Heroes: "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World"

These six words have become the banner and rallying cry for the Heroes television series, which the Paley Festival honored last night at the DGA for being one of the most innovative and entertaining shows of the year. And it was fun to learn that these words were coined by old acquaintance Adam Armus, in the script he and his writing partner, Nora Kay Foster, wrote, called “Homecoming.” I know Adam and Nora from our mutual Hercules and Xena days.

It was an interesting evening and somewhat different than others I’ve attended. As a producer friend and I stood in the DGA lobby, looking over the crowd to the sold-out event, we saw something I’ve never seen at PaleyFest – a standby line. Looking at the crowd makeup and the poster announcing the slew of actors, my producer friend suggested that the Museum was choosing its tributes by which programs would bring out the most fans. With my so much more loftier view of PaleyFest, I assured him that wasn’t the case – that the panel makeup of these events was part cast and part creative team and the audience reflected the same division, half people in the business and half general public.

He remained skeptical and I can’t blame him, for with eleven actors onstage and only the creator/executive producer Tim Kring with them, it wasn’t possible to hear from anyone else on the creative team and hence, it didn’t look like a balanced mix. Obviously, the decision was made that everyone was there to see only the actors – a point brought home by someone asking where a cast member who wasn’t on stage was.

I don’t know if the paucity of writing/directing/producing/industry-related questions was due to the preponderance of actors and scarcity of creative team onstage or whether those of us who both work in the industry and watch the shows just didn’t get our collective fingers clicking on the internet buttons before the event sold out. Because the event did sell out within the first hour after the online box office opened.

To be fair, with every question making the rounds of everyone on stage, there wasn’t enough time for more than a few.

This evening’s special excerpt pulled from the archives was from a 1967 documentary, 21^st Century Mysteries of Life. It was about a scientific study on rats’ brains treated to induce more extensive use of brain function. I can understand the relation to the evening’s subject, but I thought it was a questionable choice because most of the audience couldn’t relate to it and was bored. I was bored and I used to work on biochemical studies like that! In the right mood, I might have been fascinated, but revved up for a good time and fiction as we were, it wasn’t easy to concentrate our grey matter on rats being injected and data collected.

The moderator was Emmy-winning, 12-year veteran reporter Tony Potts of Access Hollywood. He was part of the fun of the evening because he was quick on the comeback and drew as many chuckles out of the audience as the cast did. For example, the actors admitted they’re all really nervous whenever they get new script, for none of them feel safe. None of them have seen final script. To which Tim Kring nodded and admitted to knowing everybody’s fate. “Tim Kring survives,” Potts quipped, getting a chuckle out of audience and guests.

Adrian Pasdar added that although the show is called Heroes, he thinks it should be called “Survivors.” On the same subject, Greg Grunberg teased the audience that he had read episode 22 and it blew him away. Hence, he felt he could say with authority that it will have that same effect on the rest of us.

Potts talked about his own introduction to Heroes. Every summer, to help him view all the pilots he’s sent, he invites his friends and his “rock-n-roll rebels from the mid-50’s parents” who are now in their mid 60s (not exactly the demographic NBC is looking for, I should think.) He shared how quiet it became in the room after watching the first scene of Heroes. He looked at his guests and asked if this could possibly be as good as he thought it was. Having to screen dozens of new series each season, I don’t blame him for looking for those shows that make him want to see the next scene.

Obviously, he was onto something with Heroes because the pilot debuted to 14 million people in October and had grown to 16 million by November. (I had seen the full 71-minute version of the pilot at Comicon earlier this year, which had left me feeling I should’ve just waited to see the stripped down version aired on television.) He then introduced Tim Kring, the creator and executive producer, who told us we were going to see the episode which they internally call episode 9 and which we know as “Homecoming”, then we were going to get a preview clip from episode 19 (which would air on April 23^rd). In it, Linderman has a proposition for Nathan – his campaign for the presidency will be successful, but the price of it will be his brother’s life.

When Potts asked about Tim Kring’s history with NBC (his first writing credit being on NBC’s Knightrider) and how the series came about, Tim claimed to have “a long career, but a short attention span.” That after he does something for a while, he’s ready to do something else. That he’s interested in doing open-ended shows where he can dig deeper. As soon as he mentioned this, Potts brought up Lost and asked if Tim was worried about Heroes falling into the same trap as Lost.

Kring said that his show has an advantage of coming after Lost made a mistake in frustrating its audience by carrying a storyline out too long. To that end, he promised that he won’t carry out the storyline past the end of the season. “The difference between our show and Lost is that the central dilemma is wrapped up at season end and we move onto chapter 2.” This allows him, he said, to jump on a story and jump off. Thus, he described his series as having close-ended stories with continuing characters, where the central theme and central storyline are wrapped.

Asked about pitching the show, Tim said he had memorized the pitch before going into the room. When he was done, the execs stared at him, wondering how he would pull it off. They were stunned, though, by the pitch and said, “Let’s do it.” It ended up being a pretty quick turnaround as he pitched it in September, wrote it in November, and it was picked up to pilot in January. The pilot had to set up a lot of characters.

Tim then went on to describe a fairly standard casting process: first, the actors read for the casting directors, him and the director. Then they read for the studio, and then for the network. He said that Hayden Panettiere (who mentioned signing on for 6 seasons) was the only one considered for Claire. Potts then got a laugh out of Ali Larter by asking her whether she gets two paychecks.

For those who are interested in how the show is written, it is written differently than the shows I’m used to working on. Then again, I’ve never worked on a show with such a huge cast of series regulars, so maybe this is standard writing for this type of show. Tim said that every writer writes on every episode, for they divide up the characters. Then the writer on record polishes it up.

An interesting corollary to the subject of writing the show came as a result of Adrian talking about the first time he flew in the desert: the director asked him, “What are you doing?” when he skidded to a stop and hurt because of it. He told the director that he didn’t have "super feet". Tim picked up on Adrian’s answer to say that's an example of the crazy times the writers can have in the writers room -- discussing things like how would he land?

Tim also reminded us that series eat stories very quickly and that there was an organic process to how characters interact. That you have to let the chemistry between characters be fluid so that if it is playing as something different than you wanted, you can go with it.

When the subject of the violence and death on the show came up, Tim admitted that he didn’t realize how many families with kids were watching the show. Hence, they have to be a bit careful picking and choosing the evidence they show, sometimes giving it almost a comic book feel. Hayden added how she kept getting her limbs chopped off. She said, “You should’ve tied my legs back.”

To which, Greg was quick with a provocative, “Okay.” And Hayden realized what she had inadvertently implied and just made it worse trying to right it. She ended up giving Greg another opening to tease, “We should move to Showtime.”

At which point, Hayden turned to the audience and said, “I didn’t mean it that way.” She went on to explain that she needed body casts for her breaking limbs. She described it jokingly as being mummified without taking her organs out. It’s an algae thing that gets hard, she elaborated, and then they saw her out of it.

For those not interested in questions about the writing or producing of the series like I am, there also were questions that apparently the cast gets asked often. One such question directed to every actor was: Which power would you each like to have?
Leonard said fly.
Noah: pet psychic – understand/talk to pets
Ali: get boyfriend to do dishes.
To which Potts inserted, “If you put a pole in the kitchen.”
Adrian: the ability to dodge this question because they get asked it a lot
Milo: the power of persuasion
Masi: pick out right clothes like Milo does.
Hayden: teleporting
Greg: supermetabolism (This got a big laugh from the audience and a wicked smile from him.)
Jack: invisibility is cool but he was invisible for most of the eighties. Flying faster than speed of light would be good.

The actors then turned to Tim who was surprised that they were waiting for his answer to that question. However, they insisted that he answer it, too. Thus, he revealed he wanted the ability to break an entire season of stories very quickly and painlessly. Something I think all of us writers can empathize with and wish for.

For more on the Heroes panel and the questions asked, visit what I wrote in "Fireside Chats From Hollywood" at: http://community.tvguide.com/forum.jspa?forumID=700152230