Throwback Thursday: Heroes, Season One

Almost ten years ago, NBC premiered Heroes, and with Heroes Reborn coming in September, it's a good time to look back at the the show's first season. It's important to remember that Heroes was no cult favorite-- it was nothing less of a pop-culture phenomenon that set the foundations for modern superhero Television.

TV certainly tried its hand at superhero programming before Heroes, but it was usually through licensed properties, with the exception of shows like The Greatest American Hero, My Secret Identity, and M.A.N.T.I.S., but Heroes made it smart and oh-so-addictive. With a cast of relative unknowns (The "most famous" to me at the time was Ali Larter), Heroes burst onto the screen with a captivating story that spoke to comic book fans without having it feeling like it was dumbed down for them.

Creator Tim Kring (Crossing Jordan) created a massive cast that afforded him the "large ensemble saga" he wanted for a show. The ensemble included some fresh faces like Milo Ventimiglia as Peter Petrelli, who had the power to mimic other powers; Adrian Pasdar as his brother, Nathan who could fly; Masi Oka as Hiro Nakramura, who could master time and space; Greg Grunberg as telepathic Matt Parkman; and Hayden Panettiere as nearly indestructable Claire Bennet, who, with Oka, became the show's face.

The series also approached the writing process from a unique angle. Each writer on Heroes' team was designated a character and would write their respective scenes. Then every writer's script was combined and given to an actual episode writer. That way, everybody contributed to each chapter. The mysteries surrounding each character were slowly revealed in flashbacks and were woven into other character's stories, a la Lost.

The story had an slight X-Men vibe via a cast suddenly developing superpowers midway through their lives. Mohinder Suresh (played by Sendhil Ramamurthy) was like the group's Professor X, working to find and educate the people who had these gifts. On the polar end of that, you had the mysterious entity known as The Company, who Claire's father, Noah Bennet (Jack Coleman) repped, and wanted to take control of or exterminate beings with these powers. It was the classic "mutants outrunning the law" story that the X-Men had been founded on for decades with xenophobic overtones and drama. Naturally, comic fans took notice.

Heroes' ratings were tremendous throughout its first season. Airing on September 25th, 2006, the pilot episode garnered 14.3 million viewers with the season's highest-rated episode (ep 9, "Homecoming") maxing out at 16.03. From there, the show went on to be a fan and critic favorite, turning the cast of relative unknowns to bonafide TV stars. The show did have some star power with the likes of George Takei and Malcolm McDowell as guest stars, but as the cast rotated on in later seasons, the main characters' stories became more and more entangled with one another. That enabled more lingering questions to be explored, while also generating more mysteries along the way. The first season ended with a strong cliffhanger, which fueled the second season premieres 17 million viewership--the series' absolute peak.

The subtle comic references were fun little Easter eggs for fans to figure and point out. When the psychotic Sylar's (Zachary Quinto) origin was revealed, we see that he was a gentle watchmaker, much like Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen. Isaac Mendez's (played by Santiago Cabrera), prophetic painting of the future were actually illustrated by comics artist Tim Sale. Additionally, the font used in the captions of the show was actually based on Sale's handwriting. Sale also provided the art for the covers of the graphic novel tie-in.

Heroes was one of the programs affected by the WGA writing strike in 2007, and the second season was cut in half. Consequently, many story beats were erased or moved around, causing some disarray which rippled throughout the rest of the show. Regardless of future blunder, Heroes' first season still remains one of the strongest television debuts in the past decade. When Heroes Reborn debuts in September, it's still uncertain if it will receive similar fanfare, but any sort of closure of this world has to feel good for Kring and company.

What do you think, readers? Are you going to tune in for Heroes Reborn? Do you have any favorite moments of the show's debut season? Let us know in the comments!

Heroes Reborn premieres September 24 on NBC.