my theory on how 8x12 came to be
if you haven't seen up to and including Supernatural 8x12 (As Time Goes By), do not read any further.
tv shows are living, breathing creatures that grow and mutate. the writers write and create what they think will get them viewers. (or, y'know, what the network/president of the network tells them.) in any case, tv is a fickle mistress.
so, in the early seasons, Dean and Sam hunt demons, the quest to find what killed Mom all those years ago. and along the way stop the apocalypse. a few things are introduced that maybe didn't work so well (the special kids) or that got introduced before the creator was ready (the Roadhouse).
in going through the transcripts of Seasons 1 and 2, most of Dean and Sam's talking about John, their interaction with John, and then their remembrances of John were how they were brought up with a father with only one thing on his mind. and as the seasons continued, we met more and more people who interacted with Dean and Sam - most people seemed to be leery of them because they'd known John, and his character seemed a little questionable. there weren't too many people John didn't piss off. we were also in the present; no one had put forth the idea of anyone's back story. (in fact, i did this in my Maya'verse. i had no idea what Maya's backstory was at first. but by #10 i had crafted it - only a year and a half later.)
so when S4 came 'round, the writers realised they hadn't done one of the staples of scifi shows - a time travel episode. but how? and who would be the traveler? where would the traveler go and what would he learn? how about when John was young? what was he like? and Mary - we don't know much about her. let's learn some back stories.
then for the next season or two, while we concentrated on Mary and the Campbells, we learned some things about John as well - that he was to be the vessel for Michael, that he came from a family of mechanics, that he was destined to be with Mary.
but maybe the audience was growing tired with the way the show was going. maybe the writers were too, and maybe the ratings were flagging. need to keep those ratings up, so let's poke around and see what we can tweak. the boys have been on the move for a LOT of the series: Yellow Eyes burned down the Roadhouse. Bobby's house got torched. Frank's base was discovered. Garth is just as transient as the boys. so, we need a Batcave.
Aphrodite told me the idea of a "home base" for Dean and Sam had been brewing for some time in the writers' room, but how did the writers get there from S7 without making it awkward and out of nowhere? what's going to be a new, fresh idea to keep the viewers still watching?
so the idea comes up for a "Man of Letters" storyline. and since we know pretty much nothing about John's father, it's time to learn. and we learn that Henry Winchester, a Man of Letters, travels to the future, gets killed by the demon he's pursuing - and in so doing, leaves his young son John to grow up without a father. but what about that guy back in 4x03 who tells John to say "hi to his old man" for him? well, that just some throwaway line that no one's going to even remember got said. right? (and, as i've seen in more than a few places, John's "old man" could have realistically been a step-dad.)
i know i've mentioned this anecdote before: many many many years ago, author Harlan Ellison once spent a day in a bookstore writing a story. when he would finish a page, he would tack it up in the window, and it became canon. but what if he was busy writing, and when he got to page 8 realised he wanted to introduce something really cool, but it was in contradiction to something he'd written back on page 4?
once an episode has aired, it's like the story that posted on the bookstore window. and if you find that a storyline or plot or character isn't working for you (or conversely that minor character you made up who was just supposed to be in that one scene is a big hit and you want to expand that character) you have to bite the bullet and just change the story. you can't erase what's happened in the previous pages, but you can make the next few pages so awesome that people just can't wait to read them.
and that's how i see it. your mileage will vary.
-
tv shows are living, breathing creatures that grow and mutate. the writers write and create what they think will get them viewers. (or, y'know, what the network/president of the network tells them.) in any case, tv is a fickle mistress.
so, in the early seasons, Dean and Sam hunt demons, the quest to find what killed Mom all those years ago. and along the way stop the apocalypse. a few things are introduced that maybe didn't work so well (the special kids) or that got introduced before the creator was ready (the Roadhouse).
in going through the transcripts of Seasons 1 and 2, most of Dean and Sam's talking about John, their interaction with John, and then their remembrances of John were how they were brought up with a father with only one thing on his mind. and as the seasons continued, we met more and more people who interacted with Dean and Sam - most people seemed to be leery of them because they'd known John, and his character seemed a little questionable. there weren't too many people John didn't piss off. we were also in the present; no one had put forth the idea of anyone's back story. (in fact, i did this in my Maya'verse. i had no idea what Maya's backstory was at first. but by #10 i had crafted it - only a year and a half later.)
so when S4 came 'round, the writers realised they hadn't done one of the staples of scifi shows - a time travel episode. but how? and who would be the traveler? where would the traveler go and what would he learn? how about when John was young? what was he like? and Mary - we don't know much about her. let's learn some back stories.
then for the next season or two, while we concentrated on Mary and the Campbells, we learned some things about John as well - that he was to be the vessel for Michael, that he came from a family of mechanics, that he was destined to be with Mary.
but maybe the audience was growing tired with the way the show was going. maybe the writers were too, and maybe the ratings were flagging. need to keep those ratings up, so let's poke around and see what we can tweak. the boys have been on the move for a LOT of the series: Yellow Eyes burned down the Roadhouse. Bobby's house got torched. Frank's base was discovered. Garth is just as transient as the boys. so, we need a Batcave.
Aphrodite told me the idea of a "home base" for Dean and Sam had been brewing for some time in the writers' room, but how did the writers get there from S7 without making it awkward and out of nowhere? what's going to be a new, fresh idea to keep the viewers still watching?
so the idea comes up for a "Man of Letters" storyline. and since we know pretty much nothing about John's father, it's time to learn. and we learn that Henry Winchester, a Man of Letters, travels to the future, gets killed by the demon he's pursuing - and in so doing, leaves his young son John to grow up without a father. but what about that guy back in 4x03 who tells John to say "hi to his old man" for him? well, that just some throwaway line that no one's going to even remember got said. right? (and, as i've seen in more than a few places, John's "old man" could have realistically been a step-dad.)
i know i've mentioned this anecdote before: many many many years ago, author Harlan Ellison once spent a day in a bookstore writing a story. when he would finish a page, he would tack it up in the window, and it became canon. but what if he was busy writing, and when he got to page 8 realised he wanted to introduce something really cool, but it was in contradiction to something he'd written back on page 4?
once an episode has aired, it's like the story that posted on the bookstore window. and if you find that a storyline or plot or character isn't working for you (or conversely that minor character you made up who was just supposed to be in that one scene is a big hit and you want to expand that character) you have to bite the bullet and just change the story. you can't erase what's happened in the previous pages, but you can make the next few pages so awesome that people just can't wait to read them.
and that's how i see it. your mileage will vary.
-