Supernatural

Supernatural is an American television series, created by Eric Kripke, which was first broadcast on September 13, 2005, on The WB, and subsequently became part of successor The CW's lineup.

Starring Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester and Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester, the series follows the two brothers as they hunt demons, ghosts, monsters and other supernatural beings in the world.

The series is produced by Warner Bros. Television, in association with Wonderland Sound and Vision. The current executive producers are Eric Kripke, McG, and Robert Singer. Former excutive producer, Kim Manners, died of lung cancer during production of the fourth season.

The series is filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia and surrounding areas, and was in development for nearly ten years, as creator Kripke spent several years unsuccessfully pitching it. The pilot was viewed by an estimated 5.69 million viewers,  and the ratings of the first four episodes prompted The WB to pick up the series for a full season. Originally, Eric Kripke planned the series for three seasons, but later expanded it to five. The fifth season began airing on September 10, 2009, and concluded the series' main storyline; however, The CW officially renewed the show for a sixth season on February 16, 2010. On April 26, 2011, the show was renewed for a seventh season for the 2011-12 season, which began on September 23, 2011. On May 3, 2012, Supernatural was renewed for an eighth season by The CW with Jeremy Carver replacing Sera Gamble as co-showrunner with Robert Singer. On February 11, 2013, The CW renewed the series for a ninth season. It premiered on October 8, 2013. On July 22, 2013, The CW announced there was a spin off of Supernatural in the works, with the 20th episode of season nine serving as a back-door pilot. On January 29, 2014, it was revealed that the spin-off will be titled Supernatural: Bloodlines.

On February 13, 2014, The CW renewed the series for a tenth season.

Conception and Creation
Before bringing Supernatural to television, creator Eric Kripke had been developing the series for nearly ten years,  having been fascinated with urban legends since he was a child. Although he had envisioned Supernatural as a movie, he spent years unsuccessfully pitching it as a series. The concept went through several phases before becoming the eventual product, shifting from the original idea of an anthology series to one of tabloid reporters driving around the country in a van "fighting the demons in search of the truth.   Kripke wanted it to be a road trip series, feeling that it was the "best vehicle to tell these stories because it's pure, stripped down and uniguely American... These stories exist in these small towns all across the country, and it just makes so much sense to drive in and out of these stories." Because he had previously written for The WB series Tarzan, Kripke was offered the chance to pitch show idea s to the network, and used the opportunity for Supernatural.  However, the network disliked his tabloid reporter idea, so Kripke successfully pitched his last-minute idea of the characters being brothers.  He decided to have the brothers be from Lawrence, Kansas, because of its closeness to Stull Cemetery, a location famous for its urban legends.

When it came time to name the two lead characters, Kripke decided on "Sal" and "Dean" as an homage to Jack Kerouac's road-trip novel On the Road. However, he felt that "Sal" was inappropriate for a main character, and changed the name to "Sam." It was originally intended for the brothers' last name to be "Harrison" as a nod to actor Harrison Ford, as Kripke wanted Dean to have the "devil-may-care swagger of Han Solo." However, there was a Sam Harrison living in Kansas, so the name had to be changed for legal reasons. Combining his interest in the Winchester Mystery House and his desire to give the series the feel of "a modern-day Western", Kripke settled on the surname of "Winchester". However, this also presented a problem. The first name of Sam and Dean's father was originally "Jack", and there was a Jack Winchester residing in Kansas, so Kripke was forced to change the character's name to "John."

"We say it's a modern American Western - two gunslingers who ride into town, fight the bad guys, kiss the girl and ride out into the sunset again. And we were always talking from the very beginning that if you're going to have cowboys, they need a trusty horse."

- Eric Kripke on the decision to add the Impala

Growing up, Kripke connected to television shows that had signature cars, such as The Dukes of Hazzard and Knight Rider. This prompted him to include one in Supernatural. He originally intended for the car to be a '65 Mustang, but his neighbor convinced him to change it to a '67 Impala, since "you can put a body in the trunk" and because "you want a car that, when people stop next to it at the lights, they lock their doors." Kripke has commented, "It's a Rottweiler of a car, and I think it adds authenticity for fans of autmobiles because of that, because it's not a pretty ride. It's an aggressive, muscular car, and I think that's what people respond to, and why it fits so well into the tone of our show."

Kripke had previously pitched the series to Fox executive Peter Johnson, and when Johnson moved to Wonderland Sound and Vision as president of TV, he contacted Kripke. Johnson soon signed on as co-executive producer, as did Wonderland owner McG as executive producer, with the production company set to make the pilot episode. Before it could be filmed, however, script issues needed to be dealt with. Originally, the brothers were not raised by their father, but rather by their aunt and uncle. Thus, when Dean comes to Sam for assistance in the pilot episode, he has to convince him that the supernatural exists. However, Kripke realized that this made the backstory too complicated, and reworked it with Peter so that their father raised them to be hunters. The script went through many additional revisions. One of the original ideas was for Sam's girlfriend Jessica being revealed as a demon, which prompts him to join Dean on the road; however, Kripke felt it was more appropriate for Sam's motivation to be Jessica's death, so he had her killed in the same manner as Sam's mother, making them the "right bookends." Other revised concepts include Sam believing Dean to be a serial killer that murders their father, and their father dying in Jessica's place. Filming for the pilot episode was greenlit after director David Nutter, who previously had worked with Kripke on Tarzan, signed on. When the series was eventually picked up, the studio brought on Robert Singer as executive producer, as it wanted Kripke to work with someone with production experience. Co-executive producer John Shiban was also hired to help design the series mythology for his previous work on The X-Files. Kripke had the series planned out for three seasons, but later expanded it to five, and hoped to end it there on a high note.

Writing
The staff for the first season consisted of Kripke and five other writers, with assistants to help with researching urban legends. Most of the work done in writing the series is very collaborative, with the writers often breaking up into groups. At the beginning of each season, the writers are brought together and pitch out their ideas, which are then assigned to a specific writer to be developed. Each story idea is outlined on a dry-erase board, with Kripke and Singer making necessary changes. Afterward, the script is written,   and Kripke goes through it to make sure it has the same tone as other episodes. Kripke found this task very difficult to do in the first season, but he felt it became easier by the third season, as the staff came to "really understand the show's style."

The tone of Supernatural was heavily influenced by films such as Poltergeist - having the horror happen in a family setting rather than remote location - and Evil Dead 2 and An American Werewolf in London - having bits of comedy mixed in. Commenting on the former, Kripke added, "It's the idea that horror can happen in your own backyard. How many viewers have to worry about the vampire in the gothic castle?" Other influences include The Two Sisters and Asian horror films The Eye, Ju-on, and Ring.

"It's always been a show about family."

- Eric Kripke

According to creator Eric Kripke, the show originally was intended to focus on the weekly monsters, with Sam and Dean Winchester merely being "an engine to get us in and out of different horror movies every week." His sole desire was to merely "scare the crap out of people." However, a few episodes in, Kripke and executive producer Robert Singer noticed the onscreen chemistry between Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles. This revelation caused them to change the series to focus more on the brothers than the monsters, basing the weekly monster around the storyline they wanted for the Winchesters. According to Kripke, "...sometimes we don't even have the monster until way late in the break, once we get all the angst and the drama done first.

Unlike shows with "endless mythology" like Lost, Kripke prefers to keep Supernatural's mythology simpler, saying, "It's so hard to go season after season after season with a mystery and then provide an answer that's going to be satisfying." He prefers to have the series' structure like that of the earlier X-Files episodes, having mythology - based episodes spread through many self-enclosed episodes - Supernatural usually having three self-enclosed episodes followed by a mythology episode. With this format, viewers do not have to have previous knowledge of the mythology in order to watch the series, being able to "join the party at any time."

Effects
Though companies were hired for work on the pilot episode - such as Entity FX for the visual effects   - effects departments now work exclusively for the series. Ivan Hayden is the visual effects supervisor, and works with many levels of the production staff. During pre-production, Hayden must go through the scripts, looking for possible visual effects. He then has a concept meeting with the writers, and after settling on the effect designs to use, coordinates with the special effects and stunt departments. Hayden is also present during filming to help the director make sure that the scenes are being filmed in the best way for the visual effects, such as by ensuring that the actors are looking at the correct location where an effect will later be added. Afterward, he then meets with the editors. Another aspect of the visual effects department is coming up with rules and physics for each supernatural creature, though the rules are often bent if it benefits the story. In 2012, it was announced that Hayden will be working at the new Vancouver location of Encore for its VFX division.

Music
Supernatural features a synthesized orchestral score, although traditional acoustic instruments such as guitars and cells are used at times. Special instruments have also been used in specific episodes, such as "bluesy gospel music" played on a broken-down piano in the faith-healing episode "Faith." Unlike other television shows, the series features two composers: Christopher Lennertz and Jay Gruska. Each composer scores every other episode, giving them extra time to write the scores, which usually end up being around 30 minutes per episode. They write themes for their own episodes and characters and work with one another if there is overlap between episodes. They try to base the music on the visuals of the episode, such as in the episode "Dead in the Water," in which off-angle shots are accompanied by repetitive and discordant notes, and spoken words such as "water" and "die" are followed by a lower pitch to create a "gurgly" sound. While there are similarities in the scores for situations such as the brothers and ther father, about a third of each episode's score is newly written for the series.

While original scores are used throughout episodes, another important aspect of the series' music is the use of classic rock, over which creator Eric Kripke threatened to quit when the netowkr would not allow its inclusion. Most of the songs are from Kripke's private collection, although one of his favorite bands -  Led Zeppelin - is too expensive to use. Some episode titles are references to Led Zeppelin songs. The series has featured such bands as Blue Oyster Cult, Bad Company, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Rush, Boston, Triumph and AC/DC on more than one occasion. Multiple songs are usually used throughout each episodes, and accompany "The Road So Far" sequences before select episodes that highlight a montage of past events. Although Kripke prefers to keep a fine line between the score and songs used, sometimes Lennertz and Gruska are required to write short sections of rock-like music to fill 15-to-20-second gaps, as it would be too costly to acquire song rights. Usually on the last episode of every season, the song "Carry On Wayward Son" by Kansas is played at the beginning.

Filming Locations
Though the pilot was filmed in Los Angeles, principal filming takes place in Vancouver, British Columbia. Thus, on-location filming usually takes place in the area. "Dead in the Water" was filmed at Buntzen Lake,  and the final scenes of "Simon Said" were filmed at Cleveland Dam. Other locations used on the show are often reused two or three times, with the art department making variations to conceal this. Heritage Park in Burnaby has been used as a cemetery in "Red Sky at Morning", and as the location of the gingerbread-house cottage in "Bedtime Stories". Also, Riverview Hospital in Coquitlam has served many functions for the series, including an asylum in "Asylum",