A one-off episode of US presidential drama The West Wing, based on issues raised by the terrorist attacks on America, will screen on TV2 next Tuesday.
The hurriedly produced show, titled Isaac and Ishmael, will be the first of several programmes to embrace terrorism themes, which American networks have previously avoided.
It
will screen on NBC tonight (US time).
Next week, rival network CBS plans to broadcast an episode of a new CIA drama, The Agency, dealing with a potential anthrax attack on the US.
The following week, NBC will open the third season of its police and fire drama, Third Watch, with three episodes about the attack on New York's World Trade Center.
Fox launches its CIA drama, 24, next month, although producers have removed shots of an exploding plane.
TVNZ will screen The Agency and the rest of the new series of The West Wing early next year.
The Third Watch series will be screened later.
The West Wing is the first show to reverse the initial impulse of primetime dramas to shy away from anything to do with the events of September 11.
The Agency executive producer Wolfgang Petersen said entertainment programming was ready to confront the tragedy.
"Instead of walking away from it, we'll get into it," he told trade paper Daily Variety. "That's what the CIA is dealing with."
Since NBC executives last week approved the special West Wing segment, cast and crew have raced to put the episode together under a painfully tight production schedule.
The final scene was shot on Monday, giving producers just two days, rather than the usual 21, between completing filming and going to air.
Seeking to avoid the appearance of exploiting a tragedy, NBC and the show's producers have been vague about the episode, saying only that it deals with "questions and issues currently facing the world".
Some reports suggest the narrative may not expressly refer to terrorism but to an act of violence against the US, and that writer Aaron Sorkin is seeking to make a point about tolerance in the midst of the crisis.
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