FOX - 2006

One of the most innovative, thrilling and acclaimed drama series on television, the Emmy and Golden Globe award winning 24 stars Kiefer Sutherland as Agent Jack Bauer, who heads -- or at least used to head -- the field operations of the Counter Terrorist Unit in the United States. Created by Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran, the series is presented in a unique format where each episode covers one hour of real time with the season’s entire story taking place in one day. Once again, viewers are able to follow several key characters through a day that none of them will ever forget.

Jean joined the cast in Season Five as Martha Logan, the emotionally volatile First Lady to the petulant, legacy-obsessed President. From her very first scene, she blew away critics and reviewers, and her performance over the season earned her any Emmy Nomination.

But more importantly, Jean was ecstatic that her son finally thought she was on a cutting-edge show.

"He said to me, 'Finally, Mom, you're doing something really cool' — that was the clincher [in taking the role]," she said of her son, Connor, 16.

Together they watched Season 4 of 24 and "were instantly hooked," said Smart. "He's been to the set and loves it. He's even brought some of his friends. ... I had to swear them to secrecy. I told them I could either be killed or out of a job or both. So far, they've kept mum."

Smart's Martha Logan is a far cry from 24's previous first lady, the conniving Sherry Palmer (Penny Johnson Jerald). Martha, a conspiracy theorist who has spent time in a mental institution, is loosely based on Martha Mitchell, the wife of Nixon-era Attorney General John Mitchell, whom critics dismissed as delusional during the Watergate scandal. However, Smart wasn't interested in playing her character like Martha Mitchell.

"[The producers] told me to play the first lady as a loose cannon. She's a little impulsive, but her heart's in the right place." Smart adds, "In her first scene, she has such a great introduction — she dunks her head in a sink."

Reviews:

"Inside the castle walls lurks an even loopier character: Logan's mentally unstable wife, Martha (Jean Smart), who holds a key to the conspiracy... if she could just get someone to believe her. Smart expertly injects Martha with enough irrational bitchiness -- bittersweet outbursts, wild tears -- to seriously undermine her. Yet just when the audience is ready for Martha to be packed off, she goes lucid, turning her manipulations into wily, surprising street smarts: This is a written-off woman in a male-dominated White House who's willing to rip her garments and threaten an agent with an assault charge if he won't give her the access cards she needs." -- Gillian Flynn, Entertainment Weekly

"Cheers to Jean Smart for her bravura performance as first lady Martha Logan on 24. At first, Martha seems like an off-her-meds nutcase, but Smart quickly shows us that she may be the real power behind her Nixonian husband's throne. With her serial scene-stealing, Smart could be -- in 24 shorthand -- this season's Shohreh Aghdashloo. Let's just hope the Emmys don't overlook Smart too." -- TV Guide

"The standout element this season is Jean Smart as Martha Logan, a first lady in jeopardy. Smart plays Martha as a mentally distressed heroine who struggles to pull herself together and alert her husband to a national-security catastrophe. Martha's mission becomes every bit as exciting as Jack's. Smart portrays Martha with such poignancy that the actress makes Charles Logan (Gregory Itzin), the weaselly president, a bit more likable and human." -- Hal Boedeker, Orlando Sentinal

"Even Chloe, however, might be cowed by one of the newcomers: Jean Smart's madly brittle first lady, Martha Logan. Martha is savvy and unstable, and Smart makes her funny, terrifying and sympathetic." -- Robert Bianco, USA Today

"Season five's cast includes a number of new faces, such as Sean Astin, who may end up being the best or worst thing to happen to CTU; Peter Weller, set to join the crew in an upcoming episode; and the most compelling person in the season opener, Jean Smart as the first lady. In the first four hours, Smart creates a new kind of female on a show known for veering between extremes in its women characters. Martha Logan isn't the ultimate Lady Macbeth, like Sherry Palmer, or a victim in the mold of -- heck, take your pick. She's a caged Cassandra, medicated to the brink of sanity and ignored. Smart makes us empathize with her frustration without overselling it." -- Melanie McFarland, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"Maintaining a tradition of riveting female leads - including the fabulous Alberta Watson of season four - Jean Smart's First Lady, Martha Logan, is a smidgen of Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest, and a pinch of Louise Fletcher's Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. That is to say, she is both deranged and chillingly rational." -- Verne Gay, Newsday.com