Intrigue at Its Own Pace

It’s well past bedtime as Agent Jack Bauer speeds towards the Anti Terrorist Unit in Los Angeles for a briefing on a plot to assassinate Sen. David Palmer. A National Intelligence Agency’s source in Kuala Lumpur says the hit on Palmer, a black presidential candidate, is scheduled for tomorrow. Palmer’s downfall could spark race riots across the country.

Across town, the candidate takes a telephone call from his source, tipping him that a story that could derail his campaign is about to break.

Hundreds of miles away, a commercial airplane roars toward a grid of lights so large it could only be Los Angeles. A gorgeous passenger gets comfortable in her seat and flirts with the man next to her.

In real time, the first few minutes in the longest fictional day in network television has begun. Fox’s “24� premieres on Nov. 6. with an original plot device that aims to give the network an edge against staged, unscripted shows on other networks and successful original programming on cable.

The fresh form of “24� tests the elasticity of the serial format. It will also, however, test viewers’ appetite for fictional terrorism plots at a time when they get a steady diet of the real stuff all day long. The crew was taping the fifth episode of “24� when the U.S. was attacked Sept. 11, and within days producers had edited the pilot to account for uncomfortable parallels. They deleted a scene in which a plane blows up, but “24� remains a show about good versus evil, with deadly consequences. Viewers know the assassination plot is right on schedule when the airplane passenger muffles a flight attendant, slips into the bathroom to switch ID cards, straps on a parachute and prepares her explosive device.

“We want to be as sensitive and respectful as we possibly can about what happened,� said Robert Cochran, one of the creators and executive producers. “I don’t think this means we can’t make shows about terrorism, but I think it does mean they have to be done intelligently and sensitively.�

The show is constructed so that each episode encompasses one hour of a harrowing day. Commercial breaks eat up several minutes of each episode, and at the beginning of each segment following a break, a digital clock flashes on-screen, making it clear that time in “24� waits for no advertisement. Sometimes the screen splits into two or three boxes, offering a simultaneous look at various story lines.

Although it may be risky to expect viewers to have the patience to stay in one Hollywood day for several real months, executives at 20th Century Fox Television, which is producing the show in association with Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Television, and at the Fox network have been patting themselves on the back for experimenting amid industry pressure to invest in safe projects.

“I think audiences will accept it and go for the ride,� said Dana Walden, president of 20th Century Fox Television. “The storytelling device of this elaborate plan that has now been launched with a ticking clock ... buys you a lot of freedom in terms of the type of things that can happen in those 24 hours.�

Executive producer Joel Surnow said he was trying to think of a truly original drama, when he came up with the idea of the “real time� form. He called Cochran, his friend and longtime collaborator.

“‘My head hurts just thinking about it,’ I told him,� Cochran said. “Don’t ever mention it again.�

But Surnow called back the next day, and the two men headed to the Woodland Hills’ International House of Pancakes to talk about the plot.

“We had to justify keeping the characters up for 24 hours. Full speed. On the edge,� Cochran said.

Surnow said once they had the main story, the auxiliary story lines seemed obvious and supportive. “We pitched it at the other IHOP--the International House of Pain--also known as the [Fox] network.�

David Nevins, executive vice president of programming at Fox, said the show’s concept stood on its own.

“They came in without all the usual trappings, without an agent or a production company,� Nevins said. “Truthfully, I hear hundreds of pitches a year, and not often do I actually buy it in the room. But these guys came in and gave us something that moves the form of television forward. It was a bold idea.... They said the entire season of television is going to take place over one day. And then they told the story and the concept of the story that could support it of a guy pulled in two directions.... Before they got up off the sofa, I said, ‘We’ll buy it.�’

Nevins was involved in the development of NBC’s hit drama “ER� during its early years. He said he knew immediately that “24� captured the sense of urgency that audiences respond to--and hopefully return for each week.

Fox executives gave the go-ahead for a pilot budget rumored to be about $4 million (which is considered on the high end for most pilots). That early confidence and money allowed them to hire Kiefer Sutherland to play Jack Bauer.

Sutherland, 34, is a veteran of 40 feature films, but he has never been in a television series. His most prominent role on the small screen was 15 years ago when he appeared in “Trapped in Silence,� a television movie starring Marsha Mason. “[In recent years] I started seeing stuff on the telly I really enjoyed,� said Sutherland, sitting in his trailer with the door propped open. “I have not seen a theatrically released comedy that’s more interesting than ‘Ally McBeal.’ ... TV, suddenly, for me, became a very viable option.�

As Bauer, Sutherland inhabits America’s latest version of the hero agent man who cannot afford to trust anyone. At home, Bauer and his wife are getting comfortable with their new dynamic after a brief separation. Bauer is summoned to the fictional agency headquarters moments after he and his wife (played by Leslie Hope) discover their 16-year-old daughter has sneaked out of her bedroom for the night.

Bauer is under the gun in every realm of his life, and director Stephen Hopkins had no plans to make “24� feel comfortable for viewers.

“We were trying to keep our characters and our audience off balance,� Surnow said. “Nothing is too pat. They’re fighting to keep this marriage going, and this one day could make or break the relationship.�

For Sutherland, playing a leading man who struggles between workplace stress and domestic turbulence was a realistic challenge. It is something most people can relate to, he said. But Sutherland still doesn’t know what happens in the last episode.

“In a movie, it’s an encapsulated piece and you can commit to moments; whereas, this is open-ended,� Sutherland said, pulling on one of many Camel Lights he would smoke that day. “Being vague is a positive.�

The shooting schedule enables Sutherland to split his time between Toronto and L.A., where his own teenage daughter began high school this fall. Along with the rest of the cast, he has committed to “24� for five years, but he’s quick to point out that he’ll become a producer if the show is picked up for a second season. He would “own� part of the successive seasons of the show that its creators say would follow another 24-hour period in Bauer’s life, several months later.

Sutherland is returning to L.A. after several years in Santa Ynez, where he tried his hand at farming for the second time. With 2,000 head of cattle, he did some acting work, and a lot of heavy labor that he said he enjoys.

“I had to make a choice whether I was a farmer or an actor,� he said. “And I wasn’t a good enough farmer to make a living at it, so I sold my horses and moved to Beverly.�

If Sutherland can revive his career through “24,� it won’t be as a teen heartthrob. He’s grown up now, and “24� is a show of adults, where half-shirts and peach fuzz are hard to find.

The show’s costumer, Jim Lapidus, sought to dress the characters in highly adaptable, credible outfits. “Some people are going to look like the morning after, but that’s OK. It is the morning after,� he said. “There’s a lot of action for Kiefer, so things that were too starched weren’t good.� On this day, Sutherland wore a dusky teal knit shirt with an open collar that fit him perfectly.

Playing opposite Sutherland as the targeted candidate is Dennis Haysbert, who has worked in movies for decades and on prime-time television with critically acclaimed work on CBS’s “Now & Again.�

“After ‘Now & Again,’ I wasn’t going to do another series unless it was special. I found that quality with ‘24,�’ Haysbert said. “This was definitely something I needed to do. The format is innovative and very exciting, and I thought if it’s executed well, we were going to have a good time.�

Unlike many roles he’s tried out for, Haysbert didn’t have to change the casting director’s mind. The role of Sen. David Palmer was created as a black man, someone whose presence on the American political landscape would raise the stakes for Bauer.

“Dennis brought both gravity and charisma, which we felt was important if we’re putting him forward as the first [fictional] African American presidential candidate,� said Nevins. Haysbert said the opportunity to play a man like Palmer seems to have significance and relevance to contemporary politics.

“We’re coming into an age where that is not unlikely at all. Look at [Secretary of State] Colin Powell. You find out the situation is as volatile now as ever,� Haysbert said. “Imagine an outside power trying to disrupt this country, and they would try to do that by trying to kill the first legitimate black presidential candidate who has a chance.�

Although the majority of portrayals of black men on prime-time television are usually criticized for being two-dimensional and stereotypical, Haysbert said he trusted the executives associated with “24,� including Imagine’s Howard, Grazer and Tony Krantz; along with Cochran and Surnow, to maintain a level of credibility.

But Palmer isn’t perfect. While the clock runs down, he is also dodging political bullets that appear to be linked to a scandal he’s trying to suppress.

That plot, along with several others, will crank up the pressure to the final episode. It’s an episode that remains a mystery to everyone but the creators.

“We didn’t even use focus groups,� Cochran said.

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“24� premieres Nov. 6, at 9 p.m. on Fox. The network has not yet rated this episode.