I could see the argument that the Michael and Lucifer took over too much toward the end of S5, but I'm not sure what you mean elsewhere. What do you define as Sam and Dean's story?
I don't think Bobby sidelined Sam and Dean. I think he was occasionally ill-used. Part of that was low number of recurring characters (for example, if Ash, Jo and Ellen had all lived, they could have become sources of info or occasionally crossed paths with the Winchesters). Part of that was me disagreeing with Bobby's refusal to go with the reaper and the cheap emotionalism of his double death. :)
The angel war was in S6 and wasn't shown. But S6 had a ton of plot problems. The side characters may have been tied to that, but I think it was an issue of there being too many of them/a lack of development for most of them, and dumb or boring development where effort was made/piss-poor plotting.
S7 also had its issues, but I'm not sure "lack of Winchesters" can really be said to be one of them. I'm not really sure what focusing on them would entail, or why developing side characters couldn't help give the brothers good stories.
Re: Extended TV Guide spoilers
I could see the argument that the Michael and Lucifer took over too much toward the end of S5, but I'm not sure what you mean elsewhere. What do you define as Sam and Dean's story?
I don't think Bobby sidelined Sam and Dean. I think he was occasionally ill-used. Part of that was low number of recurring characters (for example, if Ash, Jo and Ellen had all lived, they could have become sources of info or occasionally crossed paths with the Winchesters). Part of that was me disagreeing with Bobby's refusal to go with the reaper and the cheap emotionalism of his double death. :)
The angel war was in S6 and wasn't shown. But S6 had a ton of plot problems. The side characters may have been tied to that, but I think it was an issue of there being too many of them/a lack of development for most of them, and dumb or boring development where effort was made/piss-poor plotting.
S7 also had its issues, but I'm not sure "lack of Winchesters" can really be said to be one of them. I'm not really sure what focusing on them would entail, or why developing side characters couldn't help give the brothers good stories.