Give Me My Remote #1 featured 24: LIVE ANOTHER DAY: Howard Gordon and Robert Cochran on Reaching Episode 200, Whether Jack Can Be Happy, and More

24: LIVE ANOTHER DAY: Howard Gordon and Robert Cochran on Reaching Episode 200, Whether Jack Can Be Happy, and More

One of the cool things about Fox reviving 24 for 24: LIVE ANOTHER DAY is that this Monday’s brand new episode will mark the franchise’s 200th episode. (Not bad for a show that was off the air for nearly four years, right?)

To celebrate the occasion, 24 co-creator Robert Cochran and executive producer Howard Gordon hopped on a conference call with reporters to talk about the milestone and the new season…

On whether Jack is fated to be miserable:

The writers of 24 already had the chance to plan the end of Jack Bauer’s arc on television when season 8 concluded, and they opted to have Jack on the run. So is there a chance the man who has helped save countless people can actually have a happy ending? Or is he, perhaps, destined for a life of misery.

“That is the question of the decade,” Gordon acknowledged.

“I agree,” Cochran added. “That’s the big question the series poses. That’s exactly the question…that’s a question we ask ourselves in the story room all the time: what is Jack’s ultimate fate? Can he achieve some sort of personal peace and happiness? Or is that simply not his destiny? But that’s a question we ask ourselves.”

“Jack, unfortunately, loses a lot, and sacrifices many of the few people he’s come to love and who’ve come to trust him,” Gordon pointed out. “He loses them, and that scar tissue has built up over the years, and has made him an increasingly complicated and tragic character, but ultimately a hero.”

On jumping forward in time:

Gordon confirmed that the plan is still for 24: LIVE ANOTHER DAY to take place over a 24-hour period, despite the fact that so far, the event series has been in real time. And while he acknowledged a jump is coming, he declined to specify whether it would be one big jump, or several smaller jumps.

On the show potentially continuing sans Jack Bauer:

One of the best surprises about the 24 revival has been Yvonne Strahvoski’s Kate, who has proven herself to be Jack Bauer-esque. But would there really ever be a version of 24 without Jack?

“I think it’s a possibility,” Cochran said. “It’s something we certainly think about. There’s no specific plans right now, but that’s the thing we’ll certainly consider.”

“I think what we’ve talked about often is that Bob and Joel [Surnow] created this amazing format, this real-time format, which is different than Jack Bauer, who they created as well, who’s an amazing character,” Gordon added. “The format itself is very sturdy and very durable. We think it’s something with the right story — like Bob said, there are no plans, but if a story presented itself, or we thought of one, we’d all be open to it.”

On Audrey’s role in the rest of the season:

Jack only recently reunited with his off-on love, Audrey, but her impact on the rest of the season shouldn’t be underestimated.

“I can tell you she will be very prominent [in the rest of the season],” Cochran teased. “She’ll play a very important role.”

“We didn’t introduce her — if you look at the [list] of people Jack has lost and who mean something to Jack, Audrey is one of the less than a handful of people who are still alive and mean something to Jack,” Gordon pointed out. “So, because of that, obviously, she’ll have a profound [impact]. Jack’s intersecting with her life will have a tremendous impact. She’s a big part of the story. Huge.”

On reaching episode 200:

It’s been a stranger path than most shows take to reach the 200th episode milestone (over 12.5 years!), but the producers expressed their delight at reaching it.

“It’s fantastic,” Cochran said of the milestone. “It’s something that makes us very humble and very thankful for the fans around the world and in the country that have supported us all these years. I can promise you when we started the show, this thing wasn’t even in our minds: we were trying to get to episode 2. We’re very thankful for it.”

“It’s true,” Gordon continued. “It represents over a decade of all of our lives. I think a lot of the friendships and the camaraderies we’ve developed with our colleagues, it really is a monument to that. I look at the box set, and often said, ‘Put it on top of my tombstone, because that was my 40s.’ I remember thinking this was a wonderful opportunity to revisit that and top it off.”

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24: LIVE ANOTHER DAY airs Mondays at 9 PM on Fox.

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24: LIVE ANOTHER DAY Bosses Evan Katz and Manny Coto Preview the Event Series

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