When it premiered in 2006, Tim Kring’s Heroes was raved about and considered the next great piece of episodic genre TV. Many thought it would be the next Lost, and Hayden Panettiere (who’s back in a big way with Scream VI) became a star overnight. But, as soon as season 2 started, the show seemingly jumped the shark, and what began as a promising superhero epic became just another TV soap opera. What happened? Part of it had to do with the fact that Bryan Fuller, who consulted on Season One, left before the second season, while the second season also coincided with the WGA Writer’s Strike, which spelled the doom for many shows. While Heroes would continue for another few seasons, viewership died off, and many felt that the show never lived up to the considerable promise of the first season.
In this episode of Gone But Not Forgotten, which is written, produced and edited by David Arroyo and narrated by Jesse Shade, we dig into how this epic fantasy about ordinary people imbued with superhero abilities initially captured the public’s imagination. While the series would eventually end with a whimper rather than a bang, it also made Zachary Quinto, who played the show’s scene-stealing villain Sylar, a star paving the way for him to play Spock in the new J.J. Abrams series of Star Trek movies. Hayden Panettiere would become a major star, while Milo Ventimiglia would eventually land a long run on NBC’s This is Us. Masi Oka would also become a cult icon. Still, there was a bad side to the show too, with news coming out years later about how star Leonard Roberts was written out due to conflicts with co-star Ali Larter. At the same time, behind-the-scenes changes made the quality of the show decline season-to-season, ruining what should have been an excellent TV franchise.
Do you have fond memories of Heroes? Let us know in the comments!