Imitation is the greatest form of flattery, but in the world of television, originality goes a long way. Case in point — Eric Kripke’s “Supernatural.” Prior to it becoming a show about two brothers saving people and hunting monsters across America, it was pitched as knock-off of “Kolchak: The Night Stalker” — one of the best horror sci-fi shows to only last a single season — and took years to get off the ground.
“Kolchak: The Night Stalker” follows an investigative reporter who solves spooky cases in Chicago, and it greatly influenced the “Supernatural” creator early on. In a conversation with Variety in 2014, Kripke confessed that his original idea borrowed elements from the classic ABC horror procedural and threw in some influences from a beloved kids’ cartoon. “I tried to pitch, basically, a ‘Scooby Doo’ rip off of a bunch of kids travelling in a van dealing with these urban legends. It was an idea that I never let go of and kept throwing there every couple years. Finally I had a deal with Warner Bros. and that incarnation was a reporter. Frankly, it was a rip off of ‘Night Stalker,’ but I really fleshed it out and it had mythology.”
“Supernatural” is similar to “Kolchak: The Night Stalker” in the sense that it boasts strong procedural elements and monster-of-the-week scenarios, but the similarities mostly end there. However, “Supernatural” and “Scooby-Doo” eventually joined forces for a crossover episode in 2018, which is a lot of fun and brings Kripke’s journey full circle in a way. Of course, the “Scooby-Doo” experiment only came to fruition after “Supernatural” had long established itself as a series with its own identity. So, how did Kripke land the show’s long-running premise?
Supernatural’s was greenlit following an improvised pitch
Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) come from a family of monster hunters and live off the grid. Their missions require them to pose as reporters, federal agents, salesmen, clergymen, and even teddy bear doctors, all to obtain vital monster-related info and keep their real identities a secret. A series about outlaw brothers with a myriad of fake aliases is way more interesting than Eric Kripke’s original idea for “Supernatural.” What’s more impressive is the fact that he made up the premise on the spot at a pitch meeting, which he recalled in the Variety interview.
“So in this moment, when they were basically passing on my idea, as you often do in these kinds of rooms, you start tap dancing. And I said, ‘forget the reporter, we should do this show as ‘Route 66,’ two cool guys in a classic car cruising the country, chasing down these urban legends,’ and literally right on the spot I said ‘and they’re brothers,’ because it popped in my head. ‘And they’re dealing with their family stuff and they’re fighting evil.'”
The CW executives loved Kripke’s off-the-cuff idea, especially the sibling element, and they greenlit what ultimately became a very successful series for the network. “Supernatural” aired for 15 seasons and even spawned a spin-off prequel series in the form of “The Winchesters,” so it’s safe to say it fared well for a project that began life as a “Kolchak” knockoff.