idallia wrote:
Topps will be releasing a Heroes Season 1 trading card series in September. Here's the quote from the preview catalog which showcases new releases through comic retailers for the month of September:Quote:

Topps has compiled all of the dramatic twists and turns of the first season into this inaugural Heroes trading card series! 90 cards catch you up on details you might have missed -- plus four levels of special inserts: Dual-image foil cards (1 card every 3 packs) and one Sketch, Autograph, or Memorabilia Card per Box! 24 packs per box; 7 cards per pack.

They will officially ship in September (don't know the exact date yet).

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This news item was submitted by Oddball Extreme.

idallia wrote:
(I am in no way endorsing this site.)

This is the only place I've (google) found so far that is taking pre-orders:
http://www.comicsinfinity.com/detail.asp?P...CT_ID=JUL074230

"'Lost' reclaimed its reputation as TV's most adventurous and surprising series with a run of terrific and exciting episodes, culminating in the most mind-blowing finale of the season."

After the fall string of episodes, "Lost" was still ranked a pretty healthy sixth, according to the TV Week poll, behind two other ABC shows, "Ugly Betty" and "Grey's Anatomy." But a strong finish to the season shot "Lost" straight up the chart behind only HBO's "The Sopranos," which also got a boost from what critics called a spectacular series finale.

Not every show's finale did so well. "Heroes," for example, tumbled in the rankings a few slots after the NBC show's first season finale met with a lukewarm reception with critics. It had previously held the No. 2 slot only to tumble to sixth behind "Ugly Betty," and NBC's "The Office" and "Friday Night Lights."

"Good story, good characters, disappointing resolution," said Robert Philpot, a critic with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Despite the fall, "Heroes" remained in the critics top 10 ahead of "30 Rock" on NBC, "The Shield" on FX, "Grey's Anatomy" on ABC and Showtime's "The Tudors."

NBC AND NISSAN ANNOUNCE "SUPERPOWER-FUL" COMPREHENSIVE MARKETING PROGRAM FOR SEASON TWO OF HIT SERIES "HEROES"

New York - June 13, 2007 - Nissan and NBC announced today a multi-faceted, robust 360 marketing program for season two of "Heroes," encompassing product integration, off-channel platforms, wireless applications, traditional television advertising and significant on-air and online sponsorships.

"Nissan is constantly searching for opportunities to build extensive advertising partnerships that allow us to engage consumers by building brand awareness on many platforms," says Steve Kerho, director of interactive media, Nissan North America. "This ongoing partnership with NBC also gives us the opportunity to introduce the all-new Nissan Rogue, a new CUV that epitomizes the exciting and adventurous spirit that defines 'Heroes.'"

"We're committed to doing business with our clients in ways that extend beyond the 30-second spot and are thrilled to join forces again with Nissan to build on our successful season-one partnership," says Mike Pilot, president, NBC Universal Ad Sales. "This deal exemplifies the concept of having an 'upstream relationship' with our clients and shows just what can be achieved when the clients and creative teams come together early in the process."

In this one-of-a-kind deal, Nissan will use "Heroes" as the central hub of a multi-pronged marketing campaign for the launch of its new crossover vehicle, the Nissan Rogue. The campaign will kick off on the night of the "Heroes" season premiere, which will be exclusively sponsored by Nissan and broadcast with limited commercial interruption. To further enhance the viewer connection to the Rogue, the vehicle will be integrated into the premiere episode and driven by a main character.

Nissan will also roadblock the full episode of "Heroes" on NBC Rewind for 24 hours after the show's on-air premiere, marking the first time an advertiser has executed this type of program on NBC Rewind. In addition to more traditional advertising opportunities both on-air and online, the Nissan Rogue campaign also includes sponsorship of numerous unique off channel platforms including a "Heroes" music video and the season one DVD release. Nissan Rogue will also be involved in NBC's wireless platforms and will sponsor the Heroes 360 WAP sites.

OMD is handling the media buying and implementation for Nissan.

NBC Universal Launches Widgets to Expand Distribution of Content on Digital Platforms
New York, NY & Washington, D.C. – June 6, 2007 — NBC Universal today announced that it will enable viral distribution of its popular content online by transforming content associated with news, entertainment and sports programming into easily portable widgets, using the industry leading content syndication and distribution platform from Clearspring Technologies. Users will be able to personalize these widgets and post them on their own blogs, social networking profiles, web sites, wikis and personal start pages, allowing deeper engagement for fans of NBCU content.

Initial launch widgets include popular content from "Dateline," "Hardball with Chris Matthews," "Meet the Press" and "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams," as well as content from NBC Sports, DotComedy.com and iVillage.com. Available content will continue to expand, along with increased personalization options and enhanced features.

"We want to create a fun, shared experience for our users and understand their needs as they interact with our content beyond our online properties." said Sab Kanaujia, Vice President, Digital Product Strategy & Development, NBC Universal. "Changes in the behavior of online users and innovation in technology has provided us with new opportunities to grow the reach for our content and brands online. Clearspring's content syndication and distribution platform provides us a robust distribution and analytics solution for our widgets initiative."

"We are delighted to have been chosen to deliver this start-to-finish solution for NBC Universal," said Chris Marentis, CEO of Clearspring. "By using our premium hyper-syndication platform, fans of NBCU's programming can now easily personalize their favorite Web sites with NBCU content. This allows NBCU to lead the shift to the new distributed web and deliver their premium content whenever and wherever consumers chose to enjoy it."

NBC's "Heroes" was this season's breakthrough hit. But can it break the Emmys' science-fiction hex?

The network's studio arm naturally wants a clutch of nominations for writer-producer Tim Kring's series about a group of ordinary people who discover they have superpowers. In a bid to secure key nominations, NBC is blanketing trade publications with ads for the show, sending out a DVD mailer to all 12,000 TV academy members and also offering a free iTunes download of the season finale, just as it did last year for the comedy "The Office."

Yet actually wangling a statuette in the best drama category may prove a lot tougher than saving the show's self-healing cheerleader (Hayden Panettiere). TV academy voters often snub the sci-fi and fantasy genres, which they appear to believe are less deserving of institutional recognition than more realistic fare.

Case in point: Fox's hit "The X-Files" was nominated four times as best drama but always lost out to shows such as "ER" and "Law & Order." Other Emmy also-rans include the hits "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (which lost out to "Picket Fences" in 1994), "Quantum Leap" (bested by "Northern Exposure" and "L.A. Law"), the original "Star Trek" (the 1968 Emmy instead went to "Mission: Impossible") and "The Twilight Zone" (losing out to "Hallmark Hall of Fame" in 1961). A number of other highly regarded sci-fi series, including Sci Fi Channel's critically acclaimed "Battlestar Galactica," have never even been nominated as best drama.

That may help explain why NBC executives are playing down "Heroes' " comic-book appeal, emphasizing instead its more traditional dramatic elements.

"I know intellectually [the series] lives in the sci-fi area," said Laura Lancaster, senior vice president at NBC Universal Television Studio, which makes "Heroes." "But for me, it goes back to the characters." Lancaster cited as an example the show's focus on the tense relationship between Nathan and Peter (Adrian Pasdar and Milo Ventimiglia), brothers who just happen to have extraordinary powers.

"It's beyond being a genre show," Lancaster said.

Maybe so. But industry prejudice runs fairly deep against anything that even smacks of the genre. Although science-fiction has proved its popularity with viewers over the years, executives tend to view the format as a purely escapist haven for geeks, filled with props like phasers and other goofy, futuristic paraphernalia. Therefore those shows are not as "serious" as other types of dramatic series.

Brad Adgate, senior vice president at New York ad firm Horizon Media, said that Emmy voters might be turned off by the "campiness" associated with some sci-fi efforts, as well as "the perception of an over-reliance on special effects instead of dialogue." Indeed, a look at Emmy drama winners in recent years (e.g., "The West Wing" and "The Sopranos") shows how voters tend to prize well-wrought scripts over special effects.

Still, he added, " 'Heroes' could get a nomination" because of its high ratings and its perceived "uniqueness" — there's nothing else like it on the schedule.

That's what NBC is banking on. Mired in fourth place in the ratings, the network is doubling down on its new hit, adding a spinoff for a total of 30 "Heroes"-themed episodes next season. A DVD of the first season will land at the end of the summer. And an Emmy for best drama could go a long way in hooking new viewers.

"I absolutely feel like there's room for growth," Lancaster said of the "Heroes" audience

The BBC is rumoured to have paid around £400,000 an episode for the second season of the critically acclaimed American series Heroes - even though it is yet to show the first.

The new deal is thought to represent a five-fold increase in the amount the BBC paid for season one of the glossy high-concept drama, which will air on BBC2 in the summer.

Licensed from US network NBC, Heroes, the highest-rated new series on American television, chronicles the lives of ordinary people who discover they possess extraordinary powers.

The Sci Fi Channel, which had first-run broadcasting rights to season one, was forced out of the bidding as the price for the second season rose.

Season two will now air on both BBC2 and digital channel BBC Three from next year.

Universal Studios Consumer Products Group has released content based on the NBC hit series "Heroes" on Xbox Live.

For the first time, fans of the series can customize their Xbox 360 experience with theme packs and gamer pictures downloaded from the Xbox Live Marketplace. Gamers will be able to decorate their Xbox Live portal with rendered paintings from the series, as well as photos featuring "Heroes" characters as avatars.

" Heroes' has broken new ground in episodic storytelling and has resonated with an astonishingly broad audience, and certainly with the gamer community," said Bill Kispert, Universal Studios Digital Platforms Group vice president and general manager.

Will anyone from the show be at Comic-Con
Tim: Yes. Everybody we can bring will come that day.

Hayden: How will we get there? The hot bus with no air conditioning from last year?

Tim: The train I took is really the way to go.

Hayden: You mean everyone was stuck on a bus and you took the train?

Tim: I guess it did work out that way.

But in all seriousness, the thing about Comic-Con is that it was very instrumental in launching the show, so this year is a big thank you to them when we come back. We'll have a big event with lots of things to hand out.

May 21, 07:34 PM

Hana

Tim: We did witness a potential future where she died in episode 20, but no she has not died in the present storytelling of HEROES. So I would look for her to make a return.

May 21, 07:53 PM

Will Claire and Peter find out they're not related...?
Hayden: I keep getting these questions, Tim. Someone keeps asking when Peter and Claire are going to get together.

Tim: I will just say this. I want all those fans out there who want this to happen to keep one thing in mind. Claire is 17 years old and Peter is somewhere... let's say in his mid 20s, maybe late 20s. .And so I want everyone to bare that in mind and think about that.

Hayden: You're crushing peoples' dreams.

Tim: But Claire may be 18. Who knows? Maybe we'll find out that when she was handed over by Hiro's father that she was older.

Hayden: What's creepier? The fact that he's mid 20s and I'm 17, or that he's my uncle?

Tim: Both.

Hayden: We'll have to do some crazy dream sequence.

Tim: That's right. Maybe there's a dream sequence.