Roger Catlin | TV Eye

'24' is Strike Casualty

This is starting to hurt: Fox announced "24" will be delayed from its previously announced start date of Jan. 13 because of the writers' strike.

The network said the postponement to an unannounced date in the future is "to ensure that 'Day 7' can air uninterrupted in its entirety."

It's already been a tricky season for "24" -- a plotline involving Africa was scrapped, the wildfires affected shooting last month, and star Keifer Sutherland was sentenced to 48 days for his second driving under the influence arrest. Seven episodes are said to have been completed, but the network, unsure about the length of the writers' strike that began Monday, didn't want to commit to its Jan.13 and 14 start date if it couldn't guarantee 24 consecutive episodes.

The announcement came on a day that "Lost" executives have said that either there would be a short season when it starts in February, or that it would hold off until 2009 for the next season, depending on the length of the strike.

Because it has one surefire hit that will defy the strike, Fox also announced that "American Idol" will have a four hour, two night premiere Tuesday Jan. 15 and Wednesday Jan. 16.

Other midseason dates announced are: "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" Jan. 13 (and 14), the game show "The Moment of Truth" (Previously known as "Nothing But the Truth") starts Jan. 23.

The once-postponed drama "New Amsterdam" makes its bow Feb. 22; the six-week Farrelly Brothers comedy "Unhitched" is to begin March 2.

The reality show "When Women Ruled the World" is set for a March 3 start.

The new comedy from Amy Sherman Palladino, "The Return of Jezebel James" with Parker Posey and Lauren Ambrose is set for a March 7 debut.

A fourth season of "Hell's Kitchen" will start April 1; the drama "Canterbury's Law" begins April 11.

And there will be all manner of mixing in current Fox shows, including a plan to rerun it's biggest scripted hit, "House," three different nights of the week: with "Bones" on Fridays starting Jan. 4, new episodes will run on Tuesdays following "Idol" starting Jan. 22; reruns will also show Mondays starting March 10. And there will be a Sunday "House" as well -- following the Super Bowl on Fox Feb. 3.

All dates are subject to change, Fox says, pending resolution of the strike.

The '24' Preview

OK: Tony Almeida is not only alive when the seventh season of "24" starts in January, he's the bad guy.

What's more, he's got short hair and a bad mustache.

According to a detailed preview trailer of the new season that premiered today, the action starts outside of California for the first time in a Washington Congressional hearing where the dad from "That 70s Show" is grilling a defiant Jack.

He's being asked if he tortured the guy who blew up a bus last season.

“They can attack him,” the titles say. “They can judge him.  They can never break him.”

Well, the dude did survive a stay in a Chinese jail for more than a year. A Congressional hearing, even with questions very similar to those going to Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey this week, isn't going to break him.

Indeed, he gets all Oliver North on them.

"Don’t expect me to regret the decisions that I have made," he tells them. "Because sir, the truth is, I don’t."

Indeed, by the end of the clip, an FBI agent with him in the field is encouraging him to torture if need be. "Do whatever it takes," she tells him. "Torture him if necessary."

(Clearly this is an issue not going away any sooner for "24" than it will for Mukasey or America).

Anyway, with CTU dismantled, the FBI wants Bauer’s help because of a major security threat the nation’s CIP Firewall, which protects "every major infrastruction system."

"If it were breached, telecommuncations, transportation, powergrids – they would all be vulnerable," an agent tells Bauer. Why? Because he apparently knows the man behind it: Tony Almeida.

"That’s not possible," Bauer mumbles (much as "24" fans have in recent weeks, after learning that the guy who obviously died two seasons ago is back). "Tony Almeida is dead."

Once the firewall is breached, Almeida hacks into air traffic control –- a system that most the time  needs all the people aboard it can. In his case, though, he's making commercial airliners run into one another.

The White House is pictured, but doesn’t appear to be an immediate target.

Still, for a show that made its debut two months after 9/11, this may be touchy subject matter even a half dozen years later.

Neverthelessl, there seems to be a nice palette of cool blues and grays lending an East Coast big city feel to the show that’s been so soaked in California the first six seasons – and they didn’t even travel to Washington D.C. to do location shots until this week.

In a season when none of the new shows turned out as good as the shows we're still waiting to return in winter ("Lost" as well as "24"), it certainly serves to whet the appetite (and we'll trust they didn't give us too many spoilers in the thing).

A much shorter version of the trailer, considerably recut, made its TV premiere during the World Series' game 2 tonight on Fox.

Preview of '24' Preview

The first preview for the forthcoming season of "24" gets a big unveiling next Thursday at 1 p.m.

It will run on a huge billboard at Times Square. It will stream at a website, www.24trailer.com, which is now consumed with a giant digital countdown clock (a countdown clock to a preview for a series that is itself runs strictly on similar digital clock). And then that night, it will show during its biggest showcase, during Game 2 of the World Series game on Fox.

Lots of details of the series have already been announced. It will be set in Washington for the first time, at a time when CTU is dismantled, Jack Bauer is on trial and, most improbably, Tony Almeida returns. The famele president is dealing with a national security crisis, there are a scad of FBI agents on hand, and somehow there is room, too, for Chloe O'Brian and Bill Buchanan.

The series returns for its seventh season with a two night blitz, with two hours on Sunday, Jan. 13 and another hour in its regular slot Mondays, where it will follow the new action series "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," starting Jan. 14.

New '24': CTU's Gone, Bauer's on Trial, Tony's Back

When the seventh season of "24" returns on Jan. 13, 2008, CTU will be dismantled and Jack Bauer will be in trial in Washington DC, where the show will now be set instead of the subterranean Los Angeles headquarters of the former Counter Terrorist Unit where the first six seasons have been set, Fox announced Wednesday.

Even more shocking perhaps is the return of Tony Almeida, certainly thought dead at the hands of a terrorist conspirator Christopher Henderson in the CTU infirmary after his reappearance two seasons back.

"Tony's uncertain fate near the end of Day 5 left the door open for his return," executive producer Howard Gordon said in a press release. "And since there was no silent clock at the conclusion of his last appearance -- the '24' tribute to a major character's demise -- we always kept this as a possibility."

Good news, no doubt, for the actor Carlos Bernard, who played Tony, a major '24' character in its first four seasons, whose character has been in more episodes than any other than Bauer.

Kiefer Sutherland's Bauer will be on trial for "his actions in the pursuit of justice." Mary Lynn Rajskub and James Morrison will both be back to play Chloe O'Brian and Bill Buchanan (perhaps as character witnesses for Jack).

But otherwise the cast till be filled with newcomers, among them the previously announced Cherry Jones as President Allison Taylor, Janeane Garofalo as FBI agent Janis Gold, Colm Feore as First Gentleman Henry Taylor and Bob Gunton as White House Chief of Staff Ethan Kanin.

The seventh season will begin with a two-night two hour blitz on Sunday, Jan. 13 and Monday, Jan. 14, instead of the four hour extravaganzas that have started the last two seasons, Fox says. That will allow the show to continue to air all original episodes back to back on Mondays into June.

A Female President for '24'

A female president will reign in the seventh season of ''24,'' which will retain its one-day, hour-by-hour format when it returns in January.

Cherry Jones, Tony-winner for ''The Heiress,'' who has appeared in a number of films including ''Doubt,'' will portray President Allison Taylor when the seventh season starts, Fox announced Sunday.

Little other story details were released, other than each episode will cover an hour of real time, with action over the season taking place over one day, However, the season will ''combine its unique and trend-setting format with compelling new elements,'' a press release said.

Fox entertainment chairman Peter Liguouri refused to characterize the sixth season as disappointing despite the show's failure to get an Emmy nomination for best drama after winning the category last year.

Complaints about the series ''happens at the end of every season,'' he said. The good thing is that ''its creators pick apart the weaknesses'' every season as well.

But he said ''last year's performance doesn’t require wholesale changes'' in the show.

One thing different about the new season, it was announced, was that the show will keep the environment much more in mind, aiming to save enough energy over the course of the season to result in a season finale that will be entirely carbon neutral.

They'll save energy by using biodiesel fuels to power generators and production vehicles, use power from renewable sources such as wind, water and solar; use of electric generators instead of diesel-fueled; using hybrid vehicles; shooting PSAs on environmental issues; posting information on the ''24'' webpage;  and “when appropriate, incorporating the issue of global warming and the importance of carbon emission reduction into storylines.''

I can hear Jack Bauer on his cell phone now: ''Madame President, if the bomb goes off, global warming will be off the chart; carbon emission will be out of control!''

President Palmer Regrets

Good to see President Wayne Palmer in good health at the CBS party after suffering such a bad health day on ''24'' last season.

Actually, it wasn't Palmer, but actor DB Woodside, who portrayed the brother of President David Palmer, who himself rose to the Oval Office for last season's contentious day that saw him collapsing into a coma more than once.

Woodside is part of the cast of ''Viva Laughlin,'' the upcoming adaptation of the British drama with music, ''Viva Blackpool.''

But he's not necessarily through with Palmer's character, conforming the president isn't, despite his many ailments that day, quite dead.

''Anybody who watches '24' knows that the only way you don’t reappear on the show is if your dead,'' Woodside says. And Wayne Palmer isn't quite dead; only back in a coma.

Should he wake up, Woodside hopes he's in better shape than he was most of the season, which he calls ''disappointing for me.''

The way he was written, he says ''seemed like it was playing a completely different way,'' he says. ''I felt somewhat lost this season.''

Though he felt better about how the character was written at the end of the season, he was perplexed that in the first portion of the season, his Wayne Palmer was ''indecisive, nervous and relied too much on his aides,'' he says. ''This was the guy who was advising David Palmer in previous seasons.''

''Viva Laughlin,'' is, on the other hand, ''completely different. It's just fun working with Hugh Jackman, he's just amazing. If all movie stars are as nice and generous as Hugh Jackman, I want to do more movies.''

Woodside, a Yale Drama grad, says he’ll sing, like the other characters in the series, but he has an idea for something different. ''I was hoping they would venture into hip hop with my character. A lot of hip hop is getting negative, but there’s an amazing amount of hip hop that is positive and intelligent and would be great to highlight.''

"Viva Laughlin" starts on CBS Oct. 18.

The ’24’ Finale: A Whimper

At the end of a long day that began with him being handed over from the Chinese after 18 months in custody, Jack Bauer paused.

He looked out at the ocean and wondered his next move. In the last hour, he’d saved the day, of course, saw his dad get blown up and broke into former Defense Secretary Heller’s house to have some final words with Audrey: It’d be best for both if they’d part – precisely what William Devane’s secretary was trying to tell him.

Unlike the last couple of years, there was no last minute twist to hint at the direction things would take the next season, or any detail about the future.

So it was just about as much as a letdown as the "24" season in general.

Stuck

It’s not a good sign that in the second to last week of “24,” a show devised to raise the pulse, you can actually doze off during its deliberations.

Maybe it was the exposure early in the season of the right wing politics of the writers, mixed with the unlikely latest scenario – the Ruskies still want to kill us! – that makes the show less and less relevant to a time which it was supposed to be so well suited.

More likely, the idea that they’d make this thing up as they went along that worked so well the last couple of seasons sort of fell apart this year, when the central problem of the suitcase nuclear bombs was suddenly resolved. Since then, it’s been a real hodge podge, with Audrey Raines appearing and disappearing, the Chinese playing another role and the revival of an early season conflict involving Jack Bauer’s sociopath father Philip and Josh Bauer, Jack’s nephew whose dad he killed earlier in the day.

Gramps wants Josh to “continue his legacy” preferably in China and is used as a pawn to get this maddening nuclear device – first by China and now by the U.S.

The ruse to fool the Russians involving highly-placed sex object Lisa Miller didn’t work. (Never has there been a sexual story so dull on the show). Powers Boothe’s Vice President seems to be rudderless, the one time hard-charger has been undone by his affection for Miller.

But that kind of muddle is how it’s all going to end, unfortunately. The timetable has been set by the Russians: You have two hours to get this device to us. And there’s two hours left in the show.

It’s too late by now to try anything to revive the season. When a division overseer enters CTU to grill Nadia about the security breach that allowed the Chinese enter the hour before (it’s 3 a.m.; these guys work quick), it’s too late to even be interesting.

Bill Buchanan returns, we see, for next week’s finale. There’s also a scene in the promos of Chloe on the ground (they’d better not kill her off, especially after a season where they scarcely used her). World War III seems on the brink.

The announcer, at least, is breathless: “One last chance, one terrifying climax.”

Hope it’s not one big yawn.

Milo Murdered

It wasn’t like seeing Edgar Stiles die of poison gas last season, but the shooting point blank of Milo Pressman in Monday’s episode was pretty surprising.

Thus ends the possibility that Eric Balfour’s character, returning this season for the first time since the series started in 2001, will have anything big to do in the series. This season, he’s made out briefly with Nadia Yassir only to see her unaccountably interested in Mike Doyle, who got close enough to her to nearly choke her a few hours ago, when she was detained for being an in-house mole because she was a Muslim.

Now she’s acting chief of CTU since Bill Buchanan was fired, and didn’t immediately identify herself as the leader when the Chinese demanded to know who was in charge. Milo stood instead and got the bullet.

The whole Chinese invasion of CTU was more disturbing than most of the stuff on the show has been in a while. The thing about a bomb being the main threat all season is that it’s generally pretty abstract; you don’t get the shock of invading, interpersonal combat as happened this week.

The reason for the invasion, ordered by Cheng, was to nab Josh Bauer – Jack’s nephew whom we haven’t seen for half the season now. He and his mother were being debriefed and sort of disappeared until this week, when Rena Sofir’s Marilyn Bauer suddenly became a romantic possibility for Jack in the wake of Audrey Raines disappearing altogether (her father last week forbade Jack to see her any longer; this week, we learn he’ll be filing a restraining order to that effect (apparently, no courtrooms are open at 2 a.m.?).

What do the Chinese want young Josh Bauer for? To hand over to his granddad – the ever-evil Philip Bauer, played by James Cromwell, who still hasn’t been seen since noon – some 14 episodes ago. In return, he repairs  the circuit board they got from Jack. Philip wants to take Jack to lovely China, especially before a cataclysmic nuclear war between Russian and the U.S. begins. That's threatened, too, for next week.

Recalibrating '24'

It’s been a trying year for network TV’s best drama.

Writing the season as it goes along, instead of mapping it out first, worked the last couple of seasons, when the show reached its critical and commercial peak.

But using that method this year got the show in a cul-de-sac.

A second President Palmer lacked the command of the original, especially when bad things began to happen to him. A bomb went off before one presidential address, landing him in a coma. He forced himself out of bed later in the day, only to conk out at a second presidential address (can we just rule out having presidential addresses for the time being? Meanwhile, another malevolent white vice president tried to yank the power from the black president and Jack went after all manner of the usual suspects – from the Middle East, Russian and China. Even the office politics at CTU were something of a rerun.

Even the producers admit lapses.

“You try to keep things interesting, find new ways to tell the story, and unfortunately we wound up repeating ourselves somewhat,” co-executive producer David Fury told TV Week magazine.

"There are relationships that Jack had that we can't exploit anymore, and that's certainly a problem," he added. "We don't have those people to pull from anymore for stories, and it becomes harder for the audience to latch on to new characters. It takes time for those characters to garner the same affection that the older characters did."

"I don't dispute it's been a challenging season to write for us,” executive producer Howard Gordon told the L.A. Times. “But it's reinvigorated our determination to reinvent the show. This year could be seen to be the last iteration of it in its current state."

What’s that a change? Jack Bauer off the clock? Away from L.A.? Out of that darkened batcave of the CTU headquarters?

“We’d love to set the show elsewhere and see Jack do something completely new,” Gordon told TV Guide.

“I’d like to see a huge departure,” star and executive producer Kiefer Sutherland told TV Guide told the magazine.

To do that, there’s a lot that has to happen in the final three episodes this season – not only does it have to tie together a shaky season (with a return of James Cromwell as Jack’s dad), it has to set the stage for next year’s departure.

“There’s a huge transition that’s happening between this season and next year,” Sutherland promises. “And a lot of what’s happening is about putting old story lines to rest so that new ones can emerge.”