Alan Ball with "Tru Blood" stars Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer. (HBO photo) Below right, Michele Bachmann (by Glen Stubbe, Star Tribune)

Alan Ball, creator of the HBO vampire series "True Blood," told Entertainment Weekly that Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann's bid for the presidency figured into the religion-and-politics story arc for the show's fifth season, beginning Sunday.

"My first instinct about going into religion and politics was from watching Michele Bachmann, who thinks she has a direct line to God." Ball told EW. "What would happen if she became president? A lot of right-wingers would like to see a theocracy in America. From there we thought, 'What would a vampire theocracy be and how would you justify it? What kind of impact would it have on humans?'"