Heroes (might contain slight spoilers)

[Geekyfanboy]

This is taken from a TV guide reporter Michael Ausiello

"I just finished reading a first draft of the script for Heroes, NBC's fall pilot about everyday folks blessed with superpowers, and, well, to answer the question I posed in the title, yes, I believe a new Lost-like phenomenon is about to be born. And here's why: THE CAST ROCKS: In addition to one of my FFPOTP Greg Grunberg, the ensemble boasts Gilmore guy Milo Ventimiglia and teenage wunderkind Hayden Panettiere. The show's behind-the-scenes pedigree is equally as impressive. Dave Semel, whose credits include directing the American Dreams pilot, has just signed on to helm the Heroes pilot. And while I may not deem Crossing Jordan FauxVo-worthy, I'm suddenly a big fan of its (and Heroes') creator, Tim Kring.

I'M ALREADY OBSESSED WITH THE CHARACTERS: Just as Lost isn't really a show about a haunted island, Heroes isn't a show about crusaders, caped or otherwise. It's about people â€" albeit ones with extraordinary quirks. "I kind of want to stay away from the superhero aspect," says Kring. "It's about very ordinary people all over the world who literally discover that they have special powers, and it's their dealing with that." The superheroes, er, ordinary people include a 30-year-old male nurse who believes he can fly â€" and, unlike R. Kelly, really can; a 28-year-old junkie who has the ability to paint images of the future; a 33-year-old Las Vegas showgirl who can do incredible things with mirrors; a 24-year-old Japanese comic-book geek who literally makes time stand still; a 31-year-old inmate who can transport himself through walls (eat your heart out, Michael Scofield); and a 17-year-old cheerleader who defies death at every turn (think of Bruce Willis in Unbreakable, only with blonde hair and big pom-poms).

[Geekyfanboy]

Sounds cool to me.. kind of like X-men for TV. I know the idea isn't orginal but I don't care.. Let's hope the pilot is picked up for series.  :love

[Javert]

this sounds like an amazing show it sounds like unbreakable with  bruce willis with some different twists. personally i loved that movie and im lookin forward to this show

[Rico]

WOW!  Very cool news.  I'd love to see a team type superhero show sometime.  Besides the animated series I don't think we've had a real good team superhero show in basically forever.  There was an older show called "Misfits of Science" back in the 80's that gave it a shot.  Anyone remember that one?  A very young Courtney Cox was one of the stars.

[Javert]

jeez all you OLD  people talkin about shows that were around before i was born that isn't Star Trek STOP IT! just kidding :D

[Geekyfanboy]

WOW! Very cool news. I'd love to see a team type superhero show sometime. Besides the animated series I don't think we've had a real good team superhero show in basically forever. There was an older show called "Misfits of Science" back in the 80's that gave it a shot. Anyone remember that one? A very young Courtney Cox was one of the stars.

I love Misfits of Science.. I actually still have them recorded on Video tape somewhere.

[Javert]

i don't really know anything about that show. what were the characters like in it?

[Geekyfanboy]

Misfits of Science synopsis.... Drs. Hayes and Lincoln are researchers in biological oddities for the Humanidyne company. When they find a man still alive after being frozen for 50 years, their greedy boss fires them and takes the Iceman to use for military experiments. Left without jobs, Hayes and Lincoln (who could shrink) decide to get a group of "freaks" (including a telekinetic 17-year-old (Courtney Cox) and a rock guitarist who shoots lightning from his hands) together to rescue the Iceman (Who could freeze things) and stop their boss' reckless experiments.

Here is a better Synopsis...

Semi-superhero TV show that revolved around a group of young people with superpowers who are members of an American think tank and fight crime. Members included head scientist and fast talker Dr. Billy Hayes, who worked at the Humanidyne Institute and had no powers but led his team of patients and colleagues, including:

Fellow scientist 7'4" Dr. Elvin "El" Lincoln, who hates basketball and sought a way to become normal height and developed a way to shrink to 7" for 14 minutes once/hour by injecting himself with a growth serum and tapping a nerve center in his neck;

John "Johnny B" Bukowski, a rock musician who gained freak electrical powers when he was caught in an accident with a set of amplifiers. He uncontrollably absorbed electricity and could fire it as lightning bolts or channel it into super-speed, but water caused him to short circuit, burning him with potentially fatal results and forcing him to retire as a musician;

Gloria "Glo" Dinallo, A 17 year old street delinquent, whose father was supposedly an alien, who could move anything she could see with her mind via telekinesis and was romantically interested in Johnny.

Arnold Biefneiter, aka The Iceman, a cyrogenically frozen worker from 1937 who was brought back to life and had the power to radiate extreme cold as well as an obsession with Amelia Earhart and a love of frozen candy bars (Iceman was dropped after the premiere movie).

The Misfits were aided (and sometimes hindered) by Billy's long-suffering supervisor Stetmeyer, Gloria's truancy officer (and Billy's love interest) Jane Miller, and obnoxious Humanidyne secretary Miss Nance.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Javert]

sounds pretty cool did they have mutant villains they had to face too?

[Rico]

Yeah, they had some mutant villains too.  Sad thing is the lead guy (Dean Martin's son) and the tall black guy died young.  I think I have just the pilot on VHS still around.

[Javert]

omg that picture is hilariou. i guess it just shows the crazy state of the crazy 80s. glad i wasn't around to remeber much of it.

[Geekyfanboy]

More from the TV guide reporter Michael Ausiello

I CAN RELATE: You didn't hear? I, too, was born with unnatural abilities. All kidding aside (wink, wink), as Kring points out, "It's pretty grounded in reality. Part of what makes it really feel very real is that these people's lives should mirror your own; you should be able to see your ordinary life reflected on screen."   

IT'S ALL ONE BIG PUZZLE: And you know the deal with puzzles. "It's a big interconnected saga," says Kring. "They're all drawn together towards a destiny of saving the world." And not to OD on the Lost parallels, but Kring adds, "It's extremely serialized."

IT'S SCARY: What would an extremely serialized show about superheroes, er, ordinary people (I have to stop doing that!) be without a creepy antagonist? Heroes' big baddie is described as a "Max Von Sydow-type" whose trademark accessory is a pair of horned rimmed glasses. And although his intentions aren't made crystal clear in the pilot, one thing is certain: He wants to get his hands on some of that super DNA.

ONCE AGAIN, IT SENT A SHIVER DOWN MY SPINE: "It" being the final scene. Provided Kring doesn't tinker too much with the script â€" I can't stress enough that I read an early draft â€" the climactic sequence, as inevitable as it may seem, will make you stand up and shout, "It's my new Lost!" And the next words out of your mouth better be: "Ausiello was right!"

[Chief]

Wow Heroes look pretty cool. Hope the show hits the torrents fast because other wise I'd have to wait a full year to enjoy it here in Taco Land.

Still I will be reading reviews and news to see how it goes.

Thanks for the heads up!

[Geekyfanboy]

Grunberg Has Hopes For Heroes

Greg Grunberg (Alias) told SCI FI Wire that he gets to play an Everyman superhero in Heroes, an SF drama pilot for NBC from writer Tim Kring (Crossing Jordan, Providence). "It basically really covers the humanity of becoming a superhero, what happens when [eight] ordinary people get these super powers, and I get to be one of them," Grunberg said in an interview at the Saturn Awards in Universal City, Calif., earlier this week. "I play a cop who can read people's minds, but I can't control it. So in the pilot it's really interesting how it just comes at me, and I don't know how to deal with it, and then I kind of use it. It could be really, really interesting if we get a series."

Grunberg said he's waiting to hear whether NBC will pick up the show as a series based on its two-hour pilot, which also stars Ali Larter (Final Destination) and Milo Ventimiglia (Gilmore Girls). Grunberg added that it's not your typical comic-book superhero story. "You're not going to get me in tights and a leotard," he said. "No one wants to see me in a cape!" He added: "It's high-concept, obviously. It's very creepy and dark. I mean, it's disturbing at times. And then also, it's like, 'Oh, man. I wish I could do that.'"

Grunberg, who is a childhood friend of Alias and Lost co-creator J.J. Abrams, has also made a side career out of appearing in his pal's productions, including the upcoming Mission: Impossible III, in which he has a cameo role. As for Abrams' next big movie, a proposed 11th Star Trek film, Grunberg said: "I told J.J., 'Look, if you're going to put me in five hours of makeup, I did that in Hollow Man, and it's going to be even worse with Star Trek.' [But] I hope he gives me a great role in that. I would love it." What would he like to be? "In the Federation. I'd want to do something ... really cool. I don't know. A Klingon would actually be very cool. That would be awesome, actually, now that you mention it. Yeah, I'll call him right now. [Pulls out cell phone.] Get J.J. on the horn! Klingon! That's where I'll go."

And from todays news....

According to Reuters, the Greg Grunberg-fueled superhero drama was picked up by NBC, but the network declined to note how many episodes were ordered, waiting for next week's "upfront" advertiser presentations to do so.

[Geekyfanboy]

Heroes will be on NBC Monday nights at 9pm.. here is a better description of the show.

HEROES" -- The epic drama "Heroes" chronicles the lives of ordinary people who discover they possess extraordinary abilities. As a total eclipse casts it shadow across the globe, viewers follow a genetics professor (Sendhil Ramamurthy, "Blind Guy Driving") in India whose father's disappearance leads him to uncover a secret theory -- there are people with super powers living among us. A young dreamer (Milo Ventimiglia, "The Bedford Diaries") tries to convince his politician brother (Adrian Pasdar, "Judging Amy") that he can fly. A high school cheerleader (Hayden Panettiere, "Ice Princess") learns that she is totally indestructible. A Las Vegas stripper (Ali Larter, "Final Destination"), struggling to make ends meet to support her young son (Noah Gray-Cabey, "My Wife & Kids"), uncovers that her mirror image has a secret. A prison inmate (Leonard Roberts, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") mysteriously finds himself waking up outside of his cell. A gifted artist (Santiago Cabrera, "Empire"), whose drug addiction is destroying his life and the relationship with his girlfriend (Tawny Cypress, "Third Watch"), can paint the future. A down-on-his-luck beat cop (Greg Grunberg, "Alias") can hear people's thoughts, including the secrets of a captured terrorist. In Japan, a young man (Masi Oka, "Scrubs") develops a way to stop time through sheer will power. Their ultimate destiny is nothing less than saving the world. "Heroes" is executive produced by creator/writer Tim Kring ("Crossing Jordan), Dennis Hammer ("Crossing Jordan") and David Semel ("House"), who also directed the pilot. The drama is from NBC Universal Television Studio.