Supernatural Scrapbook 2004-05
Early reports on "Supernatural" in the development stage
- Early draft of Pilot. Mary Harrison dies in what everyone thinks is a car accident when her sons are 9 and 11. After her death Jack Harrison (their father) leaves Sam and Dean and they are raised by an aunt and uncle.
- Later draft of Pilot
- Kripke talks about the early scripts and getting David Nutter on board.
September 13 2004:
report on the project from allbusiness.com:
Described as "Route 66" meets "The X Files," "Supernatural" focuses on two twentysomething brothers who battle the things that go bump in the night as they cruise the dusty backroads of small-town America in their '64 Mustang.
"We had been talking internally about wanting to do a show that truly scares and creeps you out, and (McG and Kripke) came in and pitched this show that not only serviced that need in our development but truly entertained us with the mythology and eeriness that they want to convey in the show," WB Network entertainment president David Janollari said. "The notion of doing a dramatic show that focuses on a really unique brother dynamic and allows us to enter worlds that scare us and creep us out each week to me is a great recipe."
January 17 2005:
from the Futon Critic:
SUPERNATURAL (The WB) - David Nutter ("Smallville") has come aboard to direct and executive produce the drama project, which has been given the green light to produce a pilot. Writer/producer Eric Kripke ("Tarzan") created the project, which is set up at McG and Stephanie Savage's Warner Bros. Television-based Wonderland Sound and Vision, and will executive produce along with Nutter, McG and Savage. "Supernatural" revolves around two brothers who travel the country hunting down supernatural beings.
February 16:
from the Futon Critic:
SUPERNATURAL (The WB) - Jared Padalecki ("Gilmore Girls") and Jensen Ackles ("Smallville") have been cast in the lead roles of the drama pilot, described as a cross between "The X-Files" and "Route 66." The Warner Bros. Television/Wonderland Sound and Vision-based project revolves around Sam, a recent Stanford graduate, who along with his estranged older brother Dean encounter unusual ghosts and local creatures straight out of American folk lore and urban legends during a road trip from San Francisco back home to Los Angeles. It's not clear who plays Sam and who plays Dean. David Nutter, who has been behind 10 successful pilots in the past decade, is directing the project from a script by Eric Kripke. The pair will also executive produce alongside McG, Stephanie Savage and Peter Johnson.
March 22:
from the Futon Critic:
SUPERNATURAL (The WB) - A few additional details have emerged about the drama pilot, which stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles as brothers who encounter unusual ghosts and local creatures straight out of American folk lore and urban legends during a road trip across America. It's been learned that the brothers go on said adventure in order to track down the forces responsible for their mother's murder 20 years earlier. Eric Kripke, McG, Stephanie Savage and Peter Johnson are the executive producers of the Warner Bros. Television/Wonderland Sound and Vision-based project. David Nutter directs.
March/April: The 1.01 Pilot films in L.A. during March/April
- Jared interview filmed during the pilot
- Interviews with Eric Kripke, David Nutter, Peter Johnson and Jared and Jensen.
May 17:
WB Upfronts 2005-06
Supernatural confirmed for The WB Fall Schedule - set to air on Tuesdays after "Gilmore Girls".
July 8:
First review of the Pilot, ahead of airing at Dark Horizons
July 17: Comic Con
The 1.01 Pilot airs at Comic Con.
July 23: WB Networks All Star Celebrations Jared and Jensen appear with the other WB stars at The Cabana Club Los Angeles, California United States.
July 29: TCA Summer Tour 2005 from scifi.com:
Padalecki said series creator and executive producer Eric Kripke encouraged the actors to do research into the stories that they will be exploring, but he had already come to the role with a certain knowledge of the subject matter. "My mom is actually a heroes, myths and legends teacher, so I knew a lot about archetypes and mythology and the classic stories," he said. "I had heard of the woman in white, which is what the pilot's about. I've heard of Bloody Mary and the hook man and the lady in the lake. I mean, hopefully that's stuff that we'll get to explore, but it's stuff that everybody knows.
August 10: from Buffalo News:
Eric Kripke, the creator of "Supernatural," which is about two brothers exploring small town ghost stories and urban legend across the country, said he's been trying to get the series on the air since his first TV meeting eight years ago.
"The planets aligned and the timing worked out," explained Kripke.
Robert Singer, a veteran producer who joined "Supernatural" after the pilot starring Jaret Padalecki ("Gilmore Girls") and Jensen Ackles ("Smallville") was made, takes a more worldly, post-Sept. 11 view of the six-show invasion.
"To get political, I think given the state of where we are in reality today, kind of a good spooky supernatural show might be what we need," said Singer.
August 11: Promo insert
The WB will place a special insert in two upcoming September issues of Wenner Media's Rolling Stone and Us Weekly to promote new Fall show, Supernatural, premiering Sept. 13.
When readers open the magazine to the ad, the insert will play a 20-second song clip “Out of My Hands,” by the Dave Matthews Band, dialogue between the two main characters—brothers Sam and Dean Winchester—and a voiceover that gives a quick show summary and premier date. The ad will also have two flashing yellow lights that look like car headlights of a 1967 Chevrolet Impala, the same model the show's main characters drive.
The insert, produced by WB and Americhip, will appear in the Sept. 12 issue of US Weekly and the Sept. 22 issue of Rolling Stone.
August 15: Supernatural studs kick some butt
First mention of Jared and Jensen offscreen together in a bar brawl
When "Supernatural" premieres on The WB on September 13, be sure to pay close attention to the fight sequences. The stars of the occult-themed thriller, "Smallville's" Jensen Ackles and "Gilmore Girls'" Jared Padalecki, have been trained quite well. According to Page Six, the actors, who play brothers on the show, were attacked by a group of drunken thugs one night after filming in Vancouver. The pack of unruly goons "mistook Jared and Jensen for two guys who had hassled them earlier in the evening," according to the show's co-executive producer Peter Johnson. But instead of running off, Jared and Jensen took on the group, using the martial arts training they received for "Supernatural". "They picked the wrong pair," said Johnson, who says the gang of drunks needed an ambulance after their fight with the actors. Padalecki and Ackles, however, suffered only minor injuries.
The brawl was later mentioned in a Zap2It article September 10:
The two actors carried their sibling relationship off the show's Vancouver set recently when Ackles inadvertently led Padalecki into a real-life bar brawl that left the latter with a broken hand.
"When we walked into the place, there had just been a fight inside the bar, but we didn't know that yet," Padalecki explains. "When we started hearing them talking about the fight, we decided it was best to leave, but when we went back to the front, the guys there thought we were some of the guys they had been fighting with so they basically continued the fight again."
"It was life imitating art," Ackles jokes. "I've just got to play the role of older brother and show this young whippersnapper how they do things in Vancouver."
August 17: From USA Today:
Kripke (Boogeyman), joined as a producer by McG (Charlie's Angels) and Robert Singer (Midnight Caller), acknowledges the success of ABC's Lost in making it easier for these kinds of shows to get on the air. They reflect an uncertain post-9/11 spirit in which an enemy "is not only out to get us. He could be living among us."
Although Supernatural may fit with the times, Kripke, 31, has been nurturing this idea for almost a decade. He considers himself a disciple of the late Joseph Campbell and his examinations of mythology. The names of the two lead characters are an homage to the wandering Sal and Dean of Jack Kerouac's On the Road. And Kripke also cites contemporary signposts, including Star Wars and The Matrix, when discussing the heroes' journey.
Structurally, Supernatural will be made up primarily of self-contained episodes: "They'll be driving into town to kill that evil and then they'll drive back into the sunset," Kripke says. A longer thread including their search for their father will be established over time.
September 3: Official Website
The WB launch their Official Website for Supernatural.
September 6:
The WB pairs with Yahoo and makes the Pilot of Supernatural free via streaming beginning at 9:00 pm EST/6:00 pm PST on Tuesday, September 6th through Monday, September 12th. ahead of the offical airing on The WB.
September 13:
The show premieres on The WB at 9/8c on September 13th. It attracted the time period's highest adult 18-49 rating for the WB in two years, improving over the One Tree Hill premiere in 2004 by 19%.
September 30:
Jared appears on The Ellen Show and talks about his accident while filming "Flight of the Phoenix"
October 6:
Supernatural is given full season pickup by The WB
David Janollari, the network's President, Entertainment:
SUPERNATURAL has delivered in a huge way for us, with genuinely scary episodes every week, and it just keeps getting better, said Janollari. Eric Kripke, McG and Bob Singer have done a terrific job executing their vision and we expect the show to be a long-term player at The WB.
November 3: early Jared interview
Padalecki describes Sam as "a classic reluctant hero. He's Luke Skywalker. He's Neo from The Matrix. He doesn't know why he's able to do what he's able to do, and he doesn't know why he kinda has to, but he has this ability. Not anything magical, or anything supernatural, but this understanding and ability to help others, so he feels compelled to do so."
November 22
- 1.10 Asylum is the last episode for the year to end, ending with the first direct contact of John Winchester with his sons.
