Short answers, pulled from the story.
True Blood is based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries, a novel series by Charlaine Harris. The first book, Dead Until Dark, was published in 2001, and creator Alan Ball discovered it while browsing a Barnes & Noble before a dental appointment.
True Blood premiered on the 7th of September 2008, on HBO, and concluded on the 24th of August 2014. The series ran for seven seasons and 80 episodes.
Anna Paquin plays Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic human-faerie hybrid who works as a waitress at Merlotte's Bar and Grill in the fictional Louisiana town of Bon Temps. Paquin won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama at the 66th Golden Globe Awards for the role.
The theme song is "Bad Things" by country artist Jace Everett, taken from his 2005 self-titled debut album. Jace Everett won a 2009 BMI Cable Award for the song.
The struggle for vampire equal rights in True Blood has been widely interpreted as an allegory for the LGBT rights movement. Charlaine Harris described her vampires as a minority seeking equal rights, and the show borrowed phrases like "coming out of the coffin" directly from LGBT culture. Series creator Alan Ball, however, resisted the comparison, calling it lazy.
The ninth episode of the fourth season, which aired on the 21st of August 2011, set the series record with 5.53 million viewers. An average of 12.4 million viewers per week watched the second season when including replays and on-demand viewings.