Robert Singer

Robert Singer at the TCA press tour 2007.

Bob Singer is a director, writer and executive producer on Supernatural. Singer has been working on the show in a co-showrunner capacity since season 1. For season 11, Singer took a step back from the show, taking on a consulting producer position. With season 12, Singer returned to executive producer/showrunner duties alongside Andrew Dabb.

From the William S. Paley Television Festival this excerpt gives is some idea of Bob’s role in the show:

Bob: …They actually made this pilot, I saw the pilot and really liked it a lot and I think what the studio wanted was... the studio probably said to themselves, we…
[Jared and Jensen are doing something distracting off camera]
Eric: You can’t get anything done!
Bob: This is what it’s like to direct them, too. The studio said, ‘Well, we cannot give a forty plus million dollars to Eric Kripke and let him run wild, so we need you know some…’
[Jensen and Jared are still at it]
Bob: …this is so hard… so they thought they needed an experienced hand to guide ‘the young man’ through these rocky waters. The young man of course felt ‘what do I need this old fart for’? Anyway, we met and we met a number of times and finally he got comfortable enough with me for us to join up and partner on this thing. It’s interesting, ‘cause we are sort of different generations and we approach drama in kind of a different way but as we worked together, we found that we’ve arrived to the same place. The methods are a little different of how we get there.
Moderator: Can you explain that?
Bob: Well, there is a generational thing and there’s that I’m very…
Eric: …Sober.
Bob: There’s that. I come in from a characters’ point of view, it’s all about characters to me and I let the plot work itself out, given what the characters are gonna do and what I’m interested in the scenes that drive the plot but I’m mostly interested in how the characters react to it. Eric works very hard on the stories and gets the plot done and once the plot is good, the character stuff would come naturally. So we sort of go in a circle when we are in a room together and we arrive at this place where both things are serviced and we are really a one voice now, we rarely disagree on stuff. I worked alone for a long time so it is really cool to have a partner.
Eric: To blow smoke up his ass for a minute, he brings the depth and maturity of character, just depth to the drama that I could not do. Me alone is like Boogeyman. All of a sudden with him, we have a show with all these characters that are psychologically rich and true and Bob is behind a huge amount of that, so the show would not succeed at all without him.

6.15 The French Mistake

Name	Robert "Bob" Singer
Actor	Brian Doyle-Murray
Dates	???? - 2011 (killed by Virgil)
Location	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Occupation	Executive Producer
Episode(s)	6.15 The French Mistake

Bob Singer is directing the episode that Sam, as Jared Padalecki, and Dean, as Jensen Ackles, find themselves on. He is completely baffled by Sam and Dean's poor acting when they try to shoot a scene with Misha Collins, increasingly bizarre behavior and later convinces Sera Gamble that they need to bring Eric Kripke to the set to talk to them. He also talks to Sam and Dean one on one to try and determine if their acting problems will go away if they are paid more. Sam calls him a douche for naming the character of Bobby Singer after himself, while Dean shoots him down and tells him that they quit.

The next day, Bob is relieved to see Eric arrive on set, but Virgil appears soon after and kills both Eric and Bob.

Writer of:

• 3.04 Sin City with Jeremy Carver
• 6.11 Appointment in Samarra with Sera Gamble
• 7.16 Out with the Old with Jenny Klein

Director of:

The Impalas - Bob Singer, Jensen Ackles, & Jeff Budnick.

• 1.04 Phantom Traveler
• 1.21 Salvation
• 2.03 Bloodlust
• 2.09 Croatoan
• 2.21 All Hell Breaks Loose: Part One
• 3.03 Bad Day at Black Rock
• 3.09 Malleus Maleficarum
• 3.14 Long-Distance Call
• 4.05 Monster Movie
• 4.08 Wishful Thinking
• 4.12 Criss Angel Is a Douchebag
• 4.21 When the Levee Breaks
• 5.01 Sympathy for the Devil
• 5.07 The Curious Case of Dean Winchester
• 5.12 Swap Meat
• 5.20 The Devil You Know
• 6.03 The Third Man
• 6.10 Caged Heat
• 6.22 The Man Who Knew Too Much‎
• 7.04 Defending Your Life
• 7.10 Death's Door
• 7.17 The Born-Again Identity
• 7.23 Survival of the Fittest
• 8.01 We Need to Talk About Kevin
• 8.10 Torn and Frayed
• 8.20 Pac-Man Fever
• 9.04 Slumber Party
• 9.10 Road Trip
• 9.20 Bloodlines
• 10.01 Black
• 10.07 Girls, Girls, Girls
• 10.21 Dark Dynasty
• 11.01 Out of the Darkness, Into the Fire
• 11.09 O Brother Where Art Thou?
• 11.20 Don't Call Me Shurley

Robert in Fandom

Convention Appearances

• William S. Paley Television Festival
• Jus In Bello Italy 2015

Trivia

• Singer is married to writer/co-executive producer Eugenie Ross-Leming.
• The character of Bobby Singer is named after him. See him talk about how the naming came about here.
• See the 100th episode party for Bob's musical talents as he performs with Jensen and other crew members in the band The Impalas.

External links

• Robert Singer IMDb

Clips, Articles and Interviews

• Interview on Season Three Premiere by Buddy TV. October 2007
• Interview with Robert Singer by iF Magazine. December 2008.
• Robert Singer talks about his favourite episode, how Bobby got HIS name, and the 100th episode.
• Bob talks about 6.17 My Heart Will Go On April 2011
• Bob Singer talks about Sam and Dean's relationship for the rest of Season 6
• Bob talks about the final arc in Season 6 and possibilities for Season 7. April 2011