I am – Hercules!!


Not much news in this video; it’s just an interesting, in-depth chat with writer-producer Tim Kring, who had a long career in Hollywood before “Heroes” made him a household name last year. Learn that:

* Kring’s father was a track coach and amateur filmmaker. Kring went into USC film school with an ambition to become a cinematographer.

* The first script Kring sold, for $17,000, was a “Knight Rider” episode about KITT the talking car falling under the influence of voodoo.

* “Night Rider” was written largely by a lot of fiftysomething and sixtysomething retired ex-cops.

* Born in 1957 to left-leaning Bay Area parents, Kring played guitar and grew up a big fan of folk music. His heroes in high school were Bob Dylan, Neil Young, John Lennon, Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie.

* The first series Kring created, the coroner drama “Crossing Jordan,” came to be because Kring wanted to make a series about a female sheriff and NBC wanted to make a show about a female coroner.

* Kring long wanted to make “Crossing Jordan” more an ensemble, serialized affair similar to “Heroes,” but was hampered at the time by NBC, which wanted more of a “Law & Order”-type procedural. The network changed its thinking after it saw the amount of success ABC was enjoying with “Lost.”

* Kring’s initial draft of the “Heroes” pilot was an hour long, but NBC had him expand it to two hours. (The first episode would up being cut back down to an hour.)

* Though only one or two people are credited with writing each of the episodes, almost every episode of “Heroes’” first season was written by the show’s entire 11-man writing staff. Kring says he couldn’t really send writers off alone for three weeks to write individual episodes, because the direction of the show kept evolving too rapidly.

Find all of Interviewing Hollywood’s chat with Kring here.

Heroes: The Complete First Season!!

Contains The Original Unaired Pilot Starring Isaac's Lopped-Off Hand!!

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