49 Fun Facts About True Blood

In which fictional Louisiana town is True Blood set?

Bon Temps, French for "good times," is the fictional town in Renard Parish, Louisiana, where waitress Sookie Stackhouse lives with her grandmother Adele.

What supernatural ability does waitress Sookie Stackhouse have?

Sookie's telepathy lets her hear human thoughts, which is why she is drawn to vampire Bill Compton, whose mind she cannot read.

On which network did True Blood air from 2008 to 2014?

HBO aired True Blood for seven seasons, from the premiere on September 7, 2008 to the series finale on August 24, 2014.

True Blood is based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries, a 13-book series by which author?

Charlaine Harris's books ran from Dead Until Dark in 2001 to Dead Ever After in 2013 and were later rebranded as the True Blood novels.

Which writer created True Blood after finding the first novel in a bookshop?

Alan Ball, early for a dentist appointment, picked up Dead Until Dark at a Barnes & Noble and developed Harris's series into True Blood for HBO.

The show's creator had earlier won an Oscar for writing which film?

Alan Ball won Best Original Screenplay for American Beauty at the 72nd Academy Awards in March 2000, where the film also took Best Picture.

In the show's backstory, scientists from which country developed the synthetic blood Tru Blood?

Japanese scientists developed Tru Blood in the show's backstory, and the Japanese Yakonomo Corporation manufactures the bottled drink that let vampires reveal themselves to humans.

In True Blood, what is vampire blood called when humans take it as a narcotic?

V is the street name; Jason's addiction to it in season one leads him to Amy Burley, who ends up murdered like the rest.

What is the name of the bar where Sookie waits tables?

Merlotte's Bar and Grill belongs to Sam Merlotte, a shapeshifter who keeps an eye on Sookie in the form of a dog.

How old does vampire Bill Compton say he is in True Blood's pilot?

Bill tells Sookie he is 173, born in 1835 and turned by his maker Lorena in 1865 as he traveled home from the Civil War.

Eric Northman is the vampire sheriff of which numbered district?

Eric Northman is vampire sheriff of Area 5, the Louisiana district covering Shreveport and Bon Temps, answering to Queen Sophie-Anne Leclerq.

What is the name of the vampire bar Eric owns?

Fangtasia is Eric's neon-lit vampire bar in Shreveport, where Sookie first meets him in season one while looking into the Bon Temps murders.

Who plays Sookie Stackhouse?

Anna Paquin plays Sookie Stackhouse; the Canadian-born, New Zealand-raised actress had won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar at age 11 for 1993's The Piano.

Anna Paquin, True Blood's Sookie, married which co-star in Malibu in August 2010?

Stephen Moyer, who plays Bill, wed her on August 21, 2010; the couple had twins in 2012.

The actor who plays Eric Northman is the son of which Swedish screen veteran?

Alexander Skarsgård, who plays Eric, is the eldest son of Stellan Skarsgård, the Swedish actor known for Breaking the Waves and Good Will Hunting.

Which actor played the short-order cook and medium Lafayette Reynolds?

Nelsan Ellis, a Juilliard graduate, played Lafayette; the character is killed off in Harris's second novel but was kept alive on screen for all seven seasons.

Rutina Wesley replaced which actress as Tara after the original pilot?

Brook Kerr played Tara in the unaired original pilot; when HBO ordered the series the role was recast with Rutina Wesley and Tara's scenes were reshot.

Which song plays over True Blood's opening titles?

Jace Everett's 2005 single "Bad Things" plays over the opening titles, a Southern Gothic montage that earned a 2009 Emmy nomination for main title design.

The season-one killer, Rene Lenier, turns out to really be a man named what?

Rene Lenier was really Drew Marshall, who had murdered his own sister Cindy, faked a Cajun accent, got engaged to Arlene and killed women who slept with vampires.

For killing a vampire, Bill must turn which 17-year-old into a vampire in season one?

Bill is sentenced by the Magister to turn 17-year-old Jessica Hamby after he staked the vampire Longshadow at Fangtasia to protect Sookie.

The season-two villain Maryann Forrester is what kind of creature?

Maryann Forrester, played by Michelle Forbes, is a maenad, an immortal follower of Dionysus who drives Bon Temps into black-eyed bacchanals hoping to summon her god.

Godric, the 2,000-year-old vampire whose disappearance drives season two, is sheriff of which district?

Godric is sheriff of Area 9 in Texas, based in Dallas, where Sookie and Bill search for him amid the anti-vampire Fellowship of the Sun church.

Which supernatural species does Joe Manganiello's Alcide Herveaux introduce to True Blood's mythology in season three?

Werewolves arrive with Alcide, who is hired by Eric to help Sookie find the kidnapped Bill.

Russell Edgington, played by Denis O'Hare, holds what title?

Russell Edgington is the Vampire King of Mississippi, a roughly 3,000-year-old vampire who tore out a news anchor's spine on live television in season three.

What is revealed about Sookie's ancestry in season three?

Sookie learns in season three that she is part faerie, which explains her telepathy and why vampires crave her blood; Claudine is revealed as her faerie godmother.

Which werepanther clan from Hotshot does Jason get tangled up with in season three?

Jason falls for Crystal Norris, whose inbred werepanther clan, the Norrises, runs the drug-dealing backwater of Hotshot a few miles from Bon Temps.

When Sookie returns from Faerie in season four, how long has she been gone in Bon Temps?

Sookie returns a year later, though only minutes passed for her in Faerie, to find Bill has become King of Louisiana and Eric has bought her house.

Who leads the coven of witches that torments the vampires in season four?

Marnie Stonebrook leads the Moon Goddess Emporium coven; possessed by the spirit of Antonia, a Spanish witch burned during the Inquisition, she casts the spell that wipes Eric's memory.

Which character is shot in the season-four finale cliffhanger?

Season five opens with Pam turning her into a vampire to save her.

Bill and Eric are arrested by the Vampire Authority in season five for killing whom?

Nan Flanagan, the American Vampire League spokeswoman seen since season one, is killed by Bill and Eric in the season-four finale, prompting the Authority's arrest.

What is Bill nicknamed after drinking the entire vial of Lilith's blood at the end of season five?

Bill drinks the whole vial of Lilith's blood in the season-five finale, dissolves, then rises reborn from a pool of blood as the godlike 'Billith,' haunted by visions of Lilith.

Who is Nora, introduced in season five?

Nora Gainesborough is Eric's vampire sister, also made by Godric, and an Authority chancellor who secretly belongs to the fundamentalist Sanguinista movement.

Which vampire killed Sookie and Jason's parents, as they learn in season five?

Warlow, played by Rob Kazinsky in season six, is the vampire-faerie hybrid who killed Sookie's parents and claims she was promised to him by an ancestor's centuries-old contract.

In season six, which Louisiana official runs a platform to wipe out vampires and locks them in a camp?

Governor Truman Burrell of Louisiana campaigns to exterminate vampires in season six and imprisons them in a research camp where Tru Blood is secretly laced with Hepatitis V.

At the end of True Blood's sixth season, what new job for shapeshifter Sam Merlotte shows how Bon Temps has changed?

Sam becomes mayor in the six-month time jump that closes the season, in which Sookie is dating Alcide.

What do Eric and Pam name the Hep-V treatment they sell in the series finale?

Eric and Pam bottle a diluted dose of Sarah Newlin's blood as 'New Blood,' a Hep-V treatment they pitch in an infomercial in the series finale.

How does the series finale resolve Bill's storyline?

Infected with Hep-V, he refuses the cure and asks her to end it in his grave.

The final scene of the series shows a pregnant Sookie at what kind of gathering?

The final scene jumps years ahead to a Thanksgiving dinner at Sookie's house, where she is pregnant and seated beside a man the show never identifies.

Which couple gets married in the series finale?

Jessica and Hoyt marry at Bill's house in the finale, with Bill walking his progeny Jessica down the aisle shortly before his death.

How many viewers watched the True Blood pilot when it premiered in September 2008?

The pilot drew 1.44 million viewers on September 7, 2008, a modest start; the series later grew to more than five million viewers an episode at its season-four peak.

Which Primetime Emmy did True Blood win in 2009?

In 2009 True Blood won the Creative Arts Emmy for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series, credited to casting directors Junie Lowry-Johnson and Libby Goldstein.

Who took over as showrunner for the final two seasons after the creator left?

Brian Buckner, a True Blood writer since season one, ran seasons six and seven after Alan Ball stepped back; Mark Hudis was named first but left before season six.

What became of the True Blood reboot HBO announced in December 2020?

HBO shelved it in 2023; chief Casey Bloys said the scripts never produced anything that 'felt like it got there'.

The publisher of the True Blood comic books was which company?

IDW Publishing released the True Blood comics, beginning with a six-issue 2010 miniseries credited to Alan Ball, David Tischman and Mariah Huehner.

How many episodes did True Blood run for across its seven seasons?

True Blood ran 80 episodes: twelve in each of its first five seasons and ten in each of the final two, ending on August 24, 2014.

Which HBO series had Alan Ball made before True Blood, leading to his development deal with the network?

Alan Ball created Six Feet Under, which ran on HBO from 2001 to 2005; after it ended he signed a development deal with the network that produced True Blood.

Which independent film company created True Blood's Emmy-nominated title sequence?

Digital Kitchen, the design studio behind Dexter's opening credits, created the sequence from footage shot in Louisiana; it was nominated for the 2009 Emmy for main title design.

Who composed True Blood's original score, performing the cello, glass harmonica and other instruments himself?

Nathan Barr composed the score, playing the cello, glass harmonica and other instruments himself; he later scored FX's The Americans and Netflix's Hemlock Grove.

Which Golden Globe did Anna Paquin win for True Blood's first season?

Anna Paquin won Best Actress in a TV Drama at the 66th Golden Globes in January 2009 for True Blood's first season, nearly fifteen years after her Oscar for The Piano.