Spielberg decried on-air promotions for television shows like "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" that showed "blood and people being dissected." He also said that when his favorite TV show of the new season, NBC's "Heroes," showed someone cut in half in the 9 p.m. hour, he sent his younger children out of the room.


"I'm a parent who is very concerned," he said.

"I don't get to come here often," Oka says, browsing aisles of manga, the Japanese comic-book form, in Kinokuniya, a store in Little Tokyo.

Oka, who plays geeky Japanese office worker Hiro Nakamura on Heroes (NBC, tonight, 9 ET/PT), gave a reporter a quick primer, pointing out romance and adventure stories in Japanese and English, with different comics aimed at children, teenage girls and boys, and adults. He prefers the Japanese-language imports and especially likes the work of Naoki Urasawa, whose comics include Monster.

"Hiro's a fanboy. I'm a geek. I love my manga. But Hiro is more extreme," says Oka, 31, whose character's popularity is underscored by hundreds of fan comments on Hiro's blog at nbc.com.

But manga is just one parallel between Oka and Hiro, who finds he can travel through time and space. "Hiro talks about destiny and fate. It is kind of fated that I was at the right place at the right time to be exposed to this amazing character, because there's so much of Hiro that's me," Oka says.

...

TVGuide.com: From Day 1, did you know that Eden would be one of the heroes, that she had her own special something?
Nora Zehetner: Yeah, I did. When I went to audition, I was kind of adamant that I wanted a power, but it turned out that that was their plan from the beginning. Who wants to be on a show about superheroes and not have a power, you know?

TVGuide.com: As far as you know, any there any rules or limitations to her ability? Like, does she need to whisper it into the person's ear or...?
Zehetner: No, no. I thought that?s how it was at first, too, and I think that?s what they were thinking at one point, but it'd be hard to use that power if you could only whisper it in the ear.


TVGuide.com: I see that you already have earned some mean nicknames for your character on the Internet. One that I've seen was a play on "Tinkerbell."
Zehetner: Yeah, I heard about that. I don?t know how I feel about it. [Laughs]


TVGuide.com: We see Eden so attentively mopping Isaac's brow. Is she going to be drawn to him, or is she pretty much set on Mohinder?
Zehetner: She definitely feels a strong connection with Mohinder, and I think she really, really, actually cares for him. Everybody, of course, was upset when they saw the reveal [of Eden's association with H.R.G.], because they thought that I was fooling him the whole time, and there was a level of deceit there, but there are real feelings behind it. She feels a kinship with Isaac because I think she had a similarly hard time controlling her power before H.R.G. took her under his wing.

NBC's show about ordinary people with extra-ordinary powers is striking a chord with viewers. "Heroes" now ranks among the top new dramas on television.

Jinah Kim takes us for a behind the scenes look from Los Angeles. "We're rolling." "Action!"

In this scene from an upcoming episode of "Heroes," time traveler hero and his buddy Ando arrive in Texas, to meet indestructible cheerleader Claire - who destroys proof of her superpowers.

But Texas is actually Santa Clarita, California. And Tokyo..

"Roll! Action!"

is shot in downtown Los Angeles. In fact, much of what you see on "Heroes" is not what it seems.

"If people really get grossed out all you have to think about is that it's totally fake and it's actually sugar. The blood is sugar. So I lie in pools of sugar all day long."

All the special effects are nothing new to star Masi Oka, who in real life is a gifted special effects computer programmer.

"I was fortunate enough to be working for "Industrial Light and Magic," which is George Lucas's special effects company so I had a very good understanding of how to visualize things that aren't there in 3D so that has definitely helped in terms of my acting." "Each episode of "Heroes" takes about 8 days to shoot, at an average cost of 3 million dollars. And this episode alone shot at 5 different locations simultaneously."

"Cut!"

But the cast and crew say the ever-changing story lines and characters are what make the show so successful. "My mom sorta calls it a little bit of Da Vinci Code, mixed with Xmen, mixed with a little bit of Syriana." "It's a constant rollercoaster and it just gets better and better with every episode." "I think the show's got something for everybody."

Jinah Kim, NBC News, Los Angeles.