The Extras - Supernatural Production Design with Jerry Wanek

Episode Date: June 18, 2021

Emmy nominated Jerry Wanek discusses his 15 seasons as the Production Designer on the hit show Supernatural.  We then go in-depth into the origins and design of the iconic "Men of Letters" bunker.  We also highlight his designs for the desolate alternate universe of "Apocalypse World," a world without the Winchesters.   And finally we revisit the emotional last season and the chaotic impact of the pandemic on the set designs of the last two episodes.The Sitcom StudyWelcome to the Sitcom Study, where we contemplate the TV shows we grew up with and...Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify The Extras Facebook pageThe Extras Twitter Warner Archive & Warner Bros Catalog GroupOtaku Media produces podcasts, behind-the-scenes extras, and media that connect creatives with their fans and businesses with their consumers. Contact us today to see how we can work together to achieve your goals. www.otakumedia.tv

Hi, I'm film historian and author John Fricke. I've written books about Judy Garland and the Wizard of Oz movie, and you're listening to The Extras. Hello and welcome to The Extras, where we take you behind the scenes of your favorite TV shows, movies, and animation, and their release on digital, DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K, or your favorite streaming site. I'm Tim Allard, your host, and I have a very special guest with me today. He is a four-time nominee by the Art Directors Guild, including his work on Dark Angel, produced and directed

by James Cameron. He has designed numerous pilots, including the Robinsons Lost in Space, produced by Terrence Chang and directed by John Wu. And he received an Emmy Award nomination for production design for the miniseries The Andromeda Strain, produced by Ridley Scott. I have had the privilege of working with him for the past 11 seasons that I worked on the home entertainment extras of Supernatural, where he has been the production designer, a director, and producer. Jerry Uenick, welcome to The Extras. Thank you, Tim. Thank you for that wonderful introduction and I'm very happy to be here today. Before we dive into the discussion on Supernatural, maybe you can

give us a little background on how you got into film and television production design. Well, my first foray into film at all was basically going and getting coffee for Ronald McDonald. And as unglamorous as that was, I felt like I was the luckiest man on the planet. I thought I had arrived because I was on a film set. And although it was a McDonald's commercial, Alan Daviau and his crew were shooting it. Alan Daviau just got off of E.T., which I believe he won an Academy Award for cinematography. It was just, you know, the most magical place I had ever been to. So from there, I never turned down an opportunity to be on a set. And I basically went from getting coffee and worked my way up to producer director. And it was, it took 30 years, but, you know, the most fun part of it.

And looking back, it certainly was. And it's it's the stuff that's the the hardest that you remember and you get the most joy from. Eventually, at some point, you got involved in Supernatural. Maybe you can you can fill us in, you know, who you met with and how you found out about this show. Yeah. So how we got into Supernatural is I had just finished a show in Hawaii and I got a call from my agent saying that there was a show coming up to Vancouver and Jensen was the star of it or one of the stars. And I said, because I had also just completed, I did the pilot for Criminal Minds. And looking back, they both went 15 seasons, so both over 300 episodes. So our work

in the pilot of Criminal Minds lived on for 15 years and as did our work on Supernatural. It was one of those things where there was a lot of pilots coming up and a lot of work coming up to Vancouver. But I just said, I worked with Jensen for two years on Dark Angel, and he stole every scene that he was in. And this is with two actors that, you know, Jessica Alba and Michael Weatherly, who are great actors and have a huge profile. So to have this young upstart come in straight off of, I think it was his soap opera, and just basically just take it to steal every scene was just amazing to watch. And, you know, my best judgment was like, this is the guy to, you know, hit your horse to hit your wagon to. So that's why I did. That's basically why I took it. I didn't really know what the show was about. All I knew was the name. I knew that David Nutter did the pilot, which is a pedigree that, you know, always wanted to work for David Nutter. It was, I wanted to stay in Vancouver because I have an incredible group of artists that I had come to know working up there for five years. So we were off and the best decision I ever

made in my life. So did you actually work on the pilot? I did not. The pilot was done in LA. So did you actually work on the pilot? I did not. The pilot was done in LA. Okay. But I did take the job before ever seeing a frame of the pilot. I just, I, we had, you know, several offers and I just said, no, I'm, I'm going with Jensen. So you were on the show starting with that second episode?

Yes. Which was directed by David Nutter. Okay. That's right. Who also did the pilot. And I think Serge and a number of, of, um, there are just a few of you that have been on since that's right. see where this goes, because it's really kind of voodoo to take a show more than three seasons. If you're the department head, because all of a sudden everybody just forgets who you are and what you do, but we were committed. I mean, it was a fantastic show. We both had incredible freedom, creative freedom. So I knew that, you know know there wasn't going to be another opportunity

like this with so many good people and so many creative and collaborative people and um so we just stuck it out and you know and every year we just go here we go but it has been the greatest uh creative family i've ever been involved with. And, you know, starting with Eric and Bob Singer and Phil Segretia and Sarah and Jeremy and Andrew, you know, it just was incredible that the trust that they gave to both Serge and I, and, you know, I think it all worked out. I think we all were so committed that that's why we never lost our production value or our sight of what the show was all about. Obviously, you have Jared and Jensen and the rest of the cast with Misha. But behind the scenes, you had a lot of continuity yourself with Serge, with Kevin and Bob Singer there, you know, through all the seasons. And that has to be a huge reason as well why there's such a consistency of the show over 15 seasons. Yes. Bob Singer would be the, you know, he's the wild card. He's the guy that really

everybody would meet with Bob and he would just basically, and he'd give everybody the same advice he gave me when I directed is like, tell the story. It's all about the story. Now you get your first chance at driving the, you know, the hot rod and you want to go out and really impress somebody with the moves. And that's not really what this was about. It was really about, you know, sticking to this wonderful journey. These, this family was on and telling that story. And that's really another huge reason that this was successful because everybody identified with the family, the family aspect and the bond between the two brothers.

And Eric set that up so wonderfully, and it just proved to work. And the other thing that never happens, but it did in our case, was that Jared and Jensen literally became best friends. So this whole brother thing, they all of a sudden, I mean, it's you definitely believed on screen that they were brothers. And even off screen, they just looked after each other's back and they were, you know, it's a wonderful thing to see because it made everything else much better. And the other thing that they were wonderful at was welcoming in the new talent. You know, like when Misha came in, I mean, he got baptized, you know, so many times by the wrath of, you know, the boys love to play practical jokes.

And poor Misha was the brunt of a lot of it until Alex came along and then he took over. But it was all in really good fun. And they were really protective of whoever came to our show to make sure that they wanted to be there and that they were having a good time and doing good work. Very often, you know, the actors, they just want to do their thing and they go to their trailer and that's it. Give me the paycheck. And these guys were totally vested in the process and in the product. I know that, you know, if you watch the gag reels from over the seasons, you can just see the camaraderie on the set. You can just see the amount of fun. You can also see

kind of the bond the two of them had just, they just knew what each other was thinking and their sense of, of timing and their sense of humor, everything just was so great. Even for some of the extras, there were years where they would only want to do their interviews together because they wanted to be able to play off, you know, play off of that and know that they were messaging the same thing to the fans. And that to me spoke to just how close they were as well. Yeah. Interesting. And the other big personality that helped hone this into that family was Kim Manners. Kim Manners was an incredible director and he came and he, you know, his pedigree was X-Files and, you know, just about every other show on television.

When he came, you know, he just, the boys just loved him. He was like, you know, a father figure and it was really special. They felt really comfortable and Kim loved those guys. And he just had a great way of storytelling. So, you know, because you kind of want to be there, you know, we're there for 12, 14 hours a day. And if you keep the set a place that people are enjoying themselves as well as doing great work and working long hours and working hard, then, you know, you get great results. And that's what we had. I don't recall if if we interviewed you in earlier seasons, but I know that you were a big contributor to the extras in season nine. Each year, we typically have a creative meeting with the showrunners to find out what the storylines were for the year. And if there were, or might

be some extra that, uh, that the showrunners wanted us to focus on in home entertainment. I distinctly recall both Bob Singer and Jeremy mentioned, uh, the new set that was being built, I believe that year, the men of letters set, and that we should do a piece detailing the set design and touch base with you, obviously. Maybe you can give us a little background on how that all came about in terms of that set. I know it was a big change for the show from earlier seasons. Yeah, the Men of Letters was first introduced by, I believe it was Adam Glass. And it was all about this, their great grandfather and the secret society, which was based on the Freemasons. So it was written as an underground concrete bunker, a la Hitler's bunker. Hitler's bunker. But, you know, for me, if I see an opportunity to make something more interesting and make it much more visually enhancing, then we may keep it for a while. And that was my thought going in. So, and Phil Segrecia basically was on the same page with me and he started

sending me like these beautiful libraries in Europe and, you know, some like from Harvard and different things that were like these beautiful pieces of architecture. And then I had my whole research staff because, you know, the years that we landed on was basically when the Mental Letters was founded, was right about in the middle of the WPA movement, which was the work program instituted by FDR. It was a make work project to build libraries and power plants and other civic buildings, you know, to keep people off the street and get the unemployment down and give people a job. So the cool thing about the WPA movement, that an inordinate amount of their buildings were built in the Art Deco style. It just happened to coincide. It wasn't like, man, we're going to make these unforgettable monuments. and we're going to make these unforgettable monuments. It was like, okay, well, this is the new style that was just sort of adapted from the arts and crafts movement in Europe.

So we're going to take that and Americanize it and do our version of Art Deco. Now that we decided on sort of the scale of it, and now that we had an architectural jumping off point, then it was just a matter of what needed to be included in that to be believable as this secret society. And I had shot quite a few times in Freemasons temples or whatever you want to call them throughout the South, because I would go on location and a lot of them were, you know, past their prime and they weren't, they were no longer really used as a temple. So they would rent them out for events and they made fantastic film

locations because they were these beautifully appointed pieces of architecture. So I kind of had that backstory going in. So we started with, you know, we needed a war room, basically, which is the crow's nest. And we needed a library because these guys, you knew they were going to be doing research all the time because we had been through eight seasons of them, you know, with dad's journal and cross-referencing and going to library. So we made the coolest library we could. And then to Phil's chagrin, I put a telescope in the end of it, which he never forgave me because he said, well, it's underground. I said, Phil, did you ever see Batman? You know, side of the hill goes down, telescope comes out.

Because we believed that these were very learned men and they covered all the disciplines from physics to astronomy to astrology, chemistry, obviously, and the occult. I wanted to put as many pieces in there that would reflect their personalities. pieces in there that would reflect their personalities. And then the other thing we had to do is because we knew we were hopeful at the time that we could just expand it as needed. So we made a decision to make all the hallways this certain tile. So that as soon as you left the crow's nest, now you were in these hallways that were nondescript enough that they could lead to anywhere. So whenever the story called for it, we could add, you know, electrical room, we could add a boiler room, we could add just by going down a hallway,

putting a doorway at the end of it or a staircase or just a curved wall. And now we were in a different part of the mental letters. So that was all very intentional and it was all preconceived and it turned out to work quite well. The other thing we said was whoever was staying here, whatever top scientists or business people, it was a favored nations sort of rooming so that we could make all the bedrooms as a dormitory. Because this was a no-frills thing. When people came to the Mental Letters, they came there to do work and to do research. And that really helped us because no matter who came to the mental letters, we could just shuffle furniture around and change a few items. And now we have, you know,

the room for Castiel and for Alex. And so to protect the mental letters, we had, you know, warding sigils engraved in the floor and some faux copper pieces. And then we also are brass plates. And then we also had in the freeze, we had these warding sigils around the perimeter of the rooms. So there's a lot of little detail in there. But everything was on wheels, basically. All the columns moved, all the bookcases moved. So whatever director went in there, if they wanted to get creative with their dolly moves,

crane moves, what have you, everything was movable. Um, and that's the biggest advantage, no matter what you're building or what you're shooting, that's the biggest advantage of being on a studio set because, know everything is movable i was there a few years later for for an extra we were filming and it was just so impressive the the size the scope of the men of letters and the different rooms and then the just kind of the detail all of the you know the equipment that was um in there that from that era, the dials, you know, the knobs, all of those things, just so great. And then the ability to light it just had beautiful lighting in there. Yeah, that was all Serge, but no surprise there. The cool thing about it was,

and yes, it was a big scale and yes, it was a big price tag. It was, you know, I think the initial two rooms were over 300,000 or something. And we could have built that bunker for $100,000. But the bunker you would have been sick of in two episodes, the mental letters lasted for six years and I don't know how many episodes. I don't know how many episodes. So when you amortize that cost over six years, you know, and 20 episodes a year, that was a very economical set. And what else? The other thing I did is we never had a place to hide. And when I say hide, it means like if there's inclement weather, or if the boys have some other commitments, or there's a casting problem with some of our guest stars and you have to jumble the schedule around. You don't have a standing set that you can go to because basically the boys were on the road.

They had the Impala. We had, you know, Jim Beavers, Bobby's place for a while. But besides that, there was no home. And thank God, Jensen really fell in love with the mental letters. I mean, he just, you know, it was a respite for him. He felt comfortable there. He had his room. You know, he just really embraced it. And because there was a couple of times and I don't even remember which showrunners, you know, that were threatening to blow it up because they just wanted to blow it up. And Jensen goes, ain't going to happen. And it just it really was a special piece that a lot of shows don't get to don't get to do that. Don't get to build something of that of that scale and with that amount of detail.

But again, Tim, like I've told you on other meetings for your extras, taping the crew I have is phenomenal. I mean, my construction coordinator, Warren, and his whole crew, My construction coordinator, Warren, and his whole crew and my painters, Monique, and before that, Roger, and my art directors, Robert Leder and John Marcenik. And, you know, the whole art department, Leanne in graphics and Marianne. I mean, everybody has their special discipline. the script called for, I never really freaked out because if I had a, uh, like sculpt a 14 foot high bear for the exterior of a motel, which we did, you know, Marianne could do that, you know? And it was like, I, and, and any of the, all that marbleizing and all that tile work, you know, that's basically made out of cardboard. And, you know, Monique just killed that stuff. You can never tell. You can, you know, people to this day will go up to some of those columns and knock them

thinking it's, you know, they're real. Stay with us. We'll be right back. Hi, this is Tim Millard, host of The Extras Podcast. And I wanted to let you know that we have a new private Facebook group for fans of the Warner Archive and Warner Brothers Catalog physical media releases. So if that interests you, you can find the link on our Facebook page or look for the link in the podcast show notes. Yeah, it was just so impressive. I really enjoyed that extra. In season 13, we interviewed you for the extra Into the Apocalypse, A World Without the Winchesters, which was a fascinating look into the production design of Apocalypse World. Tell us about the challenge of creating an alternate world. Well, the challenge of creating an alternate world and to make it, it was also supposed to be

And to make it, it was also supposed to be a universe that ran simultaneous with our experience on Earth. But it was desolate. And Vancouver is in a rainforest. Everything is green, lush. It doesn't leave you with this desolation and, you know, I'm going to die in the desert feel. So it took us a long time. We went all over the place trying to find some sand dunes or something to give us the more arid look. Finally, we settled on a place up in Squamish, which was, you know, a 40 minute drive away. But we found some dunes and we had to do a lot of manicuring and the greens department had a lot of work on there just as far as like, because, you know, as, as you remember, we had that steeple that was

sunk and it looked like it was from a past civilization. And then the one thing that I really wanted and that I came up with, we needed one element to just kind of bring it together. And so my idea was to make these 20 foot high angel blades, which have become iconic within our show. So they were piercing out through the, through the ground. And it also gave it this sense of danger because when you fell into this other world, you know, you go like in our case, the guys walk through this rift, but you don't know where you're going to end up. And we had a couple of bodies that were pierced by the angel blades as they

fell to earth. So, I mean, all that was just part of the, the way we, we came to this place where, you know, we met up again with Bobby and that was, that was great. Anytime you can bring Jim Beaver back was an asset. From a story perspective, it really, it really did allow for those who were lost, so to speak, in previous seasons to show up in this alternate world, which was fun. Can you also talk about the church? Because that was supposedly buried by the sand, and you just did a great job of fleshing that out. Well, Andrei Anchenenko is one of my dear friends, but he's also one of the art directors and set designers. And that was his concept. And when we had done these, it was really very similar to the church

we did for Phil Segretia, the last episode, it might've been season nine when all the angels fell to earth. I can't remember the season, but we thought to reprise that, you know, but put it underneath. So it looked like it was the whole church was buried. Again, it's this passage of time and this universe where, you know, everybody's got these, what do they call bandoleros or whatever the gun belts and, you know, it's a survival of the fittest. And, you know, it's a survival of the fittest. And, you know, to have this religious iconography that didn't make it, you know, was buried by, you know, the sandstorm or what have you. It's just one of those things where once you see it, you can't take your eyes off it because there's so many other meanings to what that buried church is. And so that was

a really nice piece that sort of gave us, you know, a jumping off point. And I recall in that extra, we also have a really great interview with Mark Pellegrino about being in that Iron Maiden and just how close it was and how great it was for his performance. Yeah, that was a, I mean, that was a fun problem because the interior of the church that we built on stage, you know, we did the big steeple, which was a steeple that was in the middle of the desert. So basically the way I, you know, saw it in my mind's eye was, you know, you have this church with a proper altar, you have the, you know, Christ on the cross, and then behind it, you have this bell tower, which are

always freaky and, you know, they're dark and mysterious. And I was thinking, you know, like, okay, we have Christ on the cross. And then if we just break these walls, you know, like, okay, we have Christ on the cross. And then if we just break these walls, you know, we made him out of lath and plaster, because that looks really good when you take a sledgehammer to him and bust him through. And then you see the Christ on the cross juxtaposed to Lucifer in the Iron Maiden. And it was just really, you know very symbolic and and um but you know that richard spade did a great job with that episode and and uh that that church was definitely one of my favorite as far as the interiors and uh it's a it's a terrific extra for the fans uh if

you want to want to see that one um it gives it provides a lot of information about just how you put together that look and feel of apocalypse world uh and again that's on the season 13 release of all uh digital digital and physical formats jerry in uh in march of 2019 supernatural stars jared padalecki jensen Ackles and Misha Collins announced on Twitter that season 15 would be the last. How did you find out that season 15 would be the final season? And what were some of your feelings about this cult favorite show coming to an end? this cult favorite show coming to an end? When the boys decided that this was going to be the last season, they basically had the whole crew come together on stage and make the announcement personally to the crew, which is just a class act. And that's what those guys are. They're a class

act. And Jared was like, he couldn't even get the words out. You know, he was tearing up. It was a very emotional day for all of us, but it wasn't like it was unexpected. I mean, I can't believe these guys committed to us for that long because they're both extremely talented and they both had many offers to do other things. Of course, I was sad, but I was also just very, very grateful because, wow, what a ride. You know, 15, 15 seasons because we almost got canceled on season two. And then there was the writer's strike. And if it wasn't for that, we would have probably been canceled.

But there was no new product. And not only did they pick us up for three, but then they automatically gave us four. And not only did they pick us up for three, but then they automatically gave us four. So then, you know, now we got some traction because after four, we're going to have close to 100 episodes. But we did have, well, no, close to 100. Now, all of a sudden, it makes sense, you know, on a syndication level. And then, you know, with Hulu starting, all of a sudden we took off because all these, you know, young kids that would get together and do their sleepovers and they could stream this scary stuff with these two extremely handsome guys that had comedy and everything else in it. And then we were on our way. But leading up to that, you know, something that I was waiting for the other shoe to drop from, you know, after season five, like after Eric left. But it was just an incredible ride.

And as sad as it was, it was also just wonderful because there was also, you know, an ending. And instead of just like continually day after day after day, year after year, trying to do the best he can within this story. Now there was like 20 episodes left to do the best we could. And then it's going to be over and it's going to be part of film history. And so the finality of it was bittersweet. Obviously, you started filming that summer, but 2020 brought a pandemic that no one could have foreseen. And it obviously impacted the production schedule for Supernatural. Tell us about the impact of the shutdown on the filming of those last few episodes for you and

your department. You know, like everybody else, it's hard to feel sorry for us when everybody lost their jobs and everybody was sent home. And it was really, you know, everybody was in shock because you go from, you know, working 12 hours a day to like we're in there on a Monday. We're going through Bob's production concept meeting and all of a sudden we're going home. production concept meeting and all of a sudden we're going home. And at the time they said, we're going to probably shut down for two weeks because we were getting a lot of misinformation from, you know, the white house and what have you. And so everybody said, Oh, this isn't that bad, you know, but we're, we're going to play it safe. And so we were all sent home and

and then every week it got longer and, you know, trying to keep everybody's spirits up. And so it was a very, very trying time, especially because we had on the boards and half built. We had like the biggest set we were going to do for the year, which was the, we were going to make an interior of Harvell's into the coolest house of blues you could have imagined. And Kansas was coming up to play on the stage we designed and built on, on our, on our stage. And so everybody was excited. I mean, and the concept that Andrew and Bob came up with was that when Jared comes in, because he's the last one to perish. So when he opens the door to Harvell's, he looks around and all the stars, well, actually it was Jensen who was going to go through the door. He sees Bobby, he sees all these wonderful actors and characters from our show that have passed on.

But now they're in heaven. They're at a Kansas concert, you know, in this beautiful house of blues. And Jensen asks, where is Sam? You know, what's up with Sam? That's when we were supposed to intercut with all the things that we did see in the episode of Sam aging, playing ball with his son, you know, looking at the Impala and then at the end he was on life support and then we cut, you know, so during this party with Kansas and all the other people then, because Bobby said to Dean, yeah, he'll be around, he'll be along, you know, the things times different in heaven. So just relax that anticipation and the fact that we really spent. I mean, Gavin McKenzie, who did the designs for the House of Blues, Harbell's.

I mean, he just nailed it. And in the in the book that we put out in the last page, we have a rendering of that set. And then Andrew gives an explanation of what the episode was destined to be. And then COVID happened. And so obviously during that time, you still were thinking, planning that you would be building that set until the script revisions. What did Andrew call you up and say, this is the new, you're not building that set anymore? Or how did that? You know what?

We actually didn't know until we got back. You know, I, you know, we came back up. We're just kind of waiting for this resolution. And they were still trying to work out a way to get Kansas across the border. You know, with every day, with every week, it just was like looking like this ain't going to happen. Then they very gently said to us, just hold off. Don't keep building on the set. And this is what may happen. You know, we did what they asked. It turned out, you know, after talking to Bob Everhart or one of the original members of Kansas, really nice guy,

he's the drummer, him and I had a rapport because I had to find out what they needed as far as stage wise and what they were comfortable with as far as Kansas performing on it. You know, every time I talked to him, it looked more bleak of them coming across the border. And then, of course, you couldn't have brought all the guest stars that would have been coming across the border, too. And so everybody would have had quarantine. Everybody would have had to be in hotels. Everybody would have had to get paid. And they would have all just been sitting on their hands. I mean, we all were sad because it would have been the coolest ending ever.

But, you know, between Bob and Andrew, they came up with a very poignant, very cool way to put an end to it and put it to rest. Because there were a lot of discussions that we don't want to go out like Sopranos. We don't want to make it Cheers. It's not going to be a bottle show where they just keep on showing clips of other episodes. Because we thought that was the easy way out. And we didn't want to have any part of that. We worked too hard. So they came up with a wonderful solution. And I think from what I've read and in my own personal

feeling, I think it turned out wonderful. Yeah. It's a terrific ending. Were there any unique kind of unique challenges then when you did come back and you saw the revisions to the script or did it just kind of, there was just going to be less work for you? revisions to the script or, or did it just kind of, there was just going to be less work for you? Well, it, it kind of shifted. I said, okay, because John's episode the second last episode was, was really, you know, that was also, you know, leading up to this, the end. And there were a lot of elements in that, that we had to build. So we were very, very busy with that. And then I took some of the walls and some of the things that we had to build. So we were very, very busy with that. And then I took some of the walls and some of the things that we had for the House of Blues. Because once we settled on Sam,

I mean, Dean being trapped, Sam and Dean being trapped in this barn, Bob said, well, we'll just shoot it at this barn. I'm going like, you know what, Bob, you got a lot of stunts. It's all night. It's the finale of the finale. I think you want to be on stage. I just think everybody, you know, there's going to be a lot of tears. Otherwise, you basically would have to shoot all night because if you're going to build a big barn or shoot in a big practical barn, Because if you're going to build a big barn or shoot in a big practical barn, either you have to put a tent, an enormous tent around everything to shoot day for night, or you just do it on stage where you have control of the light. So I said, just let me build a barn.

I built them before. So that's what we did. And again, then, you know, we could pick the post that we wanted, you know, Jensen to end up being thrown against. that we wanted, you know, Jensen to end up being thrown against. We could choreograph where the, you know, demon guys were coming out of and, or vampire guys. And so all that. And then of course, you know, Rob, our stunt coordinator, who was just fantastic that gave him places to rig from and to stage. And it was the, it was the right call. We didn't have time to worry and think about it.

We just had to get it. We had to get it done. Because that too was, you know, building a barn is a big build. So all hands on deck and got it done. Was very happy with the way it turned out. And I was really happy the way the episode turned out. Yeah, it's terrific. and I was really happy the way the episode turned out.

Yeah, it's terrific. In one of our Season 15 documentaries called The End of the Road, Jensen Ackles mentions that they were filming on one stage while the Men of Letter set was being torn down. Tell us what it's like having such an iconic set taken down after all these seasons. To tell you the truth, Tim, I couldn't even go in that. I couldn't go in that stage. That set was such a big part of, you know, my career, our team's career. That was the coolest thing that we ever

invested in because again, it lasted for, you know, six years. Sets like that, that just doesn't happen. So you get really attached. So when it was, I, you know, I went in there by mistake one day or had a walk through there for, to look at some other piece we were building and they happened to be using that area. And, you know, it was just like the, the skeleton was just left. And I just, my heart just sank and I just went, nah, you know, uh, gotta go. That was a very emotional. Yeah. Yeah. Well, um, the actual last day of filming took place on location on a bridge. Yes. Take us through that day for you.

I think for me, the last day, and I think for probably a really good portion of the crew, we were all in shock. I mean, I was. I was just like, I mean, when I look back at that day, I was like going through so many emotions. I was kind of like in shock, like this is really it, you know, and I was so happy the way Harvell's looked in its heaven because there was I really had to convince people that that was the right place to build it because we had gone through all these different scenarios. And I said, look, you know what? You know, you got these big, beautiful open skies and these mountains. And I said, you know, you got to have scale if you're talking about heaven. And so we built it there and we had the most stunningly beautiful day, a crystal clear skies, you know, to have the Impala there and Bobby on the porch and,

you know, Jensen and, you know, it was surreal, you know, and everybody was just kind of holding it in. And, uh, and I, I remember Jensen, uh, you know, all of a sudden we were at the crew parking lot and he's in the Impala and he just basically takes off and he was just joyriding a little bit just to get his, it all in for the last day taking his last ride in the impala on a supernatural set right you know and then being on the bridge and you know i know everybody was it was uh extremely emotional uh jared was having a rough time with it um he was very gracious and and uh gave it his all, you know, I know that was a tough place for him. It was, again, Bob and Andrew came up with, I think this was Bob's idea with the drone

flying away and we're all there waving after the boys have made peace. It was very cool. Very cool. Very cool. Yeah. We, we were fortunate enough to, to have a crew there to film all of that behind the scenes, capture that emotion and all thanks to, to Warner Brothers for getting that for you supernatural fans. You can see the behind the scenes footage that we shot on the bridge that last day in the end of the road documentary that is exclusive to the season 15 DVD and Blu-ray. It really captures the emotion of that last day in the end of the road documentary that is exclusive to the season 15 DVD and Blu-ray. It really captures the emotion of that last day. So you don't want to miss it. If you're a fan of the show, I, I know that, um, you had a passion project that you did at the end

of each year in terms of creating a book for the cast and crew, something you did. And for the final season 15, you decided to kind of blow that out, I think even more. Maybe you can tell us a little bit about that book project. Yeah, thanks, Tim. Well, every year I would do a book of, I would go myself a lot of times and just shoot the sets and shoot the boys on the sets. And then I convinced my painter and and fantastic photographer Monique Meese to shoot every set we we would get done with and what it was is like at the end of the year we've all gotten the hats the jackets the mugs you know whatever but the one thing that people really loved was these little yearbooks and so I would make them you you know, basically I made them for

the cast and crew and anybody could, could get one. Uh, but they were never available. Warner brothers did not want me to make them available to our fans. And I said, well, you know, fine. And there's nothing, I have no control of this. So, but I, but I did them for 15 years. And then all during the last year, I kept on lobbying to do, you know, the 15 years of Supernatural and, um, didn't really go anywhere. I mean, I just, everybody was kind of like tired, moving on and kind of done with this. And I didn't really have any backing. But I started doing a mock-up anyhow because I was going to do it for myself, if nothing else.

So I started doing this mock-up and then I showed it to Bob Singer and to Jim. to Jim. So Jim Michaels then sent it down to Peter Roth and Jerry, who helps with promotions and stuff. And Jim goes, well, he said, find out how much this is going to cost to do, you know, enough for the whole crew and stuff. And so I got a number and he said, you know, we had an allotment to spend for our wrap party that we never spent because obviously we couldn't do a large gathering. And he said, I think that should cover it. So he, we sent the material down to like Peter Roth and Jerry and then Lisa Lewis, and they came back and they said, yeah, we can do it. We'll use that money to do this book. So this book started out to be about 200 pages. It is now 380 some pages, and it's got over 850 high resolution color images. You know, it took me two weeks of just racking my brain about what this should be, because it went from kind of a yearbook where all the crew would be in it and all that stuff.

And then I'm gone like, well, we can never service. There's 200 people on the crew, you know, and there's somebody who's going to get disappointed. going to get disappointed. I said, you know, then I just started putting images together from every episode that, you know, not every, but most and the sets that we really liked and the scenes that we really liked and the guest stars we really liked. And we started doing a bunch of screen grabs along with the, the photography that we had. And it became a book of like just memories. And it's great for the fans too, because yeah because fans don't just want to look at a set. They want to have our stars in them. And they want to see what the episode was about and revisit that. So I went to Holly Ellis and she said, well, we have this publisher that has done other work for us.

So why don't you contact him? And I did his, it's Insight Publications from up in San Francisco. And they do books for Star Wars and everybody else. And, and I talked to Steve Jones, the guy who runs that. And he thought I was just kind of like off my rocker a little bit, but he was going to work with me because I was part of Warner Brothers and, and we got along. So they did their first printing and it sold out in less than 24 hours. Wow.

I mean, every book. Yeah. And so then he just laughed. He called me up. He goes, you know, man, I thought I was just doing you a favor. I said, Steve, I told you we have some of the most dedicated, wonderful fans on the planet and they're going to go crazy over this. So they're well into their second printing.

I think it's going to be available in June. And the best way to find out is to either go through Super Wiki, which is Jules Wilkinson's site, because she knows everything supernatural, or through Insight Public publications up in san francisco and uh you'll see it if you go to the insight uh if you go to their web page there's uh you'll see all the other books they've done in the past for big shows and stuff like that but yeah no it was it was a real treat i'm so happy that i mean i you know today just before this interview i was paging through and i'm looking through it as we talk and, it's just a wonderful recollection of all the hard work and the fun that we had. And, uh, as Jensen said, it's like getting a high school yearbook. If, if high school lasted 15 years. For the fans out there, I'll try to put a link on the website.

Um, so that it's a little bit easier or at least get that information on there. In case you'd like to find out more about that. Well, Jerry, I mean, it's been a real pleasure talking with you today. You've just been so generous, just sharing your thoughts and stories from Supernatural and your career. Thank you for coming on The Extras and sharing that with us. And thank you, Tim, for allowing me to be part of The Extras because I think it's one of those things for people coming up in the industry. It's the greatest wealth of knowledge. And I know I've learned a lot from the outtakes and things on The Extras on DVDs.

And it is a great way to learn how this stuff gets done. So thank you. For those of you interested in learning more about the extras discussed in the show today, there will be detailed information on the website at www.theextras.tv. And look for Supernatural Season 15

on DVD and Blu-ray as this is the exclusive place where you can find the documentaries The End of the Road and Family Donut with Blood as well as the Season 15 Gagra which comes in at a whopping 15 minutes. Supernatural the complete series on DVD and Blu-ray is packed with all the extras we created over the years which comes out to over 53 hours. Plus there is a 68 page book filled with new images, set designs,

letters to the fans from Eric Kripke, Bob Singer, and much more. This is a must-have box set for all diehard Supernatural fans. Until next time, you've been listening to The Extras with Tim Millard. All you fans out there, stay slightly obsessed. The Extras is a production of Otaku Media, producers of podcasts, behind-the-scenes extras, and media that connects creatives with their fans and businesses with their consumers. Contact us today to see how we can work together to achieve your goals at www.otakumedia.tv or look for the link in the show notes.