CBS' fall line-up includes the new drama "Jericho," from executive producers Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure), Stephen Chbosky (Rent) and Carol Barbee ("Judging Amy"). The series is about what happens when a nuclear mushroom cloud suddenly appears on the horizon, plunging the residents of a small, peaceful Kansas town into chaos, leaving them completely isolated and wondering if they're the only Americans left alive. Fear of the unknown propels Jericho into social, psychological and physical mayhem when all communication and power is shut down. The town starts to come apart at the seams as terror, anger and confusion bring out the very worst in some residents. But in this time of crisis, as sensible people become paranoid, personal agendas take over and well-kept secrets threaten to be revealed, some people will find an inner strength they never knew they had and the most unlikely heroes will emerge. Skeet Ulrich, Gerald McRaney, Pamela Reed, Lennie James, Michael Gaston, Kenneth Mitchell, Sprague Grayden, Erik Knudsen and Ashley Scott star.

In the first episode, Jake Green (Ulrich) returns home after a five-year absence from the town and is rather secretive about where he has been. As he's driving into Jericho, The Killers' "All These Things I've Done" is cleverly playing in the background because we don't know what he's done yet since he's so elusive. We do learn, however, that he comes back to see his grandfather and asks his father Mayor Johnston Green (McRaney) for money. This leads to an argument that causes him to leave, and on his way out of town, the explosion happens. Although he is somewhat injured, he goes back to help.

ComingSoon.net visited the "Jericho" set and watched Jon Turteltaub, who was directing that week, create a town that's in total mayhem. When I got to the Calvert Studios set in Van Nuys, I was amazed at how real the soundstages of the town looked like. Producer Karim Zreik showed us around and he explained that it took five to six weeks to build and it and they replicated a small town in the Midwest. It was the first time the cast and crew were actually shooting on the set, because the pilot was shot in Filmore, California.

The scene I watched being shot was for the second episode titled "Fallout." The town has no idea what's going on and they are trying to assess the situation. "We're shooting pulling up to town hall, trying to get some people to shelter from the fallout. This is I guess the day after the explosions, just trying to get people to safety. Busses up and nowhere to go," Ulrich told us before he was pulled away to rehearse.

So we wouldn't be in the shot, we stood off to the side of the city hall and watched as Ulrich drove a school bus full of elementary school kids right up to the steps of the building, followed by a few other vehicles. As he gets out of the bus, he is greeted by his brother Eric Green (Mitchell) and while I couldn't hear the dialogue, I was told they were arguing over where people should go for protection. "[We are dealing with] practical issues," Ulrich said. "What do people do and how do you get an entire town to safety? Some people are unwilling to go anywhere. Some people are dying to get somewhere, so just trying to figure out how to save as many people as possible."

Since the town hall was full and couldn't shelter any more people, half of the residents had to take cover in the mine and, as the shot was being set up again, Zreik took us through Gracie Leigh's Supermarket to Gray Anderson's (Gaston) mine, where real manure was used to capture the authenticity of the situation. While we were only there for a couple of minutes, the actors had to hang out in the mine for hours. Poor guys.

On our tour of the set, writers Jon Steinberg and Josh Shaer described the basic idea of the show. "[We wanted] to tell a very big story in a very small place," Steinberg said. "There's a tradition of it in features and not that much in TV. Sort of the '28 Days Later' and 'Signs' and those kind of movies, taking that and building on a world like that."