Supernatural Fun Facts, Season Two

It’s Hellatus, we need time killers, and you all loved last week’s Season One Fun Facts so much that this week we’re moving onto season two!  

Before I get started with season two, I did miss a REALLY, REALLY fun fact from season one, one that I’m going to put on the list in the original article.   I’d normally skip it, but this is one of my favorite BTS stories from “Supernatural.”  

–          In the scene in “Asylum” when Sam and Dean pull up to the Roosevelt institution in the Impala, “Smallville’s” Tom Welling was hiding in the back seat!  He was nearby filming for his show and decided to tag along.  He got a huge laugh from the crew when he stepped out of the car. 

Okay, now, Season Two.  First, let’s start with a small history lesson, since there was some network drama.    

–          “Supernatural” was one of six WB Network shows to be selected to air their new season on the newly formed CW network, a partnership of Time Warner (parent of the now defunct WB network) and CBS (parent of the now defunct UPN network)  It was the youngest of all the shows selected and remained paired with “Smallville” on Thursdays at 9pm.  

–          At the time, Thursdays at 9pm was considered to be the most competitive time slot in television.  CSI (CBS) was the number one show in TV, and Grey’s Anatomy (ABC) was a top ten massive female magnet.  NBC had a big hit too with “Deal or No Deal” (a live viewing event) and Fox was airing the very teen friendly “The O.C.”  “Supernatural” fought for the leftovers, and there wasn’t much.  It struggled in the ratings most of the season.

–          Despite a 50% ownership of The CW, Warner Brothers conceded management of the network to partner CBS. CBS  put in charge former UPN network head Dawn Ostroff.  There was little money for promotion in the CW budget, so the network programs had little visibility to viewers, especially the shows brought over from the other networks.  It didn’t help that Dawn Ostroff’s new programming development plan decided to go for the 18-34 female population, which largely left Sci-Fi shows like her #1 scripted show “Smallville” out of the network vision.  Audiences tuned into “Smallville” and “Supernatural” often to spite her.  Considering “Smallville” went ten seasons and “Supernatural” is now going into season ten, that fan outrage seems to have worked.  

–          Jared, Jensen, and Tom Welling were brought out to present together at the very first CW upfront.  They looked horribly uncomfortable.   However, they did get to blow the kid’s mind from “Everybody Hates Chris.”  

–          Tom Welling didn’t go back to the Upfronts until “Smallville’s” final season, and Jared and Jensen didn’t go back until before season seven, when they were invited by new president Mark Pedowitz.

Okay, now let’s look at the season two episodes! 

–          Season two kicked off with some behind the scenes changes too.  Richard Hatem left the show as writer and producer, and a Whedonverse writer from Angel was brought in, Ben Edlund.  “Supernatural” was never, ever the same after that.  It was awesome.  Ben Edlund would go on to be one of Eric Kripke’s closest confidants and had a dramatic creative impact on the show.  

–           Season Two had 15 standalone episodes.  They were all f***ing awesome.  

–          “Everybody Loves A Clown” is the first episode in which Sam and Dean cry together.  It was John’s funeral, they should have been crying! 

–          My all time favorite “Supernatural” quote comes from “Everybody Loves a Clown.”  Dean:  Planes crash!  Sam:  And apparently clowns kill! 

–          There’s an official name for Sam’s fear of clowns.  It’s called Coulrophobia.  

–          Eric Kripke expressed regret that they missed out on the opportunity to show Sam’s grief over John’s death.  In his words, “I feel like we did a small disservice to the character.”  

–          Ellen Harvelle was named as a model for the tough characters Ellen Barkin played.  

–          Casa Erotica makes it’s very first appearance in “Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things.”  Yep, we found out what Sam likes to do when Dean isn’t around!  Not that Dean doesn’t do the same but…

–          This is a very well known fun fact, but Jared Padalecki broke his wrist filming a scene in “Bloodlust” (when Sam was fighting the vampires in his motel room).  He didn’t know it was broken though until half way through “Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things” and couldn’t wear a cast until they wrote it into the script, which was the final scene!  Strangely, Jared wasn’t the only person on the set to break his wrist during that time.  It happened to a props person and someone in the office as well.  It made for a nice ghost rumor.    

–          In Ben Edlund’s first episode, “Simon Said,” the original pitch involved a deformed twin who convinced his normal-looking brother to be retarded thanks to their telepathic link. In the finale, the deformed twin should have eaten his sibling. John Shiban stepped in to help Edlund tone down the ambitious script a bit.  

–          Jared had surgery on his wrist during the filming of “No Exit,” which is why you don’t see a lot of Sam in that one (Jared’s story of flaking out on the set after that from pain pills  is always a fun one to hear at cons).  He wore that cast from “Simon Said” all the way until “Playthings.”  The injury ended up stemming from when he broke his wrist during a bar altercation in season one.  It didn’t heal right, thus the complications in S2.

–          The infamous Kim Manners “sewer pipe” prank happened during the filming of “No Exit.”  Just see the season two DVD extras for the whole thing (even though I’m sure all of you have seen it tons of times). 

–          Someone has to prove this one to me, but it’s stated that “The Usual Suspects” is the very first episode where Dean doesn’t refer to Sam as “Sammy.”  Also, this is the very first episode in which the Impala doesn’t appear.   Also, it’s the only season two episode where the infamous starburst clock appears. 

–          There was a four week break in between “Croatoan” and “Hunted,” so fans actually had to wait that long to see Sam get totally pissed off when Dean tells him what John said.  I binge watched season two on the DVD, so it was less painful for me.  🙂  BTW here’s the promo clip for “Hunted” through “Houses of the Holy” that they teased fans with during Christmas Hellatus.  Hell, it makes we want to see the episodes all over again! 

–          The Mandroid on the cover of the magazine Ron showed Sam and Dean is actually a Cyberman from the reboot of the TV series “Doctor Who.”  Also, the Mandroid does indeed have it out for cheeseheads.

–          The car chase scene involving Dean in “Houses of The Holy” was supposed to be much bigger and have more excitement than it did, but the weather turned icy and they had to scale down the plans.  

–          Eric Kripke absolutely hates The Doors, but the director of “Born Under A Bad Sign,” J. Miller Tobin, convinced him “The Crystal Ship” worked for the scene. It had the right amount of creep factor.  He was right.

–          In “Born Under A Bad Sign,” the scene in which Sam comes to asking “Did I miss anything?” was supposed to end there.  Jared and Jensen came up with the idea of Dean punching Sam.  The producers ran with it, because it was pretty damned funny.  

–         The slow dancing aliens in “Tall Tales” were young girls in costumes with special effects hands.  Those girls were brilliant, because I don’t think I’ve laughed harder.  Also, the Weekly World News did run an real article interviewing fictional characters Sam and Dean before this episode. 

–          “Roadkill” is when Dean calls Sam “A walking encyclopedia of weirdness.”  Damn, I miss those moments.  

–          Jared has shared at cons before stories about his uncomfortable experience of shooting the infamous sex scene in “Heart.”  It was a long day shooting the  extended steamy scene wearing nothing but his underwear in front of crew members he worked with everyday, taking direction and cues all day on how to make it sexier and more animalistic from Kim Manners, not to mention getting oiled up constantly by the makeup crew.   It was a closed set though, so only the eyes in that room could see what was happening.  (Lucky bastards.) Also, his inspiration for crying at the end – puppies and kittens in a shelter.  Nope, I never tire of hearing either of those stories.  Or watching that very, um, emotional scene.   

I’m sorry, where was I?  

–          If you look carefully enough at the fake trailer for “Hell Hazers II” in “Hollywood Babylon,” you’ll see the disclaimer that the movie is “Not yet written, Cast, Shot, Edited or Scored.” Too bad, I would have loved to see it, especially if written by episode writer Ben Edlund.

–          The complaint from the studio executive about the scenes being dark and depressing  (even though it’s a dark horror film) is a complaint Kripke received a few times from studio executives about “Supernatural.”  

–          Clif Kosterman, Jared and Jensen’s current bodyguard, played Tiny in “Folsom Prison Blues.”  At the time he was just a local actor.  He was hired as their bodyguard and driver for season three, possibly because of Jensen’s unfortunate “Flying Fangirl” incident at the first Asylum convention that summer.     

–          The premise of the alternate world in “What is and What Should Never Be,” where Dean knows about monsters and hunting but Sam doesn’t and thinks he’s nuts, was actually from the original draft of the pilot.  That pilot had Dean became a hunter because a supernatural being killed John and Sam was estranged from his brother. Kripke went another way.  

–          “What is and What Should Never Be” was the directorial debut of Eric Kripke.  He knew that they got the perfect take of the cemetery scene with Jensen when a very “macho” grip was wiping a tear away from his eye. 

–          WIAWSNB was also the first of appearance of the still to this day used Ohio license plate that’s on the Impala.  (On a side note, as an Ohio resident, they probably should be changing that plate soon.  It’s an out of date issue!)  

–          By the time they went into shooting for “All Hell Breaks Loose Parts I and II,” “Supernatural” was on the brink of cancellation.  Rather than do what is now the traditional cliffhanger, Kripke was told to wrap the story up, but leave it open for next year should they get renewed.  Kripke pitched the idea of the start of the demon war and Warner Brothers promised a budget for it should they be renewed.  They lied, because the show came back with a reduced license fee and lower budget, making Kripke’s vision of a full scale demon war impossible.  (But I’ll get to that in Season Three Fun Facts.)

–          Jensen often tells the story of shooting his monologue over Sam’s dead body in “AHBLPII” at cons, but enjoy this quote from the companion because it’s loaded with warm fuzzies.  “After building a relationship with the guy that plays your brother, to play scenes in a room with him dead was very emotional for me, and at the end of the day I was completely spent.  That’s one of the defining moments for me as an actor; to be able to do that kind of stuff and really feel proud about it.” 

–          Eric Kripke wrote a very ambitious script for “All Hell Breaks Loose Part II,” way beyond the limits both in time and budget of a TV show.  A lot of Kripke’s big plans had to be scaled back.  Another issue was coordinating the schedule of Jeffrey Dean Morgan (John), whose interaction with Jensen and Jared had to been green screened.  Then Jared’s part was reshot and edited in later because the plan for him to be fighting Jake was scrapped so he was no longer covered in blood when he saw John.  They also couldn’t find the right location for the graveyard and had to recreate it all in the studio.  The entire chronicle of challenges can be found on the season two DVD extra about the making of this episode or in the Season Two companion. 

–          According to the Season Two companion, Sam’s resurrection happened on his birthday, May 2nd, not his death as many believe.  

–          In a very eerie coincidence, Eric Kripke’s his first child was born during season two, on May 2nd, 2007.  Yep, May 2nd.  Sam Winchester’s birthday.  Sam’s resurrection day.  Not only did they not plan that, but it creeped Eric’s wife out.  

To think, that’s just scratching the surface of all the wonderful nuggets from Season Two!  It was a really epic season.  Coming up next, all the drama of the strike shortened season three. 

Sources for this week’s fun facts are TV.com, Supernatural Wiki, the Supernatural Season Two Official Companion, and stuff I remember from all my con reports from the last few years.  These stories and more can be found in our Con Report Archive.