Updated:
- DJ Qualls decided to tell his Garth story too. You can now find his tweets below the Loflin ones.
Dan Loflin took to Twitter to tell the tale of Garth, hapless hunter and hugger extraordinaire. Now I am no fan of Garth or the infamous Mr. Fizzles, but I am a huge fan of back story and behind the scenes news. So if you missed it on Twitter, here's the tale. Apparently you can put the accolades or blame squarely at Sera Gamble's feet, depending on where you come down on Garth. Oh and Robbie Thompson, I love you as a writer but I'm not sure I can forgive you for "Garthed!" You can follow Dan Loflin on Twitter - @danloflin. May there be many more Twitter stories in the future!
Garth: A Twitter Story
Dan Loflin @danloflin
Dear #Supernatural Fans, pour yerself that glass of rotgut whiskey, cause it's time for the untold story of Garth’s creation! #garthorigin
Firstly, this is an experiment: the story is 20-plus tweets long-- coming at 2 or 3 min intervals. #patience #garthorigin #supernatural
Secondly, I apologize in advance to my non-supernatural followers who are about to get spammed :) #dontdropme #garthorigin
And thirdly? Let us pray (to @mishacollins) that this doesn’t go horribly wrong! Okay, here we go. #garthorigin #supernatural
It all started way back in s6 when news hit that Jensen would be directing the first episode of the season. #garthorigin #supernatural
Since it was Jensen’s first time directing, we thought it best to craft a Dean-light story, so he could focus... #garthorigin #supernatural
...focus on the enormous task before him. And by “enormous” I’m referring to the directing of Jared Padalecki. #garthorigin
You see, Jared (@jarpad) easily tops out at 7’ 10” while standing. And that’s no lie. #sasquatch #wookie #moose #garthorigin
So, we called on superstar Jim Beaver (@jumblejim) to anchor the Bobby-centric "Weekend at Bobby’s” with Jared. #garthorigin
And into the draft went the following scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-5ockqm2BY … #garthorigin #supernatural
That was the first appearance of Garth. And though it was merely an off-screen mention-- #garthorigin #supernatural
--the lovely Ms. Gamble (our fearless showrunner) took a liking to the hapless (and faceless) new hunter. #garthorigin #supernatural
All HELLATUS long, I worried that Ms. Gamble would forget about dear Garth. #garthorigin #supernatural
But when s7 rolled around, once again Jensen was called-on to direct and once again-- #garthorigin #supernatural
--I worked a mention of Garth's off-screen adventures into the first draft. This one resulting in his DEATH. #garthorigin #supernatural
Hunters have been dying left and right to the new Leviathan threat. Well, Garth was originally one of the DEAD. #garthorigin
My thought was that it might strike Sera as tragic to lose beloved Garth-- even as minor as he was at the time. #garthorigin
And I was right! Sera cut his off-screen death from the draft with a big "NOOO!" written into the margin. #garthorigin #supernatural
And Garth’s off-screen life was spared. #whew #garthorigin
And like the fabled Phoenix, Garth rose from the ashes of near-death and made his ONSCREEN DEBUT-- #garthorigin #supernatural
--as Dean’s “temp” partner in the “Wedding” episode. All thanks to the love of Sera Gamble. #garthorigin #supernatural
So, in a sense, Garth’s BIRTH came from his DEATH-- keeping with the Supernatural tradition of resurrection. #garthorigin #supernatural
DJ @theonlydjqualls was my first choice for the part. Big fan since ROAD TRIP. Luckily, he said yes! #garthorigin #supernatural
Ups to Andrew Dabb who made him a hugger! #garthorigin
More ups to Adam Glass who created Mr. Fizzles and has written Garth so beautifully. #garthorigin #supernatural @AdamGlass44
Even more ups to Robbie Thompson who coined the phrase “You got Garthed!” #garthorigin #supernatural @rthompson1138
And if she ever comes out of twitter seclusion-- show Sera the love for making Garth a reality. #garthorigin #supernatural@serathegamble
Props to Jeremy Carver who gave the “okay” to this twitter story. He’s a good man :) #garthorigin #supernatural
As you can see, Garth’s (and #Supernatural’s) success has been a team effort. With you guys included! #garthorigin #supernatural
So, let’s gather ‘round for a big ol’ GROUP GARTH-HUG! #huggers#garthorigin #supernatural
Now, please stay tuned for the story of Garth’s on-screen DEMISE!#untimely #sorryDJ #garthorigin #supernatural
KIDDING! #garthorigin #supernatural
And that, dear Supernatural fans, is the behind-the-scenes story of our lovable and huggable Hunter’s creation. #garthorigin
Thank you all for tuning in-- it’s been an absolute BLAST!#garthorigin #supernatural
DJ Qualls' Take on Garth
DJ Qualls @TheOnlyDJQualls
So here is how I came to play Garth. #garthorigin
I was living in Nola shooting a TNT show called Memphis Beat. I knew it was going to get the ax and I was pretty sad about it #garthorigin
I called my manager and told him to look for a job so I would have something to take my mind off the death of my show. #garthorigin
TV's a mean business, breaks ur heart a lot. A few days later, I get a call about this character Garth on a show called #SPN #garthorigin
The call went like this: you're probably not going to want to do this, but you've been offered a guest spot on #spn #garthorigin
I told him I'd never seen it but to send over the scrip and a few episodes (I'd never seen the show). #SPN #garthorigin
Read the #SPN script any loved it. Watched an episode where@jarpad fell down a hole and went to hell and I was confused.#garthorigin
Couldnt figure out the show. Called my mgr and asked if these guys were models who chase monsters. And if so, what so they want w/me?
So I was initially on the fence about playing Garth at all. Decided that Id talk it out with Sera. She called and explained. #garthorigin
I thought, ok, Ill do it once. Sounds fun. I get there and @jarpad and Jensen treated me like Id been there always (they were mean to me)
Apparently they are mean to everyone they like including each other. After a couple of days I knew I wanted to come back. #garthorigin
Then the ep aired and I got to see hints of who Garth was from an outside prospective and fell in love with him. #garthorigin He's CUTE!
Fast forward a year and Id done 3, been overseas to a convention, picked up 30k twitter followers. Garth changed my life #garthorigin
In public, people run up to me calling me Garth, I hug people while they cry, I get which shoe he ties 1st. It initially scared me.
I'd been decently well known for 12 years at that point, but I'd never known cult fame. Whole different ball game. #garthorigin #SPN
Playing Garth has been much more wonderful than I could have ever expected. All the love (and some hate) has been overwhelming
When Bobby died, I got a lot of crap. It was being teased that I was replacing him. I had no idea and I don't write the show. #garthorigin
I wanted to quit the show for a minute. I talked to @jarpad about it and he was like Welcome to #spn. We all get both extremes.
Im now used to it and really appreciate the #SPNFamily interactions and know that Im a part of something ppl love #garthorigin
I look forward to returning to the show as soon as I fit into a storyline. Until then, I get to watch Garth be further developed thru calls
Garth's safe boathouse made me laugh out loud. #fizzlesfolly#garthorigin
And that's my perspective on how Garth and I found each other. It was love at almost first sight. #garthorigin
Lastly, now that I have everyone's attention. Im on a little show called@LEGITonFX. It's they funniest thing on TV. Give it a shot. Need u
New show doesn't prevent me from playing Garth and Im really proud of @LEGITonFX Best work and reviews of my career so far. Hope u like it.
We gotta get @danloflin to a con and we can do this on a panel and include more details. I only scratched the surface. #garthorigin
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