Stefan Salvatore has bloodshot eyes, mangled teeth, terrible sleeping habits and a severe drinking problem. In other words, he has a good chance of becoming TV's hottest heartthrob.
As the lead character in CW's "The Vampire Diaries," premiering 8 p.m. EDT Thursday, an early entry in the networks' annual fall derby, Salvatore may come across as just another brooding bloodsucker, developed in the shadow of "Twilight," which has grossed nearly $400 million at the box office and sold more than 70 million books, and "True Blood," HBO's biggest success since Tony Soprano ordered his last supper. But the show's premise -- young girl finds love in the arms of a 150-year-old classmate -- harks back to more than a decade ago, when TV viewers were first touched by an Angel.
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" attracted a cult audience with snappy dialogue and a heroine who embodied both sexuality and empowerment. But it was the series' introduction of Angel, a hunky vampire fighting his own demons, that spawned a spinoff series and proved that young women would swoon over a mythical character traditionally associated with horror, not heartache.
"The current trend owes more to Joss Whedon than Bram Stoker," said author Kathleen Tracy, referring to the co-creator of "Buffy" and "Angel."
Tracy, who wrote "The Girl's Got Bite: The Original Unauthorized Guide to Buffy's World," said that vampires "used to be symbolic of the evil in men's souls, but Whedon made them symbolic of teen angst, this eternal monster trying to grow up. That's what people have picked up on and taken off with."
It's also what makes young women want to toss out their Jonas Brothers CDs and slip over to the dark side.
"They're bad boys with brains," said "Diaries" co-executive producer Julie Plec, who compared Stefan with past TV sulkers Jordan Catalano of "My So-Called Life" and Dylan McKay on "Beverly Hills 90210." "You want to believe that they have epic amounts of knowledge and soul and spirituality and intelligence lurking behind those eyes. With real men, you often don't get that."
CW executives are hoping that formula will continue to work as well on network TV as it has in the literary world. The success of "Twilight" creator Stephenie Meyer, the best-selling author of 2008, has helped spawn such bold literary experiments as "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies," a classic romance remade with gothic bite.
Tricia Telep, a longtime buyer for London's legendary bookstore Murder One, said vampire romance has almost eclipsed crime and mystery titles. These modern-day Draculas are quite different from their predecessors. "Today's writers have taken away the undercurrent of tension and hidden sexuality, the damsels in distress, women being plundered and raped," said Telep, editor of "The Eternal Kiss: 13 Vampire Tales of Blood and Desire," a new anthology featuring some of the hottest authors on the market. "Now the vampire is less of a menace and more of a potential boyfriend."
That description fits perfectly with CW's "narrowcasting" philosophy -- the only viewers who matter are 18- to 34-year-old women. Gone from the network are such urban-set comedies as "Everybody Hates Chris" and reality shows as "Beauty and the Geek." In their place: a schedule in which each show is designed to get females talking about the latest twists and turns, either around the water cooler or via Facebook.
So far, the strategy is working. In that key demographic, Monday-night ratings were up a whopping 77 percent last season, while Tuesday got a 26 percent bump. "Gossip Girl," the network's signature hit, may average fewer than 4 million viewers a week, but advertisers covet those who are tuning in.
"They really want to reach this audience because so much is happening to young women," said CW entertainment president Dawn Ostroff. "They're graduating high school, they're getting apartments, they're buying cars, they're getting engaged, they're getting married, they're starting households, they're having children. It's a very desirable demographic."
But even the most diehard vampire stalker will cringe if "Diaries" comes across as just a ripoff of "Twilight." (It can't help that Paul Wesley, who plays Stefan, looks an awful lot like overnight sensation Robert Pattinson.)
Co-creator Kevin Williamson admitted that the copycat perception gave him pause.
"I actually said, 'No way,' " said Williamson, who previously explored teen angst in "Dawson's Creek" and the "Scream" movie franchise. "I mean, the pilot was very tough because it does have a lot of similarities to 'Twilight' and there was no way around it. But once we got into it, it became a challenge. 'What can we do differently? What can we add to it?' "
Williamson said that doing a weekly series, rather than a tent-pole movie every couple of years, allows the characters to evolve continuously and gives storytellers room to go in unexpected directions.
"True Blood" creator Alan Ball found the genre liberating for other reasons. The creator of "Six Feet Under" and Oscar-winning screenwriter of "American Beauty" said it allowed him to continue his obsession with mortality, without being constrained by reality.
Toby Whithouse, creator of the British hit "Being Human," which recently ended a run on BBC America, said the original idea revolved around three fairly normal college roommates who buy a house together. But over a two-year development period, he slowly realized that the show would have more bite if the roomies happened to be a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost.
"Supernatural creatures give you a whole different range of stuff you can do," Whithouse said. "You can tell massive stories, but also tiny stories. Yes, you've got vampires uprising, but you've also got somebody thinking, 'Omigod, can I actually enter into a relationship?' "
This transformation of vampires may irk purists who wonder if the genre's pioneers, Bram Stoker and Lord Byron, are spinning in their graves. Fantasy expert Telep doesn't think so.
"Today's writers have taken something quite horrific, the idea of the undead, and made them part of a wish-fulfillment fantasy," she said. "I think the originators might be amused."
(njustin(at)startribune.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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