IF it hadn’t been for the writers’ strike, “24” creator Joel Surnow might have been too busy producing the show over the last three months to contemplate his future.
But with all those weeks off, Surnow had plenty of time to ruminate on his career. And as soon as the strike ended, he quit the show, 20th Century Fox Television – the company that produces the Fox network series – confirmed yesterday.
“During the strike I started thinking about different things I’d like to do independently, and decided it was time to see if there were other opportunities I wanted to pursue,” Surnow told Daily Variety.
He did not agree to be interviewed by The Post, so it could not be learned what these “other opportunities” might be, or if his decision to leave “24” had anything to do with last year’s disappointing sixth season, which was lambasted by critics and fans who felt the show had gone off the rails.
One of its own producers, co-executive producer David Fury, admitted in an interview with a prominent TV trade publication last spring that the sixth season had been poorly planned.
And in an interview with the L.A. Times at around the same time, Howard Gordon, the executive producer in charge of day-to-day production of “24” last season, declared that the outcry over the show’s confusing plot lines had “reinvigorated our determination to reinvent the show.”
It could not be determined yesterday if “reinventing” the show meant easing out Surnow, who created the series eight years ago.
Officially, Surnow’s exit was portrayed as amicable. “He asked to leave and we agreed,” said a spokesman for the production company. “There was no animosity, no ill will.”
Surnow leaves just as the “24” writers are returning to work to begin crafting the ninth and tenth episodes of the seventh season. Eight episodes were produced before the strike and the season was to begin last month. Now, the seventh season is not expected to premiere until next January although production will resume as soon as the new scripts are written.
Last year, Surnow was involved in the production of a drama series pilot for Lifetime called “The Madness of Jane,” starring Ever Carradine as a neurologist who discovers that she is bipolar.
Lifetime passed.