This web page is dedicated to 24's Kiefer Sutherland. You will find articles and web sites relating to him on this page. Hopefully, you will find something that will interest you.
The '24' phenomenon: 'I don't know how many more series we can do'
The Independent Online Edition - UK
May 28, 2007
As Jack Bauer prepares to save the world from terrorists for a sixth time next weekend, Ed Caesar talks to the show's chief writer about how long the ground-breaking show '24' has left.
On big US television shows, it's the writers who are in control. They hire the directors, they have the final say on editing, and, of course, they write the scripts. Calling the shots on 24, the US real-time drama that is now careering to the end of its sixth series, is not advisable for those with heart conditions.
"At the beginning of every season, we sit down – maybe eight or nine of us – in a room," says Evan Katz, 24's executive producer and chief writer. "We talk for about two hours a day for weeks and weeks. It's draining, but what emerges are ideas about story construction, and villains, and settings. We leave that room with a good idea about the first four episodes."
Only four episodes? What happens after that?
"We don't worry too much about what happens after that," says Katz. "We do it on the fly."
"On the fly" means two or three writers working on a script, divvying out scenes, and making 20 phone calls a day to each other. By the end of some series, says Katz, he is handing scripts to actors minutes before they arrive on set. That 24 has gripped millions around the globe for six years is testimony to some astonishing writing at speed.
The show, which was created by Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran, works on a simple premise. Jack Bauer is an agent for the LA-based Counter Terrorism Unit, who finds himself in all sorts of scrapes as he chases some shadowy villain with dastardly plans to blow up America. A day's action unfolds at the rate of one hour of drama for one hour of television, for 24 episodes.
The idea is bold, but must have been a tough sell. How attractive could a show that required such a huge time commitment from viewers have been?
"I only joined in the second series," says Katz. "But I believe, yes, there were some issues about the format. I believe the network was worried that the structure of the show limited its syndication value. It's obviously easier to export something you can just switch on – Friends, or whatever.
"As it happens, I don't think you need to have seen every episode or, as some people seem to think, every season, to enjoy an episode of 24. We try and design it so that people can catch up. At the beginning of every show, not only do we have a "previously on" section, but we let the characters talk about what's happened – they can be the clunkiest bits of the script, but they're necessary. Even our most faithful fans can forget stuff when a week's gone by in their lives."
As it turned out, any worries anyone might have had about 24's format excluding potential viewers were wide of the mark. The format has created a broad church of fanatics, for whom the show's time demands are not only unobstructive, but attractive.
"What no one was prepared for, I think, was how popular this show was going to be on DVD," says Katz. "Nor was anyone prepared for how successful the show was going to be internationally. They now sell 24 throughout Europe, and in South America, and in Asia. It's so huge now I can't get my head round it."
One of the reasons 24 has proved so popular in America and abroad has been its inherent timeliness. The show first aired in November 2001, and, in a post 9/11 world, a drama about fighting terrorism was bound to capture the attention of the bruised West. But its topical narrative also courts dissent.
In an article in this newspaper last week, the former hostage John McCarthy criticised Bauer's use of torture in questioning.
In Series 4, Muslim groups voiced their outrage when 24's terrorist was an Islamic fundamentalist. So worried was the Fox network about a backlash, that before one episode, viewers were greeted with the extraordinary sight of Kiefer Sutherland [the actor who plays Jack Bauer] delivering a message of conciliation to the American Muslim community. How does Katz now feel about the incident?
"It felt like the right thing to do at the time," he says. "But as far as villains on the show are concerned, I've got a clear conscience. The bad guys are normally white males, or big corporations, or Europeans who have tricky accents. I remember the left accusing us of being right wing, and then the right accusing us of watering down the show and pandering to the left – so we must have been doing something right."
Such was the international response to 24, that, for a time, its producers were heard talking about a spin-off movie. But this idea, says Katz, has been canned for the time being. Why?
"I don't think it would be good for the show," says Katz. "I highly doubt that the movie will happen while the show is on air. What they were talking about was doing a 24-hour day in a two-hour movie. What I'd be interested in doing would be sticking to the real-time format, and doing two hours in two hours. But it's not happening for the time being, that's for sure."
So if fans will not see the 24 movie until the television show is off air, how long will they have to wait? How many more times can Jack Bauer save the day?
"I don't know," says Katz. "We always say that we'll keep doing series for as long as we can keep it interesting, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. We can do a few more years, I think. It gets harder and harder not to repeat yourself. Because of its structure, the show just exhausts so much story so quickly."
For now, though, 24 continues to attract massive numbers. Its first series drew an average of 8.6 million viewers an episode.
By Series 5, that number was 13.8 million. DVD sales show a similar uphill trend. Katz can look forward to a few more sleepless nights.
24 Season 6 is on Sky One at 9 pm. The season finale is a double bill on Sunday.
Kiefer as Jack Bauer
TV Review: 24 - Hours 23 & 24: Jack Strikes Back!
By Victor Lana – blogcritics.org
May 22, 2007
During this season I have frequently alluded to the Star Wars films, almost as an extended metaphor, when discussing Jack's relationship with his father. There was certainly a Return of the Jedi moment toward the end of last night's second episode, but Phillip Bauer's grandson Josh also played into this scenario. Josh was unable and unwilling to be a pawn in Grandpa's game and he fought back (in true Bauer fashion), even shooting the old man. Jack came onto the scene as almost an Obi Wan Kenobi figure, counseling Josh that killing someone who is evil doesn't necessarily make one feel good, nor does it make one inherently good in the process. Who would have ever thought that 24 would develop such a metaphysical nature?
The best way to summarize this two hour season finale is to say that we have yet another example of why everyone should always listen to Jack Bauer. Everything Jack predicted would happen (his father would double-cross them, for example, in the Josh for the component deal) happened, and if not for Jack the armies of China, Russia, and the USA would likely be engaged in the start of WWIII. Where is the big "thank you, Jack" that we should expect from Vice President Noah (Jim Jones) Daniels and the rest of the bigwigs and blowhards that run the country?
Karen (Hillary) Hayes and her loyal husband Bill (The Stoic) Buchanan take a stand to help Jack, as does Nadia (Squinty) Yassir. Bill tells Nadia "You did the right thing" and she squints, letting us know she appreciates hearing that. She also understands that they have been thwarted by Jack's father, and now Agent Mike Doyle is a victim of this as the false component blows up in his face, possibly leaving him in need of a guide dog for the rest of his life.
Jones is trying to keep Russian President Subaru from driving full speed ahead into war, but nothing is going right for him. Tom (Twitchy) Lennox is there to help as well as that weird-looking dude Ethan who is the head of the Joint Chiefs. They all seem rather impotent in the face of this crisis. Thank goodness they have someone the likes of Jack Bauer to save their droopy butts from an almost inevitable war.
Of course, Jack has had a long, long day. If we look at the twenty-four hours that he has spent this season, we can only wonder how he is still standing (broken ribs and all). Still, Jack is a good soldier and at his best against impossible odds. After Jack learns that his nephew has been taken out to an oil platform owned by his father, Jack does the only sensible thing to do: he commandeers a CTU helicopter to go out and retrieve the young man.
This is all more difficult than it sounds because not only does Phillip and Cheng have armed men all over the platform, but Jones has ordered two F-18s to take out the platform and destroy the component to appease Subaru. So once again Jack is running against the clock to save Josh before it is too late (anyone thinking of the Death Star and Darth Vader please note that I was thinking it too).
Jack utilizes all his training as a Navy Seal in this moment when Bill flies the helicopter onto the landing (hey, who knew Bill had such a big pair?). Jack wields a machine gun like a Samurai does his sword, taking out the bad guys left and right and blowing up a barrel of fuel that badly burns the evil Cheng. Bill takes Cheng into custody as Jack races to find Josh and get him out of there before the F-18s shoot their load.
This is when we have the classic Star Wars moment where Josh (looking a lot like a young Jack) takes a wrench and whacks Grandpa over the head. Josh then grabs the gun and resists Phillips's overtures about love and "doing this all for you" crap. As the old man lunges at Josh the kid shoots him in the shoulder. Papa Bauer falls to the deck just as Jack arrives on scene. It is reminiscent of that lovely moment in Return of the Jedi when Luke and Anakin make some kind of peace and reach an epiphany.
Unfortunately, no such catharsis is available to the ever-suffering Jack. He tells Josh that killing the old man is not worth it, and then after Josh has run off to jump on the helicopter, Jack contemplates justice for his father. Where Luke Skywalker saw sincere sorrow in his father's eyes, Jack only finds contempt and loathing. Jack wants Papa to face justice, but there is not enough time because of the F-18s. Before Jack leaves Phillip to a certain death, he tells him "You got off easy."
Jack makes a daring escape by grabbing a rope ladder on the helicopter just as the F-18s' missiles hit their target. The platform is completely destroyed as Jack dangles over the black ocean with the flames licking the dark sky. It is a surreal moment as we see the bloodied Cheng in the helicopter, now a prisoner at the end of the day just as Jack was in the beginning. One can only hope that Agent Burke is waiting back at CTU with his black box of goodies to give Cheng an idea about how Jack felt in his custody.
Jack drops off the ladder and swims to shore. Bill brings the chopper around to pick him up, but Jack waves him off and Bill realizes that once again Jack is probably going dark, fading into the fabric of the night like the shadow that Jack Bauer has become. Since Jack is officially dead (from Season 4) and has no real identity, there is nothing stopping this from happening.
Back at CTU we get a scene between Chloe and Morris. She fainted earlier and Morris comes into medical to check on her condition. Chloe tests him a little and then reveals that she is pregnant. More drama between these two? Please, enough already. Bill returns to CTU with Cheng as a prisoner. Before Cheng is led away he says that his people won't forget him the way the Americans forgot Jack Bauer. Here's to hoping there is a nice dark hole someplace in Kansas that this guy can be dropped in for a long time. Nadia asks Bill about Jack, and Bill says that they won't find him if Jack doesn't want to be found. Nadia persists and Bill says, "Just let him go."
These words actually foreshadow what is happening with Jack. Jack has conveniently swum ashore near former Secretary of Defense James (Nuts Landing) Heller's beach house. Nuts is on the phone talking to someone and hears a noise. He looks around and sees a soaking-wet Jack standing in his living room. Jack and Nuts have a nice follow-up conversation (to the one when Jack was in detention at CTU). While Nuts won that round, Jack is in charge here (as the gun he puts in Heller's face clearly indicates). Jack tells the old man off. The exchange is powerful and gives us insight into their relationship and Jack's inner rage. "I just watched my father die and I felt nothing," Jack tells him. Yes, it has come to that.
Nuts finally takes Jack into a bedroom to see Audrey. While it seems she is sleeping it is more like she is a vegetable, unable to open her eyes even as Jack holds her hand and tells her that he loves her with all his heart. This excruciating scene lays bare Jack's soul, and he is a man who has lost so much and given so much and has absolutely nothing to show for it. Audrey is his last chance for a normal life. He just told Heller "I want my life back," but it is clear that this will not include Audrey.
Since Jack loves Audrey so much, he does the only reasonable thing he can do: he lets her go. This is a sign of Jack's true goodness, a real indication of his nature as a tragic hero. Jack is forever inches away from the goblet brimming with salvation, but he is never able to take a drink. Jack looks toward the window where the first rays of sunlight are slipping through the cracks in the blinds and are worming their way across the shroud of Audrey's face. "I'm at a crossroads" Jack says, and damn if we as fans of the show are not right there with him.
Jack gets up and walks past Nuts on his way outside. He stops for a moment, Heller out of focus but visible in the background. The emotions are etched on Jack's face (Kiefer Sutherland can do more with silence than most actor's can do with lines of dialogue); we know there is nothing left to say even though there is so much unfinished business between these two men.
Jack walks outside holding the gun and goes over to the railing. He is staring out at the dawn of a new day, and he looks down at the waves coming in to shore. Literally and figuratively Jack is on the precipice; one quick jump over the railing could end it. He could raise the gun in his hand and do the same. Again, the expression on Jack's face is worth so many words. It is clear he has seen the horror of death from every perspective and now even the possibility that it could come from his own hand.
He blinks his eyes and stares out at sea. Jack has chosen life, but he may not know why. He has been as low as any man can ever be forced to go, and now there is a chance to not only let go of Audrey but of everything he has ever known. The screen fades and we get the 24 clock counting down silently to end the hour and the season. Traditionally during this series, the silent clock has meant the death of a character. Here it signals the end of the show (and Jack) as we know it. What comes next year? It's a long, long wait until January to find out.
Until next season, Klaatu barada nikto!
TV Museum Looks at Muslim Portrayals
'Lost' and '24' producers discuss Islam on their show
By Kate O’Hare - Zap2it.com
May 23, 2007
On Tuesday, May 22, the Museum of Television and Radio in Beverly Hills, Calif., held a panel discussion, part of its "Media as Mirror" series, called "Arab and Muslim Characters in Prime Time TV: The View From Hollywood."
Entertainment journalist and author Alex Ben Block ("Outfoxed: Marvin Davis, Barry Diller, Rupert Murdoch and the Inside Story of America's Fourth Television Network") was moderator of the panel, which featured "24" executive producer Howard Gordon, "Lost" executive producer Damon Lindelof, and, from "Sleeper Cell," writer Kamran Pasha (a Pakistani-American, and the only Muslim on the panel) and co-creator Ethan Reiff.
Block opened the discussion by talking about political correctness, prompting Gordon to remark that, since FOX's "24" -- which features different terrorist plots each season -- has been accused of many things, from misogyny to promoting torture, that "political correctness doesn't enter much" into the discussions.
Lindelof pointed out that because ABC's "Lost" features plane-crash survivors -- including Sayid (Naveen Andrews), a former member of Iraq's Republican Guard -- on a mysterious island, "We can do things that, under any other lens, would be offensive, like having a brother and sister sleep together. But on our show it's just surprising."
Pasha commented that fellow Muslims had accused him of being "a traitor" for working on "Sleeper Cell," a Showtime limited series about terrorists in America, adding that one Web posting even accused him of being an agent of the Israeli security force Mossad.
Various clips were shown, including a flashback scene from "Lost" that showed Sayid forced to acknowledge and apologize to a woman he had once tortured in Iraq.
Gordon praised the clip, saying that it was "more articulate" on the subject of torture than anything done on "24." The theme of torture is often brought up in the context of "24," which uses it as a storytelling device to heighten tension and propel the plot.
Gordon explained that when counter-terrorist agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) tortures someone on "24," the assumptions are that, first, the terrorist has the information, and second, that torture works.
"That's wish-fulfillment," he said.
And, like Sayid, Jack can't escape the toll being a torturer takes on him.
"Jack Bauer is a damned creature," Gordon said. "He will never get to enjoy the milk of human kindness. The blood of these people is on his hands."
Lindelof returned Gordon's compliment, saying he was a "24" fan from the beginning, then went on to explain that the real questions are not about the torturers themselves, but the people who enable or employ them.
Pasha spoke about the image of America in the Muslim world, emphasizing that if America resorts to extreme tactics, its ability to inspire others would be lost.
"We do represent a beacon for much of the world that we are fighting with," Pasha said.
He also pointed out that one must understand one's enemies to defeat them.
During the Q&A session with the audience, one questioner made a similar point, talking about how "Lost" has devoted time to the motivations and history of the castaways' adversaries, the Others.
"The mysterious enemy is the scariest," Lindelof said. "We're 72 hours into the show now, and we still don't know what the bad guys believe in. Maybe when we do, we'll realize that the bad guys landed on the plane."
As might be expected, Lindelof was questioned about the announcement that "Lost" would end after 48 more episodes, spread after three seasons.
"The show can move out of a question modality," he said, "into an answer modality."
As for the very end itself, Lindelof said, "People will say it sucked, but at least it will be done."
Toward the end of the discussion, Pasha emphasized that portrayals of Muslims on television will change significantly if more Muslims, like him, choose to enter the business.
He said, "Muslims can't complain about your portrayal in the media if you don't participate."
He continued, "No one is required to write TV shows about your characters. It is not the responsibility of Hollywood to cater to Muslim interests; it's up to Muslims. Get involved."
'24' As Always Comes Down to Last Second
By Frazier Moore
Associated Press
May 21, 2007
NEW YORK - A sociopath father. A nephew in peril. A circuit board the Russians would declare war over. Counter-terrorist agent Jack Bauer didn't have a second to spare as he wrapped another hectic day with the two-hour conclusion of Fox's round-the-clock action drama "24."
Go no further if you don't want to know the details of this sixth-season finale, which, airing Monday, covered 4 to 6 a.m. of the 24-hour, real-time cycle.
The episode found Bauer (series star Kiefer Sutherland) in his typical plight: stuck between a rock and a bigger rock.
His evil father, Phillip, had struck a deal with the White House to hand over the Russian government's valuable component (which he had acquired from the Chinese), in exchange for safe passage to the country of his choice, along with his teenage grandson, Josh, who was desperately counting on Uncle Jack to save him.
"I don't want to go anywhere with you," the frightened Josh told his grandfather.
"I don't expect you to understand everything," Phillip replied. "Someday you will, and you'll thank me for it."
So which was more important? Josh's safety, or that of everyone who would be injured or killed by the Russians' retaliation if their circuit board wasn't returned?
Another concern for Bauer: He didn't trust his father not to double-cross U.S. officials, and keep Josh without relinquishing the circuit board.
Just another day for Jack Bauer.
In fact, there has been much grousing from fans that this season's plot recycled old, familiar themes from "24" days past: terrorists with nukes targeting the United States; abductions of loved ones; funny business inside the White House (and an assassination attempt against President Wayne Palmer that left him gravely injured, with less-than-able Vice President Noah Daniels in charge).
The narrative also managed to dwarf past depictions of Bauer's superhuman endurance. At the beginning of the day (way back when the season began in January) he was returned to the U.S. after having been imprisoned and tortured by the Chinese for 20 months. For the season's first hour or so he seemed crazed and nearly broken by his ordeal.
But soon enough he answered his nation's call and bounced back into action: There were nukes to track down and bad guys to thwart.
A more interesting part of the story was furnished by Bauer's long-estranged father (played by James Cromwell), who was involved in the Chinese plot.
Later, Cheng Zhi, the same agent who kidnapped and tortured Bauer, had possession of the electronic component, which could provide access to Russia's defense codes. This threatened to trigger a global crisis, the Russian president had given the U.S. a two-hour deadline before his country would attack a U.S. military base.
Meanwhile, Cheng had a problem. The board was damaged and the information inaccessible. Who could repair it? None other than Phillip.
But then Phillip, apparently changing his mind and breaking with the Chinese, made his deal with Vice President Daniels, a deal Bauer was determined to circumvent.
Bauer was right about his father, of course. (On "24," Bauer is always right but somehow refrains from saying "I told you so.")
Still in cahoots with the Chinese, Phillip took temporary refuge on an offshore oil drilling platform with Josh, subversive allies, and the circuit board.
Then Bauer defied White House plans to launch an air strike against the platform (which would have killed Josh with the others), in favor of commandeering a chopper to mount his own rescue effort, moments before the U.S. missiles hit. Phillip was killed.
There was one final order of business for Bauer: A bedside farewell to Audrey Raines, who remained comatose from the torturing she suffered from the Chinese in her effort to rescue him.
"I love you with all my heart," he whispered and kissed her forehead. "I always will."
Then, the world saved but his heart broken, Bauer stepped outdoors into the melancholy dawn of a new day.
In The 24 world, family is the main casualty
By Ginia Bellafante – The New York Times
May 20, 2007
The frenetic, labyrinthine, exhausting counterterrorism drama “24” concludes its sixth year on Monday night with its ratings slipping and its fans in revolt. With each season of the series transpiring over a single day, this one, detractors lament, has felt like 70. The producers themselves have acknowledged the challenges of maintaining the story line’s intensity and focus. Recently in his blog on “24,” the humorist Dave Barry expressed a wish for Congressional hearings into the show’s crimes against narrative cohesiveness.
Until two weeks ago I had included myself among the dissenters, complaining that digressions and strange forays into cold war nostalgia had subsumed the larger plot and proclaiming, to the walls in my living room, that “24” ought to become “12” — or “8” or “6.” But during Hour 21, Agent Jack Bauer’s father, Phillip (played by the gifted James Cromwell, re-emerged to subject members of his family to renewed acts of twisted venality. And the effect was intense and chilling, a reminder that “24” has always sustained its tension by operating in two genres, not one, deploying the conventions of domestic horror in the language of an apocalyptic thriller.
Since it first appeared in 2001, “24” has successfully woven the terrors of intimate life through its narrative of an America facing potential annihilation. Parents kill children. Husbands abuse wives. Sisters try to kill sisters. Wives fire husbands — or stab them, as Martha Logan, ex-wife of Charles Logan, the former president, did earlier this year, plunging a knife into his shoulder as recompense for his treacheries, both personal and civic.
Discussions of “24” have long concentrated on its depiction of torture — elaborate to the point of parody this season — as the source of its controversy. But it is the show’s treatment of family as an impossible and even dangerous illusion that truly challenges our complacency. The anxious gloom of watching “24” comes not from wondering whether the world will blow up (obviously it won’t; Jack Bauer — played by Kiefer Sutherland — is protection against all that) but from knowing that the bonds that hold people together will eventually be imperiled or destroyed, perfidy and neglect so often the forces.
The introduction of Phillip Bauer early in the season quickly established that Jack did not inherit his rectitude from his father. Shortly after he appeared, Phillip suffocated his son Graem, forced his daughter-in-law to endanger the lives of federal agents and threatened Jack. When he reappeared, weeks later, Phillip was kidnapping his grandson, Josh, for the second time in a single day.
Parenthood, untouchably sacrosanct in so much of our culture, is on “24” a grotesquely compromised institution. During Season 4 we witnessed the show’s defense secretary subject his son to torture for refusing to divulge information that might help track down a terrorist. At the same time we observed the director of the Counter Terrorist Unit labor to thwart a nuclear attack despite the deterioration of her mentally disturbed daughter in a nearby room.
That each child was portrayed as a petulant nuisance made it easier to see that the country’s security imperatives had to come first. The perverse brilliance of “24” lies, at least in some part, in its capacity to elicit our sympathies for heinous miscalculations of judgment. In the end we feel less for the troubled girl than we do for her beleaguered mother, who after all has been making sound decisions every step of the way.
The most enduring relationships on “24” are not between parents and children, boyfriends and girlfriends, spouses or siblings, but between individuals and their governments and causes. And in this way the show seems committed not to the politics of the left or right, but to a kind of quasi-totalitarianism in which patriotism takes precedence over everything else and private life is eroded, undermined, demeaned. Privacy isn’t even a viable concept in a world in which there is no taco stand, phone booth, laptop or S.U.V. that isn’t immediately accessible to the advanced surveillance systems of the ever-vigilant Counter Terrorist Unit.
Human connection is forever suffocated. Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt, wrote, “bases itself on loneliness, on the experience of not belonging to the world at all.” And above and beyond everything else, the universe of “24” is a very lonely place.
Friendship can barely be said to exist beyond the parameters of bureaucracy: the offices of the Los Angeles division of the unit and the halls of the White House. And when men and women become involved, it is not only with each other but also with the greater American purpose. Ordinary social intercourse simply doesn’t exist. The idea that two people might sit down for a cup of coffee is as contrary to the show’s internal logic as the idea that polar bears might someday learn to sing.
On “24” the choice to forfeit all that and respond to your country’s call is never the wrong choice, no matter how regrettable the personal consequences. Five seasons ago Jack was a married man who played chess with his teenage daughter. Since then he has lost his wife (at the hands of a unit mole), his daughter (to his own emotional inattention) and various girlfriends to his unfailing devotion to eradicating the state’s enemies, whatever the cost. He has killed colleagues who have impeded his pursuit of justice, lost his identity and acquired a heroin addiction combating drug lords. The price of a safe world is considerable, “24” tells us: love and the rest of it mortgaged for some other lifetime.
Powers Boothe protects the office of the president on '24'
By Kate O’Hare
Zap2it.com
May 20, 2007
“This is my thinking on (on the presidency),” says Powers Boothe, who plays Vice President Noah Daniels on Fox’s “24,” “I’ve had presidents in my lifetime - and I’m old enough to have seen several - that I really detested, but they’re still my president. I’ve had presidents that I’ve really liked. Now that’s the way it is.”
During America’s latest very bad day - which concludes with the season finale on Monday - counter-terrorist agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), fresh out of a long stint in a Chinese prison, has had to deal with a small nuclear weapon going off in Valencia, Calif., a threatened nuclear explosion in San Francisco, and all sorts of trouble involving Muslim extremists, Russian terrorists, his own family and the Chinese.
At the beginning of the season, the president was Wayne Palmer (D.B. Woodside), brother of “24’s” first chief executive, the late David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert). After the nuclear strike, Wayne received a head injury in a bomb blast, this one instigated by rogue elements with in his administration.
With the president out, the more hawkish Daniels threatened a nuclear strike on the unnamed Middle Eastern nation being blamed for the attacks. Forced medically back to consciousness, Palmer lasted long enough to turn the plan into a successful bluff, then suffered a relapse.
Now firmly in power, Daniels faces both terrorist trouble and a looming war with Russia, brought on by yet another one of this season’s many, many threatening subplots.
“We’re sort of like the Kennedy-Johnson setup,” says Boothe. “They didn’t particularly like each other, but one couldn’t win the presidency without the other. One of my earlier conversations with him was, `Look, I agreed to run with you because you were perceived as weak on foreign policy and the military and all of those things. I assured the people that you weren’t going to be that way, and you are.’”
Early on in “24,” President David Palmer’s vice-president, Prescott (Alan Dale), invoked the 25th Amendment to temporarily remove him from power. Last season’s President Logan (Gregory Itzin) was a vice president who took over after a serious injury to President Keeler (Geoff Pierson), and was revealed to be a wily and treacherous double-dealer. He reemerged briefly this season in an attempt to redeem himself.
“There are two things going on here,” Boothe says. “First, if you look at the history of `24,’ the vice-presidents have been nefarious people. They’ve had an agenda. Certainly, last year, Greg Itzin had his thing. So I think people expected Daniels to be that.
“And two - I’ve actually discussed this with people, and they’re like, `You’re mean.’ `Look, I don’t mean to be defending the character, but if you have a situation where you have a nuke go off in Valencia and another in San Francisco and a bomb going off in the White House, for goodness’ sake, do you want somebody to sit there and wring their hands, or do you want somebody to do something?’
“When they were discussing with me whether I’d decide to do the part or not, I said, `I’m not interested in coming in here and just being a zealot. I’m not interested in coming in here and just being another evil vice president.’
“The office of the presidency is what’s important, no matter who’s in it. That, to me, is paramount. ... Daniels always protected Palmer. He disagreed with him, but he was the president, and he always respected that.”
Boothe also emphasizes that it’s hard to come off as warm and cuddly when dealing with life-and-death issues.
“In talking to various people,” Boothe says, “about Daniels being evil and whatever, what the thing is, he forced them to think about things they didn’t want to think about. We all want to pretend that there isn’t evil in the world. We all want to pretend that there aren’t people trying to take us out and different things like that.
“And when I would pin them on issues, they would go, `Yeah, you’re right. It’s the issues. It wasn’t the character, necessarily, it was because I was having to think about it.’”
Playing the role has also given Boothe pause.
“I was shooting a scene up in Mojave where I was getting off Air Force Two, and they had two F-16s down there and soldiers, and the presidential motorcade and all that.
“I’d been shooting three or four hours, and I turned to Kari Matchett, who plays my aide, Lisa, and I said, `My God, can you imagine really having this kind of power, where I could walk down these stairs and go over to the pilot of that F-16 and get on the plane and fly wherever, and he’d say “Yes, sir”?’
“It’s pretty astonishing when you think about it.”
As a politically aware man who admits to watching Congressional hearings on C-SPAN, Boothe says, “I’ve got a family, and I love them, and I want them to have the best opportunities in the best country in the world, and I think we have to fight for it. I don’t take anything for granted anymore.”
As to the big finish, Boothe says, “Daniels says to Peter McNichol’s character “White House Chief of Staff Tom Lennox), in effect, `You know, I don’t know if Palmer might have been right, this or that, but you think you know everything, what to do, but until you sit in this chair, you don’t know nothing.’
“He acquits himself well.”
24's Jack Bauer
'24' on the clock for two more seasons
Associated Press
May 16, 2007
The clock will keep ticking for Fox's "24" for at least two more seasons. The series that tracks one eventful day in the life of counter-terrorism agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) per TV season has been renewed through 2008-09, the network said.
The series, which won the best-drama Emmy last year, saw its ratings slip this season but remains a key part of Fox's schedule.
Producers have said they intend to make some changes for next year but will keep the show's daylong-crisis approach intact.
Fox orders more '24'
Emmy winner extended through '08 – '09 seasons
By Michael Schneider - Variety.com
May 15, 2007
Jack's back - and on board to save the world at least two more times.
Fox has ordered two more seasons of "24," keeping the Emmy-winning drama on the net through the 2008-2009 TV season.
Announcement comes on the eve of Fox's Thursday upfront presentation. Show remains a powerful player for Fox, despite ratings dips and critical knocks this season.
Exec producers for "24" have already told several publications that they plan to make some changes on the show next season - but the twist will remain the same: Each episode covering one hour of real time as special agent Jack Bauer races against the clock to stop something bad from happening.
20th Century Fox TV and Imagine TV are behind "24," which winds down its sixth season Monday with a two-hour finale.
"24" is coming off an Emmy win for outstanding drama series, as well as outstanding lead actor in a drama (for star Kiefer Sutherland). Show has scored 51 Emmy noms throughout its existence, including five for best drama.
Joel Surnow, Robert Cochran, Howard Gordon, Evan Katz, Jon Cassar, Brian Grazer and Sutherland exec produce "24."
Jack Bauer - The Simpsons
Best Voices Ever
TV Guide - May 14 - 20, 2007
Number 10: Kiefer Sutherland
After appearing earlier this season as an Army colonel, Sutherland returns for Episode 399 - the first half of the May 20 finale - as his TV persona, 24's super-agent Jack Bauer. Against Type: "He's not just a great voice, he's a nice guy too. He's just as humble as he can be." - Al Jean, Executive Producer - The Simpsons
Kiefer as David in Lost Boys (1987)
Ready Or Not, Here Comes Lost Boys 2
By Lexi Feinberg - Cinema Blend
May 10, 2007
For whatever reason, people have a soft spot for the 1987 vampire film The Lost Boys, starring Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Patric and Coreys Haim and Feldman. It’s one of those itty bitty movies that developed a massive cult following and still elicits smiles when mentioned.
Fans will be happy (or perhaps unhappy) to learn that a sequel to the film, titled Lost Boys II: The Tribe, is in the works. According to Moviehole, it’s being helmed by P.J. Pesce (of From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter) and will shoot from June 11 to July 13 in Vancouver, Canada.
Now here’s the bad news: As of now, it will feature an all-new set of actors and characters. Feldman had once been attached to the project, but “that’s not on the cards anymore.” It’s probably not a ringing endorsement if he appeared on VH1’s Surreal Life and still passed on this movie.
Lost Boys II: The Tribe will head straight to DVD via Warner sometime next year.
Jack Saves The Day - But who’ll rescue him?
By David Hochman - TV Guide
May 7 – 13, 2007
If you’re a longtime fan of 24, we don’t blame you for feeling a little weary as Day 6 draws to a close. After perhaps the most invigorating season yet last year, this one’s been just plain exhausting.
President Palmer (the second one, that is, played by DB Woodside) was in a coma, brought out of a coma, then conked out again. Former President Logan (Gregory Itzin) got stabbed by his First Lady (Jean Smart), but we haven’t seen him since. Bad guys were surrounded and strongholds raided in ways we’ve seen on 24 before. Meanwhile, at a strangely crowded CTU, our quirky old gal pal Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub) is barely recognizable with all her grown-up glamour and relationship problems. Where’s the pasty computer geek we knew and loved?
Then there’s Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland). He hasn’t been as high-profile as usual this season. He started the day as a hirsute, shivering mess, having just emerged from a Chinese prison camp. Soon enough he went rogue, tracking nuclear suitcases around the U.S., a plot that somehow involved Jack’s father and brother. Not to mention Arabs, Russians, the Chinese and Audrey Raines (Kim Raver), who was dead, er, not dead, and now, well, who the heck knows?
“I’ll be honest, it’s been a challenge having the show in its sixth year,” says executive producer Howard Gordon. “I’d be lying to say we didn’t have a fantasy we could outdo ourselves again. But at some point, you just have to tell a story, and I’m happy to report the season ends with a lot of firepower.”
The truth is, as long as Jack’s still Jack and America’s still in danger, we can’t help but watch him sweat, bit and hack in the name of freedom, peace and security. And while fans at places like jumptheshark.com may be groaning, Sutherland laughs and says “Just wait.” “There’s a huge transition that’s happening between this season and next year, and a lot of what’s happening is about putting old story lines to rest so that new ones can emerge.”
More on that shortly. In the meantime, Jack’s got to save a nation.
AVERT YOUR EYES IF YOU’RE SPOILER PHOBIC.....
In the most recent episodes, Jack’s rogue exploits caught up with him, and his short-fused sidekick Mike Doyle (Ricky Schroder) marshalled him and a shell-shocked Audrey into custody at CTU. “I kept joking I was always a second too late with Jack but I finally got him,” Schroder says, laughing. Over at the White House, Karen Hayes (Jayne Atkinson) had to fire her husband, Bill Buchanan (James Morrison), while acting president Noah Daniels (Powers Boothe) was having inappropriate relations with assistant Lisa (Kari Matchett). But the real story is that the evil Cheng (Tzi Ma) is still on the loose with FB sub-circuit boards, whatever they are. Says Gordon, “It’s the classic McGuffin, but don’t take your eyes off them. The boards become lifesaving currency for Audrey.”
We’re about to discover that Audrey’s been drugged and tortured, which explains her batty behavior. We’ll also see a more emotional side to Chloe when the CTU diva loses it during a drama with her ex-husband, Morris (Carlo Rota), who’s still spiraling from being forced to arm the remaining nukes. The soap opera continues when Lisa meets up with a mysterious man for not-so-mysterious reasons: hot sex. “Lisa is going to become an increasingly significant figure this season,” Gordon says. She’ll inform what’s going on in the White House the same way Martha Logan did last year.”
As Day 6 draws toward the two-hour season finale on May 21, some of the old 24 magic returns. With a nod to last season, a major character from CTU will die, though that’s all we’ll say. Says Gordon, “The purpose isn’t to shock but to give a new meaning to the characters who survive. It’s the gift the dead give the living.”
The main event, though, comes when Jack’s psycho father (James Cromwell) returns for a showdown that gets very personal. It turns out the focus is Jack’s nephew, Josh (Evan Ellingson), and whether Jack can protect him from the evil plot Jack’s father has set in motion. “The face-off between Jack and his father is really about the legacy of the Bauer family,” Gordon says. “Who’s going to control the next generation? That may sound grandiose but it makes the mechanics of their battle incredibly exciting.” For Jack, it’s also quite painful. Says Sutherland, “Jack was extricated from the relationship with his father a long time ago, and now that it’s back in his face, it reminds him how separate and alone he is.”
Separate and alone is a good way to describe Jack. Most of the people he knows are either dead or want him dead, and even Audrey is a mere shell of the person she once was. Jack is ending the season “questioning all that’s happened to him over the years,” Gordon says. In that way, the final episodes “touch on a sensitivity that is very rarely seen in Jack,” Sutherland says. “He started the season in an emotional state like we’ve never seen him, seemingly indifferent. Now he’s at the opposite end – full of emotion – and it’s actually heartbreaking.”
We could tell you more. Like that someone you thought was long dead is coming back with a vengeance (yes, it’s true), or that at least one couple gets to have a happy ending (no, it’s not Cheng and Jack). But let’s look ahead instead to next season, since that’s all anyone’s talking about around set these days.
“I’d like to see a huge departure,” Sutherland says. “We go back and forth from the White House and CTU to the field, but I’d like to see that change up. I’d like to see Jack work in the outside world.” Gordon adds, “The idea of moving out of L.A. is definitely interesting. If it’s feasible, production-wise, we’d love to set the show elsewhere and see Jack do something completely new.”
Hmm. Next year’s an election year. Maybe there’s a job for Mr. Bauer in Washington.
Who’s That? Carlo Rota
Jennifer L. Smith – TV Guide
May 7 – 13, 2007
Age: 46 – Plays CTU agent and recovering alcoholic Morris O’Brian, who’s also Chloe’s ex-husband and sometimes flame.
Where you’ve seen him before: Most likely from roles on Queer as Folk and La Femme Nikita. If you’ve spent time in Canada, you might know him as the host of The Great Canadian Food Show (Think Rachael Ray’s $40 a Day for our friends up north).
He can’t make it through the day without his Border terrier, Harry. “Harry’s just a sponge for people’s attention and is a total chick magnet,” Rota says. “When you have him with you, you don’t need anything else. You don’t need to be on a hit show.”
If he weren’t acting, he’d be in school. “I’d be the oldest student. I have a love of mathematics, so I’d be studying the ridiculous applied math and algorithms.”
Favorite childhood TV show: “Without a doubt, it was the British Doctor Who. I loved the time travel. It also scared the bejesus out of me.”
