Origin Stories: How Supernatural Fans Found the SPNFamily
With both the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) currently on strike, fans of all media properties are expecting new content to dry up in the coming months until an equitable agreement with the studios can be reached. But fans of Supernatural are long used to digging into the archives of old episodes, since the show hasn’t aired since 2020.
In fact, the lack of a steady stream of new content reminds me of my own experience putting together the first season of the podcast, In Defense of Fandom. I spent so much time conducting new interviews and trying to add new voices, it’s only with the completion of the season that I’ve been able to reflect back on old tape with new ears. Relistening to those interviews, I’ve discovered several patterns in the Supernatural fandom, particularly with regards to how those fans first came to the show.
Everyone has a unique story of how they first started watching Supernatural or when they first fell fully into the SPNFamily fandom. They vary from Dark Angel and Gilmore Girls fans who saw the show’s premiere, to folks like myself who only fell into it once the entire series was available on Netflix for streaming.
In the new bonus episode from the In Defense of Fandom podcast, I explore the origin stories of fans from across the fandom. Some fans, like artist Liz Hand, told me they were there from the very beginning: “I started watching the day the pilot premiered in 2005. I was missing Buffy in my life. And I was a fan of Jensen Ackles since he was in Days of Our Lives.”
But it took others, like author Lynn Zubernis, a bit longer to jump on the Supernatural train. She has almost a flashbulb memory of the exact moment she was hooked. “I was sitting there watching a new episode of Supernatural,” said Zubernis. “I was also multitasking with grading papers – old-school grading with a red pen and printed papers. And I suddenly realized I had stopped grading. The pen had literally fallen out of my hand. And I was just staring at the TV screen.”
Sometimes when I’d interview fans, they would tell me how they shared these intense, personal connections with some of the characters. Con photographer DitchLilyTiger shared that she was hooked because “I realized that Dean Winchester and I share the same baggage cars on the same train wreck.” It’s a phrase I’ve never been able to dislodge since I heard her describe it that way.
Other fans, even if they didn’t feel they shared the same experiences as the Winchesters, still found comfort in their ability to persevere through incredibly challenging circumstances. As fanfiction author Northern Sparrow said, “in a way, I kind of gravitated to the show because it’s about these guys who were faced with all this blood and gore but managed to make a difference.” Sparrow discovered Supernatural while she was at a remote field research site. She had just started her research, after volunteering at the Boston Marathon during the year of the bombing and witnessing real world violence that left her shaken.
And while I heard these intense stories of personal connection, sometimes the fans I spoke to came to the show from a totally different direction. Sometimes, it even had nothing to do with the show at all.
Photographer Jen, who goes by Wayward Girl Photography on Twitter, claimed maybe the weirdest origin story I heard. “So mine [referring to the story of how she found Supernatural] is so weird, because I’m really not a fan of the show,” she said. It turns out she was more a fan of the actors and the community built around the conventions than Supernatural itself.
In all my conversations, I repeatedly found myself surprised with fan origin stories. What I assumed would be a boring question to help warm people up before ‘the real interview’ brought its own meanings and introspection.
Perhaps you’ll remember that, the next time you’re at a convention or meeting a fellow fan. Try asking them how they first got into Supernatural and why. I promise, you wont be disappointed with the story that results.
Listen to the full In Defense of Fandom bonus episode for more origin stories (including a quick sound byte on Nightsky’s story!) on apple, spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And don’t forget you can support the striking workers by donating to the Entertainment Community Fund here.
Learn the origin story of the In Defense of Fandom podcast from Sadie’s own account of finding Supernatural and the SPNFamily!
Leave a Reply