Eric Kripke has had a knack for making some of the best television in his long decade. With over 300 episodes, Supernatural was one of the mainstays of prime-time television before its end after 15 long years on air. The show shared something with The Office and Star Trek that yielded great results for it, delivering some of its best episodes as a result.
A tradition that was first seen in Star Trek, which then The Office aped during its own production as well, Supernatural would see a slew of actors take up the role of director for several episodes, which ended up being some of the best that the show had to offer, with stars like Jensen Ackles and Misha Collins sitting in the director’s chair.
Some of the actor-directed shows were the best that the show had to offer
A slew of actors on the Supernatural cast decided to work behind the scenes as directors, including Dean Winchester himself, Jensen Ackles, Misha Collins, who played Castiel on the show, Richard Speight, Amanda Tapping, and Matt Cohen, who played a young John Winchester in the show.
Jensen Ackles was celebrated in the director’s chair, delivering some of Supernatural‘s best episodes, such as the fan-favorite Weekend at Bobby’s, Soul Survivor, and Atomic Monsters. In total, the actor directed six of the 300+ episodes that were on the show. Misha Collins, on the other hand, directed a grand total of one episode, in the final season of the show.
This trend is also something that fans and audiences have seen in Star Trek and The Office, which had the actors and series regulars take up the roles of directors. In the US Office, Steve Carell, John Krasinski, and Mindy Kaling were just a few of the series regulars that put on the director’s cap, delivering some of the show’s biggest highlights.
Richard Speight directed a whopping eleven episodes on the show
Richard Speight, who essayed the role of Gabriel on the show, sat in the director’s chair for 11 different episodes. Coincidently, the actor was also on the show for 11 episodes but had no hand in directing all of them. Serving as one of the most active directors out of the cast on the show, the actor holds the record among the cast for directing the most number of episodes, all of which were very well received by fans.
It is not often that shows like The Office, Star Trek, or even Supernatural, allow actors to branch out to directing. However, there seems to be a lot of positive feedback to the episodes that are directed by actors on the show, given that they too are as invested in the creative process as he the director in bringing the characters to life. Perhaps, even first-hand interactions with the creative choices made for the several characters lend to their ability to churn out great episodes more often than not, which only works in the favor of the show as a whole.
