| Episode |
Commentary by
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| "Day 2: 11:00am-12:00pm" |
Carlos Bernard, Sarah Wynter, Michelle Forbes
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Information gained:
- There were two detonations inside CTU - one on each side of the building. Five or six cameras were going at one time to ensure that they got the shot as there was only one chance to film it.
- All of the actors loved the idea of George Mason being infected and to show someone slowly decomposing and physically deteriorating before the audiences eyes.
- This commentary was being recorded in writer Virgil Williams office.
- Everyone does phone work even on their off-camera days which is something unique to the show. It would be a lot harder to keep up the intensity were it not for the other actor to play off of. Sarah Wynter had never done a scene on the phone before until she was on 24.
- Wynter had worked with Freda Foh Shen before on an independent film Coastlines, where Shen's character also played a nurse.
- The Northwest Regional Operations Complex and CTU are 40 feet away on the sound stage.
- The house that Reza and Marie Warner were to be married at was filmed in Toluca Lake. It was a historic house that was previously owned by Bing Crosby and then Andy Griffith.
- Michelle Forbes watched them doing a casting call for the dog, there was a German Shepherd and a Pitbull. Wynter joked that they do a tally of everyone Jack Bauer kills and they wonder if the dog is counted in that.
- The red convertible that Reza was driving was on a flatbed truck. They weren't actually driving in most of the scenes.
- Wynter had an inkling that Laura Harris, her on-screen sister Marie Warner, was the villain around this point. They had to audition to do both roles yet the actors weren't told anything specific about that.
- A house that Reza shows Kate was filmed in a hot new housing development community in the Thousand Oaks area. Six weeks after that scene was shot, Phillip Rhys lost thirty pounds and nearly died after getting an infection from a tooth operation. He had to return to the show shortly after.
- Carlos Bernard said of the makeup process that it was fun for the first day but afterwards it's like putting on dirty wet clothes and jumping into the pool, taking them off, and then having to put them back on.
- Joseph Hodges came up with the idea of David Palmer's desk based on the old television series "Thunderbirds".
- Michelle Forbes was contracted for ten episodes originally but had chemistry with the other cast members and her role was extended.
- Carlos said that in season 1 the 24 fans had a huge theory that if someone was working on a Macintosh they were a good guy and if they were working on an IBM-based computer they were a bad guy, and that it actually worked out that way.
- Lourdes Benedicto who played Carrie Turner got a phone call from her agents assistant that said "Dude, why you f***ing with Jack Bauer?" and Sarah Wynter got reamed on the internet when her character asked Jack "What's going on and where are you taking me?". One of the fans said "How dare she ask him a question, like he doesn't know what he's doing!".
- Sarah Clarke was wearing a wig in the black and white photo.
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| "Day 2: 1:00pm-2:00pm" |
Jon Cassar, Sarah Clarke
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Information gained:
- Sarah Clarke had just came off her honeymoon with a tan which was a problem since her character Nina Myers was supposed to be in prison for the last year and a half. They decided that she has been just working in the yards.
- Within two episodes they brought back both Nina Myers and Sherry Palmer, two fan favorites from the first season.
- Carlos Bernard was so happy that he got to venture out of CTU and fans loved it too. Tony was such a grueling interrogator on Reza that fans dubbed the scene "Tonygate".
- The whole thing with the mosque in England was something Carlos found and did research on and talked to Joel Surnow about to incorporate into the interrogation. Carlos went to Cassar a few days before recording this commentary and they arrested potential terrorists out of that mosque. It was unbelievable that it became true after being mentioned on the show.
- Harris Yulin's first scene occurred in this episode. Joel Surnow and Jon Cassar worked with the actor previously on La Femme Nikita.
- Both characters (Nina Myers and Jack Bauer) kept their feelings internal at first as it would build up and all come out within a few episodes. It was like two fighters in a ring sizing each other up.
- Sarah Clarke wanted to make a point to show that last year it was all about a woman in a man's world and trying to be appealing, but after being in jail it simply becomes about survival. She wanted to be really rough with no makeup. The hair and makeup process took just five minutes.
- They filmed all sorts of smiles with Nina that would set Jack off. The scene where Jack chokes her was done on the first take. Clarke didn't know how long the scene was going to last and held her breath. Kiefer held her longer than expected and when she catches her breath right after that was real and not acting.
- Last season Cassar only directed two episodes, he was more of a guest. This year he's been around since the start and is directing ten episodes. His favorite scene that he directed in Season 1 was when Teri Bauer learned about the affair Jack had with Nina.
- Squibs (miniature explosions) were detonated right behind Clarke's head to simulate gunshots from Jacks pistol. The fear Nina showed was real as Clarke was actually scared, despite wearing earplugs. There was a brief scene before that where the audience sees Jack get a gun but it was never filmed because "if [Nina] is gonna be surprised, let's be surprised with her".
- Clarke had never shot or held a gun before being on 24. It blew her backwards the first time.
- The crew tossed around what they were going to call her as Nina Myers wasn't her real name, only her American name. Yelena was tossed around a few times but they thought some people might not remember it and everyone knows Nina and that it'd be stronger.
- The hospital in this episode was a closed down hospital in Pasadena that was abandoned about a year prior. It was virtually ready to go with nothing much they needed to add or change. They returned to the same hospital to film scenes later in the season.
- The usual shooting day is 12 hours from bringing the crew in until wrapping, and that's done every day for seven months. Filming is scheduled around the actors so that each one has "blocks" that they shoot maybe only five or six days and then get a few days off. Actors still come in to record their end of phone conversations even if off-camera.
- The transport vehicle wasn't moving and was parked in their studio.
- Clarke worked with the writers on the path that she would reveal things. Nina was talking to Jack through Miller. Jack had a line or two there but they cut it out as it was more interesting that he sit there in complete silence knowing that everything Nina said to Miller was directed at him.
- In the script the final scene was to be the first scene of the next episode in which Nina tries to tell on Jack that he poisoned Ed Miller's water. Cassar thought a better way to end the episode was by the looks between Nina and Jack when she realized that he had won this round.
- Cassar filmed a certain scene three or four times in order to get a specific light to just see Jack's eye, where he looked almost demonic. The little smile from Jack at the end was priceless.
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| "Day 2: 5:00pm-6:00pm" |
Penny Johnson Jerald, Joel Surnow
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Information gained:
- The Oregon set was shot in Franklin Canyon at Beverly Hills, not far from where Mayberry R.F.D. used to be filmed. It was a challenge as it's the first time the show ever had to portray scenes outside of Los Angeles so it took them some time.
- The scenes between Nina and Jack were shot in Agua Dulce, California.
- Makeup artist Dee Mansano did a great job of making Sarah Clarke look paler and gaunt looking, there was a real believability to it.
- Approximately 20 percent of this episode was reshot after it was originally filmed. Fifteen minutes of the original was removed as storylines shifted and the writers had to redo things to carry the story forward.
- Kiefer had injured his knee when they did a reshoot. The shot of Jack walking towards Nina was not actually Kiefer but a body double.
- The scene in which Jack whispers something inaudible into Nina's ear was a very controversial one amongst fans.
- This is the first episode in which a Coral Snake tattoo is visible.
- An establishing shot of Warner Enterprises was pointed out. One thing they rarely do on the show is establishing shots like that, as they always want to make it feel like you're inside scenes watching the characters. But with the large amount of storylines they had this year they were forced to modify their rules a bit on that.
- In an episode with George Mason's son, John, Xander Berkeley went up to Joel Surnow and told him that it was the best scene he's ever played in his career. Penny Johnson Jerald loved all of the nuances that Xander added to Mason's character with stuffing the Kleenex up his nose and the glasses he wore.
- The scene with George Mason looking back on his life was written about ten different ways. It was even filmed once, thrown out, and reshot. The script originally started with Mason playing music but no one could agree on what he'd be listening to for the last time. Then the idea was to make Mason be eating as a sort of "Last Supper" scene. By the time they looked at all the different variations, they settled on him giving advice to Michelle Dessler and making an impact on the characters.
- Joel and the writers wanted to deepen Sherry Palmer's believability that she was actually working in the best interest's of David Palmer. The more believable she becomes the more confused the audience is getting as they had a predisposed notion of Sherry's character from Season 1, automatically assuming that she had her own agenda.
- The actor who plays Miguel, Innis Casey, is a musician. Joel's daughter "worshipped him" and even went to the set to play guitar for him. Joel joked that he had to look at a picture of Casey's face about 40 times a day since three of his posters are hung up in his house.
- Surnow jokes that there's a fifteen minute rule on Kim's safety: "She's either gotta be kidnapped, grabbed, at gunpoint, being chased, or in a car accident every fifteen minutes of this show or she's not Kim Bauer."
- Split screens are an old trick from the 1960s. They were previously used in Hawaii Five-O and The Thomas Crown Affair but what's old is new again. David Thompson, the editor of the pilot took a new approach to it.
- Kim Bauer's escape from the vehicle was a six minute scene filmed in real-time edited down to around two minutes as it played too long. Additional dialogue was added to make sure they get the point across that the cop didn't die, because it appeared as if he did die, and they didn't want to make Kim and Miguel seem so indifferent to an innocent person.
- Marie and Reza didn't really kiss well so Joel always had to cut off of it very quickly.
- Kate Warner was tortured in a discrete way because they couldn't really disfigure her character as she'd be in the rest of the show. They kept her hair over the ear wound for the remaining twelve episodes.
- This is the first episode in which they bring Kate and Jack together. They had promised and promoted in media coverage and magazines for a while that it would be a possible romantic relationship.
- Penny Johnson Jerald called out Joel and said that was the wrong moment for Kim to kiss Miguel with all that nasty blood over his mouth and with police quickly closing in on her location. She should've made sure he was fine and get the heck out of there instead. Joel defended the scene by saying it's written for 18-24 year old males.
- It was "pure Kiefer" when Jack took off his jacket and put it on Kate Warner to keep her warm — not something that was written into the script. A huge part of Jack Bauer's appeal is that he can be so engaged in combat yet still very caring.
- Joel says it's very difficult to form relationships while a show is taking place in real time.
- Carlos Bernard is a real strong anchor to the show especially since neither Jack or Nina have been in CTU much this season - Carlos is "carrying the ball".
- Placement of scenes were swapped in order for the episode to have a greater impact. Originally viewers would see Sherry talking to Stanton and then have her return to the inner circle with the audience knowing about her betrayal. The writers thought it was better to really deepen the sense of trust between Sherry and David first - it would be a much bigger betrayal if they touched hands and made a pledge of renewed hope and commitment with each other. To then destroy all that felt like it would make a much bigger impact.
- The production designers did a wonderful job of cleaning up CTU after the bomb to keep it functional yet still looking as if it could've been bombed out earlier, with employees working in a jerry-rigged office. There is a real stretch of believability on the show - realistically, if the place had really gotten bombed and 29 people died, they wouldn't be working there seven hours later. However there is a nuclear bomb about to go off and it just adds to the heroism of these people.
- Penny Johnson Jerald received lots of hate mail after the scene of her being in league with Roger Stanton, with some viewers feeling completely deceived. She had won their trust and then lost it completely. People asked "how nasty can Sherry possibly get?"
- The writers had a big conversation over whether Marie should've been cold-hearted or should she have loved Reza and still kill him because she believed in the cause. They opted for that which makes it much more complicated.
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| "Day 2: 10:00pm-11:00pm" |
Robert Cochran, Xander Berkeley
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| Information gained:
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| "Day 2: 3:00am-4:00am" |
Kiefer Sutherland, Joel Surnow
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Information gained:
- Surnow points out that a lot of Canadian actors are used on 24, this episode featuring several of them: Peter Outerbridge, Jeffrey Wincott, and Eugene Robert Glazer.
- Eugene Robert Glazer was a series regular on Surnows previous show, La Femme Nikita. Joel brought him on 24 to do a small part as Alexander Trepkos because he is a scary looking guy. Both Peter Outerbridge and Tobin Bell also appeared in La Femme Nikita.
- The previous episode and this one were filmed together and they were really difficult and intense scenes for Kiefer. Unfortunately they came up short for time on both this episode and the one before, so they had to film another entire day of Jack Bauer being tortured by Ronnie Stark. Some fans had a problem with the torture scenes as they got so attached to Jack and it was hard to see him endure the physical pain.
- Kiefer Sutherland rarely watches his own work, it's a superstitious thing. He usually only watches it when Joel and Robert Cochran tell him a scene isn't working which is not often.
- Surnow is interested in production designer Joseph Hodges use of the color red. It adds tension and is a "color of agitation" that Joseph uses a lot.
- Beroglide was a fictional drug. The writers had originally called it Peroglyde but it sounded like something that could be a real drug so it was changed.
- Carlos Bernard and Paul Schulze are "hell" on the post production department because they whisper everything. Although Surnow says that is great and intense, the post production crew have to carve out their dialogue all the time and it's difficult to score those scenes (as the music would drown out their conversation).
- There was a twenty minute discussion on the sound mixing stage about how loud the fire alarm audio should be when Lynne Kresge escaped the room. It had to be a certain volume as David Palmer was not supposed to hear it on the other part of the building.
- The scene with Peter Kingsley actually took place on set with the scenery outside of the window being fake. Joseph Hodges created a backdrop that looks like Los Angeles at 3AM in the morning.
- The set that Palmer is in was a remodel of the Oregon Northwest Regional Operations Complex set used in the beginning of the season. Joseph Hodges reconfigured and rebuilt it to look like a Los Angeles federal building.
- The writers didn't have a storyline for Elisha Cuthbert this episode, so Surnow joked that Kim Bauer went to sleep and went to the bathroom during this hour.
- Joel Surnow has a personal dislike of seeing someone eat on-screen (unless it's a dinner scene where that's the point). In the beginning of this season, Palmer was having something to eat and Surnow hated it - he felt that it was too self-serving and mundane to have the President stopping to have a bite to eat while a Nuclear weapon was hovering over Los Angeles. Surnow cut that scene way down so that you almost don't see it. Eating may be the reality but it works against the dramatic point of the seasons.
- Kiefer Sutherland says the great thing for him about going from Season 1 to Season 2 is that Jack Bauer no longer has to work in the Director's office anymore. It was the "hardest thing to shoot in the world" and a "nightmare" to film in as it was on the second floor with five glass wall panels all on pitched angles.
- The post production team adds the little hum sound when going to split screen. Surnow says it's a nice moody piece that subliminally breaks the screen into two.
- Carlos Bernard pulled his achilles tendon while playing basketball and was forced to be on crutches, so they filmed a scene in a previous episode where Jack breaks out of CTU and gets in a little skirmish which results in Tony twisting his ankle. Kiefer Sutherland injured his knee in real life earlier in the season and they wrote that in where Jack Bauer wounds his knee in the plane accident. Surnow jokes that characters on 24 get hurt enough that if the actors get injured in real life they're able to fit that in and make it believable.
- The scene where Lynne Kresge points at Mike Novick did not come out as clear as Joel would have liked. He points out that David Palmer didn't see Lynne pointing as he was leaning very close towards her, and her arm was behind his back. When the camera pulls back to the wide shot you can see that Palmer is leaning forward close enough to not see her pointing.
- Carlos Bernard told Joel Surnow that his favorite scene of the season was towards the end of this episode.
- While driving to set on her first day of work, Lourdes Benedicto was reading a map to help her find the set and she slammed into a police officers car, making her late to work. The cop let her off the hook but everyone at the studio jokingly nicknamed her the "Cop Car Killer" after the incident.
- Every actor is on a first name basis with camera operator Guy Skinner.
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| "Day 2: 4:00am-5:00am" |
Dennis Haysbert, Howard Gordon
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Information gained:
- It was a challenge for the writers to match the urgency of Jack's pursuit of the chip with what was basically a courtroom drama.
- Although not planned at the beginning, the chip would be the eleventh hour evidence that was either going to help or harm Palmer's attempt at maintaining his presidency.
- Courtroom drama is not typically what 24 does as it's not adrenalized enough. It was a technical challenge as they rigged three or four separate stages and everything was wired and playing out simultaneously in real time.
- Something that bothered Dennis Haysbert a bit was that everybody close to Palmer was stabbing him in the back at one time or another. It was a little disconcerting to have all these people suddenly turn on Palmer and it tells him that he didn't know who he had around him or what they were capable of.
- Gordon says that while it was a challenge for the writers and actors involved, Mike Novick thinks he's doing the right thing and hopefully they supported on-screen that there is enough evidence which adds up to demonstrate that it was not an ill-motivated decision by Novick but something done out of the best intentions for the country.
- Howard Gordon believes that this episode is really about Jack Bauer and David Palmer against the whole world. Jack is challenged at CTU and Palmer is being challenged by his own people.
- Viewers could watch this episode and catch up on the entire season.
- One of the courtroom dramas used for inspiration was Seven Days in May with Kirk Douglas.
- This episode had the reintroduction of Kim Bauer after a several episode hiatus which was an ongoing challenge for the writers. Kim works best whenever she can be put in the middle of some very important business that Jack is in the midst of.
- Dennis Haysbert is asked at least twice a day by fans to run for President of the United States.
- Gordon admits that so little of the show is planned and they didn't come up with this idea of the presidential coup until roughly around the time of episode 15 when the nuclear bomb goes off - just six episodes before shooting.
- The writers needed to omit the rest of Roger Stanton's torture, otherwise it would prove Palmer's innocence. Eighteen minutes of the video tape were missing and never accounted for - it could have been as simple as an error in the transference or it could be that someone sabotaged the tape. The writers have no answer for it, they just knew that it was necessary for the storyline.
- It was a challenge to film since 35 pages of the 50 page script all took place in the one room, yet the tension still needed to be there.
- The scene where Jack Bauer is getting out of the car in front of Alex Hewitt's apartment had entirely different dialogue. They voiced over the scene as they couldn't afford to go back out and reshoot it.
- The writers planned but never got around to adding an explanation that Vice President James Prescott was Palmer's chief adversary in the primaries and the two hooked up for political reasons. It never worked in the context of the script and in some ways would've complicated things.
- They realized as they sat in the writing room that the only characters left standing that really mattered and people would care to see play out the rest of the drama were Jack Bauer, David Palmer, and his ex-wife Sherry Palmer. With that in mind they decided to have Sherry re-enter the picture at the end of this episode.
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| Deleted scenes |
Jon Cassar, Rodney Charters, Howard Gordon
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Information gained:
- Jon Cassar mentions that the mountains are missing from the Lake Oswego scenes, as they shot it in LA and added the mountains in digitally in post production.
- Rodney Charters says they had a struggle getting the boats into the tiny pond in a public park in LA, and they weren't allowed to have motors on the boats so used a small electric motor to get the crew onto the water.
- Most of the scene on the lake stayed, but they changed the ending, originally with a helicopter disrupting the peaceful setting. They considered shooting it on an ocean with lots of boats coming towards them, but in the end decided on having nothing and just a phone call to the agent with them.
- The scene of Jack getting his windscreen cleaned was cut due to time and wanting to get to the story faster. He says it shows the difference between new Jack and old Jack, as he is mellow and has lost his edge, whereas last season he may have hurt the windscreen washer.
- Rodney Charters says the scene was made in a "guerrilla filmmaking" fashion with handheld cameras, but within 10 minutes people came up with pizzas and coffees for them. Jon Cassar says the people in the background are real LA downtowners rather than extras.
- Jon says the alternate conversation between Palmer and the deputy Prime Minister was their first attempt at videoconferencing, and Rodney explains the deputy PM was sitting on another soundstage nearby with a live video of him being fed to the background plate that Palmer is looking at.
- They reshot it because originally Palmer was talking to the deputy Prime Minister, and they wanted him to be speaking to someone with more power, and they wanted to give Palmer more privacy during the conversation.
- Joel Surnow is ruthless in the editing room, and if he realises a scene does not belong he gets rid of it completely.
- Jon explains that the scene of Palmer talking to Keith tied in with last season, but an audience screening chose it as the least favorite scene of the episode, as it reminded them too much of the last season. Jon said they didn't have plans to explore the David-Keith relationship, so the family squabble seemed small compared to everything else going on.
- Jon and Rodney both liked the scene of Kim escaping through the garment factory. Rodney says when they were scouting locations they came across what were essentially sweat shops, and they found one but the owners didn't want them to shoot there. Jon says the one they did shoot at was not a sweat shop, it was a co-operative unit that made an effort to treat their workers well.
- Jon wanted to show that Kim was trying to make a phone call, not just randomly running down alleys, but Rodney said the call broke the rhythm of the chase.
- With the extended fight between Gary and Kim, most of it stayed but a few lines were cut out. Jon said it was a nice combination cutting between their stunt performers and actors seamlessly.
- Rodney said they had a rather expensive silking job softening the sunlight of the fight area, allowing them to shoot with multiple cameras and angles. Jon says the high angle is unusual for 24, but worked for this scene for hiding the stunt performers.
- Jon liked the end of the extended fight when Kim had to retrieve her purse by stepping over Gary, which provided nice tension, but was cut due to pace.
- Jon says the scene of Marie sending Reza for strawberries started long but was trimmed down for the final episode, which is how a lot of scenes on the show work out. Rodney says they shoot 10-15% more than they use.
- They re-used Marie in her wedding dress in a later episode after the scene was cut, as they wanted to show her in her dress as she would never make it to her wedding.
- If a scene is just character, it often gets cut, as it needs something else going on as well. They cut Reza playing soccer with the young child, and the editor cheated and used footage of Reza going in the other direction in the final cut.
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