"If anything good can come out of the writers' strike in the US, I think it was an opportunity for the Heroes camp to regroup and get back to the type of storytelling that garnered all these fans across the world and to do right by them," Roberts said.

The actor believes that season three, entitled Villains, is shaping up to be "stellar".

Roberts added: "I mean the fans put the show where it is and it's only right that the creative element behind it respects that audience and gives them something that is worthy of their respect. I hope that they've had some time to do that – I think they have – and when everybody gets back to work I have no doubt that it’s going to be a stellar season."

This week, Michael and Summer welcome Leonard Roberts to the show, and commiserate with his need to spend some time at the chiropractor?s office, where we caught up with him. His portrayal of D.L. Hawkins on NBC?s HEROES has given fans another interesting character to talk about.

He tells us about being swept up in the HEROES craze, relating the differences between it and his time on ?Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

Way back in February, when University City's Leonard Roberts landed a role in a new NBC drama called "Heroes," his friends and family were excited for him.

Finally, in September, the show premi?red and quickly became a sensation, setting the Internet abuzz, drawing 13 million viewers a week and earning a full-season pickup after just two outings.

Now, what Roberts' friends and family want to know is this: Where is he?

"They've been watching to see me," Roberts said last week from his home in Los Angeles. "They call and say, 'We didn't see you again.' But it's the best testament that they also say now it's their favorite show."

The game of "where's Leonard?" is almost over. Roberts, playing D.L. Hawkins, a prison inmate and husband of Niki Sanders (Ali Larter), makes his first, brief appearance tonight when he [spoiler highlight to read] turns up at Niki's house on the run.[end spoiler] Oct. 30, he says, "is my first big episode."

"Heroes" is the story of ordinary people who begin to discover that they possess special powers. Eventually, they'll be called on to put their powers to work to save the world.

Hawkins has powers, too, Roberts is pleased to report, although he's necessarily cagey about his story line except to say that he interacts a lot with young Noah Gray-Cabey as his son Micah.

"My power is [spoiler highlight to read] phasing," Roberts says. "That means I can manipulate matter, organic and inorganic."

In other words, walls can't stop him, and prison bars can't hold him.[end spoiler]

Aha. So then he's evil?

"It's complicated," Roberts says. "I don't know if I'd really say he's evil. It's all about perception. Anything's possible."