Supernatural (TV series)

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Supernatural
Season 2 Title Card
Genre	Paranormal Horror Mystery Drama
Creator(s)	Eric Kripke
Starring	Jared Padalecki Jensen Ackles
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of episodes	39 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Eric Kripke McG Robert Singer
Running time	40-45 min.
Broadcast
Original channel	The WB (2005–2006) The CW (2006–present)
Original run	September 13, 2005 – present
Links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Supernatural is an American paranormal drama television series that debuted on September 13, 2005 on the WB, and is now part of The CW's lineup, where the second season premiered on September 28, 2006.

The show follows brothers Sam and Dean Winchester, who travel across the country in a black 1967 Chevy Impala investigating and combatting paranormal events and other unexplained occurrences, many of them based on American urban legends and folklore as well as classic supernatural creatures such as vampires and ghosts.

Contents 1 Cast 1.1 Main 1.2 Recurring 2 Plot 3 Episodes 4 Production notes 4.1 Tie-ins 4.2 Dean's car 5 International 6 DVD releases 7 References 8 External links 9 See also

[edit] Cast

[edit] Main

• Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester
• Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester

[edit] Recurring

• Jeffrey Dean Morgan as John Winchester (2005-2006)
• Nicki Lynn Aycox as Meg Masters (2005-2006)
• Samantha Ferris as Ellen Harvelle (2006-)
• Alona Tal as Joanna Beth "Jo" Harvelle (2006-)
• Chad Lindberg as Ash (2006-)
• Jim Beaver as Bobby Singer (2006-)
• Sterling K. Brown as Gordon Walker (2006-)

[edit] Plot

When Sam Winchester was an infant and his brother Dean was four years old, their mother, Mary, was murdered on November 2, 1983 (All Souls' Day in the Roman Catholic Church). Her husband, John, saw blood dripping onto Sam's cradle, looked up, and found his wife pinned to the ceiling, her midsection sliced open. A moment later, she burst into flames. John told Dean to take baby Sam outside and made a desperate and futile attempt to save his wife while the house was consumed by flames.

After a psychic told John that a demon was responsible for Mary's death, he became obsessed with finding and destroying it. He trained his sons to recognize and defend themselves against paranormal entities. Sam and Dean became resourceful sleuths and experienced fighters as they assisted their father in his quest to destroy dangerous creatures and find the demon that had killed Mary. However, Sam chafed against the lifestyle his father chose for him, eventually falling out with his father and leaving to live a "normal" life. He attended Stanford University on a full scholarship and lived with his girlfriend, Jessica, in an apartment near campus. But when Dean appears one night during the autumn of his senior year, bearing the news that their father has gone missing while on a "hunting trip," Sam reluctantly agrees to help Dean look for their father.

The brothers trace John to Jericho, California, where they find more clues about their father's location and help solve a murder mystery. However, Sam declines his brother's invitation to continue the search and conduct more hunts, opting instead to return to his life with Jessica. Unfortunately, shortly after arriving in his apartment, he finds her pinned to the bedroom ceiling, bleeding from the abdomen. As Sam watches helplessly, she bursts into flames and dies in the same manner as his mother. Jessica was murdered exactly 22 years, to the day, after Mary. Dean rescues his brother from the burning apartment, and the bereaved Sam decides to resume the search for the demon who killed his mother and his girlfriend. The Winchester boys then pick up the trail of clues, while travelling the United States in their 1967 Chevy Impala, leading to the whereabouts of their missing father.

Eventually the brothers locate him, and he reveals the extent of his knowledge of the demon that killed Mary, and his intention to kill it. At first he opposes the boys' involvement because he fears losing them, but eventually he yields. The Winchesters now search for a special weapon: The Colt, which was created during the Alamo for a demon hunter, and has the ability to destroy any being with one bullet. All three Winchesters, after recovering the Colt from a band of vampires, band together and start to hunt the demon in earnest. However, due to a series of catastrophic events (beginning with John's capture), they are eventually overpowered by the demon, who, while possessing John, nearly tortures Dean to death before Sam can shoot him in the leg with the Colt. Sam tries to rush Dean and John to the hospital, but a demon strikes in the form of an oncoming semi truck, totaling the Impala and leaving all three Winchesters incapacited. While in the hospital, John makes a deal to save a comatose Dean, trading the gun along with his own life. Both Dean and Sam struggle to cope with John's death while trying to continue their job.

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of Supernatural episodes

Season	Ep #	First Airdate	Last Airdate
Season 1	22	September 13, 2005	May 4, 2006
Season 2	22	September 28, 2006	May 17, 2007

[edit] Production notes

Supernatural is a Warner Bros. Television Production Inc., in association with Wonderland Sound and Vision. From executive producers McG and Peter Johnson with writer/executive producer/creator Eric Kripke and director/executive producer David Nutter. Though the pilot was filmed in California, principle filming takes place in Vancouver, British Columbia^[1] with post production work taking place in California.^{[citation needed]}

Like other recent TV dramas such as Lost, the show does not have an opening credit sequence or theme music, only a title card, generally following a brief recap of previous episodes. In season two, it appears in flames and the "A" in "Supernatural" becomes a pentagram. The name of each episode appears before the cast credits beginning with the episode "Scarecrow."

Periodically, usually when the episode is important to a story arc of the season or entire series, the "previously" sequence before the episode will feature a montage of past events set to various classic rock songs. This started with the episode "Salvation," in which the entire season was recapped to Kansas's "Carry On Wayward Son." [1] The fan-beloved trend continued with the season one finale and the first three episodes of season two. The production team also created a "coming soon" sequence midway through season two, set to Nazareth's "Hair of the Dog." [2]

[edit] Tie-ins

• The website featured in the episode "Hell House" is a real website set up by the show's producers.
• For a time, Dean's cell number was a real number, with Jensen Ackles reading the message: "This is Dean Winchester. If this is an emergency, leave a message. If you are calling about 11-2-83, page me with your coordinates."^[2]
• Supernatural season 2 was made available on iTunes on December 5, 2006.^[3] The episodes may be downloaded one day after they are aired. It is the first CW show available.
• The CW has also begun offering full, streamed episodes directly from its website. The episodes currently available are "Heart", "The Usual Suspects", "Crossroad Blues" and "Roadkill".
• Network Ten (Australia) began offering full episodes for download via their website, through an exclusive deal with Warner Bros. Television, in January, 2006. It is the first U.S. television show available for free download in Australia. The episodes appear online soon after being televised, and are viewable for up to a month after download.

• Episode 2.15 "Tall Tales" centers on the tabloid newspaper Weekly World News. Both the print edition (dated February 19, 2007) and online Weekly World News feature an exclusive interview with both Sam and Dean, [3] as well as a spoiler-free sneak preview of the episode. In the article written by Paul Kupperberg, Dean admits he's been subscribing to the Weekly World News since the fourth grade.

• A prequel comic book, Supernatural: Origins, detailing the early lives of John, Sam, and Dean and how they became hunters, will be published by Wildstorm, a company under the DC comics umbrella. It will begin publication in May 2007.

[edit] Dean's car

Dean's trademark black 1967 Chevy Impala, which bears the license plate KAZ 2Y5 (largely thought to be a reference to Kansas, the Winchesters' home state, and 2005, the year the show premiered), was passed down to him by his father. It has been prominently featured on the series, beginning with the teaser of the pilot which shows John Winchester holding his two sons as he sits on the car and watches his house burn. The car is Dean's most prized possession, and he protects it with nearly the same ferocity with which he protects his family. In the pilot episode, the trunk is revealed to hold various weaponry to fight the supernatural. Though it is damaged at the end of "Pilot," it is repaired and the car is featured throughout the first season until a tragic crash at the end of the season finale. The car is in repairs at the beginning of the second season, though Dean beats the trunk of the car with a tire iron in anger at the end of "Everybody Loves a Clown." It appears for the first time fully repaired in "Bloodlust" in an extended sequence to the soundtrack of AC/DC's "Back in Black". Mind-controlled, Dean cheerfully gives the car to Andy Gallagher in "Simon Said," but the brothers soon recover it.

[edit] International

Country	Local Title	Literal Translation	Network
Argentina			Telefé
Australia	Supernatural		Network Ten
Austria			ORF 1
Belgium	Supernatural		VT4
Brazil	Sobrenatural / Supernatural	Supernatural	WB, SBT
Canada			Citytv Space: The Imagination Station Ztélé in Québec
Chile			WB
Czech Republic	Lovci duchů	Ghosts hunters	Prima televize
Denmark			3+
Finland	Supernatural		SubTV
France	Supernatural		TF6
Germany	Supernatural		Premiere Serie
Hong Kong			TVB Pearl
Hungary	Odaát	Out There	RTL Klub
India	Supernatural		AXN
Ireland			TV3
Italy	Supernatural		Rai Due
Malaysia	Supernatural		TV3
Netherlands			Veronica
New Zealand	Supernatural		TV2 (TVNZ)
Norway	Supernatural		TV Norge
Panama			RPC Channel 4
Philippines	Supernatural		Studio 23 AXN
Poland	Nie z tego świata	Not from this world	TVN
Portugal	Sobrenatural	Supernatural	RTP2. AXN
Russia	Сверхестественное	Supernatural	Ren-Tv
Singapore			Channel 5
Spain	Sobrenatural	Supernatural	AXN
Sri Lanka			1MTV
Sweden	Supernatural		SVT
United Kingdom	Supernatural		ITV1 (premier), ITV2
United States	Supernatural		The WB, The CW
Venezuela	Supernatural		Warner Channel

[edit] DVD releases

Supernatural: The Complete First Season
	Set Details		Special Features
	22 Episodes 6-Disc Set 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio Subtitles: Brazilian Portuguese, Francais, Latin Spanish English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo) Audio Commentaries (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo) * "Pilot" - Creator Eric Kripke, Director David Nutter, and Producer Peter Johnson "Phantom Traveler" - Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles		Cast/Crew Commentaries * Deleted Scenes * Gag Reel * Easter Eggs * Photo Gallery * Featurettes: * "Supernatural: Tales From the Edge of Darkness" "Day in the Life of Jared and Jensen" DVD ROM Exclusive Web Site * (Access to Online Content, Including a Sneak Peek at the Second Season)
	Release Dates
	United States	Australia	United Kingdom
			Part 1	Part 2	Complete
	September 5, 2006	September 6, 2006	May 22, 2006	August 21, 2006	October 2, 2006

* Available on region 1 release only.

The first season boxed set came out in the US on September 5, 2006. It includes all 22 episodes, cast/crew commentaries, deleted scenes, a gag reel and several featurettes. There is also a DVD-ROM "sneak peek" of the second season.^[4] Best Buy bundled an exclusive DVD of the Museum of Television and Radio's 2006 William S. Paley Festival Panel interviewing Kripke, Ackles, Padalecki, and several other producers, writers, and directors from the show.

Although the DVD was released almost simultaneously in Australia, all extras were removed, though there were still many references to their existence inside the case. In the UK, "Season One - Part One" was released on May 22, 2006, followed by the release of "Season One - Part Two" on August 21, 2006; "Season Two - Part One" is scheduled for a May 14, 2007 release.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official CW site
• Supernatural at itv.com
• "Super-wiki: A Supernatural canon & fandom resource"
• Supernatural Forums
• Supernatural Web: Your Number One Supernatural Fansite

[edit] See also

S U P E R N A T U R A L
Main
Episode Guide
Main Characters
Dean | Sam
Secondary Characters
Ash | Bobby | Ellen | Gordon | Jo | John | Mary | Meg | Missouri | The Demon
Show Specific Elements
The Colt | The Impala | Harvelle’s Roadhouse | Singer Salvage Yard
Official Site
Official CW Supernatural page
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