9 Most Fan-Pleasing Moments In Television

9. Supernatural Transforms Into Glee For One Night Only

Two hundred episodes is a monumental achievement, especially for a genre show about bickering brothers fighting and skewering paranormal and mystical nasties: Buffy The Vampire Slayer with a bro code. How did the producers of The CW’s veteran genre action/horror show elect to celebrate such a significant milestone?

With an episode titled ‘Fan Fiction’ that celebrated the (mostly female) fanbase of the show, that’s how. Heroes Sam and Dean Winchester arrive at a high school to find that they’re staging a musical version of the Winchesters’ lives… based on the prophetic books of Carver Edlund, aka Chuck Shurley, a man they’ve previously encountered who may (or may not) be God, messing with them.

The all female cast of the musical are essentially stand-ins for the Supernatural fandom, with references to slash pairings – including one for Dean and Sam, prompting Dean to insist that the main characters stand further apart onstage (“You do know they’re brothers?”). There are also a fair few nods to the people with problems with the show: basically, the writers have made notes on the fandom, and have incorporated them into the text of the show, good or bad.

Unlike previous metatextual attempts to make fun of the fandom within the course of Supernatural storylines, this love letter to the fandom is sweet and perfectly constructed – a lovely idea, brilliantly executed. Oh, let’s not forget that Chuck turns up at the end to give the production a ringing endorsement… which pretty much means that the fandom-inspired show just got the thumbs up from God.