David Fury

24 has started its new season with a bang, the kind that has a dramatic nuclear half-life but no half measures. Writer and Co-Executive Producer David Fury, whose credentials already cover most of the coolest shows of the last decade (Buffy, Angel, Lost etc) is one of the men holding the smoking gun and, frankly, seriously ruining real-estate values in Valencia, CA. In an exclusive debriefing with Fractal Matter’s John Mosby he tells all. (No severed heads, torture or truth serums were used in the production of these quotes). 24 Cast

David, it’s fair to say that if the secret of good drama is to start small and build, then you’ve totally ignored that and started the new season of 24 in a fairly BIG way this time around... can you tell us a little about the feeling in the writers’ room when someone suggested ‘Hey, what if the bomb DOESN’T get defused in time?’

Well, it didn’t get to the point where we said ‘Let’s NOT let the nuke go off...’ Once my fellow co-EP Manny Coto pitched the bomb going off at the end of episode four, it was clear to all of us that was the only way to go. After season two where we played twelve episodes with a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles that eventually goes off in Nevada, we couldn’t pace it out and do a replay of that. We had to goose the stakes and force our hand a bit and have the bomb go off early in the season, in the climax to episode four. Of course, the way to fix that is to have more than one bomb! Have the bomb go off and then what happens if there are multiple bombs out there...that would allow us the opportunity to tell more stories and keep the tension alive and not have people feeling we were teasing it out too long.

And it’s not only Valencia we have to mourn. Curtis Manning, the character favourite that the fans dubbed ‘Black Jack’ also shuffled off into that great anti-terrorist unit in the sky. It’s not very safe to be a friend of Jack’s, is it?

Well, we needed something that sets Jack off, something that breaks the camel’s back and we couldn’t think of anything that would be more devastating to Jack than losing someone else who close to him... as people are close to him tend to find out. It was Curtis’s time to be that catalyst. Personally I was sorry to see him go.

It’s interesting that the show seems to get huge praise and criticism from both the ‘Left’ and the ‘Right’ of the political spectrum. Is that, in itself, an indication that you must be walking the line pretty well?

Yes, that’s fascinating to me. Certainly the writers on the show share a wide spectrum of political views. But the show has no political agenda. It’s inherently patriotic and is all about Jack Bauer trying to do what he believes is right, trying to follow the President’s lead and serve him well. But how people interpret that and inject their own politics into it... it’s always interesting because it’s true... people on the ‘Far Left’ love this show and people on the ‘Far Right’ love this show. It’s really not meant to have any political agenda, it’s meant to cover all the bases. We try to make every character sympathetic - the right-wing characters are (hopefully) not too monstrous and the liberal and democratic characters are not the sole voice of reason on the show. It’s a kind of a Rorschach test for people to see where their ‘loyalties’ lie and what story-points generate discussion.

The first four episodes were leaked onto the Net a week before US audiences got to see the official premiere. It generated a lot of buzz, but do you think it ultimately worked as a positive or a negative factor? 24

We’re very happy with the ratings, but you never know how that leak could or did affect us. You don’t know if the ratings could even have been a little bit higher if people hadn’t seen the episodes prior to the premiere. It is unfortunate, it is a problem in this day and age. But with digital technology and the fact that the first four episodes were going out (immediately) in DVD... it allowed an opportunity for people to pirate them. It’s like spoilers...it’s unfortunate if you work very hard to keep these things as a surprise and when people look at them beforehand. I think it spoils what we are working towards.

Eagle-eyed viewers may have spotted a brief cameo by The Office’s Steve Merchant in the opening episode and Eddie Izzard was originally cast for a role this season, wasn’t he? It must be fun to have ‘names’ clamouring to be involved in some way.

Yes, Eddie did have to pull out. He was going to play the role now played by David Hunt. Steve Merchant and Ricky Gervais visited the set. We had some fun with them. I don’t think the original intent was ever to have them on camera... but we DO have some footage taken of them - there’s a great moment with Ricky working at CTU and playing a scene with Chloe which will probably wind up as a DVD extra. We also have Nancy Cartwright phoning in to CTU using her Bart Simpson voice. That was all a lot of fun.

I don’t think anyone guessed that the ‘Bluetooth baddie’ from last year would turn out to be ‘Brother Bauer Bluetooth’. Was that a long-term plan or a more recent interesting development?

We didn’t decide that he was Jack’s brother until we started talking about this season, but we decided early on in our construction of this season that he would be and that he would be married with a son and his wife (who would have a history with Jack). We get to bring Jack’s emotional life into the show and some people don’t realise how important that is. They think it’s all about Jack chasing terrorists, running around with a gun and shouting ’Lower your weapon!’. It’s part of the show, but what makes it great is his personal life. It’s what made Season One so good with Teri and Kim and later with Audrey.

Jack’s nephew certainly bears a resemblance to a certain cougar-chased family member from earlier seasons. Many on-line fans are wondering if the family ties are a bit closer than they first appear?

It’s totally unintentional, but yes, he does look like Elisha Cuthbert (Kim). It is just an interesting co-incidence. If people think it’s more than that... (laughs)

Fans will remember that you had a whole melodic mustard encounter in a certain ell-known Buffy episode, but a little bird tells me you’re involved with another upcoming musical - albeit on a smaller and less demonic scale...

Ha... yes. It’s a theatrical venture. My wife, Elin Hampton, who co-wrote the first Buffy script we did (‘Go Fish!). We were writing partners in sit-coms prior to that. She has returned to her first love... she was an actress and singer and now she’s written her first musical. It’s premiering in Hollywood at the Hudson Backstage Theatre on Santa Monica Boulevard in February. It’s called ‘Mommy, Mommy!: The Musical...Musical’. It’s about four women and motherhood - the women have nothing in common but they come together just by virtue of sharing the common denominator that they’ve all had a child. Elin and I were partners for years and we’ve always bounced things off each other, I’ve enjoyed helping her put the show together. I may even be doing some voice work in it too. It’ll be great. People can get more details on: www.mommymommythemusicalmusical.com an easy address to remember! Hopefully, we’ll see everyone down there.