Heroes (American TV series)

Heroes is an American drama television series, created by Tim Kring, which premiered on NBC on September 25, 2006. The series tells the story of several people who "thought they were like everyone else... until they woke with incredible abilities" such as telepathy, time travel and flight. These people soon realize they have a role in preventing a catastrophe and saving mankind.^[1]

Heroes
File:Heroes title card.png Heroes title card
Created by	Tim Kring
Starring	see below
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	10 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	44 minutes approx.
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	September 25, 2006 – present

The series loosely follows the writing style of American comics by doing short, multi-episode story arcs that build upon a larger, more encompassing arc. Even with small story arcs that move the story forward, Kring said he mapped out where he intends the show to go for the next five seasons.^[2]

New episodes currently air Mondays at 9 p.m. EST. On October 6, 2006, NBC President Kevin Reilly announced Heroes had been picked up for a full season.^[3]

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• Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere) is a cheerleader who lives in Odessa, Texas, with the ability to rapidly heal from any injury.
• Mr. Bennet (Jack Coleman) is Claire's adoptive father. Unbeknownst to Claire, he is aware of her superhuman abilities, as well as those of several other characters, and attempts to kidnap them for unknown reasons. He has no known superhuman abilities.
• Isaac Mendez (Santiago Cabrera) is a heroin-addicted artist living in New York who can paint future events during precognitive trances induced by his heroin use. Many of his works involve the other characters in the series.
• Simone Deveaux (Tawny Cypress) is an art dealer who sells paintings created by her former boyfriend, Isaac. She has no known superhuman abilities.
• Niki Sanders (Ali Larter) is a webcam stripper who lives in Las Vegas with an unrestrained alternate personality. When this other personality, a manifestation of Niki's dead sister, Jessica, takes over, she exhibits superhuman strength.
• D.L. Hawkins (Leonard Roberts) is Niki's estranged husband with the power to phase through solid objects, including people.
• Micah Sanders (Noah Gray-Cabey) is the son of D.L. and Niki. He is a child prodigy and a technopath, although so far he has only used his abilities to temporarily repair an out-of-order pay phone.
• Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka) is a salaryman from Tokyo with the ability to manipulate the space-time continuum.
• Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg) is a Los Angeles police officer with the power of telepathy.
• Nathan Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar) is a New York congressional candidate with the ability to fly.
• Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia) is a former nurse and Nathan's younger brother. He has the ability to mimic the powers of others.
• Mohinder Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy) is a genetics professor from India who travels to New York to investigate the death of his father, Chandra. Through his investigations, he comes in contact with people having superhuman abilities, although he has no known superhuman abilities himself.
• Gabrielle Sylar was a watch maker with the ability to "fix things". Like Peter he can absorb the powers of others, but does so by murdering others with super abilities and somehow removing the power from their brains.

The first four episodes were dubbed "Ordinary people discovering extraordinary abilities." At the end of the fourth episode, an event occurred which kicked off the current arc: "Save the cheerleader, save the world," which is presumably in reference to Claire Bennet, a high school cheerleader from Texas with the ability to rapidly heal from injury, and the apocalyptic visions of New York artist Isaac Mendez. As the large ensemble cast slowly discovers their abilities and existence of others like them, they begin to realize the need for them to come together to prevent a catastrophe and save mankind.

According to NBC's official Web site, not only do the characters discover their superpowers, but also uncover a larger picture concerning their superpowers' origins. The characters become involved in each other's lives as they attempt to evade the series' antagonist, Sylar, who is tracking and killing super-powered humans.

Template:Spoiler Appearing frequently throughout the series is a symbol which strongly resembles an RNA molecule. Said appearances include:

• In a crime scene's swimming pool. Several flotation devices float in this shape.
• Frequently on a computer screen, scrolling across a genetic profiling program created by Chandra Suresh.
• On a drawing done by Peter Petrelli.
• On paintings Isaac Mendez frequently makes.
• On a post-it note on the map in Mohinder Suresh's apartment.
• Written on a geometry textbook owned by Claire Bennet.
• Written on pictures in Sylar's apartment.
• On Niki's back whenever her alternate personality surfaces.
• Engraved on the hilt of future Hiro's sword.
• Printed on the front of Chandra Suresh's book, Activating Evolution.
• Printed on the upper-left corner of the 14th issue of 9th Wonders! comic book, written by Isaac Mendez.
• On a necklace worn by the Haitian.
• On a picture of Niki painted by Isaac. The symbol was hidden under an extra layer of paint.
• Drawn on a Greyhound bus sign, seen right before D.L. spots the runaway Micah in the episode Homecoming.

A second symbol, consisting of two parallel lines, has appeared on the necks of two super-powered characters immediately after being abducted by the Haitian:

• Matt Parkman, the telepathic policeman from Los Angeles.
• Ted Sprague, a character who possesses the ability to emit radiation.

When the writing team works on an episode, each writer takes a character and writes the individual scenes surrounding that character. These stories are then combined and given to the episode writer, allowing every writer to contribute to every episode.^[4]

A special 72-minute version of the pilot was first screened to a large audience at the 2006 Comic Con in San Diego.^[5]

The series is filmed in Los Angeles and Santa Clarita, California.

When the series premiered in the United States, it was the night's most-watched program among adults 18-49, attracting 14.3 million viewers overall and receiving the highest rating for any NBC drama premiere in five years.^[6]

Heroes is broadcast on the following stations around the world (sorted in alphabetical order of country, except USA and Canada).

On October 2, 2006, Emerson Electric Company, an appliance market competitor of NBC's owner General Electric, filed suit in federal court against NBC. The suit was in regards to a scene that appeared in "Genesis," the pilot episode, which depicts Claire Bennet reaching into an active garbage disposal unit—apparently Emerson's In-Sink-Erator—to retrieve a ring, and severely injuring her hand in the process. Emerson claims the scene "casts the disposer in an unsavory light, irreparably tarnishing the product" by suggesting serious injuries will result "in the event consumers were to accidentally insert their hand into one."

Emerson is asking for a ruling barring future broadcasts of the pilot, which was previously available on NBC's Web site and has already aired on NBC Universal-owned cable networks USA and Sci Fi. It also seeks to block NBC from using any Emerson trademarks in the future.^[8]

The episode in question was briefly unavailable in the iTunes Store, but an edited version was shortly made available for download.

• Official NBC site
• 9th Wonders - Semi-official site from Heroes creator Tim Kring