Many also have devoted fandoms, often young people, who create fanfic and fan art and fanvids and so on.
But very, very few achieve the all-ages cult following that Supernatural has achieved.
How many TV shows have worldwide conventions featuring guest stars who were on one episode? The opportunity to meet some of those actors, all of whom are tremendous personalities, gave me some of the best memories of my life.
How many TV shows are responsible for building dental clinics and refurbishing orphanages in Haiti? Misha Collins, of course, gets all the credit for turning the fandom into a force for good, but the fact that the fandom exists made Random Acts possible.
Who would have guessed that Jared Padalecki could turn a birth announcement into $80,000 for St. Jude Children's Hospital?
"Experts" are always talking about how technology and the Internet and social media are distancing us from our communities, but this blog has helped me make great friends in Texas, Colorado, Tennessee, and Georgia, and connect with fans in Brazil and Australia and Russia and South Africa. How can you put that in a negative light?
Watching a good TV show is relaxing and entertaining. Talking about it is fun. Dissecting, analyzing, debating, and speculating is fantastic, and it has made the last few years some of the best. It's stimulated my creativity and helped me write books I love, and even better, stimulated other authors' creativity so I had great books to read.
I love you all, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing all of this with me. Trish, Tanya, MJ, and Terri, no matter where our paths take us, whenever I hear Carry On, Wayward Son, I will think of you.
After, of course, I imagine Sam and/or Dean Winchester with no shirts on.
