastic story arc and the characters.


5. How can US fans help you? Do you have a petition?

First of all: A BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG THANK YOU!!! to all US fans who already helped. I wrote about the poor ratings and the cancelation in Germany in some boards (CBS, RFJ and JRP) and received
a lot of support. I also obtained friendly help from JerichoCentral and Jericho Armory by reposting my concern. So many fans from the US already helped by subscribing our petition and spreading the
word.
I have a petition on my homepage sorry, it's in German, but I'm working hard on a bilingual version of the page) in order to show the German tv station how many
dedicated fans Jericho has, not only in Germany.
I'm sending the result of the petition weekly by mail, monthly by snailmail to the station.

There is a second petition in order to show Paramount Germany the huge interest in a German edition of the DVD . This petition was important once,
because we had no official release date until the end of August. We try to keep Paramount Germany informed about the results of the petition regularly.


7. Any comments?

Thank you so much to all fans and supporters. I never met so many open-minded, polite and helpful people as on the Jericho boards. The Jericholics are a very special bunch of people!!!


8. Anything else you'd like to say?

Yes. Visit http://www.jericho-tv.de if you like. As i wrote in question 5. it's in German, but i'm working hard on a bilingual version. There is a screenshot gallery
(http://www.jericho-tv.de/gallerie/index.php) that might be of interest to the multilanguage community.

Thank you very much for your attention, don't raise a quarrel and avoid mushroom clouds.

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Part II

1) What do you think would happen in Europe (and the rest of the world) if the USA suffered a Jericho type event? Both from a political and an economic perspective.


In Europe (politically):
By being bound to the EU, UN and NATO the USA won't get any help during the first weeks. There'd be a huge confusion and power struggle, because one of the two global power countries are off topic
suddenly. Russia and China will increase their political and economic influence in Europe and worldwide.
Russia, China and the EU (maybe France, UK and Germany as representatives of the EU) might be the first ones who respond to the USA but it will be very difficult to start a discussion with a country
called USA once, its harder to talk to six presidents than to one.

Worldwide (politically):
The whole world will struggle, there'd be much more activities worldwide to fight against the One World idea. Many population groups will split up with the countries they belonged to.
Many of the US soldiers overseas will built up a new home right where they are. They'll try to deal with the new situation and help to keep law and order as a part of the community they live with and
not as part of the former US government.


Economically (in Europe and worldwide):
OMG, I really don't know very much about economic systems and its effects, but here is my guess:
First of all the world will have to rebuild the collapsed stock exchange and countervail against the loss of the USA as a trading partner. But after a long time of disorder and many new economic
agreements the world will find new ways of trading and return to business as usual then.


2) How would you defend yourself in Germany when firearms are so difficult to own?

We'll take hands, knifes and other stuff that hurts as a first response. Stealing firearms will be the next level. The best protection is a very good strategy to avoid violent situations, of course.


3) Who might you need to defend yourselves against? Auslanders (foreigners) that already live there, auslanders (foreigners) coming across your borders, or fellow Germans?

We have to defend of all enemies that want to hurt us in any way. It doesen't matter, where they come from... The worst enemy might be your best friend, who knows? Never be the first one who starts a
fight, but be the first one to stop it!!!


4) What is your concept of a "retreat", a place where you could be safe during a crisis situation?

Hide somewhere in the mountains or in the forests (or in the basement, that's the most will do i think), settle down in rural areas. Avoid big cities and public shelters. Take care of yourself and
the ones you love and not of the community. YOU and YOUR beloveds have to survive, so do anything you can do to achieve it!!!


5) How might you produce your own food when most of the land in Europe is already developed? The potential issue being that it would be better to grow crops or livestock away from other people, and
that could be very hard in most of Europe due to population density.

Yes, you are totally right.
We'll start stealing supplies from whomever we know during the first weeks but then we'll have to take what nature gives to us and start agriculture for ourselves. Most of the survivors will turn
into vegetarians for a very long time ;-).


6) How concerned are you about Pandemic Flu as a threat? Do you think most Germans share this opinion?

Not that much. There were many news about Pandemic Flus and other diseases the last few years (most of them were totally exaggerated or quixotic) but none of them approximately killed as many people
as our daily diseases do.

I guess most people share this opinion (not only Germans ;-) ), because most of us know from their own families, friends or jobs many kinds of diseases that kill those we love and a Pandemic Flu is
too abstract (we only know it from history, the news or movies) to hit our daily life.

My first contribution to the Jericho community, it was the
 "SAVE JERICHO :: Fans invading TNT" thread on the TNT boards
the day Jericho was cancelled