Supernatural starred Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester and Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester. The monster-hunting brothers drove from city to city, fighting demons, shapeshifters, angels, and more. The horror-fantasy series sprinkled in plenty of brilliant comedic moments, adding humor to its dark and devastating world—and some of them were cleverly meta.
Before loading up with salt, iron, and a handy shotgun, Jared Padalecki was a series regular on Gilmore Girls. The dramedy followed the lives of the mother-daughter duo, Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, in the small town of Stars Hollow. In Supernatural’s very first meta episode, Sam and Dean take a studio tour to sneak on the lot for a case and give audiences an unofficial, secret Gilmore Girls crossover.
In “Hollywood Babylon,” Jared Padalecki Almost Goes Back to Stars Hollow
In season two of Supernatural, Sam and Dean investigate a haunting on a film set. During the filming of Hell Hazers II: The Reckoning, the Winchester brothers look into a supposed ghost that turns out to be a stunt the producers pulled to get some buzz going about their film. Just as Sam and Dean are about to write off the case, real ghosts begin appearing around the set, killing people the same way they died. The disgruntled writer of the movie summoned ghosts and forced them to kill the people he deemed responsible for ruining his story.
2×18
“Hollywood Babylon”
April 19, 2007
Before Sam and Dean could crack the case in “Hollywood Babylon,” they had to get on to the studio lot. They hopped on a trolley tour of the studio that included a trip to Stars Hollow. The subtle reference to Jared Padalecki’s other show, Gilmore Girls, came when the tour guide announced they were headed to the show’s famous small-town setting. Just then, Sam’s face dropped into an expression of dread. When the tour guide said they might get lucky and see one of the show’s stars, Sam looked around anxiously, jumped off the trolley, and told Dean, “Come on.” Dean wanted to finish the tour, but Sam was adamant they left before the trolley got to Stars Hollow.
The scene is less than a minute long, but it remains a perfect and memorable moment for Supernatural and Gilmore Girls fans alike. Padalecki shows off his comedy chops, playing into the awkwardness with spot-on facial expressions and apprehensive body language. It was the show’s first foray into the metanarrative that Supernatural would learn to perfect over its fifteen seasons.
Jared Padalecki Left Gilmore Girls for Supernatural
Seventeen-year-old Jared Padalecki played Dean Forester, Rory Gilmore’s first love, on Gilmore Girls. Dean and Rory’s relationship started well. They had their first break-up when he wanted to build her a car and told her he loved her. When she didn’t say it back, he broke up with her. They end up getting back together, and things are good until another young man turns Rory’s head. When Luke’s nephew, Jess, comes to town, he and Rory begin to bond over their shared interests, and she finds herself pulling away from Dean. Dean tries to give Rory some space and trust her, but when they attend a 24-hour dance, Rory is visibly jealous of Jess and his date. Dean breaks up with Rory for the second time.
In season four of Gilmore Girls, Dean gets married to a woman named Lindsay. Dean and Rory try to be friends, but they flirt with the idea of getting back together after they sleep together. When Lindsay learns about their affair, she divorces Dean. Rory and Dean give it one last try, but he realizes that their lives are headed in different directions and breaks up with Rory for the third and final time. Jared Padalecki left Gilmore Girls when he got the role of Sam Winchester on Supernatural. Both he and Jensen Ackles were pulled from other shows on The WB to portray the iconic Winchester brothers.
Funny enough, Milo’s a buddy and he’s Team Dean. Somebody sent me a meme, when he got in his office in his house, he has his Emmy nomination alert letter and on the bottom corner, it’s like ‘Team Dean forever.’ And so I drew my own ‘Team Jess forever’ with markers, like same Milo, samesies but for you.
The character of Dean Forester is hotly debated within the Gilmore Girls fandom, along with Rory’s other boyfriends. Many think he displayed several red flags and became unforgivable after he cheated on his wife with Rory. Others believe he was likable and compelling in the first season, but when Jess showed up in season two, Dean’s character diminished, and he became nothing more than a plot device. Padalecki acknowledges that the character kind of “warped” as the series progressed. When asked about the debate surrounding Rory’s boyfriends last year, he told E! Online that he’s Team Jess. “Funny enough,” Padalecki said, “Milo’s a buddy and he’s Team Dean. Somebody sent me a meme, when he got in his office in his house, he has his Emmy nomination alert letter and on the bottom corner, it’s like ‘Team Dean forever.’ And so I drew my own ‘Team Jess forever’ with markers, like same Milo, samesies but for you.”
Supernatural Has Several Great Meta Episodes
“Hollywood Babylon” was just the beginning of Supernatural’s take on meta episodes. After the writers’ strike, the Supernatural writers decided to poke fun at the industry and reality TV with “Ghostfacers.” The episode is a parody of ghost hunter shows and is even edited to be like one with handheld and spy camera footage used to tell the bulk of the story. The episode also gave audiences a different perspective on Sam and Dean, watching them as outsiders and through the lens of reality TV. While most of the meta episodes are well-received, the Ghostfacers leave fans divided.
Season four introduces a series of novelizations penned by a prophet who would later turn out to be God. “The Monster at the End of This Book” sees Sam and Dean discovering the prolific book series that chronicles their lives. Seasons four and five see Sam and Dean call the prophet occasionally to find out what he knows from his visions of the future. Five also has the highly-regarded “Changing Channels” in it. Sam and Dean are trapped in a series of TV shows and forced to “play their parts” if they want to get back to reality. It famously parodies Gray’s Anatomy with their own medical melodrama, Dr. Sexy M.D. With back-to-back meta episodes, Becky tricks Sam and Dean into attending a Supernatural convention in “The Real Ghostbusters.” When the hotel gets put on a supernatural lockdown by a ghost, Sam and Dean are surrounded by cosplayers as they try to investigate a haunting. In the end, the brothers grow to respect some of the readers, and they begin to understand that their story has had a positive impact on fans of the series.
The peak of Supernatural’s meta episodes is “The French Mistake.” Sam and Dean are thrown into an alternate reality where they are Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, who only play Sam and Dean in a TV show. The hunters have to pretend to be actors to navigate the new world. The episode is one of Supernatural’s highest-rated episodes. The series’ creator, Eric Kripke, considers it to be one of his favorite episodes. It features plenty of references to the series and its fans, playfully making fun of itself, which makes for great comedic moments. Jared Padalecki’s real-life wife, Genevieve Padalecki, returns for a cameo, playing a fictionalized version of herself.
Source: cbr.com