Alan Ball appears to be basing his vampires off the vampires in the movie “Near Dark”, and has admitted to having not read any of Anne Rice’s novels, much less Bram Stoker’s Dracula. He even went so far as to chide Twilight’s and Moonlight’s vampires for walking during the daylight hours. He claimed the writers for both were “lazy” and didn’t want to shoot at night.
FYI, Alan…Stoker’s Dracula was perfectly well able to walk during the day. The deadly sun idea is relatively new and is traceable to the early 20′s centure. You going to say that Stoker was “lazy” because he didn’t want to write at night?
If I watch the show, I’ll watch it four days after it airs (I use a TiVo and they report viewing numbers for three days after a show airs)…so that this show doesn’t get ratings numbers from me.

If Mr Alan thinks he can fill a void with just any Vampire series he is sadly mistaken. Fans of other shows won’t fall for a cheap imitation.
We fans of the vampire tale have been spoiled recently, and just throwing anything our way won’t work. I think I’ll pass and wait for Twilight to come out and hopefully someday Moonlight on the big screen & DVD. Saying negative remarks about other Vampire series and movies isn’t going to help his show at all, especially since he hasn’t even read a Vampire novel. Open mouth insert foot Mr Alan.

Alan Ball made some mistakes in talking down to other vampire shows and came across as not having much respect or knowledge of vampires. It is possible that a portion of the public loves the vampire/mortal romance of books/shows/movies like Twilight and Moonlight and not the old Dracula horror story. The appeal of the romance without graphic sex (which True Blood clearly advertises) and blood and gore is going to draw a different viewing public. Dyed in the wool vampire fans seem to enjoy both takes on the genre. Those like myself who are not particularly vampire fans love the way the stories of 21st century vampires who are caring and capable of doing good have been done. Obviously millions agree and thus the Twilight phenomena.

Vampires most certainly are IN, aren’t they? I can’t understand why CBS canceled Moonlight. Seems like very bad timing to me. I don’t have HBO and I’m not really compelled to subscribe to it just to see True Blood. If CBS had done some creative marketing with Moonlight, it would be returning this fall.
Twilight will be HUGE when it comes out in December. Dark Shadows, the movie with Johnny Depp and Tim Burton is coming sometime too.

I was looking forward to this show, until mr ball opened his mouth about the writers being lazy for letting there vampires out in the daytime, putting down my favorite show Moonlight, i will no longer be tuning in.

Oh give it a rest!
The Sookie Stackhouse books are fantastic. We’re counting the days in our house – who cares if the director said something dumb?

The point is that the director is basing his vampires on only one source, and that was a completely unrelated movie…with vampires in general being the only similarity to the Sookie Stackhouse novels (which I have read and reread and continue to enjoy).
It wasn’t a ‘dumb’ comment, it was a deliberately snarky comment.
He’s turning this show (it seems to me from the promos and ads) into a show about equal rights, and not about the actual stories from the books.
At least Dexter uses the novels for the storylines.

Vampire are “in” now in Hollywood with 5-6 projects coming out in the near future. I was intrigued when I first heard about True Blood as it was supposed to follow the recent trend of portraying vampires as romantic heroes capable of doing good rather than horror story villians. Then I read several interviews of Alan Ball that make me hesitant about the series. Would the show runner of a medical drama brag about never even going to a doctor? It’s not a plus to be ignorant of your subject matter. I’m not sure what audience Mr.Ball is going for as he insults other vampire shows he has never seen and even seems to go out of his way to say his show won’t be following the books it’s based on either. Vampire just seem to be the excuse for sex, sex, and more sex–ironically a big turn off for me. Let’s just say I’m not subscribing to HBO yet.

Who cares what the Mr.Ball said??? I love Moonlight as much as many but what some guy says isn’t going to stop me from watching a show I feel I will enjoy. I’m not going to punish myself or the actors and crew because of one idiot. Anyway, I’m looking foward to this show very much.
And by the way, I’ve seen most of the first episode and it IS NOT all about sex. There’s much more to it than that. So let’s not judge until you’ve actually seen it. I remember alot of Moonlight fans going around telling folks to not judge the show before it aired (or even from just that first ep) and I think we should give this show the same fair shake. It’s the right thing to do.

I was curious about this show, but after the comments made re Moonlight, doubt I’ll watch. There is a very real thing to “vampire solidarity” and it means something to me.

I think that this will be a fantastic show! It is going to be different from the books by what I’ve seen already. More sex and nudity. Certainly darker but I think in a good way.
I like Alan Balls work. I think like Stephanie Meyers who knew nothing about vampires before writing Twilight I hope that Alan Balls version with reference will be refreshing and original.

So, sex and nudity are the draws for you with this program?
Might as well watch Cinemax after midnight. Just about the same content.
Quantity instead of quality.

Wow, you all will punish everybody for CBS’ mistake.

Wow, some fanatics will run around to any article just because there’s a mention of ML there, won’t they? THIS is why ML fans have a bad name now and why network employees aren’t taking us seriously.
For the record, the TB series is very close to Dead Until Dark. Obviously, changes will be made for the screen but the heart is true…

Yay, does that mean I get to watch sookie and bill and eric as well as read about them? I’m not into the sex part but the stories are always interesting.