The clock is ticking again...

Remember the old days of television during the summer, when it was nothing but reruns? So, if you missed an episode of your favorite show during the season, you knew you could see it in the summer when the rerun came around.

Well, those days are gone. Now, networks give us cheesy reality shows and series that weren’t good enough for the fall schedule. It’s a rarity to catch actual reruns of shows, unless they have “CSI” in the title.

Thankfully, FOX is bucking that trend by—for the first time—showing reruns of its best show. Beginning tonight (Friday), FOX will re-air the entire season of “24,” showing two episodes each Friday. As I’ve said before, this season was the best “24” season ever, and now everyone will get a chance to see why. Plus, it helps us fans who have to wait an eternity for the DVDs.

If you’d like to jump on board—and I highly recommend that you do—here’s a quick catch-up to get you started…

The Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) is a special government agency that tracks down terrorist threats and neutralizes them. Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) was once the director of CTU Los Angeles, but left CTU after his wife was murdered while he fought to save presidential candidate Senator David Palmer from assassination. Jack later returned and eventually became the head of field operations at CTU. But after Jack became addicted to heroin while undercover, he was fired by the new director who was intimidated by Jack’s presence. Jack took a job with the Secretary of Defense and fell in love with the Secretary’s daughter, Audrey Raines (Kim Raver), who was separated from her husband, Paul...

When Audrey and her father were kidnapped by terrorists, Jack was sucked back into CTU. After rescuing them, he continued pursuing the terrorists. When he was forced to use torture on Paul (His name had come up in connection with the terrorists.), Jack’s relationship with Audrey became strained. Paul was innocent and ended up helping Jack, but later died due to a choice Jack made—which only further damaged his relationship with Audrey. Eventually, Audrey decided she couldn’t be part of Jack’s world and broke it off with him…

After Jack saved his life, Senator David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) was elected President and over the years he and Jack became friends. Palmer planned to run for re-election, but the murder of his ex-wife and the related scandal forced him to withdraw from the race. His opponent, Senator Keeler, went on to win the election. However, his term would not last long as he was on board Air Force One when it was shot down by terrorists. Vice-President Logan (Gregory Itzin) was sworn in as the President, but he was unable to handle the terrorist threat and called in Palmer to help…

Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard), a CTU agent, resented Jack’s presence at CTU, but eventually became his right-hand man. Tony fell in love with a fellow agent, Michelle Dessler—who he later married. When Michelle was kidnapped by terrorists, Tony was forced to commit treason to save her. He went to jail, but Jack later convinced Palmer to pardon him. When Jack felt like he couldn’t trust anyone at CTU, he called Tony back in. Eventually Tony was reunited with Michelle (who he had divorced while in prison) and after a brush with death, Tony convinced Michelle to retire from CTU and start a new life with him…

While pursuing the terrorist Habib Marwan, CTU was led to a Chinese scientist with connections to Marwan who had taken asylum at the Chinese Embassy. After failing to convince the Chinese to turn the scientist over to the U.S., Palmer authorized Jack to lead a mission—not officially sanctioned by the government—to kidnap the scientist from the embassy. However, during the mission, the Chinese consulate was killed. The Chinese, looking for revenge, were able to track the mission back to Jack and because the U.S. could not admit responsibility, Jack had to turn himself in to the Chinese. But one of President Logan’s aides, Walt Cummings (John Allen Nelson), worried that Jack may give secrets to the Chinese, and ordered the Secret Service to take Jack out (with Logan’s blessing). Palmer discovered the plot and called Jack to warn him. Tony, Michelle and CTU analyst Chloe O’Brien (Mary Lynn Rajskub) helped Jack fake his death, making it look like he was killed in a shootout with the Secret Service agent. Only Tony, Michelle, Chloe and Palmer (who Jack later called) knew the truth. Even Jack’s daughter, Kim, was kept in the dark. Jack was left to live a life on the run—at one point hiding in Chicago before he was discovered by someone who had been nosing around Jack’s death…

The clock starts ticking again tonight at 8 on FOX…