Fandom Chronicles

Fandom Chronicles. History of Supernatural Fandom

July:

September:

09.13: The SPN Pilot airs on the WB.
09.28: supernatural_tv counts 200+ members.
- By the end of the month, several communities on all possible topics already exist, among them communities and fansites for Italian and French fans.

Oktober:

10.17: First outburst of "The Female Threat": Fans go nuts over casting spoilers/rumors for a female principle lead called "Lindsay".

November:

11.03: Supernatural added to TWOP
11.13: The SPN Newsletter posts the first link to a Jsquared fic, stoneprincess's postalleysnoggingbackatmyplacefic here. Two days later super_real is created.
11.27-11.29: The first SPN [Genderswap] stories are posted to the net. See a list here.
- By the end of the month, supernatural_tv has over 500 members, and a new mod, monticora helps out stormbox.

January:

mid-January: The infamous UK Promo (ITV) with the "Scary just got sexy!" slogan (music: Echo & The Bunnymen: The Killing Moon) finds its way online and fries a couple of braincells. The general consensus is that the Brits surely know how to advertise TV shows - and that the WB should take a leaf out of their book. UK Promo Season 1
01.24: The WB unexpectedly sends out a press release, stating that they will merge with America's other, struggling teen-show network The UPN to build the CW in September 2006. In their press release, Supernatural is stated as one of the shows helping to shape the new network - still, fans are worried, as the merger means that SPN now has more competition for the 2006/2007 time slot.
- approx. end of the month: Different media sources report that SPN is moving to a different timeslot starting March, 16th, from Tuesday nights (with 8 p.m. show Gilmore Girls as a lead-in) to Thursday nights 9 p.m. (with Smallville as a lead-in.) Fan reactions vary: While the sci-fi/supernatural show Smallville seems to be a more fitting lead-in than the romantic-comedy type Gilmore Girls, the 9 p.m. Thursday timeslot is the toughest on American television (with shows like CSI and favourite teen drama The OC as competition). Fans fear that SPN won't be able to hold viewers and that its ratings will drop to a point where its survival isn't guaranteed. (Ratings drop indeed, but the retention out of Smallville is high, satisfying the WB network.)

February

The beginning of February sees the fandom's first brainstorming for "Save our Show" ideas - as far as sources go, none of them have been put into action. Among other issues, fans critique a lack of promotion from the WB network - something that'll be still a sore thumb even one and a half years later.
02.16: The community spnnewsletter is created, replacing the former sn_newsletter. More info here. spnnewsletter strives to bring daily updated SPN news as well as a collection of posted fan fic or fan art.

March

03.04: Jared, Jensen, Kim Manners, John Shiban, Eric Kripke and Robert Singer all attend the Supernatural Panel at the William S. Paley Television Festival. The interview and panel session is later included on Best Buys' Supernatural DVD Season 1 edition. Predictably, the panel discussion spawns tons of Jsquared due to the adorableness of Jensen and Jared, as well as their flirting in front of the cameras. see Excerpts Paley Festival