From the beginning it was clear that Touch -- a complex human drama starring Kiefer Sutherland as a widowed father struggling to raise an autistic son on his own -- needed a delicate balance.

Writer Tim Kring's tale of science, spirituality and redemption tells the seemingly unconnected stories of a group of people all over the world whose lives are linked by a series of random numbers. The 11-year-old boy alone seems to understand the numbers' meaning, but he's not communicating: He's silent, unresponsive and refuses to be touched, despite the best efforts of his father to make a human connection.

Touch will debut in March, but the pilot episode will be sneak-previewed Wednesday (Jan. 25), following American Idol on FOX and following Bomb Girls on Global TV.

When the series resumes later this spring, each weekly episode will focus on the life of someone who comes into the boy's life, from a social worker, played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who believes the boy's needs are becoming too serious for a single father to manage, to a university professor, played by Danny Glover, with an affinity for numbers and a unique ability to reach children who've closed themselves off to the outside world.

It was that quiet, unusual tone that drew Sutherland back to TV after eight years of chasing terrorists on 24. Touch has filmed four episodes so far, and Sutherland admitted he has settled back into the rhythm of making a weekly TV series.

"The commitment to a television show, certainly, in the case of 24, was eight years," Sutherland recalled earlier this month in Los Angeles. "So, if you are going to do something potentially for another eight years, you want it to be something that you can really sink your teeth into, something that's different and that's going to challenge you in a different way for this next period of time.

"The other day, Tim (Kring) and I were talking about getting older, and he said, 'At some point, you start to realize you have to be responsible for what you're gong to say.' And if there was anything I wanted to be a part of saying, it was this beautiful idea of universal interconnectivity and this responsibility that we have to each other, as a people, as a race, to this planet. For all those reasons, that's why I chose to do this show."

Touch's pilot episode was directed by Francis Lawrence, a feature filmmaker who shepherded Water for Elephants, Constantine and I Am Legend, among others. Lawrence made his name in music videos, directing videos for Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Britney Spears and, in 2002, Avril Lavigne's "Sk8er Boi."

Touch required a different touch, though. In style, and structure, it resembles Paul Haggis's Crash -- a tale about different personalities with different backgrounds whose lives unexpectedly collide.

Touch is an odd fit for broadcast TV, with its commercial interruptions and frantic pacing, but Lawrence and Kring were determined to find a way.

They succeeded, from Sutherland's point of view.

Sutherland said Touch's tale of family connection held special resonance for him.

"I've been really fortunate," Sutherland said quietly. "I grew up with my mother, and I have a very, very close relationship with my father now."

Sutherland also shares a close emotional bond with his late grandfather, former Saskatchewan premier, Tommy Douglas.

"Tommy Douglas was someone I was very, very close to," he said. "I have a twin sister, who has helped me through a lot of stuff. My youngest daughter is 24. My oldest daughter is in her 30s. They have come around the other side and been unbelievable support systems, too. So I've been very fortunate that way.

"I have two grandsons. I have a daughter with two children. I don't think anybody who has a child doesn't want the best they can possibly get for that child. I think the great pain and frustration of parenthood comes when we feel we aren't doing that," said Sutherland.

"I think that's the constant reality surrounding my character: his sense of failure as a parent, the feeling he's somehow responsible for where his own son's at. That is certainly something I responded to as a parent myself. I think the show does that well.

"I think it's always a great thing for a parent to be able to see and realize that they're not alone. Certainly, (Touch) spoke to me on that level."

A sneak preview of Touch airs Wednesday, Jan. 25 following American Idol on FOX and following Bomb Girls on Global TV.

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