Yesterday for April Fool’s Day, the first update in over a year was posted to the KSiteTV Network’s Heroes website, HeroSite.net, posting that NBC had decided to revive Heroes, Fear Factor style, for the Fall 2012 schedule.
Of course, it was an April Fool’s gag, so it was not true. But the idea behind it might not be a completely bad one… actually, I’d welcome it.
With no offense meant to the people who loved Heroes and the people who brought it to us on a weekly basis, I’d be the first to admit that when the show ended in 2010, I wasn’t heartbroken. The show actually fell into a spot that was worse than just “this is bad” – it actually left me apathetic, which is worse than the show being bad. I still watch some shows like Glee with the intention of being able to snark on how much I often hate it. With Heroes, I didn’t even have that. The danger felt in the series’ first season was gone. It was hard to feel things when a character would “die” only to come back before the next commercial break. The network’s promotion in Season 4 didn’t help, either… the biggest push Season 4 seemed to get involved Claire having a lesbian kiss. Fodder for excitable fanboys… but shouldn’t the show have been something more?
In retrospect, I think we can all agree something with Heroes went wrong. It would make a for a fascinating book if anyone would actually talk about it. But as much as Heroes’ implosion is talked about, I think a lot of people have forgotten that feeling we all had in the Fall of 2006 and early 2007 when “saving the cheerleader” wasn’t just a goal; it was a phenomenon. The concepts of ordinary people with extraordinary abilities have been popular for centuries. Although Heroes hit on some character and super-power tropes popularized by comic books, characters like Peter, Nathan, Hiro, Claire, and HRG seemed to enter the public consciousness in a great way. And before Sylar wore out his welcome with a whiplash-inducing character flip-flop every half-season, he was one of the scariest villains to make it to TV. How cool was it when Hiro came from the future and warned Peter? Didn’t we all think that it would be possible that, come Season 6, that’s what Heroes would look like, even though the disaster at the end of Season 1 was averted?
Yes, Heroes was expensive. But look at that cast! I don’t have a source to refer to, but I’m pretty sure Tim Kring had said in an interview somewhere that he wanted to spotlight a different cast every season. At the time, people may have cried foul, but in retrospect, might that have worked? We would have been spared from so many character resets and repetitive storylines. A character like Sylar would have remained scary because he would have been away, at least for a while. And the budget might not have ballooned so high. I’m sure that at least one character would have remained throughout the series to maintain some form of continuity.
Enough babbling, as I know my geek is showing. The point of this article is, NBC is in trouble. Aside from the Kripke/Abrams Revolution and possibly Mockingbird Lane, I’m not extremely interested in any of the pilots they have in development. Their two new series renewals so far have been Smash and Grimm. Smash has been going creatively downhill already and they’ll have to find a new showrunner for Season 2. I know Grimm has its fans, but something’s missing there for me. But hey, at least it’s pulling consistent numbers! But none of those shows would give NBC the same buzz Heroes gave the network only five years ago. Not even fan favorite Chuck is part of the lineup anymore. Across all of television, there is a need for more shows that get the kind of fan interaction that Heroes had, where both casual TV viewers and the geeks could unite. Yes, there are shows like The Walking Dead, but as a friend recently pointed out to me, that’s only for 13 weeks a year.
So what is my proposal, to be completely serious? NBC should give Heroes another try. Have it take place a few years after Claire revealed herself to the world, maybe have the original “heroes” missing with only one or two of the original cast present. Have a new, small cast, mostly in the same region, since Tim Kring’s Touch has the global thing covered these days anyway. Give us a compelling continued story, with characters actually working together, and let the buzz build itself. Don’t beat us over the head with how wonderful it is; show us how fantastic it could be. Yes, Heroes did have its downfall; but then again, so did Doctor Who, and after a break, it returned to be bigger than ever. I’m sure Tim Kring himself is contracted to FOX with Touch so he won’t be available, but I’m sure there are other talented writers who could do an amazing job of it. Heroes is a great property still held in the NBC-Universal library, so I’m sure a revival will come sooner rather than later. I just think that the best time, especially considering NBC’s current condition, could be now.
(One thing I failed to mention, by the way: When the April Fool’s article was tweeted and posted on KSiteTV’s Facebook page, the article – even if fake – had more “likes” and comments than anything else in recent days. If there were truly no demand for more Heroes, it would have been greeted with crickets.)
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I agree with Craigs idea totally. Heroes could come back with a whole new cast (but maybe bring back Claire and HRG?). Perhaps the Heroes are now all underground or have secret identities due to a Hero “massacre” once Claire did her reveal. If not NBC, someone should pick this up – almost a sure winner !!
Last year, there was an attempt to remake Heroes (at least, it felt like an attempt to remake Heroes, although that might not have been the intent of the creators). Granted, it wasn’t on NBC, but Alphas (SyFy) had a very Heroes feel to it, at least in marketing and general premise. It followed a group of seemingly ordinary people who have super-normal abilities (although perhaps a bit more realistic abilities than some of the Heroes’ abilities). Unfortunately, I was rather underwhelmed with the actual product. I really enjoyed watching the character, Gary, and I’m a bit of a David Strathairn fan (even if I found his character a bit dull in the show), but the rest of the characters I just had a hard time connecting with.
The series premiere had decent ratings for a SyFy show, but viewership dropped quickly. The finale was less than half the premiere, but it apparently was good enough for a second season (not sure when it starts).
Heroes failed after season 1 becuase they refused to take the show in a logical direction. It would have been a lot better if the Heroes had all moved in together at the end of season 1 and formed a group to fight against people like Sylar, as opposed to all going there separate which lead to repeats in storylines like with Claire. If heroes is ever brought back i think it should be planned a lot farther then season 1.
If Heroes takes the LOW ROAD as did FEAR FACTOR then you will have another failure.
Make the damn thing already. Just like it was said earlier, if the show and concept was so bad, why after so much time is it even discussed? The people are speaking!
“Save the Heroes, save the world.”
There are Heroes fans all over the world that demand the show to return. Why won’t NBC just listen to us?
spiink do you honestly think that NBC actually cares about what we say or think? they just want to see how much money they can make. I would rather see another network pick up Heroes and let them have the freedom to do whatever and the funds to do what’s needed
Everyone talks like Season 1 is the best season. Not to me. I love season 1 don’t get me wrong. But Season 3 is the best season to me. Heroes never fell off.
I want to see them make a prequel series that follows characters like Angela, Linderman, Aurther, Adam, Etc. back when they were younger and first found each other.
I LOVED HEROES!!!!
SOME PEOPLE SAY IT WENT DOWNHILL, SOME SAY IT WAS AWESOME OVER ALL 4 SEASONS!!
i say YES BRING BACK HEROES!!! It was awesome, phemoninal!!!!
“Save the Cheerleader, Save the WORLD.” were the defining words that fans all around the world could connect with. Kids, teenagers, adults, boys, girls, men, women all around the world watched and loved HEROES because of what it stood for. Weather some characters weren’t great, or were annoying. Some characters were awesome!! To this day HEROES is still loved and missed. Season 4 got an averge 6.5 million U.S. viewers. But dont forget tht Season 3 got 7.6 million U.S. viewers and 9.27 million U.S. live viewers + DVR, n 3.2 million of UK viewership. That is still alot of people watching. You don’t have to put HEROES back on NBC, all us fans (die hard or season 1,2,3,4 likers) is HEROES TO COME BACK!!!! U can put it on a different network, just bring back the magic and imagination. Plus with production costs Doctor Who is sci fi n it still looks great even tho the effects are low budgted, but still looks awesome on tv.
Agreed some episodes weren’t great but mistakes were made and people learn from mistakes. If HEROES does come back make sure 1st to wrapp up things e.g. loose ends. 2nd if it goes good thru out the season or watever its going to be than make another season (note u can make another generation, like 5 years into the future. e.g. Degrassi, Doctor Who, and many other shows took breaks and than got famous!!!
Save the HEROES, Save THE WORLD” <3
BRING IT BACK NOW!!! 2 years have gone by. Listen to US HEROES FANS!!!!! <3 <3
I THINK HEROES SHOULD COME BACK BRING BACK THE OLD CAST OR MOST OF THEM HAVE WATCHED FROM SEASON 1 – 4 3 TIMES NOW WHY FINISH ON A TO BE CONTINUED WITH THE WATHERS SLOWLY REDUCING WHY NOT JUST TRY CHANGING THE BROADCAST TIMES IT COULD OF JUST BEEN THAT IT COINCIDED WITH OTHER PROGRAMMES PEOPLE PREFERED TO WATCH JUST BRING IT BACK PUT A POLL UP FOR PEOPLE TO VOTE THE MOST CONVINIENT TIME JUST GIVE IT A GO PLEASE
I WANT HEROES BACK NOW!!!!!
OMG OMG OMG PLEASE MAKE A 5TH SEASON!!!!
PLEASE BRING HEROS BACK!!!!!!!
Heroes is and was a fantastic show it was not done justice in the last two seasonsbut it deserves a 5th season. It was the fear and the mistery that made it such a succesfull show in the beginning. It lost that it wasn’t scary and it didn’t make you go to the edge of your seat. It went downhill when they made Sylar be a hero, and PETER lost his powers. That was the biggest disappointment of the show. Sure he gets a power back but it is just pathetic compared to whast he had he was amde a weakling and it was just sad to watch. Claire ruind Heroes i mean grow the frick up no one likes you your a stupid worthless character and they should never have made her character.I do believe that Heroes can be returned to its former glory if Peter gets his original powers back and if Claire could stop whining and feeling sorry for herself and she was tough and could actully do somehting by herself for a change. We do need to get Heroes back on the air and i think everysingle fan of Heroes would protest and get Heroes back for a season 5 like if agree and we need HEROES BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I agree to bring back Heroes. Most or all of da cast. Also make some characters develop like Claire (shes in college) make her more college like not like a teenager like a adult. Wat happens wen the world finds out bout superpowered ppl? Tie up the loose ends like Caitlin the Irish girl, and others, bring pete’s powers back original ones. Make Sylar EVIL. make the storyline better like a big one more thn NYC exploding, a virus, arthur peterilli giving ppl powers, and earthquake like in NY. something bigger, badder, better tht will MAKE EVERYONE AROUND THE WORLD CONNECT WITH. THE SUSPENSE, THE CONNECTING WITH THE WHOLE WORLD BECAUSE ITS BIG, SCARY AND COMPLICATED THING. SOMETHING ALL THE HEROES CAN TAKE PART IN. SOMETHING EVERYONE HAS EXPERINCED OR WLL FEAR WILL HAPPEN. THE FEAR OF SYLAR, THE FEAR THE WORLD WILL KNOW ABOUT SPECIAL PPL, THE FEAR OF EXPLOSION IN NYC. BRING BACK THT. N TIE UP THE LOOSE ENDS! PLEASE!!!! BRING HEROES BACK, WE STILL LOVE IT AND MISS IT. <3 <3 <3
I think at this point some of the cast members are getting older, or have new roles, mabye create one based off the bad future, a what if, series, mabye something like The new heroes, I thought something about all of them being in hiding was neat.
Heroes MUST come back for NBC’s sake. The cast would have to be redone, but I think that if possible Zachary Quinto should be kept to play Sylar. He was PERFECT in that role. Perhaps the story could revolve around him since everyone knows that he was the glue that held this show together. He was one of if not the best villains on TV in his time. He could work as an antihero, but I think he is better as a pure villain. It could be done so that there are no villains or heroes, simply two sides (Sylar and the rest), and you let the audience choose who to go for. The point is, it was the only show of its kind. It has the potential to be a show that could last for many seasons.
I STILL LOVE HEROES, PLEASE BRING BACK HEROES!!!!!! WE MISS IT.
Loved Heroes!!!! Please bring it back NBC. Hear the people’s cries!!!
I have to say I was compelled through most of the series. Parkman got on my nerves a bit and seemed a little bit of a throwaway towards the end. I’d love to see some more of this universe. I wouldn’t mind a spinoff that just follows Ando and Hiro. Would definitely like to see more of what drives these characters to do what they do. Everyone’s motivations seemed to get muddled towards the third and fourth seasons. Still, a great IP and want to see more, be it tv, movie or comic. Heck, what about an RPG!
I think that they should make a movie about what happens after Claire tells the world about the special people and see how many views the get and if the get enough see where it goes from there. But just end it better next time.
heroes was all around amazing. it was 1 of top 5 most watched shows in america.. they made tons of money so no reason why they couldnt bring another season or 2 back to see how it would be.. HEROES best show still today. so much plot and thought put into the show
Arrgghh!!! I nearly cried when I watched the last episode of season 4! I was so upset knowing that there werent going to be anymore episodes.. :/ Please bring Heroes back!!! :'(
Heroes was great and I thought season 4 was getting back to same kind of quality as the first season. For all that is awesome in the science fiction universe please bring this show back!!!
I loved watching Heroes, and it ended with so many possibilities. To be able to live out in the open with powers is amazing! This is my favorite show! I have seen every episode! I am such a loyal fan, and I would love to see where the writers could take this series! BRING HEROES BACK!
Like they said in season one u cannot change destiny it will always end up the same way in a different concept. Now @ the end of season 4 cheerleader ends up doing what the future Peter and future hiro tried to avoid. Now hopefully they bring back heroes but back to how season one wanted it to be everyone underground fighting for there lives that would be epic and worth watching .. Forever live heroes great show don’t stop.
Please bring this show back. My wife and I have been watching this again on netflix and are already sad that it is not running.
Me and my daughter just started our 7th re-watching of it..if i won a huge lottery id pay for it finished..please bring it back ASAP.
Loved every bit, (well except the lame death violinist story) but it was the best show ever..better than marvel super heroes for me,..fantastic