One Man's Journey Into The Buffyverse

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 6:11 pm

Buffy the Car.

As we all know, Joss Whedon is a master of bringing back failed projects from the grave. This show was a more youth-oriented follow up to "My Mother the Car."

El Vez · Post by **El Vez** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 2:00 pm

Season One, Disc Two (Episodes five through eight)

Loved, loved and fucking loved these episodes. I guess maybe since my prior Buffy edgeumacation is so scattershot, I'm not burdened with having to compare this season to any other but it still suprised me that a couple of episodes that are not all that highly regarded ("Never Kill A Boy On A First Date," "I, Robot. You, Jane.") went over like fudge. Episode 7, "Angel," where you find out that absurdly handsome David Boreanz is a vampire is probably the best of the lot but I was more taken by "The Pack" just because it was a chance to see Xander as a scary bastard. The balding, pudgy villain in the later episode was lame (to be fair, no white dude could pull off that "Don't Fool With Me, I'm A Wizard!" costume) but the whole possessed by evil jackals motiff was a better than average metaphor for how even your closest friend can suddenly change, hang out with a different crowd and be quite cruel to you. Especially in high school.

And despite my presence on the board (and spending too much time online in general) I totally sided with Giles on the whole books vs. internet argument although I suspect that's what Whedon wanted anyway, hence the great "I love the smell of Wuthering Heights in the morning" monologue.

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Thu Oct 13, 2005 3:35 pm

There really is nothing like the smell of books...like the feel of actually touching celluloid film. There is much gained with digital, but also something lost.

I wonder if computer geeks get any olfactory satisfaction.

Masterpiece? · Post by **Masterpiece?** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 12:52 am

Well, so much for the planned stage show...

'Buffy' Stage Show Shut Down
(Thursday, October 20 10:35 AM)

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Dark forces have shut down in a stage production of the musical episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." But instead of demons, it was lawyers who put a stake in the show.

CounterPulse, a nonprofit arts group in San Francisco, had been planning to stage 10 performances of "Once More, with Feeling," the season-six "Buffy" episode in which a musical demon puts a Broadway-style curse on the residents of Sunnydale. The group planned to re-enact the script word-for-word, augmented by a live band and dancers.

Local media picked up the story, which quickly spread to other news outlets (including this one) and numerous "Buffy" fan sites. Word apparently also got to 20th Century Fox, which spelled the beginning of the end for the stage show.

The studio, which produced "Buffy" and owns its copyright, sent a cease-and-desist letter to CounterPulse last week, threatening legal action unless the group cancelled the shows and removed any copyrighted images from the series from its web site.

Rather than incur the wrath of a deep-pocketed multinational media conglomerate, CounterPulse decided to scrap the shows, which were scheduled for this weekend and Oct. 30. The group says "Buffy" creator Joss Whedon's assistant e-mailed to say he was okay with the performances, but that wasn't enough to clear the legal hurdles.

"We didn't know the procedure or rules on trying to re-enact a television show, and we've found out the hard way all about copyrights and getting permission, and potential punishment and cost for not getting permission," the group says in a letter to people who reserved seats for the show.

"All we thought was that putting on a San Francisco 'Buffy' show was a cool idea to locally celebrate Halloween," the letter says. "... We are beside ourselves with the fact that we cannot go on with the show. We are desperately sorry we have to disappoint."

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 8:08 am

For Fox sake

El Vez · Post by **El Vez** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 11:19 am

I'm into season three now and thought I'd have a little fun recasting the show with board members -

Buffy - SoLikeCandy
Giles - Otis Westinghouse
Xander - Verbal Gymnastics
Willow - Shatterproof
Cordelia - Double Dutchess
Joyce - Spooky Girlfriend
Principal Flutie - Who Shot Sam
Principal Snyder - Bobster
Jenny Calendar - PlaythingorPet
Angel - Bambooneedle
The Master - SoLacklustre
Jonathan - Whar
Darla - Redshoes
Luke - Taz
The Annointed One - Extreme Honey
Harmony - Verena
Oz - Pophead2K
Spike - Copenhagen Fan
Drusilla - Pip_52
Ethan - Noiseradio
Kendra - Lawngnome
Ted - Alexv
The Judge - Mr. Average
Faith - Miss Buenos Aires
Mr. Trick - Selfmademug (call it "taking a license" if you will)
The Mayor - Dr. Spooky

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 11:22 am

Now I definitely need to rent these. Principal Flutie? Don't like the sound of that at all!

"He gets eaten by a bunch of students who have been possessed by a hyena."

El Vez · Post by **El Vez** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 11:56 am

WSS-

Ah but Flutie is such a great character and his first encounter with Buffy is arguably the highlight of the first season. Plus you set up Bobster (cast very much against type) for one of the coolest establishing lines in history; "My predeccesor may have gone in for all that touchy feely relating nonsense, but he was eaten."

selfmademug · Post by **selfmademug** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 12:22 pm

Oh, you really can't do better than Principal Flutie!! Oh, wat, I was thinking of the Mayor... WHAT a great character.

I can't recall whet Flutie looked like? Snyder was also great.

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 3:33 pm

Thanks, EV, for pointing out you were casting "very much against type", 'cause I know it was right down to the wire between Bamboo and I for the part of Angel...just want everyone to know that. And, I hear Armen Schimmerman is actually a pretty cool guy, even if he's best known for playing a Ferengi (who always seemed to me to be what Nazis imagine Jews to be like).

And now I'd like to hija...I mean interupt...this thread for more unsettling news on the more recent Whedon front -- "Serenity" dropped out of half of its theaters this week, last night's Friday take was slightly less than commensurate, and now there are rumors that it's going straight to DVD in several not-huge movie going countries (Argentina -- sorry Ms. BA -- Brazil, Thailand, and a couple of others I can't remember) as well as going to very limited or no releases in Greece and (yargh!) Germany.

The moral of this story is, if you live in the U.S., and especially the UK and Austrialia or the you guessed if you haven't seen it yet (or even if you have), see it now! I mean now! What are you waiting for?!!

We return to the Buffy thread, already in progress...

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 3:34 am

Giles turns out to be Anthony Head, better known to me as the Prime Minister to David Walliams' ludicrously gay aide Sebastian. I'll settle for that.

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 4:39 am

I can see a certain resemblance with Angel, and it looks like a good gig. Wikipedia has a good Buffy site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffy_The_Vampire_Slayer

Bobster - you could go the title role in Barton Fink. On second thoughts.., yes - I think BlueChair would have it all over you.

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 9:10 am

El Vez wrote:...thought I'd have a little fun recasting the show with board members -

Xander - Verbal Gymnastics

Having just looked at the wikipedia link for Xander's profile, I think you know me too well Mr Vez.

El Vez · Post by **El Vez** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 9:31 am

Yup. You get all the babes on that show, Verb.

Post by **BlueChair** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 9:37 am

bambooneedle wrote: Bobster - you could go the title role in Barton Fink. On second thoughts.., yes - I think BlueChair would have it all over you.

You callin' me a nerd?

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 9:48 am

No - You're a conscientious and ambitious writer who cares about the common man!

.

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 9:53 am

El Vez wrote:Yup. You get all the babes on that show, Verb.

Life imitating art imitating life.

tallulah · Post by **tallulah** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 1:28 pm

El Vez wrote:Season One, Disc Two (Episodes five through eight)

Loved, loved and fucking loved these episodes. I guess maybe since my prior Buffy edgeumacation is so scattershot, I'm not burdened with having to compare this season to any other but it still suprised me that a couple of episodes that are not all that highly regarded ("Never Kill A Boy On A First Date," "I, Robot. You, Jane.") went over like fudge. Episode 7, "Angel," where you find out that absurdly handsome David Boreanz is a vampire is probably the best of the lot but I was more taken by "The Pack" just because it was a chance to see Xander as a scary bastard.

Ooo, that is a good one. I remember that being The One that completely solidified my Buffy love and also gave me a momentarily crush on Xander. I kind of got over that as time went on, since I like the bad boy (as Mug can attest) - and there was Spike(!) to fill that void.

There is a good article on Entertainment Weeklys webpage in which the criminally cute Alyson Hannigan goes over her fave episodes. http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2005/10 ... nigan.html

El Vez · Post by **El Vez** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 10:26 am

I'm now fifteen episodes into season four. I intended to keep up with this thread better but just haven't had the time. The show keeps getting richer and more interesting as it goes along (middling Initiative subplot aside) and here are some highlights from the past two weeks of my Whedon crash course -

Season One :

The Puppet Show - Absolutely hilarious episode where Buffy teams up with a cigar chompin' ventriloquist dummy to fight the latest demon terrorizing Sunnydale High. This is an important episode because it introduces us to one of my favorite characters; Principal Snyder. In a show full of soulless vampires, evil wizards and demons who like to glide down Main Street and cut out your heart....I love how the principal of a high school (who is human) is the worst and most irredeemable in all of Sunnydale. For his entire run on the show, Snyder is such a vicious, hateful bastard and there's an odd, comforting sort of poetry to that. He never changes or softens and Whedon doesn't give him a single moment where we are made to empathize with him. He's just a schmuck. Oh, and I loved Xander's routine with the puppet; "Hey Buffy, wanna hear some off color jokes!"

Prophecy Girl - Although The Master isn't nearly as compelling a "Big Bad" as Angel or The Mayor, he served his purpose to set everything in motion for season two and Mark Metcalf was perfect playing an old school Nosferatu-like vamp. The "You've got fruit punch mouth" line cracked me up for a couple of days and I have to hand it to Gellar's stunt double because that was a mean fall she took into that pool of water.

Season Two :

School Hard - The arrival of Spike and Dru! Drusilla is, for me, probably the most fascinating and completely evil character on the show. Although Giles is my favorite so far and James Marsters' Spike is such a fantastic, funny and complicated character.....there's something so creepy about an insane, burned out mystic vampire who seems almost laughable one minute and then she turns right around and rips your throat out and then goes back to muttering her stream of non sequiturs.

Halloween - Ethan Rayne, Giles' really annoying nemesis, makes his first appearance and opens up a costume shop where everyone turns into what they're wearing. I love how this episode continues to have relevance two years later in the show where Xander keeps milking his one night as G.I. Joe for everything it's worth. It was also cool to see Giles go house on Ethan who is definitely McManus to Tony Head's Schillinger.

Ted - Episode goes off the rails a bit in the last ten minutes but it was a blast to see John Ritter play such a wonderfully malevolent variation on his standard nice guy routine.

Innocence - The Buffy vs. Angelus arc is about as close to perfect as network television will ever get although my favorite moment from this episode was The Judge's quizzical reaction to the rocket launcher; "What does that do?"

Passion - A major character gets killed off in a brutally offhanded way to show that Angel/Angelus has got to die. Giles storming into Spike, Dru & Angel's lair and unloading a man-sized ass whipping on Angelus was probably the highlight of the season for me.

I Only Have Eyes For You - Heartbreaking episode and the switcheroo with Buffy & Angel is another contender for season two highlight.

Becoming (Part One & Part Two) - Soap opera as high art and just to give you an idea of how good this season finale was....I didn't even mind the Sarah MacLachlan ballad at the end.

Season Three :

Faith, Hope & Trick - Eliza Dushku's Faith is, like Spike, such a breakout character that you really find yourself wishing that she'd gotten her own spinoff. I understand that she was approached about that (or maybe just returning for some more guest shots) but declined so that she could do Tru Calling instead. One of the coolest things about this show is that, out of all the undead badasses in Sunnydale none of them are as tough as two teenage girls named Buffy and Faith. Also, Mr. Trick is one of the best minor villains to grace the show and his opening spiel about Sunnydale being "Strictly of the Caucasion persuasion" is a hoot.

Band Candy - Ethan up to his old tricks again. This time he's pedalling a candy bar that makes the adults of Sunnydale act like teenagers except that they remember EVERYTHING about their adult lives. Joyce and Giles hanging out and listening to his old Cream records is unspeakably funny as is their tryst on the hood of a squad car.

The Wish - The slow-mo fight sequence towards the end of the episode is maybe the most wrenching thing I've ever seen on a television show. So good it inspired me to spend a lot of my free time going through the entire series episode by episode.

Amends - Very touching episode but the best part is Willow's screamingly funny seduction of Oz.

The Zeppo - Again, it's the little throwaway bits that kill me like Giles' discovering that Willow and Buffy have eaten all the jelly donuts. Nicholas Brendon's Xander only had a few episodes where he was the focus of the show and he certainly acted the beejaysus out of each and every one of them.

Doppelgangland - In this episode we get a little foreshadowing as to how far Joss Whedon will take Willow's character. Angel's quick coverup after he was just about to correct Buffy's assurance to Willow that her vampire alter ego is nothing like the real Willow was priceless.

Graduation Day (Part One & Two) - The Mayor's transformation was a little bit of a letdown mainly because Harry Groener was so damn good in the role that you hated to see him turn into a CGI snake. The rooftop fight between Buffy & Faith was terrific and legitimately thrilling because the two characters are so evenly matched that it could go either way. Oh, and Snyder's strirring graduation speech is a thing of beauty; "You've all proven to be more or less adequate."

Season Four :

Fear, Itself - This might be my favorite episode of Buffy so far. One of the things I like best about this show is how things that happened two or three seasons earlier are not simply forgotten about by the characters. This episode is built upon season one's "Nightmares" and season two's "Halloween" and it shows how much the characters have grown and matured. Plus, quite unexpectedly, the show turns into a laugh riot in the last few minutes and features the funniest closing line in the history of anything; "Actual size."

Wild At Heart - Oz leaves Sunnydale. Hannigan cries like nobody's business and I've never seen tears POUR down someone's face like that.

Pangs - The holiday episodes always seem to strike gold and this Thanksgiving one is no different. Anya has really grown on me and I love Spike's annoyed reaction to Willow's rant about the plight of Native Americans.

Hush - Alongside "Once More, With Feeling," this is probably the most celebrated Buffy episode. The Gentlemen are an inspired creation and it is genuinely unsettling to watch as they chase and murder their victims who are unable to scream because everyone's voice has been taken from them.

A New Man - Giles gets turned into a Fyarl demon by Ethan and the scene where he orders Spike to stop the car so he can chase Linday Crouse's Professor Walsh is piss your pants funny.

This Year's Girl - Faith wakes up from her coma and I can't wait to watch the conclusion to this storyline.

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 6:31 pm

I wrote a whole big long thing about this and the Internet just sucked it away.

To quote every show "Grrr. Argh."

Well, you guys probably know what I'm going to say without me even saying it by now!

El Vez · Post by **El Vez** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 8:37 pm

I really like the long running joke where every single time a villain starts to make the big villain speech they end up getting busted, electrocuted or just flatout stabbed to death. It's particularly funny with Spike because he always goes for that 50 Monologues For Male Actors moment and something bad always happens to him right when he's getting into it.

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 1:17 pm

Just a quick note about upcoming spin-offs and such....

There have been some press stories about possible direct-to-DVD Buffyverse (i.e., using characters from Buffy and the Angel TV series, though not Buffy and maybe or maybe not including Angel) movies.

My best guess is that the Spike-centered stuff is first. There's a been a great deal of talk about this, plus James Marsters is 43. He's in great shape, but the ageless vampire thing might be a strain after not long. (Fans of "Angel" however, can remind us that the Shanshu option is open...i.e. Spike wants to become a human...and instantly turn middle-aged!)

Faith is the second most talked about. But Eliza Dushku is actually about five years younger than Sarah Michelle Geller (I think she's only 24 -- ironic in that her character is supposed to be a year or two older than Buffy), so there's a little more leeway there.

Extreme Honey · Post by **Extreme Honey** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 12:37 am

El Vez wrote:The Annointed One - Extreme Honey

...Do you mean Anointed (as in:
To apply oil, ointment, or a similar substance to.
To put oil on during a religious ceremony as a sign of sanctification or consecration.
To choose by or as if by divine intervention. )

...I don't get how this resemles me at all

! If Anything I should be "The Controversial One" but I don't know about all these dramas anywho(although I have seen a show yesterday called "Prison break" that was pretty good)

El Vez · Post by **El Vez** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 9:11 am

Extreme Honey wrote:
El Vez wrote:The Annointed One - Extreme Honey
...Do you mean Anointed (as in:
To apply oil, ointment, or a similar substance to.
To put oil on during a religious ceremony as a sign of sanctification or consecration.
To choose by or as if by divine intervention. )

...I don't get how this resemles me at all ! If Anything I should be "The Controversial One" but I don't know about all these dramas anywho(although I have seen a show yesterday called "Prison break" that was pretty good)

It would probably help if you watched Buffy so that you'd know the character that I'm talking about.

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 9:51 am

thomasso Honey - if someone says something from a show I don't watch (eg compares me to a character or wants to know how to contact EC) then I find that using the internet to research or find these things out helps me. For example Mr El Vez said I would be Xander. Not knowing who Xander is, I put in search of the character's name and then looked on an appropriate website. The internet is very good for this type of thing and saves me making comments like "I don't know how this resembles me" when you don't even know what it is you are being likened to.

I hope this helps you.