The Ninja's Lair

alwaysempathetic:

This last Saturday due to a couple of connections and an awesome coincidence, I got to speak with the co-producer and production designer of Supernatural, Jerry Wanek! Here are some things I was able to gather from my talk:

• I informed him of how I became a watcher through Tumblr and how large of a fanbase we are. He said that their crew is very familiar with social networking and what we blog/tweet/ect…
• TV shows usually have a “main set” where most of the scenes take place. (Ex: a hospital, a house, a police station, ect..) Supernatural obviously doesn’t have one of these. Kripke always wanted the brothers to travel from city to city hunting things without this “main set”, but knowing about this common concept, he originally pitched Sam and Dean as newspaper journalists who did hunting on the side. CW rejected this however. But when Kripke decided to then pitch his original idea, they loved it. 
• A main lady at CW hates the show Supernatural and Jerry said that she would do anything to get it off the air. She said it wasn’t “happy enough, bright enough, ect…” So she created the show Reaper (about two brothers, one of which is actually named Sam, the devil, ect…). She was convinced that this would bump Supernatural right off the air. However, that obviously didn’t happen and Reaper was canceled after only a couple seasons. 
• Each episode is filmed for 8 days. The set team receives each script and then gets only a WEEK prior to make each set: Indoor on the stage or find a location outside.
• For All Hell Breaks Loose Part 2 (2x22), the scene at the graveyard with the gate to Hell was SUPPOSED to be at an outdoor location. However, Jerry and the crew were completely up to their knees in mud so they had to build a MASSIVE set on the stage, one of the biggest on Supernatural. 
• Changing Channels (5x8) written by Ben Edlund was one of the first episodes where the crew was really worried that they were finally going to “jump the shark”. They thought the audience was either going to love it or hate it and they would be done for. However, it got amazing ratings because the actors pulled it off so well. The same goes for the episode The French Mistake (6x15) also written by Edlund. I informed him that we love Edlund, don’t worry. 
• John Winchester was killed in My Time of Dying (2x1) because Jeffrey Dean Morgan became a bit of a (and I quote) “prick” and began taking advantage of the show, when he would appear with his schedule, ect… So they killed his character. I quote, “That’s what we do on the show so no one takes advantage. You can’t do that.”
• Characters return to the show mainly based on their performance. For example: Bobby was only supposed to be in an episode or two but Jim Beaver brought the “heart” to the show, so they kept him on for another six seasons. Thus, they had to build on the original set of his house. 
• Also, Kevin was only supposed to last a couple episodes but Osric Chau did amazingly and the writers wrote better episodes for him and he never disappointed. Jerry: “That’s a great kid.”
• Jerry was working on the show Dark Angel prior to working for Supernatural, a show in which Jensen blew him away with his acting. When asked to be part of Supernatural, after hearing Jensen would be a main star, Jerry joined without even reading the script. 
• Jerry would take Jensen’s acting over Jared’s 10 to 1 but Jared has a competitiveness that is hard to beat. 
• For example, in the episode, When the Levee Breaks (4x21) when Sam is locked inside Bobby’s Panic Room fighting off hallucinations, the crew was worried about how Jared would perform in such a huge, solo, scene. However they were extremely impressed with how he did.
• Jerry says its almost uncanny how split fans are when it comes to the question: “Who is your favorite brother?” It’s nearly a 50-50 tie. 
• Supernatural was indeed going to end with Swan Song (5x22) because that’s how long Kripke planned on running the show. Jerry anticipates the show will end with Season 10 as Jensen and Jared are signed for two more seasons. 
• Jerry says Castiel will “be around” when I asked if Misha Collins would be a season regular in Season 9. He has lots of praise for Misha and all of the charities he funds. He was actually going to go with Misha to Haiti where Misha is opening an orphanage but the schedule didn’t line up.  
• He became involved with TV and movie production by happening across a film set while on Spring Break to LA while in college. He began working as a PA for a production that made Ronald McDonald commercials. 
• He says with the episode Taxi Driver (8x19) that he was a bit disappointed with how little time was spent in Hell finding Bobby as he and his crew worked very hard on building the set, carving names of lost souls into the walls, ect…
• Everything on set that isn’t used for structure or acting purposes (ex: stairs) are made of either foam or plywood. That’s it. 
• A team of painters can make a full mural in 3 days. 
• Each demon/monster used and mentioned on the show has serious research backing them and is meant to influence fans to do more research themselves and make connections. 

That’s what I can remember! Hope it was interesting! 

(via today-is-tuesday-too)