10 Spectacularly Bad TV Ideas That Turned Out To Be Awesome
5. 24
American television drama needed something new. Something exciting and dynamic. A show like no other. Nail-biting tension and gut-wrenching drama. And into this breach, 24 stepped. A show in real time. Real time how is that exciting? Will it not be full of people doing all the things normally edited out of actual TV shows? Going to the toilet and discussing what they had for tea last night? Again, how is that exciting? You'd better hope they have a bankable lead. Kiefer Sutherland? The guy doing bad TV movies since his notable role in Flatliners ten years ago? The guy with a very limited action hero pedigree? So they are producing an actual hour of Kiefer Sutherland on the television trying to save America? 24 episodes of it? An actual full day of this? Well, good luck. So how did that turn out? Well, it ran for 8 seasons with one feature length film (and another London based one to follow). It garnered 68 Emmy awards nominations with 20 wins with that guy Kiefer Sutherland picking up numerous personal nominations and winning an Emmy, a Golden Globe and a Screen Writers Award for Best Actor largely for portraying a man who can go without peeing for 24 hours and save the world without walking funny or wetting himself. Not bad going for something so fraught with risk, was it?
