Why We Still Love ‘Supernatural,’ 20 Years Later

It’s been 20 years since The WB aired Supernatural‘s pilot episode on September 13, 2005, and we first met the Winchesters: bookish Sam (Jared Padalecki), on track to be a lawyer, and his serious older brother Dean (Jensen Ackles), a supernatural hunter like their father John (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who trained the boys from childhood. “Dad’s on a hunting trip, and he hasn’t been home in a few days,” Dean told Sam in that opener, and the brothers were spurred into action. We haven’t been able to take our eyes away since.

For the next 15 seasons — and years — viewers watched Sam and Dean grow into formidable hunters. Sometimes, the brothers were sent to Hell, or possessed by a demon or archangel. It was never easy, but they always had each other.

Supernatural was often a monster-of-the-week series, but it was also so much more. You can’t really stop the Apocalypse in 42 minutes, and Sam and Dean faced more than one world-ending catastrophe (including a few real-life ones, like the loss of the original showrunner Eric Kripke, or the network’s switch from WB to The CW). The brothers went through deep trauma — often sacrificing themselves for each other — and tears were never shied away from. They stayed true to that breadth of emotion until the very end.

There were lots of laughs too, especially in the wacky meta episodes that quickly became fan favorites, like Season 5’s hilarious “Changing Channels,” where the Trickster/archangel Gabriel (Richard Speight Jr.) dropped Sam and Dean into various show genres, trapping them in TV Hell (we were in Heaven!). And the addition of Misha Collins‘ angel Castiel changed everything for the better, both for viewers and for the characters of Sam and Dean, whose found family only continued to grow from there.

Although the series aired its final episode on November 19, 2020, SPN gained an afterlife through its stalwart fanbase and touring conventions that the cast members continue to enthusiastically devote their energy to, traveling around the globe to meet the fans that keep the show’s heart beating. Those fan fests are the true magic of the series — a gift that keeps on giving for those who first tuned into the series in 2005, or the newcomers who binged it only recently on Netflix.

At one such con in May of this year, Speight summed up the reason we’re still obsessed with SPN best: “At the end of the day, the story is about two boys who were aised by a broken man seeking revenge for the death of his wife. You put that in a badass car and send it across the United States, encountering demons, both personal and physical, and it’s intoxicating.”

We’ll take that ride any day.

For a deep-dive into 20 years of Supernatural, from behind-the-scenes scoop to exclusive cast interviews, photos, and fan stories, pick up a copy of TV Guide Magazine’s Supernatural Afterlife: 20th Anniversary Special issue, available on newsstands and for order online at Supernatural.TVGM2025.com.