24 Season 7 1724 Creators/Executive Producers Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran reveal their first conversations about 24’s development.

Joel: I was in the shower one morning and for some reason it just hit me, 24 hours in one day, 22 episodes in a standard TV season – why not add two more episodes and do a whole season about a single day? I knew if there was anyone who would love this idea, it was Bob.

Bob: I hated it. A whole season in real time, no flashbacks or time cuts, each episode starting when the last one ended? Impossible. But Joel persisted. He pointed out that it would be a chance to do something really ground-breaking if we could pull it off. So we started kicking around ideas.

Joel: What story could keep characters going for 24 hours straight? It had to be adrenaline-charged, tension-filled, with a ticking clock. The world of counter-terrorism seemed right, and we also needed personal stories compelling enough so that the characters couldn’t put them aside, even for 24 hours.

Bob: That reasoning led to the idea for the first season – the hero, Jack Bauer, has to stop an assassination attempt on the same night that his daughter runs away from home. That balance – saving the world on the one hand, an agonizing personal crisis on the other, along with Kiefer’s fantastic portrayal of Jack Bauer – has defined the series ever since.

Joel: The first season was tough. We were in uncharted waters – no one had ever done a real-time series before. When it was over, we considered changing the format and having each episode take place in 24 hours. We even wrote a sample episode based on that premise. But we quickly realized it wasn’t the show.

Bob: For better or worse, we had to stick with the original premise and make each season last day. That meant we had to keep coming up with major threats and crises, as well as all the smaller twists and surprises that made the first season work. I can’t say it’s gotten easier; in fact, the desperation you see on the screen reflects the desperation in the writers’ room.

This article has been provided courtesy of 24: The Official Magazine. For more information on the latest issue of the magazine go to www.titanmagazines.co.uk/24