#when i started reading the title
It’s taken me a few days but I’ve worked out why the situation surrounding Supernatural - a show/fandom I have had almost no involvement with up until now - and TPTB’s treatment towards Jensen Ackles and Misha Collins has got me as irked as it has.
It reminds me far too much of how TPTB on Stargate: Atlantis treated Joe Flanigan.
(If there are any gaps in information or any lapses in understanding on this, my Gater dudes, I am happy to be corrected, amended or added to.)
For the uninitiated, Stargate: Atlantis was a sister show to Stargate: SG-1 that ran on the Sci-Fi Channel from 2004 - 2009. Joe Flanigan was the lead male actor on the programme, playing Major/Lt. Col. John Sheppard for all 5 seasons.
The first few seasons of the show ran smoothly. Flanigan played his lead part as the highly skilled, if emotionally distant, Air Force pilot and soldier well and everyone was getting along nicely. However, when season 3 ended and season 4 began, friction began to arise with a choice TPTB had made with regards to the death of another of the popular leads on the show - killing off Doctor Elizabeth Weir played by Torri Higginson. From what I understand, Flanigan had fought for Weir/Higginson to stay on the show: he knew and understood that she was popular and by getting rid of her, they’d be shooting themselves in the foot. They ignored him and wrote her out, bringing her back for a couple of cameos as recompense, I suspect, for outraged fans who did not understand their decision to get rid of her in the first place.
From then on (from what I can gather from interviews I’ve seen) Flanigan became more aware of decisions being made with regard to plots and character development and more vocal when he felt like they were going the wrong way with it. As such, the writers and show-runners became less and less receptive to his feedback, apparently cutting him out of decisions and purposefully leaving him out of conversations about upcoming story arcs. As a response to this, in the 4th and 5th seasons of the show, Flanigan’s character appeared to be shunned to one side, almost in retribution for having an opinion that did not align with that of the show-runners.
The supposed lead of the whole programme seemed to be demoted to a secondary role. In fact, the only episodes where Flanigan/Sheppard got to be in the fore were episodes he had written.
This ongoing friction came to a head during season 5. During the filming of the episode Whispers - an episode featuring an all-female exploration team that come across alien hybrids that hunt people down by hearing alone- Flanigan came to TPTB, angry. As a character, Sheppard had always been portrayed as being incredibly supportive and loyal to his female co-workers and was savvy to what was going on under his command. Flanigan voiced concerns that the casual sexism and ignorance Sheppard was displaying in this episode was out of character and it didn’t sit well with him. He was effectively told to shut up and deal with it, it didn’t matter.
The show was over at the end of season 5. If I remember rightly, none of the actors knew this until they were about to head to a convention after the season had finished airing and were told that, for all the plans for a 6th season, it wasn’t going to happen.
Flanigan fought to buy the rights to the show. While the writers and runners had dropped Atlantis in favour of another spin off to the franchise (that ultimately ended up getting cancelled after 2.5 seasons anyway), Flanigan believed in it and wanted to save it. He was denied rights to it for no other discernable reason other than childish spite: he had disagreed with them and been vocal in his disapproval, so he didn’t get to have it.
This was back in 2009-2010. How is it that TEN YEARS LATER, studios and writers and show-runners are still acting as though the opinion of actors whose job is to inhabit the characters they play for years have no worth? That their thoughts and sense of the person they have been for 5, 10, 15 years has no weight? Why are they still being treated like absolute shit for speaking up and speaking out about a show and a character they love and cherish and cast aside for daring to do so? Why are they still being treated as disposable?
So Supernatural fans, I empathise with you. I get it. I hear you and I see you. I understand your anger at the disrespect towards Misha and Jensen. Apparently, the arrogance of writers in the sci-fi/action/fantasy genre is still alive and well and it needs to stop.
