True Blood Television Program

HBO's sultry vampire drama "True Blood" has become a surprise hit for the pay cable network and has almost single-handedly taken the network back to the top of the cultural zeitgeist. The show, whose second season premiered Sunday to numbers the network hasn't seen since the last days of its mob drama "The Sopranos," is also on track to become HBO's next cash cow. For Time Warner Inc.'s HBO, it couldn't come at a more opportune time.

HBO's coming drama, "True Blood," is based on the Charlaine Harris series of books set in the backwoods of Louisiana, in a world where vampires and humans coexist but vampires are treated as outcasts. The series debuts Sept. 7. Asked if vampires carried an underlying message about gay rights, executive producer Alan Ball told reporters Thursday there's no hidden message. "I really don't look at the vampire as a metaphor for gays," he said. "For me, part of the fun of this whole series is that it's about vampires, so it's not that serious," he said.