First we had the lawsuit that claimed the idea for Heroes was stolen, then we had the controversial comments from ex-Zach, Thomas Dekker. Now comes what could be the most intriguing Heroes controversy of them all.

Was the first season tag line "Save the cheerleader, save the world" borrowed from a short-lived NBC show from the mid-80s?

That's the news from the B-Side blog, which discloses that the classic, campy NBC sci-fi show Misfits of Science (which starred Courteney Cox and ALF's Max Wright) had the catch phrase "Save Adele, Save The World." Now, this would be just a cute coincidence if it wasn't for the fact that Heroes creator Tim Kring was one of the writers on the show! Of course, since he was a writer on the show, maybe it's not a controversy at all.

After the jump, video from the show, which includes the tag line.

Note: the B-Side Blog seems to be down right now, so here's the story on Defamer.