Tip: Garnish with mint or lemon balm, if desired.
COUNTRY PORCH LEMONADE
TIME: 15 MINUTES • SERVES 6
INGREDIENTS:
1 quart water, preferably filtered
1 cup sugar
3 lemons
Ice
Place a heavy 2-quart stainless steel saucepan on the stove. Fill just over halfway with water.
Add the sugar. Heat the water until the sugar melts, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat.
While the water is heating, slice the lemons in half. Cut six perfect round slices to garnish with, one from each cut lemon half. Set aside the garnish slices. Juice the six remaining lemon halves. Strain out the seeds and pulp. Add the lemon juice and ice to the warm sugar water. Stir. Pour the lemonade into a pitcher. Serve by pouring into ice-filled glasses. Garnish each glass with a slice of lemon.
Inside True Blood
Although True Blood certainly wouldn’t exist without Charlaine’s celebrated bestselling novel series, there’s no doubt that the driving force behind the sexy, sassy television show is its creator, producer, and writer, Alan Ball, who was captivated with Charlaine’s wonderful characters at first sight and has reimagined them for television while staying true to their original versions at the same time.
When I approached him for an interview about the series and his work, Mr. Ball said yes quickly and graciously. Rather than ask him questions that have no doubt been covered in other venues, I decided to allow the fans a rare chance to ask Mr. Ball questions about his work on True Blood and just about anything else Sookie-related that they desired. The response was overwhelming, and I selected the best questions to pass along to him. I’m pleased to reveal his answers here.
How did you first discover the Sookie Stackhouse series?
—RACHEL KLIKA
I was early for a dentist appointment and stumbled upon the books at a nearby Barnes & Noble. I picked up the first book and couldn’t put it down. Once I got into the series, I knew it had to be a TV show.
In Season 2 of True Blood, the maenad character Maryann Forrester (played brilliantly by Michelle Forbes) was developed to a fuller extent when compared to her role in the book by Ms. Harris. Why did you decide to develop this character further?
—DEIRDRE BRENNAN
Part of the challenge in adapting Charlaine’s novels is to create strong stories for the characters other than Sookie and still remain very faithful to the spirit of the books. We loved the maenad attacking Sookie and poisoning her with her claws, and then we looked for ways for her to interact with the other characters as well as being dangerous to Sookie. Ultimately, she gave us something for the entire cast to go up against.
What was your motivation for having Bill ask Sookie to marry him in the end of the second season when it was so far from the books? Was it that it was a good way to have Bill kidnapped/disappear?
—ADDIE BROWN
I think the motivation was to give them a moment of happiness, a hope that something they thought was off-limits to both of them was actually within their grasp. They’ve been through so much together during their relatively short relationship, it felt nice to give them a moment of “normalcy” and the hope that they could have a happy ending. Of course, this being True Blood, there isn’t much chance of that.
What inspired you to make the Sookie books into an HBO series?
—KIM MCCOLLOM
I was so deeply entertained by the experience of reading the books, I just thought it would make a great TV show. The world and the characters seemed too large for just a movie—to me, it begged for the larger canvas of a TV series.
Your show has resonated with such a wide demographic group of people—many not typical fans of vampires and the paranormal. What[1] sets True Blood apart from all the other vampire movies/ shows to attract such a following?
—KIM MCCOLLOM
I think it’s because of several different elements: the characters and the world that Charlaine created; the performances by the amazingly talented cast; the humor, the romance, the scares; the focus we try to keep on making everything, no matter how outlandish, grounded in the emotional lives of the characters. It’s just a really fun show to make and hopefully a fun show to watch.
What were your first impressions of the people in Bon Temps?
—NADEEN CUMMINGS
They felt really authentic to me. I grew up in a semismall town in the South (Marietta, Georgia), and the descriptions of the characters, the way they behaved and spoke, it all felt like something I recognized.
I love the character of Lafayette and am so glad that he survived Season 1 of True Blood, unlike his less-fortunate counterpart in the books. Did you decide that his character would go beyond Season 1 from the beginning, or was that decision made after seeing how well he came to life on screen?
—LAURA CHEQUER
The first scene I shot with Nelsan Ellis in the pilot made it abundantly clear to me that this was a character we could never lose. I am usually not a fan of actors who improvise, but Nelsan doesn’t just improvise, he channels from planet Lafayette. In a lesser actor’s hands, Lafayette could come across as extreme or one-dimensional; Nelsan makes him strong, fierce, and deeply lovable.
Will you consider casting yourself in a cameo role each season (à la Alfred Hitchcock)?
—TEDDI SMITH
Never! I allowed myself to be talked into doing that in an episode of Six Feet Under and have always regretted it. I think it would just take viewers out of the story.
Many changes have been made from Charlaine Harris’s books to the show, and I’m wondering why you chose to paint Bill and Sophie-Anne in the light you did, as opposed to the way Ms. Harris wrote the characters? While there are a lot of similarities in Bill, it seems your Sophie-Anne is very modern and not the regal, aristocratic French queen portrayed in the series. Any insight to your decisions would be appreciated.
—SUSAN MOSS
In True Blood, Sophie-Anne appears in the same season Godric appears. We chose not to have two ancient vampires who seem barely older than children in the same season. And ultimately, every nonregular character on our show exists to create conflicts and challenges for our regular characters. Having read all the books at this point, and knowing why Bill appeared in Bon Temps in the first place, we chose to play Sophie-Anne a little differently. We also were setting up a major story line in Season 3.
In the show, it consistently seems as if you are trying to villainize Eric and sanctify Bill, even referring to Eric as the “bad boy” more than once in interviews. This certainly does not stay true to the spirit of the books, as Eric is absolutely not a villain or even a bad boy in the books, and likewise Bill is definitely not a saint, nor is he even a “good guy” half the time. Is there a reason that you try to portray these characters in this manner, and if so, what is it?
—LISA ROWELL
Hmm . . . I am not sure I agree with your assessment. We have purposely shown many darker aspects of Bill, such as his penchant for sport-killing during his years with Lorena, his keeping things from Sookie, his interaction with the state patrolman he glamoured in Season 1, taking his gun and pointing it at him, and his murder of Uncle Bartlett. Likewise, we have shown many of the deeper, more tender aspects of Eric—his love for Godric, his grief at Godric’s true death. We continue with both of these directions inin Season 3. And it seems to me more dramatic to establish certain expectations about a character and then upend them than to just depict everyone as equal parts light and darkness. And when I use the term “bad boy,” I am referring to the kind of bad boy that women are consistently attracted to—a man who doesn’t play by the rules, a man who is a little dangerous, who is going to create more drama and fun than the good guy who does everything right.