24 boss recalls how Jack Bauer became "America's hero" in wake of 9/11

Deadline

Fox's 24 premiered on Nov. 6, 2001, less than two months after the Sept. 11 attacks. The show quickly became defined by 9/11. “Suddenly we were getting to write about this character who had become America’s hero, who wasn’t just fighting the terrorists but was really fighting part of, I think, everybody’s rage and confusion of how much our institutions had let us down, and how much the law enforcement and intelligence apparatus had missed this attack,” said executive producer Howard Gordon in an interview with Deadline. “Jack, cut from the old-school cloth of the individual, rugged American hero who bucks authority and does whatever he needs to do to get the job done and doesn’t throw up excuses, was part of the line of Clint Eastwood and Sylvester Stallone, Charles Bronson. It wasn’t a character we’d never seen before but it was a character we hadn’t seen quite that robustly expressed on television. I think we, the writers, really got to unconsciously express our anger at the terrorists and at the bureaucracy. I think we wrote him the way people watched him, and with that kind of, I wish this guy existed, I wish I knew somebody like that who just says it like it is and is not afraid of the consequences and to just cut through the bullsh*t. I think in that way it was cathartic, and I think it was cathartic for the audience as well.” But Jack Bauer’s heroics had a dark side as 24 also reflected the fraught issues of torture and Islamophobia in the wake of 9/11, starting with Season 2. “It got more complicated once our bad guys were (tied to) Islamic terrorism,” Gordon said. “I think in a way there was a honeymoon — at least in our minds and I think even in the audience’s mind — that there were these bad guys who had attacked our country and taken down the Twin Towers, and it was very much echoing the collective rage we all felt. I think we got to enjoy for a moment unconsciously, not recognizing that there were consequences to that decision, and I think those consequences became more evident when Jack would torture a suspect or someone he had gotten for information that became famously such a cultural touchstone that (U.S. Supreme Court) Justice (Antonin) Scalia invoked it in a law school thing, who’s going to prosecute Jack Bauer for torture.”

ALSO:

• Fox should dump the idea of rebooting 24: "That’s enough now," Stuart Heritage said of the recent news that Fox was still mulling a 24 revival. "I hate to say it, but 24 is spent. Instead of digging it up and forcing it back to life, let’s just remember the good times instead. Jack Bauer chopping a man’s head off. Jack Bauer chopping his daughter’s boyfriend’s hand off. Jack Bauer murdering his boss without so much as a moment of introspection. Truly, these were the good times. Please, Fox, don’t sully perfection."