Buffy the Vampire Slayer

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So hey, any fans out there of the "Buffy" series? It was one of the best TV shows of the 90s IMO. I recently found out that reruns are currently being shown on the "LOGO" TV network (a channel that caters to the LGBT community, of all things - dunno why; I guess Buff must have a lot of lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgendered fans) so I've been re-discovering what a cool show it was. I haven't seen many of these episodes since the show left the air in the early '00s.

Funny thing was I pretty much hated the "Buffy" movie from '92, so when I first heard that they were turning it into a TV series I sez "Why bother? That movie sucked," haha. But the TV series totally blew away its film counterpart. The lone bright spot in the "Buffy" movie was Kristy Swanson as Buffy, who was quite hot at the time.

The "Buffy" movie was a little too light-n-fluffy comedy for me, the TV series hardened up the horror/action end (while still maintaining a sarcastic sense of humor). Supposedly Joss Whedon (Buffy creator)'s original script for the movie was more in line with the TV series, but he was a young guy selling his first script in Hollywood and he didn't realize that he was basically jumping into a shark tank. 20th Century Fox re-wrote, re-drafted and watered down his concept till the final result bore little resemblance to what he'd originally written. So the TV series totally kicked its ass up and down the block.

I'd go into a litany of my fave episodes but to be honest since I'm just re-discovering the show after quite a few years it's all kinda "new" to me at this point. I also hope that watching this show on a gay and lesbian centered network doesn't turn me gay.

But hey, any show that introduced not one, but THREE of the hottest mega babes of the mid to late 90s (Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy, Eliza Dushku as Faith, and Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia) has gotta be OK by any straight man's standards too.

The Buffster:
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Faith:
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Cordelia:
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Hell, even Alyson Hannigan, who played the nerdy "Willow" started to get hot towards the end of the series run. And hey, her character turned lesbo too. Maybe that's why LOGO is re-running it.
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Honestly, I've never seen the original movie OR the tv series. However, I do believe that now I know that Eliza Dushku was on the show I might have to watch it.

That girl just OOZES sex.....

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Same here, never saw the movie or tv show. The chicks are hot though. Don't know who Charisma Carpenter is, but wow-wee!!

Ive only seen a few episodes because of Eliza, but I do enjoy the movie quite a bit.

I know the good Dr.West loves em both though

Yup, damn straight. Own all of Joss's series- Buffy, Angel, Firefly... Dr Horrible's Sing a Long Blog... but not Dollhouse. That was a rather weak attempt on his part considering what he can bring to the table. However, he is currently in talks with FX to create and run a show for them. More Joss goodness is always welcome. He is doing a horror movie as well (Cabin in the Woods) but that has gotten pushed back to early next year. Dammit.

Ok, back to BTVS. Saw both the movie and the series when they first came out. I even had the poster in my dorm room. Don't get the main one though:

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I think it looks lame compared to the teaser poster:

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Yes, the gay and lesbian community love BVTS because of the way the relationship between Willow and Tara was written and portrayed. No shock value, not a ploy to get ratings (unlike a lot of series that hype up a girl on girl kiss for a single episode)... but a natural relationship just like any other.


*** Spoiler paragraph***

The sad thing is, Tara was supposed to come back to the series. Amber Benson I believe had some sort of scheduling conflict so the planned ep was abandoned. The plot was this... that Buffy somehow comes into possession of an artiifact, and she gained the power to get any one wish granted to her. The running gag through the episode was Buffy asking everyone and trying to figure out what to wish for. At the end, she walks in to where the Scooby gang is, carrying a brand new expensive pair of shoes. Willow sees this and comments to the effect of 'you used your wish on SHOES!?!'. Buffy comes up to her and says 'No silly, look behind you'... and there Tara was supposed to be, brought back from the dead by Buffy so she could be with Willow again.

*** End of Spoilers***


Most people think BTVS and immediately think Buffy and Sarah Michelle. Funny thing is, I despised the Buffy character. Very shallow and whiny. I really watched it for all the other characters. Even though there are many great plots and arcs throughout the series, I mainly watched the show just to enjoy the characters interacting with each other.

Sarah Michelle herself... I know she's very talented, but her looks never did a thing for me. Actually, my favorite femme fatale from the series is Drusilla:


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Juliet Landau just does insane right. Plus she is in terrific shape. Killer arms.


And yes, you gotta have Faith. Easily my favorite slayer. Yes, she goes a bit sociopathic, but once she gets her head on straight, look out.

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Ok, that's not Faith, but I like this pic better

Oh, and a little Buffy trivia from Bring It On..

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Eliza is not the only cheerleader with a Buffy connection. Check out the blond cheerleader next to Eliza... that's Claire Kramer, who later takes on the role of Glory, the Big Bad in season 5.

***Minor spoilers***

My favorite Faith moments actually happen in Angel. Here Faith is talking to Wes from inside her cell, doing her typical bating of Wes... then he just says "Angelus has returned.". She just stops and gives him that serious look "Get away from the glass" and just shatters the viewing window to break out. My other fav moment is when she leaves LA to go help Buffy in the upcoming final fight with The First in the BVTS series finale. After all Faith went through with that gang, she gets a great going away scene with everyone. ****

And you also don't want to forget Anyanka... the vengeance demon turned high school girl.

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"Gimmie a beer" "ID" "ID!?! I'm over 800 years old, GIMMIE A FREAKIN BEER!!!"

I better not get into quotes... there are just WAY too many that are priceless.

The reason why Anya is wearing a bunny suit... for one of their Halloween episodes, the Scooby gang invited her along for trick r treating. When asked what costume she should wear, they told her... traditionally you should wear something that is scary and frightening. Anya shows up dressed in her bunny suit, because she really IS terrified of bunnies.

ok, one more quote... from the musical ep Once More with Feeling, when the Scooby gang is trying to figure out what evil is causing the people of Sunnydale to spontaneously break out in song and dance.

Anya: It could be bunnies! (breaks out into a hard rock solo with guitar music) Bunnies aren't cute like everyone supposes. They got them hoppy legs and twitchy little noses! And what's with all the carrots!?! Why do they need such good eyesight anyways! Bunnies! Bunnies! It must be BUNNIES!!!!


Most people define the seasons by the main villain that the Scooby gang was having to deal with throughout the season, referred to by Joss as "the Big Bad". Seasons 1-3 were great. Season 4 had some great eps, but the Big Bad was a bit disappointing. Season 5 however came back strong. Season 6 kind of went in a different direction with the Big Bad, which mostly was played up for comedic effect (until Warren crosses the line). Season 7 to me had a decent opening hook, but the middle kind of drug on for me. When the Big Bad stuff finally started kicking in toward the end, it seemed kind of rushed. It was a good ending, but it wasn't the climactic confrontation that you just couldn't wait to see how it was going to turn out like it was for me in seasons 1-3 and 5.

For those that might not do comics... Joss for the past 3 years has been writing a series for Dark Horse Comics called Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8. It is a direct continuation of the tv series, with Joss and other writers that were on the Buffy and Angel writing crew. The great thing about the series (besides, hey, more Buffy) is that in comic format, you aren't constrained by anything. You can have any character show up, and not have to be concerned about if they want to come back to the show or not, for how long, scheduling, money, etc etc. You also don't have to worry about an FX budget either.

I believe it is up to issue 30 now... with one arc left, then the season ending arc. Joss has said that he will be doing a season 9, so that just rocks. Now if he would just do the same with a Firefly comic series...

I could go off on how great Season 8 has been... you get so many returning characters from the series, and they are all well written as in the tv series. Just a couple of tidbits... funny how you mentioned the gay and lesbian thing. Buffy actually had a lesbian thing going in the comic (another slayer I believe). And with Joss's great sense of writing... the name of the Big Bad entity that plagues Season 8... Twilight. That is just so choice.

While the tv series was coming out, Joss did an 8 issue comic series about a Slayer in the future named Melaka Fray. In this series was actually the first appearance of the 'Slayer Scythe' that Buffy used at the end of season 7. Fray also makes an appearance in Season 8 for an arc.

Great series... such a shame the writing and cast never got the hardware they deserved. Not even anything for Hush, The Body, or Once More With Feeling. Shame what Joss said was true... hey, if I wanted to really get an emmy for a series, I would have created a legal or hospital series.

If you like great character writing and arcing plots, you can't go wrong with Buffy. Or Angel or Firefly. If you like musicals, you should check out Dr Horrible's Sing a Long Blog. It was a webisode that Joss did during the recent writer's strike, and was put out last year on dvd. Hilarious production. THAT finally got him an emmy.

Damn, C.A. -- props for that most scholarly post!! You're obviously a way bigger Buffy geek (and I mean "geek" in the nicest way possible by the way) than I am.

Cruel Angel wrote:

but not Dollhouse. That was a rather weak attempt on his part considering what he can bring to the table

Yea, I tried to get into "Dollhouse" and watched it pretty "faith"-fully (haha) for the first season, but never bothered to go back to it for season #2 (which ended up being its last anyway - the final episode was this past Friday, now it's buh-bye.). It was an intriguing premise but it seemed like they never really decided which direction to run with it. One week Eliza would be this totally ass kickin Terminatrix and stuff would be blowin' up left and right, then next episode she'd be having flashbacks about her past and there'd be all this heavy drama, yadda yadda yadda. I think SyFy Channel would've been a better fit for that show instead of FOX. Fox showed no confidence in it from the get-go and banished it to the Friday Night Death Slot, which is why I never got too attached to it cuz I knew it wouldn't be around long.

Cruel Angel wrote:

Funny thing is, I despised the Buffy character. Very shallow and whiny. I really watched it for all the other characters. Even though there are many great plots and arcs throughout the series, I mainly watched the show just to enjoy the characters interacting with each other.

Hahaha, the main reason I didn't like the original BTVS movie was because the Buffy character was so un-likable. Kristy Swanson was hot, of course, so that filled the bill, but the character as written was just such a high maintenance, snotty Valley Girl Bitch. From the git-go I'm like "Waitaminnit, this is the heroine? This is who I'm supposed to be rooting for? Screw that, I hope one of the Vamps cracks her open like a tall boy of Bud and drains her dry," hahaha. Whereas the character on the TV show was much more "real." She wasn't a bubble head like the movie version, she wasn't a snob, she was much more likable than the film character. Plus, she had better ass kicking moves than Kristy Swanson. I vaguely remember hearing rumors that Joss wanted Kristy to do a cameo on the TV show as some Slayer from the Past or some such nonsense but she turned it down. That was probably not a great move. I mean, where have you seen Kristy Swanson latey??

Damn that was quite informative. Makes me wanna go back and watch it.

Detuned wrote:

Honestly, I've never seen the original movie OR the tv series. However, I do believe that now I know that Eliza Dushku was on the show I might have to watch it.

That girl just OOZES sex.....

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Me neither but there's a nice platter of hott ass on that show!

My impression was that Joss tried to tone down his usual flair to try and make a show more palatable for stupid network execs and mainstream audiences, so Dollhouse didn't have as much kick like his other series.

I realize that it was Eliza that talked Joss into coming back to tv, and to Fox (she had a developmental deal with Fox... remember Tru Calling?)... but I would never have trusted Fox after how he got done with Firefly. Besides, by then Fox already had a good track record on canceling genre type shows before giving them a chance to find an audience (off the top of my head... Greg the Bunny, Firefly, Drive... even Sarah Conner Chronicles, and that even had a decent following and good reviews).

No way in this day and age that X Files would have lasted long enough to become the crossover cult to mainstream hit it was.

Hmm... last thing I saw Kristy Swanson in- the Nov 2002 Playboy

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I always thought she was a cutie. It wasn't until later I found out that she was the girl in Ferris Beuller (" Uh, he's sick") who gives Ben Stein the epic chain of communication on how she found out Ferris had passed out the other night at the ice cream place.

I liked her in Deadly Friend:

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Then one of my favorite football movies, the Program. I think she looks even better as a brunette.

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But my favorite movie Kristy was in... which is finally getting the blu ray treatment this Tuesday... The Phantom (again, gotta love the brunette look):

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Hahahaha, Oh my GOD. I forgot Kristy was in "The Phantom" -- I actually saw that in the theatre, I think my girlfriend at the time and I were the only ones in the place. Pretty damn good movie though, from what I remember. I may have to hunt that one down and watch it again sometime soon.

She was also in a short lived reality series on FOX (I think) a couple of years ago called "Skating With Celebrities" (a figure skating ripoff of "Dancing With The Stars" obviously)

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By the way, the original "Buffy" movie was on the G4 Channel this weekend. I watched about a half hour of it (I landed on it during the best part -- when the vamps attack the prom, with Rob Halford's "Light Comes Out of Black" playing in the background...)

Random Sarah Michelle Gellar pic!

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This is actually from when she played Daphne in the "Scooby Doo" movies, but still... nom nom nom.

My wife became a BTVS fan, then she got me into it, then we got our son into it...now we own all the seasons on DVD...great, smart, funny show. Spike was my favorite character...

My son became an even bigger fan of the "Angel" spin-off show...