• two clocks

Remember when the character Dr. Todd (on TV's St. Elsewhere) attended a medical conference? (Might be too far back for some readers.) In a now-famous line Dr. Todd tells his wife he's going to lunch with his old friend from medical school, Dr. Sweeney. Theatre buffs around the world sat bolt upright in their Barcaloungers, grabbed the phone and called eleven friends. Sweeney Todd — Get it?

Writers of novels, films, plays, and TV just love playing homage to other great works or art. They borrow character names or name characters after family members, childhood friends, etc.

Film makers are forever putting visual references in their work to reference previous films of their own or classics that inspired them early in their career.

Those of us who work in the medium of words do it all the time. I've done. You've done. It is a way of paying respect, giving a nod, saying thanks.

Last night—Monday, 5 April 2010—the creative team of the now-legendary television phenomenon, 24, did it. They have done it before, but this one was in-your-face FUN.

[For those of you just coming out of your steam-power cave and have never watched "24", the series follows the exploits of Jack Bauer (actor, Kiefer Sutherland) and the elite CTU (Counter Terrorism Unit of the U.S. Government.) Each season of "24" covers just one day, 24 hours, as the world is, once again, challenge by some crisis and Jack Bauer saves us all. Thus, each week, every episode, we see one more hour of the day tick by. Last night was a "two-hour" back-to-back special. It was riveting TV. You can watch it on line HERE. Look for Day 8:6am-8am, "Episode 15".]

This season on 24, on the eve of an historic middle east peace treaty being signed at the U.N. (it's fiction, folks), the bad guys—actual Middle Eastern terrorist (you never see that from Hollywood)—  hold of nuclear rods, build an atomic bomb, and get it into New York City . Twenty-nine plot twists and turns later, the bad guys agree not to blow a big hole in Manhattan Island.

 The bomb is in a van, in an alley, on the Warner Bros. Studios backlot in Burbank, CA...oops, I mean, one of the busiest neighborhoods in New York City.

The satellite phone rings. "Stop the bomb." Handsome Terrorist #1 says. So, Handsome Terrorist #2 (photo, right) hits the kill switch as he watches the digital seconds on the bomb tick down: 00:11, 00:10, 00:09, 00:08, stop...00:07.

I cannot possibly be the only 24 fan and movie buff who saw this coming and still laughed out loud, "HA!", when it happened. It was a direct reference to the big rolling bomb that Goldfinger placed in Fort Knox to nuke the U.S. gold supply. Enter our hero, Mr. Bond, James Bond, who shuts down the bomb, just-in-time, with only seven seconds left. Don't make me say it, "double 0 seven" seconds left.

I found the Goldfinger clock on line (above left) and grabbed a screen capture of the moment in 24 (above right.) Delightful.

What is one of your favorite cases of artistic homage, one creator referencing the work of another. Share it in the Comments section, below. Or, tell us how you've "pointed" to a favorite work in your work. 

It is always fun to discover "Zuzu's pedals" or "Rosebud" blooming from the seeds of another creation.

Comments

[Kim Ykema]

There are too many favorite moments for me to pick one, so I've been waiting for the next one to cross my path. It's been a slow month for watching movies and television, but today I watched a youtube video posted by a friend and found a Fiddler on the Roof moment in a song about the American Revolution. Great violin solo... interesting combination of ideas about tradition and freedom. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZfRaWAtBVg