Outstanding Art Direction For A
Single-Camera Series

Outstanding Casting For A Drama
Series

(outstanding casting but not ONE of the actual actors/actresses got a nomination)

Outstanding Main Title Design

Get Real!

“I’d never even heard of the ‘Twilight’ books when we got started,” Mr. Ball said. But he added he is perfectly willing to run with the trend.”

You see True Blood and Twilight are linked based on the fact that both involve the vampire genre.

Hey Lanie – I guess I wrote my post that way because Robert made me wonder what kind of data actually exists about the gay audience, esp. for this series.

If I just disagree, or agree for that matter, I’ll never find out.

For the ones of us who aren’t “Intelligent Dumbasses” couldn’t you have simply said “I disagree with you Robert because you have no data” ?

There is a lot of you that is really freaked out by this post ha?

~Lanie~

Your speculative argument that gay viewers are responsible for these DVD sales estimates can neither be supported nor disproved by the numbers that you cite.

You infer audience characteristics based on your interpretation of program content. In other words, because there are some oblique references to gay social experience in the series, it should attract ‘gay’ viewers. That’s a reasonable assumption, but it’s not very reliable. As you can see from comments, some other viewers don’t share your ‘reading’ of the series. And of course the best proof available would involve a measured sample of the actual audience. Is there any better data that would support your argument?

For example, is sexual preference a demographic variable that is tracked at point of sales? I don’t think so, but perhaps you know more about that? How much do we know about ‘gay audiences’ and their media consumption? How do we know about it?

You obviously know a lot about TV. It would be great if you could give us not only interesting speculation but also some idea of what the limits of our knowledge are in areas like this. Truly fascinating!

Tara: Hey Sook, ya know there’s this site saying that gays are buying a lot of the DVDs.

Sookie: Wait, I get naked several times a season and most people don’t watch for that?

Lafayette (offscreen): You’s right, hookah! I’m the big draw, so all y’all can see the Laffy! (Does a little victory dance.) But don’t worry Sooks. Bill and the guys love watching you.

(Sookie blushes.)

Jason’s escapades got really old really quick so I was glad when he stayed with one woman for several episodes, and then furious when poor Eddie died. I bet right Jason is on the verge of a mental breakdown between the memory of Eddie and the hatred of the FotS. (And SPOILER: He does sleep with the preacher’s wife in the next few episodes SPOILER.)

Now Sam I like, probably because I think he’s a good natured guy who’s just way in over his head. I felt so sorry for him most of last season, and now I love to hate Maryanne, who’s slowly destroying him and Tara.

So we come to the vampires and Bill/Sookie. Eric and Pam are good for their wit and funny lines, but Eric’s “Do what I want now!” attitude is getting really annoying, and I’m starting to dislike his arrogance. I hope we see a more human side of him soon because right now he’s a rock with a sense of humor.

So my main draw is the Bill/Sookie relationship (which is mirrored in Jessica/Hoyt which I love). Bill is this captiving mix of savage vampire and broken-spirited antebellum gentleman, almost like he hasn’t been able to move on from the 1860s. Sookie is my favorite character. I love how she’s a mix of quirkiness from the telepathy, and sass from her firm moral compass, and if she’s not happy, I love how she will speak her mind. I think she’s one of the strongest and most complex characters on TV. (And I also think she’s really attractive, practically exuding sex.)

The Dallas trip I think will be important to Sookie’s growth as a character. The first season Bill helps her go from the lonely town oddball to embracing her vitality and sexuality, and now she’s being taken out of her small town into the totally new urban environment of Dallas. This is True Blood, so she probably will be almost killed several times, but I take relief in knowing they have to have Sookie around to have the show.

I’d also like to point out that “gay” is an adjective, not a noun, because it’s a description of one characteristic of a person, not a label that identifies a person’s entire character.

I found the Tara vs her mother and the voodoo woman subplot to be boring as hell in season one. The current Tara vs Maryann subplot is more interesting mostly because Maryann is more interesting. I don’t find Tara interesting much at all, although she can be good for some laughs.

The whole murder story arc in season one was mildly interesting, but once it resolved to just one human psycho the whole thing lost interest.

Jason’s problems are good for laughs, but otherwise he’s boring, being THE dumbest redneck in US history. Sitting through all the religious nonsense in season two is trying, I tend to fast forward through that. At least he always has hot babes around, though. You gotta know he’s going to end up banging the preacher’s wife in season two and I’m looking forward to those sex scenes.

Sam’s relations with Sookie and Tara aren’t that interesting. He’s only mildly interesting because of the shape-shifting, and in season two, because of his past with Maryann.

So that pretty much leaves Sookie’s relationship with Bill, and Bill’s relations with his vampire brethren, and possibly wherever the show goes with Maryann and the new monster. That’s where the show gets my interest: the exploration of another fictional variant of vampire society and how humans get caught up in it. It’s always more fun when Eric and Pam show up or other vampires or situations at Fangtasia.

I’ve been thinking that Sookie and Bill are being pretty dumb about getting her more involved with the vampire society. It seems clear that the vampire society is pretty much like Mafia families. There’s a “code of conduct”, but outsiders generally come to a bad end if they get involved because inside the family it’s pretty much dog eat dog, since in the end it’s still a criminal enterprise. It seems clear very few vampires are interested in following human law instead of their own more brutal rules.

So I think Sookie will be lucky to get out alive since she doesn’t seem to understand that her moral attitudes are irrelevant. Smacking Eric in the face for example was a really stupid move, given we’d seen him rip a human literally to pieces.

And Jason is heading for direct confrontations with vampires, so his expected life span would seem to be short.

I’m not sure why. ML had little sex compared to TB. That makes TB MUCH more interesting for everybody, women included. There may be other reasons why women would be buying TB over other shows, but the sex is very likely a big reason.

Robert: I didn’t say there were no reasons for the DVD sales, just that your reason is purely speculative in the absence of poll data. So any one demographic “driving” is the wrong word, as you admit. And you are correct that this is all speculative.

There may or may not be one or more demographics driving the sales, we don’t know that either. But as a purely speculative guess, I would say that a combination of male sex addicts, female sex addicts, male and female vampire addicts, gays (both vampire addicts and more general gays), and blacks are driving those sales. It’s doubtful that any ONE of those demographics would be enough to drive this sort of sales level, but in combination it could be.

Sorry to see you leave, but you might want to consider not every article will be written to please you. You might want to also consider there are other valid points of view than your own.

I suspect this reaction is to the fact that Robert credits Gays with something positive and it freaks you out that you might have something in common with the Gay community.

TVBTN has an Alexa ranking of 21,808 and I can assure you Robert and Bill aren’t “Begging” for hits. So don’t worry, you single hit today didn’t pay the mortgage LOL

BTW, you said this exact same things at least four times on my blog

And can I ask what your favorite character/plot is? This show tends to be polarizing when it comes to liking or not the different subplots. (Mine is Sookie, for her fiesty quirkiness and how attractive I think she is.)

When it comes to poor choice of words, it was “Driving” not “Gay” that was the poor choice. I doubt that *any* segment is driving total sales beyond the segment of people who buy DVDs Had it sold ~750,000-800,000 after six weeks I would’ve thought “WOW, that’s really good!” but wouldn’t have thought much more of it. At 1.2 million it’s beyond “WOW, that’s really good” to “WOW, that’s really good and WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON HERE?!”

I don’t wonder if gays (or any particular factor) are driving the overall sales, but I do wonder what is it play that catapulted the DVD sales from OK or even very good results to the “WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON!” level. The nature of the beast is we will never know, so all we can do is speculate!

TB has three main leads – Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, and Rutina Wesley. Two are female. Most of the story lines revolve around the two females and their relationships with the male cast. Aside from the gore and the vampires, the show is practically a “chick flick”.

I might also point out that there is probably a large black demographic watching and buying this series because it clearly also deals with race relations and the impact of religion on blacks in the South. I would expect this demographic to be smaller, however, due to economic disparities leading to fewer HBO subscribers among the black population. However, that might in turn lead to purchases of more TB DVDs by that population as a result of word of mouth, rather than direct viewers.

I agree, nothing scientific on my part.

I think I was more amazed with the fact (right or wrong) about the gay TB viewers that some people thought that a gay viewer was a negative…

I am 100% certain though, that the studio could care less what orientation any of the millions of DVD buyers are, agree?

~Lanie~

And I still say that in itself isn’t logical. What is “reasonably expected”? The show is a HIT with SOMEONE! So it’s perfectly reasonable to see high sales. But that has NO logical connection with any specific demographic.

Lanie: Your evidence is also anecdotal, i.e., worthless. Without a poll of TB DVD buyers, we simply don’t know who is buying the most or why. However, I WOULD expect gays to be a big section of the buyers for the reasons I cited above. The question is whether they are the ones who have had the most impact on sales – and we simply don’t know that. It’s purely speculative without a poll.

John: Why wouldn’t women be buying TB for the sex? That’s almost a sexist remark. While more guys might be buying for that reason than women, there’s nothing that says women wouldn’t also buy it for that reason. It’s socially easier for women to buy a “mainstream” sex product than a porn product. You can always claim you’re into the “vampire thing”. Or claim that it’s the “romance”. Just look at the “bodice ripper” demographic – it’s about sex, not romance. I fully expect women to be buying TB in large numbers, both for the male actors and for the sex. And I wouldn’t be surprised to find that their numbers equal or exceed the numbers of gays buying it.

OMFG I am ROFL spitting my Redbull all over the screen!

The “L” word, like the word LESBIAN is a negative or a slur, Now I finally get it how that @Fringefan thinks the title is negative….

To @Fringefan and other small minded idiots, Gay and Lesbian are slurs!

What’s next, the fact I am “Asian” is a slur LOL

God forbid if I were an Asian Lesbian that bought Trueblood!!!!

~Lanie~

I’d, also, question the idea that there’s something special about TB that women are buying it in hugely higher numbers because of the romantic vampire/mortal storyline – Moonlight had a sizable online following, particular with females, and was seen by 7.5M people per week yet had positively anemic sales upon release.

I would recommend checking out the romance section at the book store. I don’t even have to explain more than that, you’ll see what I mean when you get there. (Hint: you wind find Twilight in that section).

I don’t think there is a Twilight connection, or if there is, it’s in a backwards direction, that Twilight actually came out of the already established popularity of the vampire romance.

But either way, unfortunately Queer as Folk DVDs were released too long ago to have access to the data. As near as I can tell, the L-Word didn’t register big DVD numbers, not in the realm of True Blood or even Weeds or Dexter. Unfortunately there is no easy (and free) way to get good specifics on DVD numbers for shows that weren’t top sellers.

Of course they would not compare with mainstream tv shows but they should appear disproportionately large in terms of the size of their target audience. That would suggest that this particular community IS more likely to buy a DVD of a show they like (and yes people will like something more if there’s something they can relate to in it). And therefore, it would have the effect you talk about.

And for your last comment, because I have come across other titles started with “Are Gays…” it put me in a bad from of mind. I did not suggest at all that you were implying that this is a negative thing for the show or the community.

My thinking was speculative, and perhaps wrong — but it was based on something that was a logical conclusion: True Blood’s DVD sales are way over the top of what could have reasonably been expected. As I said in the post, that certainly could be attributed to other things. But the headline was *nothing* like “Are Gays Ruining Marriage”. Unless you think spending power has a negative context.

There’s tons of reasons for the show to be popular; the sex, vampires, the south, race struggles, gender struggles, the SEX etc. but because there are SOME gay metaphors that the gay community would appreciate it must be gay targetted and therefore explains it’s popularity. It comes across as a “one drop of blood” type of theory.

The theory could be correct. But basing it on their being elements in the show that would appeal to the gay population and using that as the litmus test for who is buying isn’t logical. It would help if we had some evidence that the gay community is more likely than other groups to come out in droves to purchase shows that have themes targetting their community. If that’s the case we should see it in numbers for the L Word, or Queer as Folk. So it would be interesting to do a comparison.

I think it’s completely fine to think, “Bah! He’s wrong — that’s not why the DVD sold so well!” But while I knew the headline would make some people uncomfortable, I was also pretty sure that nobody who is gay would have a problem with it.

It would not surprise me at all if 1/2-1/3 of the DVD purchases were from the gay population. I don’t have any problem if anyone disagrees with that (and obviously many have!). But if you go beyond simply thinking it’s wrong to thinking it sounds negative, that’s because YOU are threatened by even the notion that a large portion of the sales could be attributed to the gay population. If that’s the case, I feel very comfortable that it’s actually you who is negative…

What were the sales for the “L word”? That was more specifically targetted at the gay community.

I must be having another “Asian Blonde Moment” Please explain to me how the title is anti-gay statement?

Use Crayon if needed!

~Lanie~

AfterElton.com covers the show regularly and even posts video podcasts on each episode.

If you’ve never seen any gay fans then you must stick to a very shallow end of the fandom or purposely want to pretend they don’t exist.