For eight seasons, Kiefer Sutherland played TV's baddest asset -- Jack Bauer -- on the Fox series "24." He returns to the network Wednesday at 9 p.m. in "Touch," playing the father of an 11-year-old boy who has the ability to see patterns in nature, time and people. The role is far more cerebral than his "24" work.
Eight years of being the central focus of an action TV series can take its toll. Sutherland tried to get as far away from Bauer as possible by appearing in "That Championship Season" on Broadway.
"I really wanted to set some time apart from this kind of amazing experience that I had with '24" and try some different things," he says.
Sutherland had no plans to return to TV when he got the "Touch" script. "The character was so vastly different, and the tone of the piece was so vastly different, that that was part of its appeal. ... I realized that if they would have me, this was certainly something I wanted to do."
Just to be clear, it wasn't Jack Bauer that Sutherland was trying to escape. It was the long hours and action scenes, where his character was tortured and beaten more than a hallway rug, that he wanted to leave behind.
The only thing that will get twisted and turned while doing "Touch" is Sutherland's brain.
Series creator Tim Kring is interested in interconnectivity, a concept that suggests everything in life is inextricably connected. That concept was used in both of his last works, "Heroes" and "The Conspiracy For Good."
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