Supernatural Exec: Musical Episode Would Be 'Risky,' But Is Still a Very Real Possibility

http://www.tvline.com/2011/04/supernatural-preview-western-frontierland-musical-episode/


SPOILER ALERT


Picture this: An episode of Supernatural (Fridays at 9/8c) that begins just like any other (demons, souls in peril, etc;), and then — bam! — Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles break into song, all the while looking dapper as can be. Sounds ah-mazing, no? Well, through no prodding of my own, executive producer Bob Singer tells TVLine that just such a much-desired outing may finally be on the way (should the CW series receive a Season 7).




Also in this Q&A: more details on the boys’ trip to the Old West, the search for Eve, and what Singer really thought of the meta experimental “French Mistake.”



TVLINE
Congratulations on the buzzy meta episode, “The French Mistake.” Were you at all surprised to have pulled off such a monumental feat so seamlessly?

We were really thrilled that the reaction was so good, because we’d certainly talked about how it could have been shooting ourselves in the foot. [Laughs] This is terrible to say because it sounds so self-congratulatory, but I really thought it was one of the best episodes of television I ever saw. Everybody in it was just great — Ben Edlund wrote a great script, Charles Beeson directed the hell out of it, and the scene where the boys had to “act”… I must have seen it 50 times now and I laugh every time. It fit into our overall storytelling, too, and impacted what’s going on in the series in a meaningful way. I thought it succeeded on every level.



TVLINE
But now you have set the bar on these outside-the-box episodes so high. Is there any worry around Camp Supernatural that you won’t be able to top it? Or is there already something in the works?

Well, we’ve done the Western now (“Frontierland,” airing April 22), and we’ve done our meta episode… but from Year One, there have been two things we’ve talked about: How do you do a musical? And how do you do a cartoon? We haven’t found a way to do either one of those yet, but I’m sure it’ll come up in conversation for next season, an animated show or a musical. Musicals are really risky ground, but we do talk about it.



TVLINE
Speaking of the Western episode, talk a little about what fans can expect.

It’s a lot of fun. We’ve wanted to do a Western for a long time, and finally found the right platform to launch it. Everyone had a great time making it, especially Jensen [Ackles], who was just dying to do this one. It’s very organic to our storytelling and steeped in the much earlier mythology that we told in Season 2, right up to the current mythology. We’re very happy with the episode.



TVLINE
How exactly does it tie into the present day storyline?

It has to do with [Eve] the mother of all monsters and how you combat her, because clearly this a very powerful force at work here and a real challenge to the guys. But going back to when they got Samuel Colt’s weapon, they now get something out of his journal that can be helpful to them in dealing with the mother. That’s why they go back to the Old West.



TVLINE
Is there a satisfying conclusion to the Eve storyline?

Eve’s story gets its rightful conclusion, and from there we go on to basically wrap up the season-long mystery, which was our plan for the year. Early on, we had decided to tell this 22-hour film noir mystery, and peel the onion away slowly.



TVLINE
Does the season end on an ambiguous note? Or is everything neatly wrapped up?

It’s a solid ending for the main arc of the season, but we do have a cliffhanger that hopefully will carry over the summer and take us into a new story in Season 7. We answer all the questions that the audience might have, but we leave one very big cliffhanger there.



TVLINE
Did you approach this finale as if it might be the end of the series? Or were you thinking — rather, hoping — you’d be renewed and given the opportunity to tell more of the story?

[Renewal] was the hope. We had discussions about how to end [the series, and] at one point, everything in terms of this season’s storyline was going to be closed. But then we saw an opportunity for what we thought was a really good cliffhanger, and we hoped for a next year. In terms of good storytelling, we just thought this was a better idea.



TVLINE
Best-case scenario: Supernatural is picked up for a seventh season — what’s the game plan?

Most of it’s up in the air. The only thing that we have talked about is that since this year was kind of an old-fashioned noir mystery, next year may have the boys being Butch and Sundance, or the Wild Bunch. Basically, it’d be telling the a story of the last of the cowboys, gone modern. That’s just a jumping-off point. Whether we actually do that or how that realizes itself… we haven’t gotten that far yet. But there’s an idea of, “The world is closing in around you.”



Are you hoping a musical episode finally pans out? Eager to watch the boys play cowboy? Sound off below, and catch Supernatural Fridays at 9/8c on The CW.