Inside 'The Vampire Diaries'

"We just don't need them to take their shirts off every five seconds!" said Vampire Diaries creator Kevin Williamson when asked about his hunky male stars not-often-enough shirtless scenes on the CW drama. Speaking in front of a packed audience at the Saban Theater in Los Angeles recently during the 27th annual PaleyFest television celebration, Williamson, Co-Executive Producer Julie Plec and Executive Producer Bob Levy were joined by the hotter-than-hot stars of the show, Nina Dobrev, Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley.

It was made abundantly clear that fans can't get enough of Wesley and Somerhalder - shirts or no shirts - as each took the stage and the fans expressed their love (via high-decibel screams) for the sexy on-air brothers who just happen to be vampires. To be fair, Dobrev also received a very warm reception, as did the producing team who would talk about casting and creating the show during the course of the evening.

First up, creator Williamson, who is also responsible for the film franchise Scream and the long-running Dawson's Creek series, admitted to worrying about whether there was a need for another vampire project after the huge successes of Twilight and HBO's series True Blood. However, he said that his feelings were put to ease when he assembled the group of actors for the various roles on the show. "When you have a cast like this it makes you want to stay up all night and write," he exclaimed.

Comparisons to ’Twilight?’

Somerhalder, who has also been sort-of raised from the dead on his former hit series Lost for a few episodes this season, said that while he was aware of the comparisons of the show to Stephanie Meyer's books and films, he realized "Vampire Diaries is about the town [Mystic Falls, Virginia] and is a well constructed story with well constructed characters..." As for inevitable similarities to Twilight, Somerhalder added, "I knew the books were huge but I never saw it. I chose not to see it so I wouldn't make comparisons."

One way to make sure Vampire Diaries could stand alone was to make sure it did not look the same as Twilight and True Blood. "Our special effects people," Williamson explained, "also do True Blood and we said 'Whatever you do for True Blood, don't do it for us.' We wanted to be different and unique from 'True Blood." In fact, fans showed they are definitely loving the show by recently voting Vampire Diaries the Best New Drama at the People's Choice Awards in January.

Fans of the series can also attest to the fantastic chemistry between stars Somerhalder, Dobrev and Wesley. What makes it work so well? Somerhalder said it helps that they spend every waking second with each other and Wesley went so far as suggesting they just buy a house together so they can literally be together all the time.

Despite the closeness, though, the guys did admit that sometimes things do get a little too physical. Case in point, after an intense fight scene where Wesley threw Somerhalder against a wall, Ian ended up going to the chiropractor for his back pain.

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Watch this preview of to the first season of The Vampire Diaries from the CW:

Away from the tabloids

Vampire Diaries films in Atlanta, Georgia and Williamson compared the experience to when he shot 'Dawson's Creek' in Wilmington, North Carolina in terms of the lack of tabloid headlines that plague other young stars of television series. "They're not here in Hollywood," he said of the cast, "so they're not running around being looked at or being on Perez Hilton everyday. They're a family and they're friends and they hang out."

Like other vampire projects Twilight and True Blood, Vampire Diaries is also based on a series of books by L.J. Smith. However, while the aforementioned projects are closely linked with the source material, how closely is the Vampire Diaries television series following the books on which it is based?

"The books are a starting place," Levy said, "but it's up the writers to make their own experiences with what's in the books." Williamson admitted that he read a lot of books when he was younger that were either later made into movies or television series and he always loved the changes they took from the source material.

Asked when they realized that audiences were going to click with the show and Levy recounted that they were literally shooting the sixth episode of the series last September when the pilot was airing on the CW. "We were gauging when the show was on the air and we were working but we were looking at our Blackberries to see what Twitters was doing. You shoot the pilot in March, get picked in May, go into production in July and then it's months of waiting to see if it works. For me, it was Twitter blowing up and it was these people saying 'It's working! We love it!'"

One device that is frequently used on the series is the flashback, which reveals how brothers Damon and Stefan Salvatore became vampires in the first place at the bite of less-than-sweet Katherine, who happens to look exactly like modern day non-vamp Elena (both roles played by Dobrev). One thing that Williamson said he loves about those episodes is "We get to see Damon with his innocence and when he was vulnerable."

The camaraderie of Wesley and Somerhalder was apparent when Wesley was asked to talk about how he approaches playing his character. While Wesley says his method of playing the introspective, emotional Stefan is "I think of it as a guy who is like a recovering alcoholic," Somerhalder said that Stefan needs to worry less and "Just bite her!" To prove his point, Somerhalder took Dobrev's wrist and simulated taking a bite out of her arm.

Finally, to prove the power that Vampire Diaries holds with its fans - and how appreciative the cast is of the fan-love - when the Q&A portion of the evening began, the first question came from a woman wearing a white TEAM STEFAN shirt and said she ventured all the way from North Carolina to see the panel and, in her words, "Paul's amazing abs." While Wesley did not reveal his sculpted, stunning six-pack, he did take off his microphone and step off the stage to give the women a hug and kiss on her cheek.

The perfect sentiment of the night came when Dobrev talked about her character being torn between the dreamy Stefan (Wesley) and the dastardly Damon (Somerhalder). "What's a girl to do?" she asked the crowd only get a response from someone in the audience - "Enjoy it!" Amen!

Vampire Diaries airs every Thursday at 8/7c on the CW network.

Watch Ian Somerhalder talk about The Vampire Diaries:

Watch Paul Wesley talk about The Vampire Diaries: