Imagine that your friendly next-door neighbor is a nice, quiet man who works in the police department, has a wife and kids…and also happens to be a serial killer? Although it’s frightening to believe such things are possible, this is the premise of the extremely popular Showtime series “Dexter.”

Following an extremely successful viral marketing campaign, the second season of “True Blood” premiered on June 14 to a staggering rating of 3.7 million viewers. This premiere was the most watched program on HBO since “The Sopranos” finale two years ago.

There were strict rules: no talking, no phone calls, no chewing loudly and no interruptions of any sort. I took these rules very seriously and made sure that others were aware of the rules as well, since I had developed them. The rules, you may be wondering, applied to my favorite hour of television from [...]