24/Trivia


 * Actor Allusion: A fake passport for Nina Myers in Season 3 is under the name "Sarah Berkeley"- Sarah Clarke's married name (she married fellow cast member Xander Berkeley, who played George Mason).
 * A subtle one is when Jack bites into a terrorist's neck, using his teeth. Gee, when was the last time he could do something like that?
 * Author Appeal: Creator Joel Surnow is a major contributor to conservative causes and political candidates, and the show definitely represents a conservative, ends-justify-the-means worldview. Having said that, it depicts liberals, from President David Palmer (the only character explicitly identified as a Democrat) to Senator Blaine Mayer, as reasonable and sympathetic characters who (usually) don't stray into Strawman Political or Author Tract territory.
 * Oil barons are trying to orchestrate a war in the Middle East in season 2. Now I can't put my finger on it, but regardless of your views you might see a resemblance to Iraq here...
 * Season 5 could basically be named "Jack Bauer vs. Richard Nixon."
 * The political spectrum on the show isn't really that conservative, especially recently. It shows Islamic characters as very sympathetic at times, often showing them going to lengths to kill the terrorist bastards. Plus, Berman and Braga work on this show, and they're VERY liberal.
 * The tactics are conservative leaning (Jack's Ends Justifies the Means attitude) while the plots tend to be straight out of left-wing conspiracy theories.
 * Also the other creator, Robert Cochran, is a registered Democrat.
 * What's more, Keifer Sutherland (who's also an executive producer) is the grandson of Tommy Douglas, former head of Canada's New Democratic Party and the man who crafted Canada's single-payer Universal Healthcare system, and is an NDP advocate within Canada.
 * Also, the number of former Star Trek (particularly Enterprise) actors who appeared on the show dramatically increased since Brannon Braga and Manny Coto joined on as executive producers. Peter Weller in particular has appeared in three Coto-produced shows (Odyssey Five, Enterprise, and now 24).
 * There are some conservatives who consider the character of Jack Bauer to be a farce, rather than a tribute. He's precisely what they don't want to be perceived as.
 * Yet in Season 4, torture was depicted as an effective way to demonstrate a suspect's culpability or innocence. And the way they handled the issue of Heller's son being gay.
 * There's also the issue of how the show deals with women and sex in general. Women who are physically capable tend to be evil, the only bisexual character on the show is an evil woman, "good" women generally end up killed off to provide motivation for male characters' revenge and sex is a precursor to death. Of course there are exceptions, and all of the above may well be unintentional, but the implications are still somewhat unsettling.
 * You seem to be forgetting the bisexual women kills a bisexual man (her partner in crime) in order to escape capture in Day 4. he gets down and dirty with her as well as Secretary of Defence's gay son.
 * More benignly (except maybe to some sports fans), Tony Almeida is frequently seen drinking out of a Chicago Cubs mug because the actor, Carlos Bernard, is a huge fan of the team.
 * Development Gag: The wedding side story in season 2 was a nod to the original concept that 24 be a comedy about preparing for a wedding.
 * Development Hell: A feature film adaptation of the series has been in the works for years.
 * Hey, It's That Guy! (Quite a few):
 * Sylar used to work for CTU, one of his bosses was Father Intintola.
 * Jack chased after Imhotep (Television Without Pity immediately dubbed him Im-Ho-Terror), a few seasons after that, Doctor Bashir showed up as a reformed terrorist, and Kumar showed up as an unreformed one.
 * Jack's dad is Farmer Hoggett/Zephram Cochrane.)
 * Season 7 piles on the Star Trek by having Worf's brother, Dr. Phlox, Trip Tucker and the President of the Federation show up within 12 hours. Not to mention former franchise heads Brannon Braga and Manny Coto on the production team.
 * For Season 8, CTU has gone pilot crazy and employed Christopher Blair and Kara Thrace. And then to keep them on their toes, Commander Paul Gerald and Leoben Conoy are thrown into the mix as bad guys. Along with Mr Sark.
 * Wayne Palmer's girlfriend is Zoe.
 * And for season 6(?) Lord Denethor was working in the Russian government as an inside man for the terrorists, showing that he can be a bastard even without Sauron's corruption. Or maybe it was Walternate all along.
 * Scar is an assassin who gets run over by a frickin' BULLDOZER driven by Jack in season 7.
 * Desmond is a German agent? Desmond? Coulda fooled me.
 * At least Horace tried to sound Russian.
 * That's not all. Guess who is his girlfriend?! Kate Beckett! I think Castle won't write a book about it....
 * Jin was also a CTU agent for a couple seasons there.
 * Meanwhile Dr. Romano is Jack's brother, Samwise Gamgee sacrificed himself for CTU and John Cage got hurt tripping over Erin Strauss' ineptitude.
 * Jonas Blaine was the President. Ensign Ro Laren was his aide and Kasidy Yates was his wife.
 * And Robin Wood was his brother.
 * Dr. Kutner the professional defibrillist is a terrorist?.
 * India's Regis Philbin went into politics, and got elected President of the Islamic Republic of Kamistan.
 * Daniel Jackson started sleeping with a White House aide to steal info for the Russians? Also, one of Ba'al's clones turns up as a sniper in Season 8. Jack does SG-1 a solid and caps him.
 * Obviously Dennis Hopper as Drazen in season one. And who is his son? Why, none but Castiel.
 * And Lou Diamond Phillips is Drazen's jailer. Young Guns reunion!
 * Dr. Carson Beckett does evil deeds for Tony Almeida.
 * Give First Gentleman Henry Taylor what he wants, and he'll go away.
 * In Season 8, Herc plays a cop who engages in police brutality. Big surprise.
 * Oh, and Jigsaw is a corrupt oil baron. I want to play a game! Indeed.
 * And Dessler's brother is Art from part 4.
 * After Renee's crack-up, she's interrogated by an official from the Justice Department named... Alyx Vance??
 * I'm surprised no one's mentioned that Bubba Blue's the head of CTU New York!
 * And Canadians will notice Raj Binder is a terrorist.
 * To non-Canadians, he's Kumar's brother. See above.
 * So what does Robo Cop do in his spare time? Oh, become Jack's mentor and tries to kill him multiple times (season 5).
 * Four episodes left in the series, and the audience is still asking if Milton is still stuck in the wall.
 * In the later episodes of Season 8, Jack has to enlist the help of Mr. Blonde.
 * Colonel Young is Michelle Dessler's brother. (Funnily enough, Reiko Aylesworth turns up in SGU in return.)
 * When D. L. Hawkins is forced to play Russian Roulette with Jack, he chooses not to phase the bullet through his head.
 * Thomas Cromwell used to be married to Audrey Raines and Blair Waldorf dated teenaged terrorist Behrooze.
 * Quintus works for McLennen-Forster.
 * Allen Strange is Dubaku's son.
 * Daisy is getting married in day 2. And she's a Patty Hearst wanna-be.
 * John Cage is Pres. Palmer's (the other one) chief of staff.
 * Drama is a mountain man who saves Kim from those damn mountain lions.
 * Cindino is The Mole from season 3.
 * Hey, It's That Voice! The Japanese dub uses LOTS of voice actors from Naruto for some odd reason:
 * Jack Bauer is Yamato
 * Kimberley Bauer is Yugito Nii
 * Teri Bauer is Misa Hayase from Super Dimension Fortress Macross
 * Phillip Bauer is Danzou Shimura
 * Josh Bauer is Rock Lee
 * Chase Edmunds is Kabuto Yakushi
 * George Mason is Hiashi Hyuga
 * Rick Allen is Sasuke Uchiha
 * Derek Huxley is Sai
 * Jane Sanders is Sakura Haruno
 * Audrey Raines is Konan
 * Hector Salazar is Killer Bee
 * Max is Kakashi Hatake
 * Lucia Garcia (a minor character) is Naruto Uzumaki
 * Melanie is Shizune
 * Krugman is Madara Uchiha
 * Ike Dubaku and Benjamin Juma are Hidan and Kakuzu respectively. (It seems that both of them were reincarnated from being Akatsuki ninjas to African warlords.)
 * Frank Tramell is Akahoshi
 * Carl Benton and Lonnie Mcrae are Shikaku Nara
 * Eddie Grant is Baki
 * Gary Matheson is Raiga Kurosuke
 * Megan Matheson is Moegi
 * In fact, it's easy to say why in Japan nobody hasn't even bothered to consider to call 24 Naruto IN AMERICA, WITH SECRET AGENTS INSTEAD OF NINJAS!
 * In fact, it's easy to say why in Japan nobody hasn't even bothered to consider to call 24 Naruto IN AMERICA, WITH SECRET AGENTS INSTEAD OF NINJAS!


 * Real Life Relative: The actors who played George Mason and Nina Myers married between the first and second season, making the interrogation between them in the latter rather interesting to watch.
 * Rumor has it that they toyed with the idea of Donald Sutherland as Jack's father.


 * Shout-Out: As mentioned before, we've got Star Trek alumni on the production staff now. In season 7, two suggestions to replace departing members of Taylor's administration were Rick Berman and Bob Justman, who were also longtime Trek staff.
 * In an episode of Season 1, Milo gives his computer password as "foothill94022", a reference to a community college where Michael Loceff, the episode's writer, teaches online classes.
 * Season 8 has an assassin named Davros. Of course, he's not nearly as effective as his namesake- but then, he fucked with Jack Bauer.
 * Jack breaking out a pair of pliers and a blowtorch to use on seemed to be a reference to Pulp Fiction.
 * In a reverse shout-out, the Department of Homeland Security launched a surveillance technology development program aimed at protecting airliners from terrorist missiles. It's called "Project CHLOE", because the then-Director of DHS is a fan of 24.


 * What Could Have Been: you know who was cast as season 6's Darren McCarthy for a short time, before withdrawing for scheduling reasons? Eddie Izzard. Eddie Izzard.
 * The series was originally conceived as a comedy about preparing for a wedding.
 * The actor who played Kevin Carroll (the false Alan York in the first season), Richard Burgi, was originally cast in the role of Jack Bauer. He would have had that role if they hadn't been able to get Kiefer. Once Sutherland was brought on board, Burgi accepted the role of Carroll.
 * The producers toyed with the idea of casting Donald Sutherland as Jack Bauer's father, Phillip.
 * At one point, Joel Surnow wanted to acquire the rights to The Da Vinci Code in hopes of working it into a plotline for the show's third season, but Dan Brown rejected him. How he would have worked Jack Bauer into a story about Leonardo Da Vinci, Pagan cults and Jesus' family is anyone's guess.