Some of you may or may not have seen the show, but it’s a runaway smash hit for the peacock network and it’s no surprise. Sci-Fi normally doesn’t find a home on major networks, so the occurence of Heroes showing up on NBC created a situation where viewers unfamiliar with the genre finally got to experience something unique.

But now, people are wondering if the show actually knows where it’s going… And I luckily had the opportunity to find out just where the journey will take the Heroes, the viewers and me.

Emerson Drops Product Placement Case Against NBC
by David Goetzl, Friday, Feb 23, 2007 8:33 AM ET

A LAWSUIT ALLEGING THAT NBC engaged in unauthorized and unflattering product placement in the hit show "HEROES" has been settled out-of-court. NBC Universal reached an agreement in which the Emerson Electric Co. would drop the case charging the network with "causing irreparable injury" to its InSinkErator waste-disposal brand.

Terms of the deal were not available, although Emerson last week dropped the charges in a filing with a Missouri court.

In the suit filed in October, Emerson said NBC did not have its permission to use the clearly visible InSinkErator brand in the show, and sought compensation for a slew of resulting damages.

Emerson declined comment. NBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but last fall reportedly said it did not feel it was liable. Attorneys that represented both sides also declined comment.

Back in October, Emerson was so enraged--or perhaps interested in seeking a favorable settlement--that it even declined to drop the charges after NBC reportedly agreed to edit the scene in the "HEROES" episode, in which a character sticks her hand in a kitchen-sink InSinkErator and pulls it out mangled and bloodied.

Among Emerson's charges about the Sept. 25 series premiere were trademark infringement and dilution, and unfair competition for misrepresenting and sullying the InSinkErator brand.

Had it gone to trial and Emerson won, the case could have set a precedent regarding a network's rights in how it depicts branded products in its creative work.

However, Mark McKenna, a trademark law expert at St. Louis University School of Law, last fall wrote in an email: "The case is very unlikely to succeed against NBC."

"There is precedent for the notion that certain uses of another party's trademark in an unflattering light can be deemed tarnishment or disparagement," he wrote. "I am not aware, however, of any case finding a use of a branded product in a creative work to violate trademark rights."...

Friday, February 23, 2007
Killed-off HEROES Star Maintains a "Super" Attitude
by Michael Logan

If a girl's gotta go, this is the way to do it. The Feb. 19 episode of NBC's HEROES (Mondays at 9 pm/ET) ended with the accidental shooting of Simone Deveaux, played by Tawny Cypress. The sexy art dealer died cradled by her two heartthrob boyfriends, Isaac (Santiago Cabrera), who fired the fatal shot, and Peter (Milo Ventimiglia). A surprisingly chipper Cypress called to give TVGuide.com the lowdown on her outta-nowhere demise.
TVGuide.com: Condolences, babe. How long have you known about this?
Tawny Cypress: Since mid-December. [HEROES creator/executive producer] Tim Kring called me personally. The second I heard his voice on the phone, I knew. I was really in shock. I went into a cave and didn't talk to anybody. But after much crying, I'm OK with it. Besides, it's not over over. In the world of HEROES, anything can happen! I come back in the Mar. 5 episode, and I come back on at least one other occasion after that. So it's not the end end for me, but it's the end of what was. ...

Few characters on NBC's hit drama "HEROES" are as baffling as the enigmatic Mr. Bennet. Last week, the actor who portrays Claire Bennet's adoptive father spoke to the press on an NBC conference call, and CBR News was there.
Episode 17, "Company Man," which airs Monday, February 26 th , promises to be a hallmark episode for the character whose name appears in "HEROES" scripts as Horn-Rimmed Glasses, or HRG for short (after his signature eyewear). Mr. Bennet lives in Odessa, TX, with his wife and daughter, Claire. And it is no accident that the invulnerable, young cheerleader came under his care: the seemingly mild-mannered employee of Primatech Paper is actually involved with a shadowy organization that has designs on Claire and all the people like her who have manifested superhuman abilities. HRG, along with a mysterious Haitian man who has the ability to erase memories, pursue the murderous Sylar, and advance an agenda re: the heroes known to them and them alone. And at the end of the day, HRG comes home to his loving family. "He's been able to sort of separate the personal and the professional for a long time." Coleman said. "And that is about to end."

Despite playing the leader of a shadowy government organization steeped in skullduggery on NBC's "Heroes," actor Jack Coleman swears he doesn't know much more about what his horned-rimmed glasses-wearing character is up to than the average fan.

"There are certain scenes, where you go, 'okay, I really don't know what I'm alluding to here'....But in general, I don't spend too much time worrying about what's coming on five episodes down the road," said Coleman, during a conference call for reporters.


"Speculation only gets so far and you're going to be wrong anyway, so you might as well go for the ride."


What Coleman does know is that 25 years after striking it rich as Steven Carrington, the openly gay son of an oil tycoon on "Dynasty," the actor has notched his second big television hit. Catching "lightning in a bottle" twice is how Coleman describes it - an ironic choice of words for the direct descendant of Benjamin Franklin. And he did so by embodying a character that threatens to become an iconic pop culture villain: equal parts merciless schemer and loving father.

Exclusive: Who's good? Who's evil? Which "Hero" will save the world? The cast of TV's highest rated new series reveals show secrets and takes your calls. Tune in Friday at 9 p.m. ET.

As much as I dread trying to digest and dissect television after 10 p.m. — mostly I prefer to drift off to sleep and see how many of the characters work their way into my dreams — at least I picked a good week to borrow the Heroes TV watch from Señor Cruz. For one thing, this episode featured people actually using their abilities. Don't get me wrong, I dig the show. But there is so much inert superheroism, I often feel like I'm watching a weekly version of Unbreakable