"Heroes" Lawsuit Down the Drain

Wed., Oct. 4, 2006 8:45 PM PDT by Natalie Finn

Hopefully you got a good glimpse last week of the teenage girl's hand being mangled by a garbage disposal, because you might not get to see it again.

Disposal maker Emerson filed a federal lawsuit Monday against NBC to prevent the network from re-airing the pilot episode of the new drama Heroes, which featured one of the title characters demonstrating her superhuman healing prowess by sticking her hand down the drain.

Emerson, obviously concerned that the series' 14.1 million viewers last week were busy looking at the disposal brand instead of Claire the cheerleader's bloody hand, claimed in its petition that NBC Universal Television Studios didn't have the right to show the St. Louis-area company's In-Sink-Erator product and is looking to prohibit any further use by the network of the Emerson trademark.

And the minds behind Heroes are going to get about 20 more chances to integrate daily household appliances into their storyline. NBC has ordered up a full season of the show for the 2006-07 season, rewarding its strong performance out of the gate.

The lawsuit further stated that the scene "casts the disposer in an unsavory light, irreparably tarnishing the product" by suggesting that the appliance "will cause debilitating and severe injuries, including the loss of fingers, in the event consumers were to accidentally insert their hand into one."

Not that Emerson is saying you should try this at home or anything. And neither is Heroes, for that matter.

While Claire (Hayden Panettiere) struggled with the usual curse of adolescence--feeling both exhilarated and embarrassed by the notion of being different than her peers--her fellow Heroes confronted their "strengths" in different ways:

Hiro (Masi Oka), who found himself in Times Square two seconds after being on a Tokyo subway, is thrilled with his ability to breach the space-time continuum.
Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) dreams of being able to fly--just like his brother Nathan (Adrian Pasdar), it turns out--and just may be able to do so one day if he can extricate himself from his sibling's shadow long enough to spread his wings. How's that for metaphors?
Isaac the painter (Santiago Cabrera) is psychic. Or is that just the drugs talking?
Niki (Ali Larter) has a murderous (or is she just misunderstood?) doppelganger whose mirror image has only served so far to cause Niki--and the audience--much confusion.
E! Online TV columnist and avid Heroes fan Kristin Veitch makes an appearance in episode four. She's just all-around super.