#**needs more sources

[archivingspn]

Warner Brothers Market Research 2016 Nov-Dec

Context: Sometime in November-December of 2016, Warner Brothers Studios conducted market research about Supernatural.

image:

FOCUS GROUP BY SCHLESINGER

Hello [blacked out], Details of the Event are below. Please verify the information and feel free to contact us with any questions. Please check to verify that the time zone displayed below is correct for your location. If it is not, use the drop-down to select your correct time zone and to get the correct time for your interview. You may need to adjust the time zone on your computer to prevent this from occurring again.

Event Address: Warner Bros. Studios, Triangle Building 4001 West Olive Avenue, Burbank, CA, 91505 Directions and Parking Event info: [blacked out] - Television Date: Tuesday, December 6, 2016 Time: 3:00 PM (PST) Your Time: 3:00 PM (UTC-05:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada) Event Duration: 60 Minutes - One-On-One Honorarium: $100.00 Homework Honorarium: $200.00 Honorarium Payment: Gift/Debit Card

Instructions: Warner Bros. Studios, Triangle Building4001 West Olive Avenue,Burbank, CA, 91505 Document(s) for this Study If you haven’t downloaded the associated document(s), you can by clicking on the “Download” link. If you have any problems with downloading the document(s), please contact us. Document/File Name Download Welcome email for TV Participant email - dec 2016.doc Download Supernatural Sp Features Link for Participants - Dec 2016.doc Download Big Band Theory Sp Features Links for Participants - Dec 2016.doc Download

Important documents to read and accept:

General Details • This is you Confirmation Letter and it is to confirm that you have been recruited for this study.

• Please remember to bring your glasses if you need them and a current government issued photo identification. Unfortunately we do not provide babysitting services.

• Your agreement to participate includes arriving on time (15 minutes prior to start of interview or group), actively engaging in the discussion and providing us and our clients with honest feedback. You may be audio and video taped during the discussion for research purposes only.

• On arrival and during your interview you may be re-asked questions which qualified you for participation in this research. If you answer differently you may not be seated and you may not be paid.

• Late arrival may result in you losing your seat. If you arrive late and are not seated, you will not be paid.

Further Context: On the November 20, 2020, the Tumblr sock account hurdlehoops, a user with a heavy destiel bias, decided to divulge they were a participant in this research and then proceeded to recount and speculate on the four year old event in this post: [source]

The next day, the Fandom Debunker decides to step out of it’s two year hiatus and make a post about hurdlehoops’ claim. In this post the Debunker group posts the scrubbed version of the screenshot of the research study confirmation form hurdlehoops gave them (see image above). [source]

16 days later, December 6th 2020, hurdlehoops makes this addition to their post: [source]

[archivingspn]

Burcon 2013 Autos Story

Reported by deathbycoldopen on Tumblr, who is part of The Fandom (de)Bunker, regarding the change from “I love you” to “we’re family”:

“(...) I started out by telling him that he’s my favorite writer currently on the show, and he was very flattered about that.  We talked about how the process works within the writer’s room: he explained that the process is extremely collaborative, where he pitches three or four ideas before Carver and Singer choose one, he receives notes on the pitch, then he brainstorms with the other writers and takes notes on a writer’s board (a brainstorm which he then gets notes on).  He then writes a detailed outline with all the beats that will happen in the episode, gets notes on that, and then finally writes the episode itself, where of course it’s turned over to the couple hundred other people on the crew who have creative control over what ends up on the screen.

I told him that meta writers tend to pin everything on the writer, and that I’d asked who we needed to blame for certain things.  He laughed at that, and mentioned that we (fandom writers) are much smarter than the actual writers of the show.  He explained that we have a much more objective viewpoint, so we can see a lot more than they can, and that our grasp on the narrative is really much better than theirs ever could be.  He said that because TPTB are human, they all make mistakes from time to time- but he knows, as a fanboy himself, how frustrating that can be for the fans to see (he’d had to be told what a headcanon was, though, which I thought was kind of precious).  He said that at times he’s been disgusted at himself for making mistakes, because he does know that the fandom will notice them. (...) Robbie laughed and started talking about how his intention really doesn’t matter, since it’s all about what we take away from the show (especially since we were asking about his intention for a line that didn’t even make it into the show).  He then added, though, that if we wanted to know what his intention was with that line, just to look at the line that replaced it- "We’re family.”  He also said that the lines “We need you” and “I need you” weren’t originally in the script, so he doesn’t actually know who added those lines. (...) He asked us what the wank was about, so we started telling him that 8x17 was a controversial episode within fandom.  He told us that while he doesn’t delve into the tumblr side of fandom, he did watch people’s reactions on twitter while the episode was airing.  He saw people saying “very pointed things” towards him during one part of the episode (aka the Cas/Meg part), and he was sitting there wanting to tell them to wait for it- until the crypt scene aired, and suddenly all those people saying bad things about him were overjoyed.  He said that he really did enjoy Cas and Meg’s relationship but that he didn’t think they were soulmates or anything, or even that Meg was actually capable of love. There was a feeling between the two of them, and she’d “looked over” him (Robbie thought that “looked after” wasn’t really the right phrase), and they had this weird thing in common where they’re too soldiers who used to believe in one thing and now they’re kind of adrift.  I told him my personal opinion, which is that they had an interesting relationship that I thought deserved to be addressed even as someone personally invested in Dean and Cas getting together (and that I thought he did a good job in the way he handled Meg’s death, which he was a little worried about). (...) In a tangent to the discussion of Meg’s death, Lainey asked how Robbie felt about the show’s history with killing off female characters.  He said that it’s true that the show really does have a history of that, and that they’re wary of that history, but that it’s tricky given that, as a genre show, they kill off pretty much everybody.  He says that he does make an effort to write awesome female characters, and hopefully pass the Bechdel Test, but that it can be hard sometimes because their ultimate goal is to serve the story.  We told him that based on Lainey’s data from season 8, the show has been doing a lot better recently, which he seemed relieved about.  Another girl who was listening in mentioned seems that female characters get a better reception in fandom when they aren’t love interests for the boys, which Robbie agreed with, citing Amelia as an example.  He mentioned, though, that while a lot of people assumed that she was written off because of the bad fan reaction, in reality her story was over before the season even aired.  He said that the delay between when they write the episodes and when the episode airs is much longer than we tend to think, and that in the end, they’re trying to serve the story, not just please the fandom; if they write something that makes people mad, or sad, or whatever, they’ve actually just done their job. (...)“

[source] [source]

There isn’t any hard evidence that Robbie said these things besides The (de) Bunker’s word, but Robbie does confirms meeting The Fandom (De)bunker admin at Burcon on Dec 5th 2013:

rthompson1138: “omgfabulous GADREEL. CONFIRMED-- (de)bunker style ;)” violue: “rthompson1138 I’ve decided this means you run the spn fandon debunker” rthompson1138: “.violue DEBUNKED. but i did meet the brilliant young folks who run it at #BurCon & was lucky enough to chat w/ them for a spell (hey gang!)” - 8:18 PM Dec 5, 2013

[source]