If This Had Been 24, You Would Have Had To Wait Until Netflix Delivered The Second Disc Before The President Even Found Out About The Threat

As we suspected, the timeline for the Times Square Car Bomb was a little . . . extended, as the Daily News shows:

6:28 p.m.: Video surveillance camera records the Nissan Pathfinder driving west on 45th St.

6:34 p.m.: Times Square street vendor notices the suspicious vehicle and flags down Officer Wayne Rhatigan, who is patrolling on horse. Rhatigan calls in a report of a car fire, and flags down additional officers.

6:40 p.m.: Engine 54 and Ladder 4 is the first FDNY unit to respond.

Approximately 6:47: Bomb squad arrives, cops begin evacuating Times Square.

7 p.m.: Commissioner Raymond Kelly, attending White House correspondents’ dinner in Washington with Mayor Bloomberg, first learns of the incident.

8 p.m.: Kelly tells Bloomberg of the incident.

8:30 p.m.: Many Broadway shows, including hits “The Lion King,” “Next to Normal” and “Come Fly Away” start late.

9 p.m.: The Marriott Marquis, across the street from the car bomb, begins evacuating guests from its south tower.

10:40 p.m.: Kelly fully debriefs Bloomberg as the dinner ends. They decide to return to New York immediately.

10:45 p.m.: President Obama is notified of the situation.

11 p.m.: Bloomberg and girlfriend Diana Taylor leave correspondents dinner. They get in an SUV and head for the airport, where they board one of the mayor’s two private French-made tri-engine Dassault Falcon 900 jets. Kelly soon joins him.

11:30 p.m.: Bomb is considered dismantled by NYPD. Broadway shows begin letting out. Some shows direct theatergoers out back alley exits. Theatergoers at “God of Carnage” are held from leaving for 15 minutes.

So had this been a real terrorist attack, the timeline might go like this:

6:28 p.m.: Video surveillance camera records the Nissan Pathfinder driving west on 45th St.

6:29 p.m.: Since video surveillance does little to actually prevent crime versus merely helping investigators afterward understand what happened, a vendor and hundreds others on the street are killed by a massive car bomb.

6:34 p.m.: Shit goes bananas and people start really freaking out.

7 p.m.: Commissioner Raymond Kelly, attending White House correspondents’ dinner in Washington with Mayor Bloomberg, first learns of the incident, but neither can really do much since they’re stuck like three hours away in D.C.

8 p.m.: Hopefully Broadway theaters extend their customary five to ten minute delay to accommodate stragglers and latecomers.