9/11 made spy dramas like '24' and 'Alias' scramble. But not for long
CNN
The Sept. 11 terror attacks that rippled through US society and culture 20 years ago also disrupted the fall TV season that was about to begin. While all of television pondered how to respond, those events particularly impacted a trio of new dramas with anti-terrorism and espionage themes: "24," "Alias" and "The Agency," resulting in last-minute scrambling and changes.
Two decades later, it's clear early predictions that the trauma from such terrorism on US soil would alter popular entertainment turned out to be wrong. If anything, "24" demonstrated how the two would coexist, with Kiefer Sutherland's counterterrorism agent Jack Bauer battling on through the decade, becoming a short-hand symbol for the war against terror, even referenced in the debate over public tolerance for torture in "ticking-clock" scenarios.
Before that, however, the producers had to edit a sequence in the opening episode that involved a terrorist blowing up an airplane. The pilot for CBS' CIA drama "The Agency" -- which made a reference to Osama bin Laden and involved a terror plot to blow up a department store in London -- was also delayed, and rescheduled for later in the season.