PUNK’D! Jim Beaver Confesses, Abominable Snowman Movie Is A Hoax
Well, I got to say, this is one of the most clever pranks I’ve ever seen done on an entire fandom! Okay, maybe the only one.
Jim Beaver has been tweeting for months details about filming this yet unnamed abominable snowman movie in the mountains of British Columbia. He gave it a working title of “AbSno.” He tweeted pictures and everything! He was even on stage at Burbank con earlier this month advising that, “The next time they ask you to do an abominable snowman movie, say no.” He also said things at that con about not being asked to be on “Supernatural” and he had hoped he would have heard something by now. I gotta say, we were buying every word.
So what should happen in tonight’s episode, which was filmed in mid-February, but Bobby makes a shocking and unannounced appearance. He’s in the next episode too. So what did he tweet tonight after the West Coast airing of Supernatural?
PUNK’D!!! Consider this Jim Beaver’s early April Fool’s Day present to us all!
His appearance on Supernatural was the BEST day after my birthday present I could have ever received! I missed Bobby so much. Now, if I could only get him to send me a birthday tweet, life would be sweet. That was a good April Fool’s Punk!
I squealed with excitement when I saw Bobby. The next words out of my mouth were liar, but said with a huge smile on my face. That was the best kept secret and made me so happy!!! All the cast and crew, especially Jim Beaver did a great job of keeping that under wraps.
The Best. I love Bobby. I was completely “gobsmacked” and overjoyed!! What a wonderful secret and surprise. And even better that that the secret was kept. The whole of Supernatural is such a gift.
That is hilarous. He’s adorable. I was so overjoyed last night. I squealed and clapped. I figured he had to know at BURCON. He was being completely ornery. Love him!
Personally, I don’t appreciate being lied to for the purpose of audience manipulation. I’d rather have better storytelling give me the surprises and anticipation.
It’s a surprise. You wouldn’t tell people about a big gift or a surprise birthday party. I really liked being surprise.
[quote]Personally, I don’t appreciate being lied to for the purpose of audience manipulation. I’d rather have better storytelling give me the surprises and anticipation.[/quote]
I think the cover up had less to do with the episode actually airing than with explaining why he was in Vancouver. There were photos of him at the airport and such and I think it was just an attempt to keep his return quiet. I also think it was in good fun.
I have to agree with Ginger, I don’t like an outright lie. Slight of hand is one thing, like leaving Mark Sheppard’s name out of credits.
However, I am so glad to see Jim, even if he punk’d us.
Ha ha ha, awesome. That’s a pretty good prank! Well done, Jim Beaver.
I love that they were able to hide his reappearance. I like being truly surprised.
Bravo sir!! What would our Supernatural cast and crew be if they didn’t do something like this!! They always hinted at the possibility of Bobby’s return, just never how he would.
I was so happy to see Bobby back on Supernatural last night that I literally started crying. Then I realized we have to suffer through another Hellatus before we can see him again and I was pissed lol
I loved the surprise! I dont feel I was lied to, not at all. Just a wonderful surprise.. I kept yelling “I Knew it!” LOL
I love this. I was taken so completely off-guard by that ending, which seems an impossible feat in our spoiler and leak-filled entertainment culture. What a pleasant surprise. Well done!
I’m surprised that I seem to be the only one that figured out this episode before it aired and guessed that the big Bobby reveal would be at the end. It was the promo pics that gave it away for me. I thought it was odd that they would show Dean killing the Shojo since usually they don’t give away the ending and I would think him killing the Shojo would be considered a spoiler. Promo pictures usually just show scenes that don’t give away much of anything. Then I also thought is was VERY odd that they credited Jim Beaver in one of the pictures even though he wasn’t in it. After I saw all that, I guessed the ending. I had a hard time believing that this would be just a funny, light episode like they implied in promo’s. I mean there is a hellatus after Party On, Garth there is no way they wouldn’t end this episode on some sort of a cliff hanger. Guess me paying attention to the details paid off in this case. lol
Wow Emmy, you should be a detective! 🙂 I would never have guessed or even noticed those small details. I’m kind of glad I didn’t though.
I LOVE that Supernatural cares enough about us to pull off this huge secret! I LOVE that Jim kept up the pretense and really punk’d us good. His daughter, Maddie, was even in on the secret and kept it quiet. Good job, gang!
Who am I mad at? ME! I got off Twitter knowing that Jim Michaels was going to tweet the episode. So I definitely knew better than to glance at it and yet I did, for one friggin’ second and what did I see? A tweet to Jim which kind of implied… Yeah, it didn’t spell it out, but it got my mind working just as the episode aired.
It didn’t spoil the joy and tears and relief, but it did mute the shock just a tad. Still, it was a beautifully filmed minute and a half, especially the part where Dean goes back into the room and says, “There you are.” Both Jensen and Jim had every emotion there on their faces. They are so amazing they don’t need words to convey the hope and love and disappointment. Kudos to all.
And can I mention the music? I love what Jay Gruska and Christopher Lennertz give us in their emotional scores that call up all the special moments from before and tenderly add more to our sense memory. Yep, that minute and a half was pure Supernatural magic!
This is why I love our show so damn much!
B.J.
This was a great surprise. I love that we are part of a show where the actors and crew care enough about the fans to go to the trouble of orchestrating this kind of surprise for us. It says a lot about the respect they have for the fans, I think, and appreciation.
I love that Bobby’s return was kept such a big secret – God I was so SHOCKED!!!! IN A TOTALLY BRILLIANT WAY. Though I was crying at the same time. 🙂
He certainly had me, although his talk about this movie was strange at times. I think Jim Michaels had even tweeted that Jim B. would not appear for the rest of the season due to scheduling conflicts. Let’s get him. But this is why I figured all the weird stuff wasn’t Bobby so I was shocked to see him!! Good show.
I always hoped for Bobby’s return… and in following Jim’s tweets frequently wondered if he would try to misdirect us when he finally did return to Vancouver… But before I knew it I was bawling ..tears streaming down my face… Thanks SPN… for keeping this mum… I went to sleep last night Happy!
I was COMPLETELY shocked to see Bobby! I was yelling his name and crying tears and missed all the dialogue at the end. Have to watch it again a few times. 😛
I never knew I loved that guy so friggin’ bloody much!!
Amazing they kept that all secret and fibbed all over the place with that AbomSnow movie.(frozen toilet seats?)
I LOVED loved loved that wonderful surprise! Bless all of their devious hearts!
Bravo to Jim! I was so surprised & elated to see Bobby!!
AMAZING! I was so glad to see Bobby back in the last few minutes of the episode. I didn’t get a chance to see whole episode, but the part I did see was so worth waiting for. Thank you Jim for not spoiling it, and letting me end my night with such a great surprise!
Personally, I loved it! I bought the whole “abominable snowman movie” thing hook, line and sinker. I was aghast when I saw Bobby and thrilled that the cast and crew was able to pull one over on us fans in these days of instant communication and spoilers galore. I say, kudos to everyone involved!
Ha! It was the joke of the century and how they managed to pull it off has to be a huge story in and of itself. I was really missing Bobby so for me, I’m fine with it.
But I can see the other side of it too. It is a bad precedent to set, but I don’t think it was done with any malicious intent. But I can see why some members of the fandom feel tricked. It would have been better to let people know ahead of time that Bobby was back. Bob Singer did tell everyone that Beaver would be back this season, so for now on we should just listen to him. 🙂
I think I will take every thing that Jim Michaels says with a LARGE grain of salt from now on, but I really did like the surprise.
I just hope Bobby is back for good now.
I was trusting and hoping that Bobby would return this season, but also totally bought that Jim was doing a movie as well as busy with Justified, so I was delightfully blindsided when he returned. Kudos to the whole SN crew for pulling of that surprise!
That was a brilliant bit of smoke & mirrors. And I really don’t think we were lied to. I guess there were some fabrications and manipulations of the truth. But in fairness Sera Gamble always said Bobby would be back sometime.
I was suspicious that Jim Beaver was filming a movie in BC. It all seemed a little too convenient. But what do I know about show business? I also was surprised at Jim Beaver at the Burbank Con talking about how angry he was that he hadn’t been recalled yet.That made me suspicious too. In most workplaces, you don’t publicly slag the boss if you’re hoping to stay employed! It was almost too much of a misdirect. That’s when I started wondering if he was really working on a movie. Glad my spidey sense was tingling correctly!
I recognize some people will feel hurt. But I’m amazed and kind of jubiliant at this wonderful white lie.
We live in a world of instant communication with texting, tweeting, cellphones, instagram photos etc. We live in a world where nothing is private or secret (a Kardashian farts in California and it leads the news in Canada!) . We live in a world where we demand to know everything all the time.
I am ecstatic that they could pull this off. So many people had to keep their mouths shut, and their twitters quiet and their cameras from clicking. That is a modern-day miracle and/or magic or maybe both.
We so rarely get to be truly spoiler free. In a very bizarre way those last few screen frames and the words Idjits and Balls give me a lot of hope. You get that many people buying into one little secret for one little TV show? Think what we could all do for something really important!
Pragmatic Dreamer
I’m so glad that Jim Beaver is back! Way to go to Supernatural. They sure know how to keep a secret under wraps. 😀