POP culture and Trivia in SPN (Page 4)

"They bring in six hundred bees, or however many bees, and I was like 'Oh my god, I can't wait to see the dailies!' But you watch the dailies and you can't tell there's one bee in that room - they just don't read on camera or they were too sluggish. (...) And you just start laughing because you put your crew in a room with hundreds of bees and then you can't even tell if there are any bees on camera. It's a bizarre job sometimes."^{S1Com, p. 52-53}

Sam: You watch Oprah?

In reference to the "Mad Cow" issue: Winfrey's influence reaches far beyond pop-culture and into unrelated industries where many believe she has the power to cause enormous market swings and radical price changes with a single comment. During a show about mad cow disease with Howard Lyman (aired on April 16, 1996), Winfrey exclaimed, "It has just stopped me cold from eating another burger!" Texas cattlemen sued her and Lyman in early 1998 for "false defamation of perishable food" and "business disparagement," claiming that Winfrey's remarks subsequently sent cattle prices tumbling, costing beef producers some USD$12 million. On February 26, after a trial spanning over two months in an Amarillo, Texas court in the thick of cattle country, a jury found Winfrey and Lyman were not liable for damages. (After the trial, she received a postcard from Rosanne Barr reading, "Congratulations, you beat the meat!")

Sam: You mean, like Willard?
Dean: Yeah, bugs instead of rats.
Sam: There are cases of psychic connections between people and animals. Elementals, telepaths...
Dean: Yeah, that whole Timmy-Lassie thing... Larry's kid, bugs for pets.

Willard was a 1971 horror movie about a social misfit named Willard, who has a strange affinity/link with rats. He controls the rats to attack and kill people who have been cruel to him.

Lassie, a television series (1954-1974), revolved around a collie named Lassie and her boy owner, Timmy, a farm boy frequently helped out of scrapes by his super-intelligent dog.

The Munsters was a 1960's TV show about a family of... monsters - vampires, a "Frankenstein" type monster, and various other ghouls. "The blonde chick," niece Marilyn Munster, is the only member of the family who is completely normal. The family is vaguely ashamed of their relationship to such an "ugly" person, and even Marilyn is aware of her "plain-ness". She bemoans that she keeps scaring off potential boyfriends, having no idea that the youths are in fact frightened away by her family.

The Shining (1980) is a feature film by Stanley Kubrick based on the novel of the same title by Stephen King. The film stars Jack Nicholson as tormented writer Jack Torrance. Jack's son, Danny, had creepy visions of impending evil. Another character referred to this "gift" as The Shining, hence the title. I will always assume that Dean is referring to the Kubrick film, not the novel or remake, as he also (in later episodes) makes several references to Jack Nicholson's role in the film.

Cymbal Monkey of Doom

Zelda played psychic Tangina Barrons in the 1982 film Poltergeist and its sequels. There is a scene in the first film where she does her psychic thing, then proclaims "This house is clean!" It is not, of course, and much more mayhem ensues... Perhaps Dean should have given more thought to his own reference here. :)