Last Updated: 9:05 AM, May 16, 2010
Posted: 3:56 AM, May 16, 2010
When it wraps next week after eight on-the-brink of destruction seasons, "24" will be remembered as a post 9/11 pop cultural phenomenon that changed the scope of what a television series could do.
"It really changed so much about television and how it was shot," says Sarah Clarke, who played villainess Nina Myers. "It was so cinematic in its approach by showing all the different perspectives of one event. That’s become commonplace on TV now but it wasn’t then."
The show also offered a huge gallery of supporting players a rare opportunity to create indelible characters, who despite some spectacularly shocking deaths, live on in television history.
"It became the thing to do. It was an experience that was talked about among actors," says Executive Producer Howard Gordon. "We developed a reputation for being very actor-friendly and that drew people to us."
24 has featured a steady stream of Oscar (Jon Voight), Tony (Cherry Jones) and Emmy (Jean Smart) winners along with lesser known character actors (Shohreh Aghdashloo, Gregory Itzin) who, through some brilliant casting, broke through and became some of television’s most talked-about characters.
"We tried to never ‘stunt’ things too much," says Gordon of the show’s casting. "When we’ve had very recognizable actors it’s always a hazard. We like to keep the illusion that this thing is really happening and we’ve had some great fortune with actors who are every bit as good as the well-known ones."
Having Kiefer Sutherland as the series’ star didn’t hurt either. "Kiefer was certainly a magnet," says Gordon. "A lot of his friends, like C.Thomas Howell and Lou Diamond Phillips played guest parts. He’d done a movie with Dennis Hopper. And if people didn’t know him, they knew his father, so between the two of them they drew a lot of great people."
In fact, says Gordon, there’s a long list of actors – he declines to name names — who lobbied for parts on the show and never made it on to the series. When the casting director put out a "last call for anyone who is a fan of the show" looking for someone for the role of UN Secretary General in one of the series’ last episodes ER alum Eriq La Salle signed on. "It’s a small part, but he was happy to do it," Gordon says.
There is one actor Gordon regrets never having cast. "The biggest disappointment was not having Donald Sutherland on," he explains. "We did talk about him playing Jack’s father, but it just didn’t work out with the timing." The role ultimately went to James Cromwell.
That particular storyline, in season six, was Gordon’s least favorite of the entire series. "We introduced Jack’s father way too quickly and clumsily," he says. "That season was like the nuisance child that never quite found himself."
He gives his highest marks to season one ("Where we began to figure out how it can be done"), season five ("the most cohesive and exciting") and the final season because "the show got progressively harder to do, so if you add the degree of difficulty, I really like this year").
Gordon acknowledges in its later years the show that was born during the Bush administration and came of age during the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo scandals faced its challenges navigating a changing political climate.
"The world is not same as it was when we started," he says. "We had a tricky conundrum. How do you become the poster child for some for the war on terror and then bear the responsibility for the blowback? I think we really handled it well."
It seems only fitting then, that as the series prepares to sign-off Jack Bauer managed to figure into the latest real-life foiled terrorist plot against the United States. During a press conference about the dramatic capture of the alleged Times Square attempted bomber, New York City police commissioner Ray Kelly gave Jack a shout out,. saying what television’s super agent can do in 24 hours, U.S. law enforcement accomplished in 53.
"That was definitely ironic because everything that happened in the world was fodder for us," says Gordon.
Gordon, who is currently working on a pilot about a female CIA agent based on an Israeli show, won’t divulge any specifics about what the finale except to say, "We tried pretty much every ending, from the spectrum of the truly tragic — seeing Jack’s last moments — to Jack having his happily ever after but the most authentic one seemed somewhere in between."
So while Jack won’t be walking off into the sunset, at least he makes it out alive. He has to since a 20th Century Fox movie is in the works but Gordon says the film "will be its own thing," adding, "The show is really over. I don’t think [the finale] overreaches too much. I think it’s pitch perfect. I hope people are satisfied with the ending, but I hope they miss the show."
Source: NYPost.com
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