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24 (TV series)

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24
File:241002.jpg
24 poster
Created byJoel Surnow and Robert Cochran
StarringKiefer Sutherland
Country of originUSA
No. of episodes96 (greenlit to 144)
Production
Running timeapprox. 0:45
(per episode)
Original release
NetworkFox
ReleaseNovember 6, 2001 –
present

24 is a current U.S. television action/drama series, produced by the Fox Network and syndicated worldwide. It is named 24 because the action on the show ostensibly occurs in "real time", with each season covering the events of one day in the life of federal agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland). The show also follows Jack's colleagues at the Counter Terrorist Unit in Los Angeles, as well as the actions of both various terrorists and the White House. Every episode in a season covers the events of one hour in that day (hence twenty four episodes per season). 24 makes frequent use of hand-held cameras and split-screens to show the actions of various characters concurrently. 24 shares its name with both a game and a soundtrack which are based on it.

24 was created by Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran, and premiered in 2001.

Overview

24 is a thriller that purports to be shown in "real-time", with each minute of airtime corresponding to a minute in the lives of the characters. This real-time nature gives the show a strong sense of urgency, emphasized by the ticking of an on-screen digital clock appearing from time to time. Since it is an American commercial-television series, almost one-quarter of 24's time is spent on commercials, which break up the show, resulting in episodes which last about forty-four minutes. Elsewhere there may be no commercials at all (e.g. on BBC and on the DVD versions), or only before and after the show, so the clock that is shown sometimes 'jumps' where commercials are planned for the United States, and is thus not real-time. In the United States, action that takes place during the advertising breaks is not shown (although some episodes do not have breaks thanks to sponsorship deals). Throughout every episode the action switches between different locations, following the parallel adventures of different characters all involved in the same story. The result is that long sections of narrative for each character are not seen, and mundane actions (such as car journeys) are either skipped just as they are in conventional drama, or briefly shown in split-screen panels above the clock upon returning from commercial breaks - these quickly update the audience on what characters not currently featured in the main narrative are doing.

The "real-time" technique is not often seen on television, yet it is not new. It dates back to at least 1949, with the film noir The Set-Up. One of the best known examples is High Noon. The similarities of the first 24 season to the 1995 real-time movie Nick of Time suggest the series was inspired by the movie's plot and technique: In Nick of Time, a man's daughter is kidnapped in order to set him up to assassinate a senator within ninety minutes. 24 also borrows its use of split-screen techniques from Timecode, a film released in 2000, to show events in two different places at once. Despite not having invented the "real-time" and split-screen techniques, 24's techniques are regarded as innovative. Much like the BBC spy series, Spooks, (which, although not "real time" is slightly reminiscent of 24 and heavily dependent on split-screen technique; its first season was produced before 24 and screened in the UK), the use of these techniques has determined the visual and technological feel of the series.

24 has received critical and popular acclaim, and has become a true "watercooler" show. However the necessities of its format sometimes lead to lots of egregious padding and manifest absurdities (for example, traffic jams are surprisingly uncommon for a show set mostly in Southern California), which call upon the audience for a considerable amount of suspension of disbelief.

The show is notable for its approach to technology, which is more accurate than many other shows, although many have found season three and season four to be less accurate than the two preceding seasons. It has shown the use of the operating system Linux multiple times, and in one season, appeared to touch on the Macintosh vs. PC debate [1]. In fact, in season four all the terrorists used Alienware laptops. Another aspect of the show that has been praised as accurate is the depiction of interpersonal friction between the various agencies charged with American national security, even in times of severe crisis.

Despite the high-tech gadgetry, 24 is somewhat inaccurate when depicting medical emergencies. For instance, when a character is in cardiopulmonary arrest, the code usually lasts less than a minute, which is contrary to the usual several minutes that is performed by medical personnel. When Lee was brought back to CTU from the Chinese consulate (Season 4), Jack Bauer was seen giving CPR, but feebly compressing the chest. Additionaly, in one episode, a character was admitted to the intensive care unit, but was not attached to telemetry (heart monitoring), nor was breathing or oxygen saturation monitored. Needless to say, that character was murdered without anyone knowing immediately.

At first sight, it may seem as if characters rarely eat, rest, or take bathroom breaks – and this is a common complaint made by people who haven't seen the show – but in fact, due to the sheer number of storylines, characters will usually only be seen for at most fifteen minutes per episode, so there is plenty of time for these things to happen offscreen. Furthermore, due to the plots' nature of dealing with national security emergencies, many of the characters are presumed to skip meals to in order to do more work, and several times (albeit mostly in the first two seasons) the characters are shown eating and becoming visibley fatigued and make verbal references about how long they've been awake.

In the first season, Kiefer Sutherland, who plays the main character Jack Bauer, won a Golden Globe for his performances; Surnow and Cochran (the creators of the show) won an Emmy Award. In 2004, the show won the Golden Globe for Best Drama Series. 24 won Emmy Awards for Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing For A Drama Series, Outstanding Single-Camera Sound Mixing For A Series, Outstanding Casting For A Drama Series, and Outstanding Stunt Coordination.

Season synopses

Every season so far follows a similar format, centering on a central threat posed by terrorists. Surprise sacrifices, backstabbings, and other plot twists are common. Besides the central threat, each season has several major subplots that span the majority of the episodes and become interwoven with the main plot, which itself tends to change once or twice as a season progresses. Throughout each season, Jack Bauer often faces intense personal anguish in addition to his tasks to stop the terrorists. Each season runs in "real-time" and starts at a different time on different days. The show is set largely in Los Angeles, so the "time" is set in Pacific Standard Time.

Season 1

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The season starts and ends at 12:00 AM (on the day of the California Presidential Primary)

The first season (2001–2002) revolves around an assassination attempt on Maryland Senator David Palmer, an African American candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination, on the day of the California Primary. The central character is Jack Bauer, a former Delta Force operative who is the Special Agent in Charge of the fictional Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) in Los Angeles. Bauer becomes personally as well as professionally involved when his wife Teri and daughter Kim are kidnapped by the people behind the assassination.

Major subplots:

  • A mole at CTU is sabotaging efforts to stop the assassination
  • The members of the Bauer family are rebuilding their relationships now that Jack has moved home after being separated from Teri
  • The tensions between Jack, his second-in-command and former lover Nina Myers, and Nina's current boyfriend (and fellow CTU agent) Tony Almeida
  • Political scandals threaten to erupt, centered around Senator Palmer's son having been accused of killing his sister's rapist in the distant past
  • The foundation of Jack Bauer and David Palmer's personal and professional relationship
  • Jack's personal anguish: worried about the safety of his family

The season starts and ends at: 12:00am (midnight - LA time). The first half of the season centers around the efforts of a terrorist cell led by Ira Gaines to assassinate Presidential Candidate Palmer. They kidnap Jack Bauer's wife and daughter in order to force him to commit the assassination and take the fall for Palmer's death. Jack eventually defeats this cell in the process of saving his wife and daughter, but this only leads to information about a second group of terrorists who had employed the first cell. The second cell is led by those ultimately responsible for the day's events: Andre and Alexis Drazen. Years prior to this day, Jack Bauer had been sent with a team of Government agents to Belgrade on the orders of a secret government panel, headed by David Palmer. The operative were assigned to kill Victor Drazen, a terrorist. In order to keep the operation totally secret, the panel never met nor knew the team of operatives, and vice versa, thus meaning Palmer and Bauer never knew about each other. The Drazens found out about both Palmer's and Bauer's invovement in their father's death (incidentally, Jack Bauer was believed to be the only operative still alive), and the whole assassination plot had been a means to get back at them. Palmer would be dead, Jack would be imprisoned for the assassination, and his family would be killed. As the season progressed, it was revealed that Bauer's team had only killed Drazen's body double. The real Victor Drazen was being held in a top secret Government prison, and the Drazens' primary goal was the freeing of Victor Drazen. Eventually, in order to satisfy the Drazens, Palmer's death is faked. The Drazens recapture Bauer's daughter and offer to exchange her life for Bauer's. However, the daughter escapes. The freed Victor Drazen tells his mole inside CTU, who we find out is Nina Myers, to call Bauer and tell him that his daughter is dead and that the Coast Guard found her body. Drazen does this because he knows Jack will come to kill him, and, hopefully, die in the process. As it turned out, Jack Bauer came and did kill not only Victor Drazen, but also Andre Drazen (Alexis was dead already) and all their henchmen. After that, Jack Bauer called the Coast Guard to arrange for his claim on his daughter's body. The Coast Guard informs Bauer that they found no body that night. Hearing this, Bauer knows that Nina Myers is the mole. He calls the head of CTU and tells him to detain Myers, but Myers, who heard that Bauer had lived, was already preparing for exfiltration by erasing all the incriminating information she had. Bauer's wife, Terri, was confused about the events surrounding Jack's attempt to rescue their daughter, and looked for Myers, whom she trusted. Terri realized that Myers was the mole, however, and Myers tied her up and shot her. Jack came to CTU and let them take Myers into custody (as opposed to killing her). He then found his wife's body.

Although it is not clear what year the series is set in, some fans have assumed it is for the 2004 election and therefore, the date would be Tuesday, March 2nd 2004. However this is incorrect, since, during season one, Jack Bauer explicitly said that he took part in a covert operation against the government of Slobodan Milošević three years before. Since Milošević was out of office three years before 2004, season one could not have taken place at that time.

The season has a dramatic and unexpected ending: the death of Teri Bauer. Many fans were dismayed by this sudden plot twist, while others applauded 24's genre-defying willingness to kill major characters with little warning. The producers also filmed an alternate ending in which Teri, Kim, and Jack are reunited. However they eventually decided to go with the death of Teri Bauer as the climax of season one. The alternate ending is available on the Season 1 DVD boxed set, although it is noticeably less dramatic than the eventual ending that was aired.

Season 2

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The season starts and ends at 8:00 AM

The second season (2002–2003) takes place a year and a half later and follows the work of now-President David Palmer and agent Jack Bauer to stop terrorists from detonating a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles. Season two must take place after 2001, since it is set in September, and references are made to sending terrorists to Guantanamo Bay for interrogation, which was not done until 2002.

Major subplots:

  • Kim is on the run, having rescued a child from her abusive father
  • Kate Warner suspects that her sister's Middle Eastern fiancé is a terrorist
  • President Palmer faces traitors in his own cabinet, who attempt to remove him from power to advance their own agenda
  • George Mason, Special Agent in Charge of CTU, is dying of radiation exposure
  • Jack's personal anguish: worried about Kim; develops a heart condition after being tortured by terrorists

The season starts and ends at: 8:00am (LA time); the action begins in Seoul, South Korea (midnight, Seoul time).

The first sixteen hours deal with finding and disposing the nuclear bomb. After the bomb is disposed of safely, the story focuses on the United States' retaliation against the people responsible for constructing it. A recorded conversation between a terrorist involved with the bomb and high-ranking officials of three Middle Eastern countries (which are never specified) is used to implicate those countries in the plot. However, Palmer is reluctant to order military action against them until he has absolute proof that the recording is genuine. Several members of his staff then vote to relieve Palmer of his position under Section 4 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, believing his hesitation to be a sign of indecision and weakness. The Vice-President then orders military strikes against the three countries to continue.

Jack, Michelle and Tony race to find the evidence that the recording is a forgery, and they eventually discover that a group of American businessmen fabricated it in order to wage war with the Middle East so that they could benefit from rocketing oil prices that would result. The strikes are called off and Palmer is reinstated as President after the proof is produced, thanks largely to his wife Sherry Palmer (who risks her life). The seven cabinet members and vice president tender their resignations (Palmer does not accept them), and Palmer then tells his staff that he believes that the strictest evidence of hostile intent is required before waging war. The President does relieve his Chief of Staff, Mike Novik, who did not support David until the eleventh hour. The entire storyline has thinly veiled references to President Bush's foreign policy in the Middle East following the September 11th attacks and the "three Middle Eastern countries" could be a reference to the Axis of Evil.

Like the first season, the second ends with a surprise twist. The nuclear bomb situation is resolved without massive loss of life, but President Palmer collapses after being attacked with a biological weapon, presumably in an assassination attempt. Viewers were forced to wait until the third season to see whether Palmer survived the attack. The sudden shift from a nuclear to biological threat also foreshadows the third season, which initially centers around the threat of an engineered virus being set loose on the general public.

There were several large plot threads left unresolved from the second season into the third and fourth seasons, most notably the characters of "Max" and Trepkos, two men who seemed to be the driving force behind the day's events, as well as President Palmer's assassination attempt. How the assassination attempt ties into a war for oil is something that never quite fit together, and many have suspected that they may have had some larger and more sinister goal in mind. They were never seen again, and the only clue to their fate is a cryptic hint given by Wayne Palmer in the premiere of season 3. However, it has been revealed that the events directly preceding season 3 will be chronicled in the upcoming video game, currently in production. Presumably, the fates of Max and Trepkos will be dealt with, as well as how several of the characters at CTU in the third season began working there.

Season 3

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The season starts and ends at 1:00 PM

The third season (2003–2004) takes place three years after the second season and centers around the threat of a deadly virus being released in Los Angeles while President Palmer is visiting to participate in a debate with his chief opponent in his re-election campaign.

Major subplots:

  • President Palmer faces scandal during his re-election campaign involving his official doctor/girlfriend (a civilian whose ex-husband may have 'cooked the books').
  • Strained romantic relationships between Tony Almeida and Michelle Dessler, Kim (Jack's daughter) and Chase Edmunds (Jack's partner)
  • Jack's personal anguish: recovering from a heroin addiction that he claims he developed as part of an undercover operation

The season starts and ends at: 1:00pm (LA time). This is the first season where the action starts in the United States.

The driver's license of a 19-year-old character in the third season, Kyle Singer, shows his date of birth as 1987, thus setting the third season in 2006 or 2007, with the first season therefore being in 2002 or 2003. However, some believe that since the first and third seasons fall in Presidential election years, it could be a mistake and the seasons actually take place in 2004 and 2008. However, like The West Wing, it is probable that elections in the 24-world do not coincide with ours.

Unlike the first two seasons, the third does not end with a sudden plot twist. It is also the first season which has not concluded with a silent timer, though the silent timer was used earlier in the season when Jack was forced by the terrorists to execute his boss, Ryan Chappelle. Despite the lack of a last-minute plot twist, important events occur at the end of the third season that have major consequences for the next season. First, Jack chops part of Chase's arm off with an axe to detach a timed-release device containing the virus that was secured to Chase's wrist, thus saving both their lives. Second, Tony turns himself in to the authorities for his role in helping the terrorist mastermind, Saunders, escape in order to save Michelle's life. Third, President Palmer decides not to run for re-election due to his ex-wife Sherry being murdered under suspicious circumstances. Presumably, Vice President James 'Jim' Prescott took over the Democratic Party ticket.

One of the greatest successes of the first season was that any one of the characters could have been good or evil. To bring back this feel, and to revamp the show, the producers decided not to renew the contracts of most of the cast. Because of this, the writers declared that the first three seasons were a sort of trilogy and that the fourth season was a "rebirth".

Season 4

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The season starts and ends at 7:00 AM

The fourth season (2005) is set 16 months after the third and sees Jack, now working for Secretary of Defense James Heller after being fired by CTU, caught up in an elaborate terrorist plot which involves both men and the daughter of Heller, Audrey Raines, who doubles as her father's chief policy assistant and Jack's lover (whilst married to another man, but separated). Jack must work with CTU and Erin Driscoll, the new Special Agent in Charge and woman who fired him, to uncover what is happening. Again, one or more moles is revealed to inhabit CTU, aiding the terrorists.

Unlike previous seasons, which focused on a singular threat and multiple enemies, this season is based around one main enemy, an Arabic terrorist named Habib Marwan who controls a series of Middle Eastern terrorist cells that launch a series of attacks against the United States. The waves of terror begin with:

  • the bombing of a commuter train
    • which allowed the theft of a MacGuffin device known as the Dobsen-type Override which could be used to take control of (and meltdown) United States nuclear power plants
    • the override needed massive computing power to disable security at nuclear plants nationwide, which is masked by the kidnapping of the Secretary Of Defense and his near-execution
  • which led to the kidnapping of Secretary of Defense James Heller (and his daughter)
    • which was broadcasted over the internet, using the internet activity to decrypt the firewalls protecting plant security
    • this also used as a smoke screen to keep the President of the United States airborne in Air Force One as a protective measure under Secret Service guidelines
    • both hostages were rescued by CTU before their execution took place, but too late to prevent the decryption
  • which led to the override being used, causing a meltdown in San Gabriel Island
    • in an effort to cover-up their complicity, the company that developed the override activated an EMP that caused a blackout over an 8 square mile section of downtown Los Angeles
  • the resulting turmoil allowed a stealth fighter to be stolen from an Air Force base in Southern California
  • which was used to shoot down Air Force One
    • injuring President Keeler in the process and elevating the Vice-President Charles Logan into power under the 25th Amendment
  • the crash of which was intended to retrieve the nuclear football from the crash site
  • which was used to steal a nuclear warhead in Iowa, which was then fired at Los Angeles
    • the signal of which was masked by a Chinese national, who was captured (and tortured) by CTU against authorization by the US Government leading to a diplomatic problem with China

The Fox Network decided to implement a year-round schedule due to the fact that episodes of the show would be broadcast irregularily during the World Series, which Fox had recently obtained the rights to for several years, and decided to air the entire season, without any hiatuses, over 19 weeks – with double episodes airing twice in the first week, and again at the end of the season. Utilizing the extended planning session that this opportunity afforded the writers, they attempted to map out the season like never before, but as the season wore on, they eventually fell back to writing on an episode by episode basis, without any planning or foreknowledge.

This was particularly evident in the way the story was told. Unlike previous seasons, which all began with the discovery of the threat and went through the investigation, the containment of the threat and followed the aftermath, season four began with no one knowing what the threat was to be, and the characters – and audience – were kept in the dark for several episodes.

When the season began, every character from the first three seasons was absent except for Jack Bauer, President Keeler (Palmer's Republican opponent in season 3), and Chloe O'Brian. However, as the season went on several characters came back, including Tony Almeida (for 18 episodes), Michelle Dessler (13 episodes), Mike Novick (7 episodes), David Palmer (6 episodes), Aaron Pierce (2 episodes), and even Mandy the assassin from seasons 1 and 2 (3 episodes).

Season 4 provided viewers with several new characters. One of the new characters, Erin Driscoll, is involved in a subplot that involves her daughter's schizophrenia. Driscoll's daughter, Maya, ends up committing suicide. As a result, Driscoll ends up leaving CTU.

Although torture, real and feigned, by both the U.S. and its opponents, has been depicted in previous seasons, there was noticeably more of it in Season 4, and the characters seemed on the whole much less disturbed by it. In the wake of the real-life Abu Ghraib scandal and similar allegations at other U.S. military facilities housing suspected terrorists, some commentators accused[2] the show of legitimizing the use of torture in the war on terror. Many viewers were upset with the torture of subjects such as Sarah Gavin and Behrooz Araz, who were not hiding anything. They also criticize the show's position, that essentially the torture helped exonerate them. In an interview with Charlie Rose, Kiefer Sutherland commented on the show's use of torture and how it relates to the recent controversies over government sanctioned torture. "Do I personally believe that the police or any of these other legal agencies that are working for this government should be entitled to interrogate people and do the things that I do on the show? No, I do not." [3]

The season also played with the cast line-up in a way no previous seasons had done. The season began with Sutherland, Raver, Watson and Devane as main cast. Watson left after twelve episodes, Lana Parrilla – upgraded from recurring to main character in episode six – was gone by episode thirteen, and Roger Cross was then put into the main cast. Devane then left after episode fourteen, returning briefly later in the season.

Season 5

24 has been officially renewed for two more seasons [4]. Season 5 will begin with a four-hour premiere across January 15 and January 16 (2006), and will run over five months, similar to season four's non-stop season.

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For season five, David Fury and Manny Coto are joining the crew as writers/executive producers. Fury was previously a writer for Lost (where he wrote the Emmy-nominated episode "Walkabout"), Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and Angel. Coto was a writer and executive producer on Star Trek: Enterprise near the end of its run. Also, Howard Gordon will become the show-runner, while Surnow and Cochran work on a new pilot. The actors who are officially signed on as main cast members for season 5 are: Kiefer Sutherland (Jack Bauer), Kim Raver (Audrey Raines), James Morrison (Bill Buchanan), Mary-Lynn Rajskub (Chloe O'Brian), Carlos Bernard (Tony Almeida), Roger Cross (Curtis Manning), Louis Lombardi (Edgar Stiles), Gregory Itzin (President Charles Logan), Jean Smart (First Lady Martha Logan), Jude Ciccolella (Mike Novick), Glenn Morshower (Agent Aaron Pierce) and John Allen Nelson (Walt Cummings) also return while Dennis Haysbert (David Palmer) and Reiko Aylesworth (Michelle Dessler) will both appear in at least the first episode with D.B. Woodside (Wayne Palmer) appearing in the first few episodes of season 5. Elisha Cuthbert (Kim Bauer) will also appear in at least four episodes around the middle of the season. Season 5 is set to start at 7:00 a.m. based on various spoilers.

In July 2005, Variety magazine reported that Jean Smart, Connie Britton, and Brady Corbet have all joined the cast for the fifth season. Smart will play First Lady Martha Logan, Britton will play Diane, Jack's new love interest, and Corbet will play her son Derek. Lord of the Rings star Sean Astin has signed on for the fifth season to play CTU agent Lynn McGill. Jonah Lotan has also joined the cast of 24 in a recurring role. Lotan will portray Spenser, a new agent in the Counter Terrorist Unit. Geraint Wyn Davies has joined the cast in a recurring role, and Kathleen Gati has joined the cast as the Russian First Lady.

Julian Sands (A Room with a View), Peter Weller (RoboCop) and Oscar, Golden Globe and Emmy-nominated actress JoBeth Williams (“Poltergeist” and “The Big Chill”) join 24. British born actor Julian Sands will play villainous billionaire Vladamir Bierko while Peter Weller portrays Christopher Henderson, the federal agent who recruited Jack to counter terrorist work more than a decade ago. JoBeth Williams is Henderson’s wife, Miriam. All three characters will come face-to-face with Jack.

In an interview with the cast and producers of 24 on the Charlie Rose Show it was said that the gap between seasons 4 and 5 will be shorter than the usual 18 month gap. Also, season 5 will be more directly affected by season 4 than other seasons have been by the preceding season.

Richard Marcinko, one of the founders of SEAL Team SIX, Red Cell, and the father of counter-terrorism, and novelist Vince Flynn, have been signed onto season 5 as story consultants.

Season 5 of 24 will begin at 7:00 A.M., as did Season 4.

Behind-the-scenes information

General trivia

  • A scene from the pilot episode depicting a Boeing 747 exploding was re-edited for broadcast, with the image of the plane exploding removed, in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, which had occurred less than two months earlier.
  • Alberta Watson's name was the basis for the character Alberta Green, played by Tamara Tunie in the first season. Watson later joined the cast in season four as Erin Driscoll.
  • Xander Berkeley and Sarah Clarke got married after meeting on set during season one. They kept their relationship a secret from the producers and castmates for a while.
  • Provisions have had to be made in the script for the real life injuries of cast members, due to the real-time format. For instance, Kiefer Sutherland fell out of his on-set trailer early in season two, so a scene had to be written in where he removes a piece of shrapnel from his leg after surviving a plane crash. This explains the limp he had for a few episodes. Carlos Bernard also injured himself on set, breaking his ankle whilst playing basketball in a break in filming. A scene was then filmed that featured Jack breaking Tony's ankle during an escape from CTU.
  • After the original November 25, 2003 broadcast of 24, Kiefer Sutherland broke character to address the issue of gun safety, most likely to waive Fox of liability in case someone attempted to recreate the Russian roulette scenes. Sutherland gave a promotion for an organization called Americans For Gun Safety Foundation.
  • Fox.com released a 24 car chase game during Season 3, called 24 - Countdown. It was sponsored by LG, and involved Jack Bauer driving an SUV trying to ram terrorist vans off the road while avoiding the dynamite thrown from the vans. You either had to stop a enemy's car at the front of the pack, or get to the destination before the enemy did. If you completed all three missions, you were awarded access to exclusive 24 wallpapers.
  • In the third season, a website, sylviaimports.com is given to President Palmer by Saunders, who wants Palmer to send him a list through the website. The website, registered by Rodney Charters - director of photography, leads to a "Thank you"-note from the crew of 24.
  • During the first three seasons of the show, Tony Almeida had a Chicago Cubs coffee mug visible on his desk. Carlos Bernard, who plays Tony, was born in Chicago. Tony also is seen in the fourth season drinking beer out of it in his home after rescuing Jack and Audrey
  • Nina Myers and Sherry Palmer are the only two "bad guys" to be involved in the first three seasons. Both meet their demise by the third season's finale.
  • A graphic novel based on the show and titled One Shot was published in July 2004. Its story is set prior to the first season of the show, and details Jack Bauer's first day on the job at CTU, involving debriefing a former terrorist from the IRA and later defending her life from her former associates. A second graphic novel titled 24 Stories was also published in February 2005. A third graphic novel titled Midnight Sun was published in August 2005.
  • A 24 Soundtrack was released during the start of Season 4. It features handpicked songs from Sean Callery, who does most of the show's music. The songs are from the first three seasons and include the full four minute version of the 24 theme song.
  • For the fourth season, Fox gave its affiliates two public service announcements that portray Muslims in a positive light, due to criticisms raised by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. [5]
  • In an interview on The Charlie Rose Show dated 20 May 2005, Joel Surnow disclosed that the writers and producers had wanted to have President John Keeler die in the crash of Air Force One. However, network executives vetoed that idea and at the conclusion of the season he was comatose. The writers did have the President's 19 year old son, Kevin, die in the crash, though. In the fifth season, Keeler's vice president, who's currently the Acting President, is the permanent president for the balance of Keeler's term. It is not yet known publicly if Keeler dies or resigns.
  • In season 4, defense contractor McLennan-Forster, which released the electromagnetic pulse in downtown LA, was named after songwriters Grant McLennan and Robert Forster of Australian group The Go-Betweens.
  • Each season of the show has a chief director who directs at least 10 episodes of the season and acts as an advisor to the other directors who may be less familiar with the show's style. In Season 1 it was British born director Stephen Hopkins; it was he who first suggested the use of split screen. After Season 1, Hopkins was replaced by Canadian director Jon Cassar, who retained this position for Seasons 2-5.
  • Seasons 1-4 are available in DVD box sets. Each box set contains all 24 episodes of the season presented in widescreen (as it was aired on Fox's High-Definition Channel and enhanced for 16x9 TVs). Starting with Seasons 2, they are also presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound. The DVD set for Season 1 contains an alternate ending. The DVD sets for Seasons 2 and 3 both contained featurettes and deleted scenes, and the Season 3 set contains a preview of Season 4. It has been argued that "24" kicked off the trend of releasing box sets of TV shows, as many viewers bought the sets due to the fact that there were no re-runs of episodes (with the exception of Season Premieres)
  • To keep viewers hooked, 24 was aired more than once a week in many countries. Most notably, the first season aired with back-to-back episodes three nights a week in Germany, making for a run of barely four weeks; and during its Australian airing, season one was shown twice a week, and season three regularly aired as double episodes. The Brazilian TV was even more radical: seasons 1, 2 and 4 where aired every day, from Monday to Friday.
  • In the UK, when the BBC aired the first two seasons it produced a weekly companion programme, Pure 24, featuring interviews with cast members and fan discussions.
  • 24: The Game, a video game taking place between seasons two and three, is currently in development by Sony Computer Entertainment's Cambridge Studio exclusively for the PlayStation 2. The game will be broken up into timed missions and the developers have stated that the total play time for all of the missions will equal 24 hours. Take Two Interactive will release the game in America in Early 2006 under their 2K Games label.
  • A Japanese pharmaceutical company, Otsuka Seiyaku, has started an advertising campaign for Calorie Mate; a nutrient snack bar featuring Jack Bauer. Titled "Calorie Mate x 24", the first 15 second episode aired from April 9 2005. 15 second and 30 second versions of episode three can be downloaded from the Calorie Mate x 24 website.
  • Recurring guest stars Xander Berkeley, Glenn Morshower, and Timothy Carhart all appeared in the movie Air Force One. Ironically, Morshower plays a Secret Service Agent in both cases. Also Wendy Crewson starred in the third season as a guest star for half the season. In both Air Force One and 24, she played the love interest of the U.S. President.
  • The show format for 24 was mocked on Simple Plan's music video, Don't Wanna Think About You.
  • According to a note preceding the "24 Declassified" novels, CTU was established by the CIA after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
  • The briefcase stolen from the train crash in season four was in fact a WiebeTech Forensic Field Kit [6] and the device later shown in wireframe was a WeibeTech ComboDock [7]
  • Alberta Watson, who played Erin Driscoll in season four, was a series regular on La Femme Nikita, a series that was also created by Robert Cochran and Joel Surnow.
  • Over a dozen cast members of the show have had guest appearances on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
  • In December 2005, a Norwegian network made a 24-spoof called Tjuefjerde where STU Agent Jon Buer had to protect Santa Claus from assassination, much like Season 1 where Jack had to protect Senator Palmer.
  • While filming the first episode of season 4, Jon Cassar shot the CTU scenes in such a way that the audience first sees the changes made to the building at the same time Jack does.

Fan phone

In Episode 5 of Season 4, the cell phone of Debbie (a minor character) could be heard ringing. A valid California phone number can clearly be seen on Debbie's cell phone caller ID (310-597-3781). Many fans noticed this and began calling the number as soon as the episode concluded. Some fans got a voice mail message telling them that they called the 24 prop phone and to leave a message. Others talked to live people, including Production Designer Joseph Hodges. Still others claimed that they spoke to stars Kim Raver and Carlos Bernard. Hodges later admitted in an interview that Director Jon Cassar came up with the idea for the "fan phone" because the two of them often got bored scouting new shooting locations and wanted a chance to interact with the audience. Hodges further stated that they received around 80,000 calls on the line during the first week alone. If the show was shooting at the time, you could even speak to a cast member. This phone number was repeated in the episode where Jack attempts to recover the nuclear football; he gives his cell number to a man and his wife fleeing from Marwan.

In an interview on The Charlie Rose Show dated 20 May 2005, this was revealed to be an accident: the phone actually belonged to a member of the staff, and was not meant to be seen. After the episode aired and knowledge of the phone number became public, the phone was described as "always ringing". Staff members would occasionally answer to talk to fans. The number is still active, however as most callers want to know about season five, it is rarely answered. When the show airs again in January, calls will be answered more often.

Main cast

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File:241001.jpg
Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer

See List of characters in 24 for a more thorough list.

Haysbert and Devane received the 'And' credit during their runs on the show. Sarah Clarke received the 'And' credit when she appeared in seasons 2 and 3.

Broadcasters

Criticism

As 24 is dramatized fiction which glorifies government agents abusing power and violating individual rights in times of crisis, conspiracy theorists have speculated 24 was created as neoconservative statist propaganda to help justify the USA Patriot Act and other government expansions after 9/11. While many respond that 24 was created and written long before 9/11, conspiracy theorists may mention similar theories in The Lone Gunmen, which is either a warning or a hypothesis that catastrophes can be abused as excuse to government expansion (whether or not the catastrophe itself was caused by the government intentionally). Hijacking Catastrophe gives an explanation of this viewpoint.

DVD releases

Region 1

Individual episodes

DVD Name Release Date
Season 1 Episodes 1 and 2 March 22 2005

Season releases

DVD Name Release Date
The Complete 1st Season September 17 2002
The Complete 2nd Season September 9 2003
The Complete 3rd Season December 7 2004
The Complete 4th Season December 6 2005

Other releases

DVD Name Release Date
Season 2 Preview Promotional Disk August 26 2003

Region 2

Season releases

DVD Name Release Date
The Complete 1st Season October 14 2002
The Complete 2nd Season August 11 2003
The Complete 3rd Season August 9 2004
The Complete 4th Season August 8 2005
The Complete Seasons 1 - 4 August 8 2005

Region 3

Season releases

DVD Name Release Date
The Complete 1st Season September 15 2004
The Complete 2nd Season February 10 2004
The Complete 3rd Season November 11 2004

Official websites

Database

USA & Canada fan sites

Other fan sites

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