"Franklin Shepphard. Captain, United States Army. Civil engineer, Carnegie Tech. Expert in explosives and demolition. Jean-Gaston André. Lieutenant, Free French Air Force. Specialty: weapons, ancient and modern; large and small; their construction and use. Nicholas Gage. Lieutenant, Royal Navy. Star circus performer. Aerialist, acrobat. Prime skill: getting in and out of deadly situations. This is a high-level Allied team operating behind enemy lines. Three specialists in the remarkable. Code name: Jericho."
Jericho is an American television series that ran on CBS from September 15, 1966 to January 19, 1967. It follows the exploits of a trio of Allied spies (one American, one British, one French) during World War II. It was originated by Levinson and Link, who soon left the series and went on to create Columbo. Although the intrepid agents beat the Nazis on a regular basis, they couldn't defeat competing shows such as Batman (1966) and F Troop on ABC and Daniel Boone on NBC, so low ratings brought their mission to an end after only 16 episodes.
Not to be confused with Similarly Named Works such as the 2006 series (which also aired on CBS), the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic, the British series Jericho of Scotland Yard, the video game Clive Barker's Jericho, or the wrestler Chris Jericho.
"Three specialists in the tropable":
- Anachronic Order: The third episode, "Upbeat and Underground" takes place in 1942. Both previous episodes took place in 1943. This probably happened because "Upbeat and Underground" was the first episode filmed.
- Badass Crew: Jericho has only three members, but the entire German army is no match for these highly-trained heroes.
- Codename Title: "Jericho" is the Code Name for the team, although the individual members don't have code names.
- Cyanide Pill: In "Dutch and Go," Shepphard is armed with an explosive fountain pen which, in the event of capture and deprivation of his gun, he is supposed to use to kill the civilian they are working with who has committed to memory information about Nazi technology.
- For the Evulz: The story of "Upbeat and Underground" starts when a Nazi colonel tries to force a Parisian orchestra to play the music of Richard Wagner on Bastille Day to score a propaganda coup.
- Funny Background Event: In an early scene of "Upbeat and Underground," Shepphard filches a bottle of wine and a loaf of bread from their distracted contact and tosses them to Gage and André.
- Gag Echo: During "Upbeat and Underground", Simone DuBray flirts with Captain Sheppard and gets on a First-Name Basis with him. When they're about to board the boat to London, she leaves him with a friendly "Thank you, Franklin". A moment later, her long-suffering conductor Paul Marchand mockingly says the same thing to Sheppard.
- Gotta Rescue Them All: In "Upbeat and Underground", the Jericho team is assigned to smuggle an orchestra conductor from Paris to London, but they decide to rescue all 101 members of the orchestra instead.
- Land of Tulips and Windmills: In "Dutch and Go," the anti-aircraft system Jericho is supposed to gather intelligence on is hidden inside a Dutch windmill. Vandercook lampshades this trope when he remarks that Holland actually is just like the tulips and windmills stereotype. There's also a running gag about how he promised his wife he would bring her home a pair of wooden shoes.
- Land, Sea, Sky: Shepphard is from the army, Gage is from the Navy, and André is from the Air Force.
- Literary Allusion Title: "A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread, and Pow!" riffs on a line from Edward FitzGerald's The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.
- Multinational Team: Shepphard is American, André is French and Gage is British.
- Power Trio: Shepphard, André and Gage.
- The Prima Donna: Simone DuBray, the orchestral singer from "Upbeat and Underground". She starts out as temperamental and demanding, but gradually softens up as team Jericho protects her and her orchestra from the Nazis.
- Punny Title: "Dutch and Go".
- Shotgun Wedding: In "Dutch and Go" André and a father-daughter pair of local resistance members distract the local garrison by demanding to know which of its members impregnated the daughter.
