Cult Television

Cult TelevisionCult Television

ENGL 6650/7650: Special Topics in Popular Culture

Cult Television

Spring 2011Room: PH 308

Day/Time: Tuesday, 600-900 pm


4/5/11 | Week 11 Cult TV Series of the Week: SupernaturalRequired Reading: Peirse, ECTVR 260Recommended Reading: TV Goes to Hell: An Unofficial Road Map of Supernatural (RCD)Special Topics/Readings: Mainstream Cult—Hills (TCTVB 67); Members Only: Cult TV from Margins to Mainstream—Angelini & Booy (19)1


Stacey Abbott

Eric Kripke (US, Supernatural)


Eric Kripke, RIPMurdered in “The French Mistake” (Supernatural, February 25, 2011)


“Two Minutes to Midnight” (5.21)


Death: You have an inflated sense of your importance. To a thing like me, a thing like you. . . . Think how you'd feel if a bacterium sat at your table and tried to get smart. This is one little planet in one tiny solar system in a galaxy that's barely out of its diapers. I'm old, Dean, very old. So I invite you to contemplate what if any significance I find in you. Eat!Dean: I got to ask, how old are you?Death: As old as God—maybe older. Neither of us can remember any more. Life, death, chicken, egg, regardless, at the end I'll reap him too.Dean: God? You will reap God?Death: Oh yes. God will die too, Dean.Dean: This is way above my pay-grade.


TV Goes to Hell: An Unofficial Road Map of SupernaturalEdited by Stacey Abbott and David LaveryTable of Contents Introduction: Then: The Road So Far—Stacey Abbott “What’s the lore say?” Exploring Folklore & Religion1 Erin Giannini—“There’s Nothing More Dangerous Than Some A-Hole who Thinks He is on a Holy Mission”: Using and (Dis)-Abusing Religious and Economic Authority on Supernatural2 Jutta Wimmier and Lisa Kienzl—“I am an Angel of the Lord”: An Inquiry into the Christian Nature of Supernatural’s Heavenly Delegates3 Mikel Koven and Gunnella Thorgeirsdottir—Televisual Folklore: Rescuing Supernatural from the Fakelore Realm “Jerk . . . Bitch”: Representations of Gender and Sexuality4 Lorrie Palmer—The Road to Lordsburg: Rural Masculinity in Supernatural5 Bronwen Calvert—Angels, Demons, and Damsels in Distress: The Representation of Women in Supernatural6 Darren Elliott-Smith [not included]—“Go Be Gay for the Poor, Dead Intern”: Conversion Fantasies and Queer Anxieties in Supernatural


Table of Contents “Bon Jovi rocks . . . on occasion”: Comedy and Music7 Stacey Abbott—Rabbits’ Feet and Spleen Juice: The Comic Strategies of TV Horror8 Stan Beeler—Two Greasers and a Muscle Car: Music and Character Development in Supernatural

The Gospel According to Chuck: Narrative and Storytelling in Supernatural9 James Francis—“That’s So Gay”: Camp, Drag, and the Power of Storytelling in Supernatural10 David Simmons—“There’s a Ton of Lore on Unicorns too”: Postmodernist Micro-Narratives and Supernatural11 Alberto N. García—Breaking the Mirror: Metafictional Strategies in Supernatural


Table of Contents

Skin Mags and Shaving Cream: Sam and Dean on the Fringes of Time and Place12 Lorna Jowett—Purgatory with Color TV: Motel Rooms as Liminal Zones in Supernatural13 Aaron C. Burnell—Rebels, Rogues, and Sworn Brothers: Supernatural and the Shift in “White Trash” from Monster to Hero14 Simon Brown—Renegades and Wayward Sons: Supernatural and the 70s Cruel Capricious Gods: Auteurs, Fans, Critics15 Brigid Cherry—Sympathy for the Fangirl: Becky Rosen, Fan Identity, and Interactivity in Supernatural16 Karen Petruska—Crossing Over: Network Transition, Critical Reception and Supernatural Longevity17 Laura Felschow—Plagiarism or Props: Homage to Neil Gaiman in Eric Kripke’s Supernatural


Table of Contents Epilogue David Lavery—The Chapter at the End of This Book: The Road Ahead Back PagesAppendices—A. Episode Guide (by Stephanie Graves)—B. The Supernatural CastNotesBibliography TV/Filmography


Dramatis Personae


The Winchesters

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Jensen Ackles


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0Fz_egtEgc

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Jared Padalecki

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Matthew Cohen

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Samantha Smith, Amy Gumenick


The Hunters

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Jim Beaver

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Samantha Ferris

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Alona Tal

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Traci Dinwiddie

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Mitch Pileggi

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Steven Williams


The Demons

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Mark Pellegrino, and Jared Padalecki

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Frederich Lehne, etc.

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Kate Cassidy, Genevieve Cortese

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Mark Rolston, Christopher Heyerdahl

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Mark Sheppard


The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Julian Richings—See Death walk the streets of Chicago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1EzU9sLQ6I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1EzU9sLQ6I

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: James Otis

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Titus Welliver

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Matt Frewer


The Angels

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Misha Collins—see his first meeting with Dean and Bobby

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ9HvhteCDc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ9HvhteCDc

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Richard Speight, Jr.

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Julie McNiven

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Kurt Fuller

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Sebastian Roché

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Demore Barnes, Lanette Ware

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Carlos Sanz


The Supernaturalverse

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Several 1967 Chevy Impalas

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Rob Benedict

Cult TelevisionCult TelevisionPlayed by: Emily Perkins


The Wit & Wisdom of

Supernatural

The Wit & Wisdom of

Supernatural


The way I look at it, it's really not jumping the shark if you never come back down.

Chuck Shurley in “The Real Ghostbusters”

The Wit & Wisdom of Supernatural



Dean: We still got to see the new "Raiders" movie.Sam: Saw it.Dean: Without me?Sam: You were in Hell.Dean: That's no excuse!

“Monster Movie” (4.5), written by Ben Edlund




You know, it's kinda funny; talking to a Messenger of God on a cellphone, it's . . . y'know, like watching a Hell's Angel ride a moped.Dean in “The End” (5.4), written by Ben Edlund




Sam: They're saying the set's haunted.Dean: Like Poltergeist?Sam: It could be a poltergeist.Dean: No, no, the movie Poltergeist . . . You know nothing of your cultural heritage, do you?

“Hollywood Babylon” (2.18)




[I]t's just what you're supposed to do, we’re supposed to drive the friggin car, and friggin argue about this stuff. You know, you go on about the sanctity of life and all that crap.

Dean in “Malleus Maleficarum” (3.9)




Dean: Although, if I was turning life into a movie, I wouldn't do this Abbott and Costello meet the Monsters crap.Sam: Yeah. No, I know what you'd pick.Dean: Heh, no, you don't.Sam: Yeah, I do.Dean: No, you don't. You don't.Sam: Porky's 2.Dean: What?Sam: You heard me.Dean: Lucky guess.

“Monster Movie” (4.5)




Sam as Lucifer: You know why God cast me down? Because I loved Him. More than anything. And then God created. . . [smirks] you. The little. . . hairless apes. And then he asked all of us to bow down before you. To love you more than Him. And I said, "Father. . . I can't." I said, "These human beings are flawed. Murderous." And for that, God had Michael cast me into Hell. Now tell me, does the punishment fit the crime? Especially when I was right. Look what six billion of you have done to this thing. And how many of you blame me for it.

“The End” (5.4)




I was a son. A brother, like you, a younger brother, and I had an older brother who I loved. Idolized, in fact. And one day I went to him and I begged him to stand with me, and Michael—Michael turned on me. Called me a freak. A monster. And then he beat me down. All because I was different. Because I had a mind of my own. Tell me something, Sam. Any of this sound familiar?

“Abandon All Hope” (5.10)




Castiel: Cupid is a lower order of angel, a cherub.Dean: You mean the little guy in the diaper?Castiel: Cupid is not incontinent.

“My Bloody Valentine” (5.14)




Dean: (sticking his incorporeal hand in Sam) Am I making you uncomfortable?Sam: Get out of me.Dean: You're such a prude. Come on.“Death Takes a Holiday” (4.15, written

by Jeremy Carver)




I enjoyed it, Sam. They took me off the rack, and I tortured souls, and I liked it. All those years; all that pain. Finally getting to deal some out yourself. . . I didn't care who they put in front of me, because that pain I felt, that just slipped away. No matter how many people I save, I can't change that. I can't fill this hole. Not ever.

Dean in “Family Remains” (4.11)




The Intertextual/Self-

Referential Supernatural

The Intertextual/Self-

Referential Supernatural


Carver Edlund


Carver Edlund

Jeremy Carver and Ben Edlund

“[Ben Edlund possesses] a sensibility that's so left of center.”

Joss Whedon (Firefly: The Official Companion)


The EndThe End


Interviewed by Sci-Fi Wire after the Season 5 episode in which Sam and Dean are killed and go to Heaven (“Dark Side of the Moon,” 5.16), Ben Edlund was already contemplating the implications of The Boys’ many deaths. "As it turns out, we've decided that Sam and Dean are going to die many times.” “[T]his is a terrible plight,” Edlund suggests. “It's a terrible thing when nobody lets you die. They might imprison you forever or take over your body or they might torture you, but you can't get out of the game. That's Sam and Dean's problem" (Huddleston).

Other shows, 24, for example, or Smallville have central characters (Jack Bauer, Clark Kent) of prime importance: “Of all the people in the world, [they are] where the cameras are.” But Supernatural has been and continues to be different. “We have people routinely telling Sam and Dean, 'Oh, you're the most important people in the universe' [laughs]. We're the only show that admits it!" [italics in the original].

The EndThe End


Many die too late, and some die too early. Yet strange soundeth the precept: "Die at the right time!”

Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra When the author walks onto the stage, the play is over.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity You haven’t lived until you are in the writers room and you talk about god’s motivation in a scene.

Eric Kripke

The EndThe End

Cult Television

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