What's This? Good "Heroes" News?

I've been pessimistic about "Heroes" for a while now, since NBC and show creator Tim Kring started expanding the brand too quickly last summer. The lousy second season only confirmed my fears.

So I'm relieved to hear NBC's Ben Silverman finally talking some sense about the show. The network is bringing back "Heroes" on September 15, with a one-hour clip episode and then a two-hour premiere. "We consciously chose to rest ['Heroes'] this spring so that Tim Kring and his team could get ahead of the creative and build up to a massive event -- a three-hour 'Heroes' night," Silverman said this week.

What's this? Respect for the creative process? Revolutionary, Silverman!

Another good sign: "Heroes: Origins," the prequel spin-off miniseries, has been chucked into the scrap heap where it belongs. "We were taxing our creative team to do too much around that," Silverman said. "We wanted 35 'Heroes' [episodes] and 12 'Heroes: Origins,' each of which was supposed to be a mini-movie and backdoor pilot. We reached far and challenged our people, and we decided it was better to focus on keeping the Heroes mothership as strong as possible."

I'm really hoping creator Kring and his writers will pull it all together, since they now have the time, and give us a third season that's worthy of the first season's promise. Otherwise, "Heroes" will have to go down in TV history as the classic example of squandered potential.