24 (television)

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 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 24 episodes per season). 24 makes frequent use of hand-held cameras and split-screens to show the actions of various characters concurrently.

Miscellaneous information

• A scene from the pilot episode depicting a Boeing 747 exploding was toned down for broadcast in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, which had occurred less than two months earlier.
• 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.
• Alberta Watson was hired for the first season but was ill and couldn't work, so her character was recast with Tamara Tunie and renamed Alberta Green. Watson later joined the cast in season four as Erin Driscoll.
• Xander Berkeley and Sarah Clarke got married after meeting on set during Season 1. They kept their relationship a secret from the producers and castmates for a while.
• Seasons 1-5 are available in DVD box sets (in the US only seasons 1-3 have been released). 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.
• 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 is due to be published in July 2005.
• 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.
• Fox.com realeased 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 whill 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 3 missions, you were awarded with congratulations page with 24 wallpapers.
• 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 the full 4 minute version of the 24 theme song.
• ', 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 November 2005 under their 2K Games label.
• Many rumors are currently floating around suggesting that a 24 movie is in the works. These rumours came closer to confirmation when regular director Jon Cassar talked about the idea. "The last I heard, the first hour will not be in real-time, but then something big will happen and real time will kick in." The movie is expected after the conclusion of the already-comissioned sixth season, expected to premier in January 2007.
• For the fourth season, Fox is giving its affiliates two public service announcements that portray Muslims in a positive light, due to criticisms raised by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/news/bal-artslife-240114,1,6630820.story?coll=bal-entertainment-headlines&ctrack=1&cset=true
• 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 9th. 15 second and 30 second versions of episode 1 (12:00.00 - 12:00.30) can be downloaded from the Calorie Mate x 24 website.
• 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.
• Provisions have had to be made in the script for the real life injuries of cast members, due to the real-time format. 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 featured Jack breaking Tony's ankle during an escape from CTU.
• Each series of the show has a chief director, who directs at least 10 episodes of the series, and who also acts as a advisor to the other directors on the show who may be less familiar with the show's style. In series one it was British born director Stephen Hopkins who was widely credited for helping to develop the show's unique style as it was he who first suggested the use of split screen. After series one Hopkins was fired in favour of Canadian director Jon Cassar who has acted in this role for Series 2,3 & 4 and is expected to fulfill the same role for Series 5.
• In an interview on The Charlie Rose Show dated 5/20/2005, 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.

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.

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In an interview on The Charlie Rose Show dated 5/20/2005, 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 caller want to know about season five, it is rarely answered. When the show airs again in January, calls will be answered more often.

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