Joined: Jan 2007 Gender: Female Posts: 1,772 Karma: 40
**EXCLUSIVE SUPERNATURAL INTERVIEW** « Thread Started on Jun 12, 2008, 2:30pm »
Budgets, Faith and Gore: A friendly chat with Cathryn and Ben (This interview is exclusive to Morgan’s Maniacs. Feel free to LINK to it, but please don’t repost it without permission, or we’ll put a on hex y’all’s butt. And if you thought HELL HOUNDS were bad...)
*Thanks to Morganslady for question five, about the imput of individual writers on the show, and also to Loraxp for question seven, regarding the influence of The X-Files.
During the recent Writer’s Guild of America strike, I had the chance to ask Supernatural writers Cathryn Humphris and Ben Edlund some questions regarding the show and where it might be heading next season.
When the writer's strike ended and Cathryn and Ben went back to work, we decided to postpone the interview until they weren't quite so rushed. BUT HERE IT IS! As Kermit the Frog was known to say on occasion- YAYAYAYAYAYA!
On behalf of all us Maniacs, huge thank yous to Cathryn and to Ben for taking the time to do this.
Morgan’s Maniacs: How did you join the writing staff of Supernatural? What attracted you to this kind of show?
Cathryn Humphris: I’ve actually been on the show since day one. A friend of mine, Pam Williams, had worked with Eric on Tarzan and she gave me the pilot script for Supernatural. I loved it immediately. It was so well written, and the scenes of Mom and Jessica burning on the ceiling completely intrigued me; I couldn’t wait to see where the show would go. As fate would have it, it turned out that John Shiban was going to be a Co-Executive Producer – I knew him from The X-Files. I was hired as the writers’ assistant, and Season One I co-wrote an episode with John. Season Two I came aboard as a Staff Writer.
MM: Most people perceive writing to be a fairly easy way to make a living. Is it?
Ben Edlund: Not for me. I'm not sure if it's gotten harder, most likely I've gotten softer. Sleep calls like it never did before. But then, I have an extremely energy-inefficient process. I DON'T write, for the first two-thirds of the time alloted for completion of script. This is a period of much contemplation, self-deconstruction, fever dreams, all while seated in front of the computer, NOT writing. Then, as the pressure of imminent dead-line finally builds to the truly absurd, necessity alone drags the newborn of invention from my calloused womb. This last phase requires one to three 'all-nighters' with sporadic two hour naps, you know, the ones you use your cell phone alarm to terminate, which is not unlike getting a call from the belly of unpleasantness itself. There is the pit of 4 am loneliness, that low hour when the coyotes are either asleep or trying to figure out what went wrong with their lives, the place where your only hope is to dive into the fictional, to order a story universe the way you cannot order your own.
I do not recommend this process.
MM: Could you describe what happens in the writer’s room? How collaborative is a script like Bedtime Stories as opposed to Dream a Little Dream of Me for which you and Sera Gamble wrote the story, but for which you did the screenplay? Do all of the writers have input?
CH: We don’t have a traditional writer’s room in the same way that many shows do. Generally, we all meet together for a couple of weeks at the beginning of the season. We talk through what will become the season’s mythology, the major characters arcs, etc. We also pitch episodes; the goal is to leave the room with five or six solid episode arenas. From there, we head into our offices and start breaking out our individual episodes. Eventually each of us gets time with Eric, where we’ll pitch out what we’ve come up with, and spend as long as we need with him to refine every beat into a workable episode. After that, we meet together as an entire group a few more times throughout the season as necessary, but for the most part we continue to generate episode ideas and then work on them individually once they’ve been given a green light by Bob and Eric.
That’s the general idea of how we work; within that framework, things can vary a lot. Sometimes I will write an episode that I pitched, like The Usual Suspects; other times, we’ll switch around who gets what episode. Bedtime Stories was born out of a pitch by Ben. We try to help out each other as much as possible when we can, and I’m often kind of “assigned” to an upper level writer – these days, either Sera or Ben – who will help out on the story break and listen to pitches before I go to Eric.
The dream episode arose out of one of those collaborations. Sera had pitched the idea several times over the years but we’d never found the right place for it. When we decided to do it last season, the timing worked out that it was my turn in the rotation to write a script, so it was handed off to me. Initially it looked like Sera was gonna have time to work with me on it, so we broke the story out together. That was actually a huge treat… it’s rare on this show that I get to spend so much time collaborating. I loved working with Sera; I think our styles of breaking really compliment each other. Just as we were getting ready to head off to outline, Sera got pulled away to write a new script, and so I ended up writing the actual teleplay on my own.
MM: What’s your favorite episode, and why?
BE: For dramatic crescendo, I still favor the last episode of season one, where somehow the various character lines, the family dynamic of father and sons, and the twists and turns of the demon agenda all fell together in a beautiful taut whirligig.
For playing with form and genre, I must say I like Ghostfacers, although I will concede that it does very little to satisfy folks who watch this show for the brother-on-brother action. I just like removing main characters from their unfair hold on the center of the story. It's a form of elitism, and it must stop. The episode I'm working on now doesn't even have the Winchesters in it. Or ghosts, for that matter. It's about a black janitor who takes a bus down to Florida to attend the wedding of his estranged daughter. It's going to be crackerjack!
MM:As there is definite five-year plan, with a certain amount of ground to be covered in each season, how free are the writers to come up with their own ideas?
CH: It’s definitely a mix. A lot of ground gets covered in that initial stint of meeting together. Eric will come in with the shape of the season, and how it fits into the overall plan. And then we’ll talk it through, and we’re all pretty free to offer up whatever we can think of. Sometimes we’ll come up with totally new stuff that takes us in an unexpected direction, and then things shift accordingly. Over the season we know we’ll have a mix of stand alone episodes, with maybe a more mythology-heavy show every five episodes or so. So we’ll usually figure out where those mythology episodes will fall, and have a general season-long map of what big issues those shows will tackle. And we’ll have an idea of what issues and emotions Sam and Dean will be grappling with in between… what their arcs are, where they are in their emotional journeys all along the season. Sometimes the emotions help determine which stand-alone episode goes where… but for the most part, we just try to come up with the coolest ideas we can, both for the monster of the week, and for the boys’ melodrama.
MM: Season three was pretty severely curtailed by the WGA strike. Can you tell us some of the things that had to be shelved? Might some of these ideas be revisited in season four?
CH:To be honest, it’s already hard for me to remember! I mean, if we’d gone for a full season, we’d obviously have had a lot more stand alone episodes. In terms of the mythology, I think Sam’s side of things got less airtime. We knew that we had to wrap up Dean’s deal in the season finale… so after the strike ended we basically had to use all our remaining episodes – except for Ghostfacers which was actually started before the strike – to tie that up. I think we achieved that, to a great end. And I am so excited about where we’re going this season, about how we’re gonna see both boys’ stories play out, that ultimately I don’t think it’s gonna have been a bad thing to shorten Sam’s arc for this season. As often happens, the shifts that we ended up having to make opened up really new, cool possibilities for his character and his journey. So you’re gonna get to see all the things we wanted to do play out in even more interesting ways this season.
MM: There are a lot of similarities to The X-Files (the comic episodes, the mythological storyline, the stand alone episodes, and further details such as the blackened oily eyes and religious overtones, etc.) – is this a conscious decision? Is that something that has occurred due to Kim Manner’s involvement, or simply a coincidence?
CH: I think, in some ways, The X-Files has had a pretty important influence on our show. Obviously you have the fact that both John and Kim worked on that show for years and years. I think Kim influences our show in a myriad of ways, visually and directorially, that I am so unqualified to talk about, other than to say that he constantly amazes me. I used to love to watch him direct on X-Files; I always felt like he made those episodes into mini-movies, with such amazing lighting and tone and interesting camera choices. And I really need to just stop talking now, because I clearly have very little idea of what I’m saying; I’d love to direct one day but I’m very far away from that point! In any case, I think Kim brings all of those same qualities to our show. And John Shiban was incredibly influential, especially in our first season, in helping to set the tone of our show. I remember especially he and Eric discussing how well The X-Files balanced their stand-alone episodes with their mythology, and I think finding a balance like that became a guiding principle for Supernatural. Other things I think more naturally arose out of John’s experiences on the show, and the fact that Eric is a fan. I mean, I don’t think we did a comic episode for a while – it’s not like we come into the room and say “The X-files did this, so we need to try it too.” It’s more organic; we’ll start talking about an idea, and it becomes apparent that this could lend itself to a comic episode, and how will we do that, what will that look like, etc. And somewhere in there The X-Files will come up, and we’ll talk about what worked or didn’t work for them.
Also, as a side note, John brought with him a really specific way of breaking out story, something they all learned on X-Files. He started teaching me that pretty much day one. And in Season One, John was helping to break so many of the stories, and using that method much of the time, and I think that probably had an effect, even subconsciously, on our show picking up on some of the rhythms and themes of The X-Files. MM:There is talk that the budget is going to be reduced in season four and the Demon War has had to be scaled back. Are there other elements that will be changed or dropped altogether due to budget cuts?
CH: Well, as you know, Bela is gone. Part of that is budgetary. There will be other, more technical changes that, again, I feel unqualified to talk about. In terms of writing, yes, we did need to think about scaling back any kind of huge set pieces. But in a weird way, I think that has actually been helpful to us. We can’t do big battle scenes, so what can we do that’s more interesting and grounded in character and set in small-town America and focused around our boys? That’s what our show is about, much more than big 300 style battle scenes. So it just forces us to think outside the box and come up with more inventive ways of structuring things. In the end, I think we always end up liking the smaller, more character-based conflicts anyway. I don’t think a single bit of storytelling in Season Four is gonna suffer because of budgetary constraints, I really don’t.
MM: Have you been to any of the fan forums and message boards to read fan reaction after an episode? Are you ever surprised by the fan reactions?
CH: Oh, yeah, I confess, I read some of the message boards. It’s pretty hard to stay away! I have a couple in particular that I read, especially after one of my episodes air, but I know I have to remember not to take it too personally. Of course, sometimes I’m surprised. I mean, everyone has their own take on things, and their own things they love and hate about a show. I think some of the fans would be surprised to hear what goes on in the writer rooms on some of their favorite shows. I often read postings where someone will say, “I think the showrunner is reading our boards, they just used an idea or phrase we’ve advocated for.” But I think, usually, the truth is that much of the discussion among the writers is similar to the discussions among the fans. We’re all really doing the same thing – dissecting these stories and characters we love, trying to figure out what their voices and their journeys will be. We might not agree on how we see things, anymore than all the fans on a board agree, but we’re starting at much the same place.
MM: Did the negative fan reaction to the perceived love interests Jo, Bella and Ruby, even after it was made clear that they were NOT love interests, surprise you?
CH: As for the fan backlash to our women characters – look, I totally get it. Fans take this show, and these characters, very seriously. We often say that Supernatural is, at heart, a love story between Sam and Dean. It’s true, to a certain extent, and fans know that and love that. They don’t want to see anyone come between these boys… especially someone who feels contrived, like they are built just to be a love interest. We try really hard not to ever do that. But anytime you introduce a new character, especially a woman, people are gonna see the potential for that character to evolve into a love interest. And that potential is there. I mean, Sam and Dean DO love each other… but they are also young, hot men who like the ladies. So it’s always a balancing act… how do we stay true to Sam and Dean, and to the ultimate, epic story that just belongs to the two of them… yet also let them be real characters and have real lives and love interests and all that? Some of that just comes out naturally… we create characters, cast them, bring them in and see how they mix with our boys, how things evolve.
I was very happy to see the fan reaction to Ruby… overall, it seemed quite positive. If you would have asked me a year ago, she’s not necessarily a character I would have championed. But she worked, both in the writing and in her chemistry with the boys. And I don’t mean chemistry in a love-interest way; just in general. She’s a good match for them. And it’s great when something works out like that.
MM: There have been some pretty gruesome scenes in Supernatural’s past seasons. Are you ever surprised by what does make it to air?
CH: Generally, the network has been pretty supportive, and allowed us to air most things the way we want. I think sometimes you are caught totally out of left field with the little things that don’t get thru… like, you can stab someone a bunch of times and show blood everywhere… but that one word on page 27 that seems harmless to us writers gets flagged. In any case, the only time I can recall really hearing about restrictions was way back in Season One, in one of the episodes that Phil shot. I think it was something about showing an eyeball being stabbed? I think it ended up on the DVD. But in general, you have an idea of what’s allowed, and you try to stick within the boundaries, and usually Eric will catch anything that isn’t gonna fly.
MM:Supernatural tackles themes such as grief, loss of innocence, self-sacrifice, redemption, responsibility for your own actions and moral ambiguity. Do you ever wonder if these messages are lost on a network that squews so heavily to a teenage audience?
CH: Well, I’m not sure teenagers are our biggest audience, or that we’ve ever been marketed too heavily to them. We definitely don’t fit exactly the vision that the CW showcases in its advertising. I guess in the end everyone probably gets something different out of the show. I mean, I find that on shows I’m a fan of. I might watch an episode and be particularly moved by one part of a storyline, and it might remind me of an event in my own life, or strike a chord in terms of an emotional issue I’m dealing with. And someone else might just have loved the fight scenes. Whatever people find to like, and to take away, I think that’s worthwhile. Even if it’s just ogling Jared and Jensen, which I can certainly relate to!
MM: Heavenly forces have never been seen on the show. John, as his dog tags note, wasn’t religious right from the beginning, and Dean is skeptical of ‘the forces of good’ because he has never seen them. Yet John used a crucifix in Devil’s Trap to create a tank of holy water. Given that faith is usually thought to be an essential component to making these items ‘work’, how do religious symbols work as weapons against evil for those that have no faith?
CH: All I can say to that is, stay tuned. Season Four is definitely gonna be exploring some of these issues.
MM: There isn’t a more hotly contested issue in the Supernatural world than John Winchester. Even though John sacrificed his soul, and his only chance to ever be with Mary again to save Dean’s life, some fans still think he was a bad father: That his sacrifice was ‘too little, too late’. Others contend that he was in fact a good father. What is your view of Papa Winchester?
CH: That he’s human, I guess. A shitty dad in some ways, but a dad who loved his kids and tried to do right by them, and was forever affected by his wife’s horrible death, and was obsessed both with avenging that death and keeping his children safe from the same fate. I am kind of fascinated by the way parents view safety issues for their kids. In LA, everyone has the newest, fanciest, safest car, and the biggest safety seat which their kids ride in until they are ten years old, it seems. Yet those same parents might not be good at setting boundaries for their kids, or have no clue how to talk to them about difficult topics, or realize that they are having emotional issues, or whatever. Maybe it feels easier, clearer, to deal with concrete safety issues and ignore the complex emotional issues; maybe people just honestly don’t realize that both are so important in raising kids. But I think John Winchester was an extreme version of that kind of parent. He taught his kids to shoot, to recognize and fight back against monsters… but he was absent emotionally in so many ways. And he put an immense about of pressure on Dean, and kind of denied him a childhood in some ways… probably because he had no idea who else to turn to. I think he was a flawed, often lousy father with the best of intentions. And I also think, in the end, different people are gonna react to him differently, and have different viewpoints on him. And I don’t doubt some of that ties into our own relationships with our parents and our kids. I don’t really think there’s a wrong or right answer… just a really complex, interesting character. Which I love.
MM: John was a compelling, fascinating and intense character and there has been a lot of fan interest in him. As a writer would you have liked to have had a chance to explore that character more deeply?
CH: Well, as I said, I find him a great character… I loved that I got to co-write the episode where he reunites with his sons. But in the end, this is a show about Sam and Dean. John’s disappearance, to put it in writerly terms, was the instigating event bringing these two boys back together. But it’s their story, not his. There are a multitude of stories to be told about the three of them together, and about John as a younger hunter, etc. And those stories are getting out all over the place – in the comic books, in fan fiction, in an upcoming novelization of John’s journal. But they won’t really be told own our show, except as a way of illuminating Sam and Dean’s journey.
MM: Many fans have wished for John to reappear in some form. If J. D. Morgan had the time to come back to Supernatural, is there a way to write him back in?
CH: On a show called Supernatural you can never really count a character out just because they are dead. But, as I said, this show is about Sam and Dean, not their Dad. So expect that if you do see John again, it won’t ever be as a recurring character.
MM:I read that Eric killed John off because the boys needed to step out of his shadow, but also because he was off somewhere having better adventures than they were. If there was a spin off series, we John girls think it should be John hunting alone in the years that Sam was at school, and the first year of the series before he and the boys get back together in Dead Man’s Blood... John Winchesters’s More Excellent Adventures. What do you think? Do we have a shot?
CH: Give Warner Bros. a call, see if you can set up a pitch! Everything has a shot in Hollywood, and I know there are plenty of fans who’d love to see that show. But I’m fairly certain you won’t see any of our writers involved. We’re busy with Supernatural. And I can only speak for myself – I love this show, and I love writing for it – but when it’s done, I will definitely be ready to move on to something else. In my brief experience, that’s one of the differences, I think, between being a fan and writing for a show. I can think of many shows that I watched as a fan that I would absolutely love to see back on the air, or even to see one last episode of. But I’ve yet to meet a writer who was overly anxious to revisit a series that they’d worked on. You hope, if you are very lucky, that you get as much time as you feel you need to tell your characters’ stories to completion, to the place where you as a writer want to take them and ultimately leave them. I think Eric will get that chance, and I hope that I can be helpful to him along the way!
Joined: Jan 2007 Gender: Female Posts: 27 Karma: 5
Re: **EXCLUSIVE SUPERNATURAL INTERVIEW** « Reply #1 on Jun 12, 2008, 4:19pm »
Wonderful interview!! It's so nice that they took the time to respond to us. Thanks for the credit for question 5- it's interesting to see how things are done. The X File question was great. I've actually noticed these similarities
Re: **EXCLUSIVE SUPERNATURAL INTERVIEW** « Reply #2 on Jun 12, 2008, 4:52pm »
Well, they just said what I already said, John won't be back and neither will I even though I think I mostly stuck through it because of rumors and spoilers that weren't true. There is nothing that can beat the 3 of them together. What happened to Singer's John will be back?
Joined: Feb 2007 Gender: Female Posts: 189 Location: Land of Confusion Karma: 36
Re: **EXCLUSIVE SUPERNATURAL INTERVIEW** « Reply #3 on Jun 13, 2008, 2:21am »
Great questions/interview, Bev. Kudos. Thanks to Cathryn and Ben for taking the time to answer them.
I do not recommend this process.
ROTFLMFAO. Indeed. Callused womb? Dude. There is an assbaby joke in there, but I'm too much of a lady to make it.
That’s the general idea of how we work; within that framework, things can vary a lot.
Interesting. Thanks for the detail.
Just as we were getting ready to head off to outline, Sera got pulled away to write a new script, and so I ended up writing the actual teleplay on my own.
Great job. One of the better episodes of the season.
For dramatic crescendo, I still favor the last episode of season one, where somehow the various character lines, the family dynamic of father and sons, and the twists and turns of the demon agenda all fell together in a beautiful taut whirligig.
Devil's Trap/In My Time of Dying FTW!
For playing with form and genre, I must say I like Ghostfacers, although I will concede that it does very little to satisfy folks who watch this show for the brother-on-brother action.
Fuck that. It was an awesome episode, period. And hilarious. And brother-on-brother action? Dude. You are baaaaaaaaaad.
It's a form of elitism, and it must stop. The episode I'm working on now doesn't even have the Winchesters in it. Or ghosts, for that matter.
*rimshot*
I think Kim influences our show in a myriad of ways
Always a good thing.
And John Shiban was incredibly influential, especially in our first season, in helping to set the tone of our show.
Likely why S1 was/is the best season to date. I miss his influence like I'd miss, say, breathing. No, wait. Not that much. Like I'd miss ... breathing fresh air rather than smog. Yeah, there you go. That's the ticket.
I mean, I don’t think we did a comic episode for a while – it’s not like we come into the room and say “The X-files did this, so we need to try it too.” It’s more organic; we’ll start talking about an idea, and it becomes apparent that this could lend itself to a comic episode, and how will we do that, what will that look like, etc. And somewhere in there The X-Files will come up, and we’ll talk about what worked or didn’t work for them.
The internal episodic balance between horror and humor in Supernatural actually supercedes what X-Files was usually able to accomplish. They (X) did a great seasonwide balancing act between humor eps and monster-of-the-week eps (I eschew commenting on mythos eps for cause), but did not possess the elegant touch SPN does at creating amalgamations of both in the same 47 minutes.
Ben's episodes, in particular, remind me so much of the sharp and sly wit Darin used to such good end on X, but the humor/tragedy mix in Nightshifter or the shift from horror to slapstick in Dean's groundhog day deaths in Mystery Spot (I know, not Ben's, but point still stands)? Those are sublime intra-episode balancing acts that are uniquely Supernatural. The sense of genuine peril mixed with outright hilarity in Bad Day at Black Rock does ring X-familiar (in all the best ways) however, smacking very Morgan/Wong to almost Final Destination degree.
We can’t do big battle scenes
Hallelujah! Because God knows, nothing kills a show like twenty slayers stuck at the mouth of hell with the Legion in a LOTRs endless battle sequence. *headdesk*
I think some of the fans would be surprised to hear what goes on in the writer rooms on some of their favorite shows.
I think some of the fans would be surprised to hear what goes on outside WiFi range in the real world,
I was very happy to see the fan reaction to Ruby… overall, it seemed quite positive.
Ruby wasn't Meg, but she had her moments. Neither of them, of course, can hold a candle to the ass of Ellen Harvelle. Fucking CW.
Well, I’m not sure teenagers are our biggest audience, or that we’ve ever been marketed too heavily to them.
Again, hallelujah and pass the chips. It can never be mentioned too often that the fans really freakin appreciate the showrunners/writers realizing that, even if CW never will.
Even if it’s just ogling Jared and Jensen, which I can certainly relate to!
Ha! I'm sure none of us have any idea what you are talking about there. We are very monogamous about ogling only Jeffrey Dean. *cough* *cough*
All I can say to that is, stay tuned. Season Four is definitely gonna be exploring some of these issues.
Halle-fucking-lujah!
Even though John sacrificed his soul, and his only chance to ever be with Mary again to save Dean’s life, some fans still think he was a bad father
*headdesk*
That his sacrifice was ‘too little, too late’
*snerk* Yeah, that hell thing. What a cop-out to try and buy your kid's love with a cheap, last minute ploy like spending eternity getting your flesh burned off your bones because you were too selfish in life to do anything other than give up everything to protect him. That John Winchester. What a selfish ass!
*headdesk* *headdesk* *headdesk*
A shitty dad in some ways, but a dad who loved his kids and tried to do right by them, and was forever affected by his wife’s horrible death, and was obsessed both with avenging that death and keeping his children safe from the same fate.
I'd argue the "shitty" assignation (to my dying breath), but thank you for including John's obsession with his son's safety in the whole "obsessed fucknut" judgement.
I am kind of fascinated by the way parents view safety issues for their kids. In LA, everyone has the newest, fanciest, safest car, and the biggest safety seat which their kids ride in until they are ten years old, it seems. Yet those same parents might not be good at setting boundaries for their kids, or have no clue how to talk to them about difficult topics, or realize that they are having emotional issues, or whatever. Maybe it feels easier, clearer, to deal with concrete safety issues and ignore the complex emotional issues; maybe people just honestly don’t realize that both are so important in raising kids. But I think John Winchester was an extreme version of that kind of parent. He taught his kids to shoot, to recognize and fight back against monsters… but he was absent emotionally in so many ways.
Que?
Unless I'm missing the gist of the answer here, I'd have to go 180 on that one. The concrete safety issues in this analogy seem more parallel to John's lack of concern over the societally PC elements of good fathering; while the setting boundaries for his kids, having a clue how to talk to them about difficult topics, and the concern over complex emotional issues seems far more equitable to John's obsession with teaching his kids to identify evil and defend themselves against it. So for my money, John is the guy who doesn't buy into the newest fad to overprotect his kids from threats that are either irrelevant or the exception to the rule; but who does expend an enormous amount of energy addressing the far more fundamental concerns that are the measure of raising capable, ethical and emotionally resilient adults.
In terms of the analogy as presented, I'd consider John's indifference to the societal faux paux of leaving a ten-year-old in charge of a six-year-old in a motel room for 3 days to be equitable to not being the guy with the $6,000 you-can-drop-it-from-a-six-story-building-and-not-spill-his-apple-juice carseat in the Impala rather than just a simple shoulderbelt; while the heroic and emotionally grounded/strong (albeit also somewhat fucked up, in Dean's case) sons he raised single-handedly out of the collateral damage of a babe-in-arms and a kid stripped of his every sense of safety and reality at four seem like a pretty good resume to present as proof positive John was pretty freaking awesome at dealing with complex emotional issues and healing (sans any kind of structured societal support) a large percentage of the catastrophic emotional damage caused by A DEMON, not by him.
So for me? Emotionally absent? With the man Sam turned out to be with no other ongoing influence in his life beyond an emotionally devastated four-year-old? Not bloody fucking likely.
Of course, I'm probably a little biased on the subject. And I think I have a DVD somewhere that shows the father-son reunion that takes place between that "emotionally absent" guy and his kids, too.
And he put an immense about of pressure on Dean, and kind of denied him a childhood in some ways… probably because he had no idea who else to turn to.
Appreciate the nod of John's lack of support being a contributing factor to the choices he was forced into making; but I'd throw a big ole flag on the idea of John denying Dean his childhood. The YED denied Dean his childhood. John just denied Dean an early grave by failing to fail to be what the boy had to have in order to survive something John had nothing to do with.
I think he was a flawed, often lousy father with the best of intentions.
I'd go with flawed. And complex. And Human. But I'd add ferocious love to that "best of intentions" line.
And I also think, in the end, different people are gonna react to him differently, and have different viewpoints on him. And I don’t doubt some of that ties into our own relationships with our parents and our kids. I don’t really think there’s a wrong or right answer… just a really complex, interesting character. Which I love.
Indeed.
But in the end, this is a show about Sam and Dean. John’s disappearance, to put it in writerly terms, was the instigating event bringing these two boys back together. But it’s their story, not his.
Heh. I'll abstain, because I KNOW my view is skewed here. But still ... heh.
John Winchester’s More Excellent Adventures
Double heh. How 'bout, John Winchester: The Man, The Myth, The Emotionally Absent Fucknut who Raised the Guys Who Will Save Your Ass ... and the Universe. Wait. The network probably won't let you use "fucknut" in your title. Hey. Maybe HBFuckingO ...
But I’ve yet to meet a writer who was overly anxious to revisit a series that they’d worked on.
*cough* Deadwood *cough*
I think Eric will get that chance, and I hope that I can be helpful to him along the way!
From your mouth to The Big Kahuna's ears.
Again, great interview Bev. And thanks to Cathryn and Ben for their time and answers. Fun stuff.
Dodger
« Last Edit: Jun 13, 2008, 2:59am by dodgerwinslow »
Re: **EXCLUSIVE SUPERNATURAL INTERVIEW** « Reply #4 on Jun 13, 2008, 5:54am »
Great interview, thanks to Bev and CH and BE for sharing Q&As with us all.
That John is a mythical Father-figure that narratively has no place in the show, well, yes, sadly I do understand that...not that going against the rules would be bad, though, once in a while, and perhaps accomplish more in the long term.
John Winchester is a semi-mythic character, DIY Hunter and Hero and Father all wrapped in one - there would be no 'regular' place in Sam&Dean's adventures and stories for him, I agree with that...but he could have his own story, and luckily, we are seeing that happening, as CH said, in fanfiction, comics and YAY for John's Journal possibly being turned into a publication!!! *crosses fingers and toes and tails*
Still. A seance with John popping up and advising his kids (Bella's mysterious ouja board contact, anyone? That MUST have been John, also given Dean's reaction), an apparition, even just objects moving mysteriously at the right moment/right way to help the boys (who are not boys anymore, by now, but John/The Father shadows them still...and narratively they are alive only in as long as they stay on the brink of adulthood but never really cross it)...old friends, letters, messages, secret stashes of weapons and Winchester's memorabilia...all of that keeps John alive in the show, and all that is very welcome. At least to this John fan
Thank you again for bringing this interview to us, Bev, and to Cathryn and Ben for answering our questions. I'm looking forward to season 4, hoping that it recaptures some of the magic of season 1 and 2 (and hopefully we'll get to see Ellen and Jo and Missouri and the Ghostfacers again? And maybe a sign from John, LOL)
Re: **EXCLUSIVE SUPERNATURAL INTERVIEW** « Reply #5 on Jun 13, 2008, 11:29am »
That's garbage. The 3 of them belong together, why do we hear he's coming back, he wants to come back, Eric wants him to come back, that was my one tv show and now gone as far as I'm concerned. Just like the X files but we had a lot of years with that one. I actually cried reading that yesterday. Dad saving Dean would have been perfect and isn't there a lot of issues between John and Sam? I don't feel so good.
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