McRaney Lends Star Power to “Jericho”

Submitted by: Kyle Nin (SoSF Staff Reporter)

Veteran actor Gerald McRaney (Deadwood) is one of the stars of the highly anticipated CBS SF Drama series “Jericho.” In a recent interview with the Television Critics Association he told those gathered at the conference that the current climate of fear in today’s real world was NOT the inspiration the writer’s needed to tell the Jericho tale.

The series is a post-apocalyptic look at life in a small Kansas town after the horrific unleashing of a nuclear war.

“I was a kid when the Cuban missile crisis was on,” McRaney said “My father was a small child when World War I was on. There has always been this feeling of a dread. It doesn’t paralyze us, but it’s always there. So I don’t think right now, today, is that remarkably different from 1918, 1962, this time last year, or this time 100 years ago. There’s always that sense that something remarkably bad could happen to us, and we will have to cope with all the trappings of civilization disappearing.”

McRaney will be playing the mayor of the Kansas hamlet that finds themselves cut off from the rest of the world after a series of mushroom clouds are witnessed far off in the distance.

“This is just another example of ‘How would people cope with a situation like that happening?’” McRaney said. He added, “It’s always been an interesting thing for people who write fiction to explore.”

CBS is placing high hopes on Jericho being a runaway hit for them once the fall season gets underway. The addition of McRaney should help ensure that those hopes are not misplaced.
McRaney has been acting steadily for 35 years and has great acting chops with guest appearances on The West Wing, The Dead Zone, JAG, Designing Women, Third Watch and Touched By An Angel, just to name a few - as well as his own hit shows like Simon and Simon, Major Dad and today’s critically acclaimed HBO dramatic series, Deadwood.