The nine lives of Tony Almeida
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- September
- 21
In an interview with Zap2It.com, 24 showrunner Howard Gordon spills the beans on the decision to bring back Tony.
He points out that Tony already has gone through just about everything in his time on 24.
It really ranks among Tony’s other resurrections. I mean, he was blown up in a blast and was supposed to die there. He was shot in the neck in the third episode of season three, shot in the aorta at point-blank range, and he was basically back at the controls eight hours later. So in the nine lives of Tony Almeida, this is just another chapter, hopefully the most interesting of them.
Then he drops this tantalizing bit: “It’s not the what of it, but the how, that’s interesting.”
Gordon did confirm that beyond any shadow of any doubt, Michelle is dead and gone and buried. She could only come back as a zombie (he didn’t say that, I ,and Blogs.4Bauer did).
Gordon also addressed the whole political issue:
• Co-creator Joel Surnow is a self-proclaimed “right-wing nutjob”
• Exec prod Evan Katz is “on the far left.”
• Gordon is “somewhere in the middle.”
Anybody who’s a reasonable person, would really be insane to imagine that this show posits any sort of political point of view. It’s utterly insane. You could draw equally from both sides of the aisle. We’ve always obfuscated the parties and, in fact, contradicted ourselves probably multiple times, willfully. This thing is more metaphor. It’s not a documentary. It plays with a compressed version of reality, clearly, on so many fronts. Ultimately, its only agenda is to tell a good story.
I know a lot of people who will be disappointed to hear that, but I’ve always thought that. There have been some things on there that so support the left I’m surprised that any conservatives even like the show. Then there’s lots to please the right that makes me surprised that any liberals like the show.
I’ve always thought the show has done an excellent job of walking the fine line between clever and stupid (to crib from Spinal Tap) and between raving fascist conservatism and flaming tree-hugging liberalism.
Agree? Disagree? Discuss amongst yourselves. Just do it here.
PS: Kiefer Sutherland is being honoured by the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) with its award of excellence. I didn’t misspell honour, because it’s a Canadian group and that’s how they spell it up north.
We are proud to present this award to Kiefer who, as a Canadian actor working in the U.S., has overcome great odds to build one of the most successful careers in Hollywood.
Of course, I find that puzzling, as he’s the son of Donald Sutherland, a Hollywood icon. Hardly great odds to overcome. (And apparently his maternal grandfather was Tommy Douglas, “the legendary Saskatchewan premier who created Canada’s universal health-care system.”)
Still, that’s nice. Congrats, Kiefer. Previous winners include Tonya Lee Williams (who?) and Leslie Nielsen.

















So Kiefer’s ancestry is the reason we have to deal with Hillary’s healthcare plan.
Greaaaaaaat.
Is that supposed to be some kind of joke—-”overcome great odds”? What great odds? Having your daddy as well-established Hollywood star sure isn’t a hindrance!! And up until 24 he was best known in the tabloids as Julia Roberts boyfriend, until she dumped him.Poor Kiefer, he’s had it so hard…how many times I wonder did Daddy smooth the way for him to get handed roles other people have to fight for. He’s just another spoiled Hollywood brat and he’s had it easy, now he’ll be a typecast one too. Let’s see if he can maintain his sucessful career in the future if all he gets offered are Jack Bauer imitation characters. Daddy won’t be around forever to help, let’s see what happens then.