David Fury: transition to writing 24 “was difficult for me”

After several years working on Buffy and Angel, Fury moved on to the dramas Lost and 24, but the move to those shows wasn’t without its challenges.

“The wonderful thing about Buffy and Angel was being able to bring humor into every situation and I loved, loved doing that. It was a bit like a comedy room,” explained Fury. ”I tried to bring humor to Lost as well, like with Hurley’s golf course on the island. I understand it’s a dire situation, but I wanted to interject humor. (Lost creators) Damon [Lindelof] and J.J. [Abrams] had a great sense of humor. But when I wrote my first stuff for 24, I remember [creator and showrunner] Joel Surnow said, ‘I read your stuff. Very funny, Get rid of it. We don’t do that. That’s not us.’ Taking that out of my arsenal, that arrow out of my quiver, it was a different thing for me for me to not have that to work with. It’s great for what it is; it’s just not what I’d been doing. That transition was difficult for me. Part of me felt like, ‘why do they want me here? This isn’t what I do,’ but they liked what I did and told me to keep doing it so I did that for four years.”

Despite the fact that he started as a comedy writer, it seemed to Fury that all anyone wants him to do are espionage shows; shows were the fate of the free world is at stake, but Fury is reluctant to continue down that path. “That’s just not me,” he says firmly. “But, because of my work on 24 that’s how I’m defined.”

Fury has stepped away from Tyrant‘s second season and is moving back to comedies.