A simple, if rather annoying, phone call has turned into what looks like the best new show of the season— Fox's exciting, innovative "24."
"About a year ago, I was sitting in my house minding my own business. The phone rang," said executive producer Robert Cochran. "(Executive producer) Joel (Surnow) is on the other end and and he said, 'I got a great idea for a show. The whole season takes place in 24 hours — each episode is one hour of real time.'
"And I said, 'That's a great idea. It's impossible. It makes my head hurt to think about it. Don't ever talk to me about that again.' And, of course, being Joel, the next day he called me up and said, 'I got a great idea for a show.' "
Shortly thereafter, the two got together and started hashing out ideas for what has become "24" — a thriller that really is thrilling, if the first hour (Tuesday night at 8 on Ch. 13) is any indication.
"We . . . started thinking — what kind of stories can you tell that take that framework . . . and make it work?" Cochran said. "And we came up with, I think, stories that do that — an assassination and a personal crisis of a disappearing child. Now the adrenaline is pumping for 24 hours. Nobody is going to sleep. Nobody is going to relax. Nobody is going to take it easy until these crises are resolved."
And, if subsequent episodes live up to the first one, it will keep viewers on the edge of their seats.
At the center of the action is CIA counter-terrorist chef Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), who has just moved back home after reconciling with his wife, Teri (Leslie Hope). Their teenage daughter, Kimberly (Elisha Cuthbert), has been giving her mother a hard time about the marital discord, but that's nothing compared to what happens when she sneaks out of the house late at night. She and a friend go off with two young men they don't know, and Teri and the other girl's father end up searching for them.
Jack would like to help, but he's tied up with other matters — an assassination plot against Sen. David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert), the first African-American candidate with a legitimate shot at the White House. The candidate, however, seems to be hiding a secret of his own.
Oh, and Jack learns that a rogue element within the CIA itself may be in on the assassination plot.
The show has been slightly edited in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In the original pilot, a terrorist blows up a commercial airliner (in a scenario that bore no resemblance to reality); that's been changed so that viewers don't see the explosion, although it's quite clear what happened.
(And Fox's ads had spoiled the surprise by including that explosion — ads that the network pulled after Sept. 11.)
The show cleverly and judiciously uses a couple of gimmicks to heighten the sense of urgency — split screens to show simultaneous events on different fronts; a clock graphic to show the minutes (even seconds) ticking off.
All of it ads up to a very entertaining hour that will suck you in from the start and could keep you interested through all 24 episodes.
Assuming, of course, Fox sees fit to order and air all 24 episodes. The network has only ordered 13 at this point.
This is the sort of show that's going to require some commitment on the viewers' part. It doesn't look like it will be easy to miss an episode.
And Fox is going to try to help on that front. Not only will the network repeat the pilot episode on Friday at 8 p.m. (Ch. 13), but Fox-owned cable network FX will air each episode of "24" twice a week, just days after it airs on the broadcast network. FX will telecast "24" on Sundays at midnight and Mondays at 11 p.m.
Whatever Fox can do to bring viewers to "24" is worth the effort. And viewers — many of whom complain that there's nothing good on TV — should make an effort to see "24."
E-MAIL: pierce@desnews.com