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24 (TV series)

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This article is about 24, the television series. For the video game, see 24: The Game. For the soundtrack, see 24: The Soundtrack.
24
File:24 Promo.JPG
Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer
Created byJoel Surnow and Robert Cochran
StarringKiefer Sutherland
Country of originUSA
No. of episodes108 (greenlit to 144)
Production
Running time45 minutes
Original release
NetworkFox
ReleaseNovember 6, 2001 –
present

24 (Twenty Four) is a current U.S. television action/drama series, produced by the Fox Network for Ron Howard's Imagine Television and syndicated worldwide.

Each season covers the events of one day in the life of federal agent Jack Bauer, played by 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.

This real-time nature of 24 gives the show a strong sense of urgency, emphasized by the ticking of an on-screen digital clock appearing from time to time. Throughout every episode the action switches between different locations, following the parallel adventures of different characters all involved in the same story.

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

Season synopses

Every season so far follows a similar format, centering on Jack Bauer and the elite Counter Terrorist Unit dealing with a central threat posed to national security, including terrorists in later seasons. 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. Every episode begins with: "The following takes place between [time] and [time]."

  • Each episode portrays one hour of time, and one season is comprised of 24 episodes.
  • The first half of season 1 begins each episode with Kiefer Sutherland reciting this line, followed by, "on the day of the California Presidential Primary." The importance of this episode introduction can be understood below in season one's synopsis.

Please see the articles for each individual season, below, for lists of individual episodes, airdates, etc.

Template:Spoiler

Season 1

Main article: 24 (season 1)

In Season 1, terrorists are plotting to assassinate a presidential candidate, David Palmer, while Jack Bauer's wife and daughter have been targeted by individuals unknown to Jack. Jack suspects that people that he works with may have been involved in both, and works simultaneously at defending Palmer from attack while unraveling the situation behind the capture of his wife and daughter.

Season 2

Main article: 24 (season 2)

In Season 2, Jack deals with the death of his wife and the estrangement of his daughter, who believes that Jack's dangerous line of work caused her mother's death. Bauer is no longer on the government payroll, but President David Palmer counts on Jack as the only man he can trust to figure out who is threatening to detonate a nuclear device in Los Angeles, and to stop it from happening. Meanwhile, a subplot develops with Kate Warner planning a wedding between her sister and soon to be brother-in-law, when CTU suspects the groom in the terrorist plot.

Season 3

Main article: 24 (season 3)

In Season 3, Jack has returned from a deep undercover assignment, infiltrating the Salazar drug family, which has ties to terrorism. At the same time, a van drops off a dead body infected with a bio-weapon at the National Health Services. Jack's new partner is a brash but successful agent, Chase Edmunds, who is in a relationship with Jack's daughter, now employed by CTU. Jack and Chase must now find the terrorists responsible for the virus and destroy all specimens before Los Angeles becomes infected.

Season 4

Main article: 24 (season 4)

In Season 4, Jack Bauer now works in Washington D.C. for the Secretary of Defense, while having an affair with the Secretary's daughter. CTU has been gutted under a new Presidential Administration, but the new CTU head calls for a meeting with Jack about an impending terrorist threat. However, the Secretary and his daughter are held hostage and Jack must rescue them. After the rescue, they realize that the kidnapping was used to conceal a plot that would result in the meltdown of U.S. nuclear power plants nationwide, but again, this is just a cover for a much larger terrorist plot.

Season 5

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Main article: 24 (season 5)

In Season 5, Jack has changed his name to Frank Flynn and is trying to start a new life outside of CTU, when he gets the call that former President Palmer and former co-worker Michelle Dessler have been assassinated, and an attempt has been made on Tony Almeida and Chloe O'Brian. Tony has been badly injured, but Chloe managed to realize that she was in danger just in time and contacted Jack for help, bringing him back into the fray. Someone attempted to frame Jack for the murder of President Palmer, so he and the CTU team must find out who is behind this plot, while dealing with a hostage situation used as a cover for transporting nerve gas and attempting to unravel a conspiracy that seems to go deeper and deeper, including into the White House and a defense contractor named Omicron Corporation.

Edgar, the fat guy, just died. :(

Main cast

File:24 Season 5.jpg
The Cast of Season 5.

This is a list of the main cast for Season 5. See List of characters in 24 for a more thorough list.

24 has received critical and popular acclaim, and has become a true "watercooler show." However, the necessities of its format sometimes lead to egregious padding and manifest absurdities. For example, traffic jams are surprisingly uncommon for a show set mostly in Southern California, which along with the fact that the main characters never seem to use the bathroom, have become popular subjects of parody and stand-up humor throughout the show's history, and call upon the audience for a considerable amount of suspension of disbelief. However, some argue that because the show takes place in real time, and often cuts between characters and scenes, that it is not necessary to show characters actually using restrooms, or even consuming food (although the latter has been shown a few times in past seasons, perhaps to emphasize the real time aspect of the show). So although they are not often seen doing these things, proponents feel that it still happens, only off the screen, and thus, is implied.

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. Kiefer Sutherland also picked up the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series in 2006.

Real-time nature of 24

File:24 split clock screenshot.jpg
An example of a 24 split-screen with the running clock

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 is emphasized by an on-screen digital clock appearing from time to time--this corresponds to the exact minute of the broadcast hour, counting commercial time. Since it is an American commercial-television series, almost one-quarter of 24's time is spent on commercials, resulting in episodes that last about forty-four minutes. Elsewhere there may be no commercials in the middle of the episodes (e.g. on BBC and on the DVD versions), so the clock 'jumps' where commercials are planned for the United States, and is thus not strictly real-time. Action that takes place during the commercials or clock jumps is not shown. Mundane actions (such as car journeys) are either skipped just as they are in conventional drama, or briefly shown in split-screen panels, which quickly update the audience on what characters not currently featured in the main narrative are doing. Some footage, of course, may be edited for syndicated versions to accomodate more commercials.

Approach to technology

The show is notable for its approach to technology in that it delves more into the Information Technology-related aspects of intelligence gathering. 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].

Behind-the-scenes information

General trivia

  • During seasons 1-3, Tony Almeida had a Chicago Cubs coffee mug on his desk. Tony was born in Chicago, as was Carlos Bernard. Tony also used it during seasons 4 and 5.
  • 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. [citation needed]
  • Shots of a satellite in space in the pilot episode were taken from the movie Enemy of the State. [citation needed]
  • 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. [citation needed]
  • Xander Berkeley and Sarah Clarke were married after meeting on set during season one. They kept their relationship a secret from the producers and castmates for a while. In Season 3, when CTU found out about Nina's involvement in the virus plot, an image of her ID on the screen gives her alias as Sarah Berkeley.
  • As an April Fool's joke on the crew, producer/director Jon Cassar revealed this fake ending to Day 2: Palmer's press conference ends and he goes down to his limo. He gets in successfully and rides off. After a while, we find out that someone is sitting next to him. That someone is Nina Myers. We realize that Palmer was in on the whole thing. We then shift to a scene in the desert. We close in on a parachute, then pan over to reveal George Mason, who jumped out of the plane before the bomb exploded. The end. This joke was revealed in the season 2 DVD special features.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Senator John McCain (R-AZ) makes a cameo appearance in the "1:00 PM to 2:00 PM" episode. He has a non-speaking role as an unidentified bureaucrat who delivers a file folder to Audrey Raines, the character portrayed by Kim Raver, and can be seen in the "split screen" for about six seconds beginning at 1:32:22. [2]
  • NASCAR driver Carl Edwards will make a cameo appearance with a small speaking part in the episode scheduled to broadcast on April 3,2006. [citation needed]
  • Jack Bauer, David Palmer, Tony Almeida, and Secret Service Agent Aaron Pierce are the only characters to appear in all five seasons of the series.

Fan phone

In the fifth episode of the fourth season, Debbie's cell phone rang with a valid California phone number on the caller ID (310-597-3781). Many fans noticed this and began calling the number as soon as the episode concluded. Some received 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[3].

Broadcasters

DVD releases

DVD Name
Release dates
Region 1
Region 2
Region 4
The Complete 1st Season September 17 2002 October 14 2002 September 15 2004
The Complete 2nd Season August 12 2003 August 11 2003 February 10 2004
The Complete 3rd Season December 7 2004 August 9 2004 February 02 2005
The Complete 4th Season December 6 2005 August 8 2005 November 16 2005

References

  1. ^ "PCs are Incorrect on TV". Wired Magazine. Retrieved February 16th. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ "Inside Move: Phone number has a familiar ring". Variety. Retrieved January 19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
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