10 Fascinating Facts About ‘Supernatural‘

Over the course of 300-plus episodes, Supernatural launched plenty of careers and spawned a dedicated following that helped it become one of the most successful CW series of all time. From character origins to little-known anecdotes about the series and its stars, here are 10 facts about the long-running fantasy franchise.

The show came about due to a bit of improv.
The Winchester brothers’ names are an homage to a literary classic.
Misha Collins started a software company before acting full-time.
Jensen Ackles originally auditioned for Sam Winchester.
Supernatural has plenty of Charmed connections.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan shot Grey’s Anatomy and Supernatural simultaneously.
There are some Disney Easter eggs ...
... and some rock ’n’ roll references throughout.
You could call Dean’s on-screen phone number.
Supernatural had a record-breaking run.

The show came about due to a bit of improv.

In a 2014 oral history in Variety, Supernatural creator Eric Kripke revealed that the idea for the show came about in a bit of improv when Warner Bros. execs were turning down another idea he’d pitched them. “In this moment, when they were basically passing on my idea, as you often do in these kinds of rooms, you start tap dancing,” he recalled. “And I said, ... ‘we should do this show as ‘Route 66,’ two cool guys in a classic car cruising the country, chasing down these urban legends,’ and literally right on the spot I said ‘and they’re brothers,’ because it popped in my head. ‘And they’re dealing with their family stuff and they’re fighting evil.’ You just start making it up as you go. They were like, ‘Brothers, wow, that’s a relationship we haven’t seen on TV before.’ And from there, ‘Supernatural’ was born … out of a piece of improvisation.”

The Winchester brothers’ names are an homage to a literary classic.

Kripke named his main characters Sam and Dean as a nod to Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, where characters named Sal and Dean road trip across the U.S.

Misha Collins started a software company before acting full-time.

Before landing the role of Castiel on Supernatural, Misha Collins ran his very own software company. As his acting career picked up, Collins realized that it was his acting roles, not his software sales, keeping the business afloat, and he ultimately decided to close the business down to pursue acting full-time.

Jensen Ackles originally auditioned for Sam Winchester.

Jensen Ackles initially auditioned for the role of Sam Winchester, not Dean. As it turns out, it wasn’t until Jared Padalecki auditioned for the role of Sam that the producers asked Ackles to come in to read for Dean. Jensen accepted the role and the rest is history.

Supernatural has plenty of Charmed connections.

Before The WB officially became The CW in 2006, Supernatural briefly shared the airwaves with a little show named Charmed. However, the two series have more in common than just the same original network.

Back before they joined the Supernatural family, actors Sebastian Roché (Balthazar), Mark Sheppard (Crowley), and Misha Collins (Castiel) all appeared in minor roles on Charmed. Both Roché and Sheppard appeared on the series as demonic characters, while Collins guest-starred as an innocent that Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) saves from a dangerous group of demons.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan shot Grey’s Anatomy and Supernatural simultaneously.

Morgan, who plays Sam and Dean’s father John, thought that he wouldn’t be back after shooting a flashback sequence at the beginning of the series—but when producers wanted him back for a few episodes at the end of the show’s first season, it required a bit of juggling. “I was shooting Grey’s Anatomy simultaneously, so my career had just taken off after 500 years of doing nothing,” he told Variety. “So I remember that I was really tired and playing these two characters simultaneously ... they shifted my schedule so I would shoot during the week with Grey’s, fly to Vancouver and shoot Supernatural on the weekend.”

There are some Disney Easter eggs ...

If you’ve been paying close attention, you may have noticed that whenever the Winchester brothers take on a siren, they’re always named after a Disney heroine.

Way back in the season four episode “Sex and Violence,” Sam and Dean investigate a string of deaths that end up being linked back to a siren named Belle, a nod to the princess at the center of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Across the various seasons, Sam and Dean have also encountered sirens named Ariel (The Little Mermaid), Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), and Jasmine (Aladdin).

... and some rock ’n’ roll references throughout.

In order to help the hundreds of individuals they assist every year, Sam and Dean often go undercover, posing as agents from various agencies under assumed names. And many times, those aliases are a direct homage to various rock ’n’ roll icons. Among the numerous list of tributes scattered throughout the series’ seasons: Angus and Young (AC/DC’s Angus Young), Plant and Page (Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and Jimmy Page), and Tyler and Perry (Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry).

You could call Dean’s on-screen phone number.

In the early seasons of the series, fans could call the number Dean often gave out as his cell number (1-866-907-3235) and receive the following message read by Jensen Ackles: “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.”

November 2, 1983, is, of course, the date on which the Winchester brothers’ mom died. As time went by, the message was changed to fit in with the series’ current storylines with callers instead hearing Dean relay the following message: “Dad? We really need to hear from you. Leave me a message, text me, check your jwinchester1246 email. Anything. We have new info.”

Unfortunately, the number no longer appears to work.

Supernatural had a record-breaking run.

Supernatural ran for 15 seasons, totaling 327 episodes and more than 14,000 minutes. That's a monumental achievement for any TV show, but for the fantasy genre, it’s almost of: By the end, the show had become the longest-running live-action fantasy series produced in the U.S.

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