Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion E-Book

• Herausgeber: Titan Books
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

THE ESSENTIAL UNOFFICIAL GUIDE TO THE WHEDONVERSE Joss Whedon's importance in contemporary pop culture can hardly be overstated, but there has never been a book providing a comprehensive survey of his career as a whole - until now. The Complete Companion covers every aspect of the Whedonverse through insightful essays and interviews, including fascinating conversations with key collaborators Jane Espenson and Tim Minear. Over 40 contributors have been brought together by PopMatters, the acclaimed international magazine of cultural criticism, to provide an irresistible mix of analysis, interpretation and sheer celebration. Whether you're a student looking for critical approaches to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or a Browncoat who follows Nathan Fillion on Twitter (or, let's face it, both) there is plenty here to enjoy. Covers all the TV series, movies, and comic books, including: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Fray, Astonishing X-Men, The Avengers... and more!

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JOSS WHEDON: THE COMPLETE COMPANION

ISBN: 9781781164570

Published by

Titan Books

A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd.

144 Southwark St.

London

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First edition: May 2012

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Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion copyright © 2012 PopMatters Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

Individual articles copyright © 2012 their respective authors.

Front cover adapted from a photo by Al Ortega.

This publication has not been prepared, approved, licensed or endorsed by Joss Whedon, or any entity that created or produced any of the films, programs or publications discussed in this book.

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Printed and bound in the USA.

JOSS WHEDON

THE COMPLETE COMPANION THE TV SERIES, THE MOVIES, THE COMIC BOOKS AND MORE

TITAN BOOKS

CONTENTS

A Note from the Editor

0.01 Introduction:Why Cast a Spotlight on Joss Whedon? By Robert Moore

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER

1.01 Joss Whedon 101:Buffy the Vampire Slayer By Robert Moore

1.02 “Raise Your Hand If You’re Invulnerable!”:An Interview with Harry Groener By Tanya R. Cochran

1.03 “Note to Self, Religion Freaky”:When Buffy Met Biblical Studies By Ronald Helfrich

1.04 You’re Strong. I’m Stronger:Vampires, Masculinity & Language in Buffy By Malgorzata Drewniok

1.05 Failure of the Everyman:The Lost Character That Was Xander Harris By Kyle Garret

1.06 Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the Fantasy CanonBy Nathan Pensky

1.07 Pedagogy of the Possessed:Teaching and Learning in Buffy By Michael Curtis Nelson

1.08 The Big Bad Universe:Good and Evil According to Joss Whedon By Nandini Ramachandran

1.09 Women Who Hate Women:Female Competition in Buffy the Vampire Slayer By Faye Murray and Holly Golding

1.10 Coming Out of the Broom Closet:Willow’s Sexuality and Empowerment in Buffy By Jessica Ford

1.11 The Darkness of “Passion”:Visuals and Voiceovers, Sound and Shadow By Rhonda V. Wilcox

1.12 Returning to the Basement:Excavating the Unconscious in Buffy’s “Restless” By Laura Berger and Keri Ferencz

1.13 “I’d Very Still”:Anthropology of a Lapsed Fan By Lily Rothman

1.14 Interview with Jane EspensonBy Dr. Shathley Q

1.15 How Buffy Changed TelevisionBy Robert Moore

1.16 TV’s Grim Reaper:Why Joss Whedon Continually Kills the Characters We Love By Kristin M. Barton

ANGEL

2.01 Joss Whedon 101:Angel By Stacey Abbott

2.02 Lindsey and Angel:Reflecting Masculinity By Lorna Jowett

2.03 “The Shell I’m In”:Illyria and Monstrous Embodiment By Bronwen Calvert

2.04 The Three Faces of Anne:Identity Formation in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel By Don Tresca

2.05 “Touch Me and Die, Vermin!”:The Psychoanalysis of Illyria By Nikki Faith Fuller

2.06 Interview with Alexis DenisofBy Laura Berger

2.07 “The Strength and Conviction to Lose So Relentlessly”:Heroism in Angel By Ian Mathers

FIREFLY and SERENITY

3.01 Joss Whedon 101:Firefly By Ian Chant

3.02 Still Flying:An Interview with Tim Minear By Tanya R. Cochran

3.03 Joss Whedon 101:Serenity By Kristin M. Barton

3.04 A Postcolonial Provocation:Serenity By Leanne McRae

3.05 The Death of Utopia:Firefly and the Return to Human Realism in TV Sci-Fi By Chris Colgan

3.06 Can’t Stop the Serenity:Joss Whedon’s Shows and Fan Activism By Lisa Anderson

3.07 The Ethics of Malcolm ReynoldsBy Mike Bailey

3.08 Heroic Humanism and Humanistic Heroism in Joss Whedon’s ShowsBy Candace E. West

3.09 The Power of Fandom in the WhedonverseBy Jack Milson

3.10 Zombies, Reavers, Butchers, and Actuals in Joss Whedon’s WorkBy Gerry Canavan

3.11 Nathan Fillion Misbehaves All Across the WhedonverseBy Lynnette Porter

COMICS

4.01 Joss Whedon 101:Fray By Patrick Shand

4.02 Joss Whedon 101:Astonishing X-Men By Cesar R. Bustamante, Jr.

4.03 Tom Brokaw’s Coat:Joss Whedon, Astonishing X-Men and the Accessibility of History By Dr. Shathley Q

4.04 Joss Whedon 101:Runaways By Kevin Chiat

4.05 Joss Whedon 101:Angel: After the Fall By Patrick Shand

4.06 IDW Retrospect:A Look Back At IDW’s Angel with Brian Lynch and Scott Tipton By Patrick Shand

4.07 Joss Whedon 101:Sugarshock! By Jack Milson

4.08 Joss Whedon 101:Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight By Nick Bridwell

4.09 Giant Dawn and Mutant Superheroes:Joss Whedon in Comics By Kevin Chiat

4.10 Joss Whedon 101:Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope By Dr. Shathley Q

4.11 Chronological Bibliography of Print Comics Written byJoss WhedonBy Dr. Shathley Q

4.12 Much with the Moral Ambiguity:An Examination of the Fallen Heroes and Redeemed Villains in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight and Angel: After the Fall By Patrick Shand

DR. HORRIBLE’S SING-ALONG BLOG

5.01 Joss Whedon 101:Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog By Lynnette Porter

5.02 The Night Billy Buddy Died:Dr. Horrible’s Tragicomic Inversion of Spider-Man By Kevin M. Brettauer

5.03 “What a Crazy Random Happenstance”:Destiny and Free Will in Dr. Horrible By Cynthea Masson

DOLLHOUSE

6.01 Joss Whedon 101:Dollhouse By Ian Mathers

6.02 Identity and Memory in DollhouseBy Ryan Jawetz

6.03 The Dystopian Future in Joss Whedon’s WorkBy Erin Casey

6.04 Buffy and Dollhouse:Visions of Female Empowerment and Disempowerment By Angela Zhang

6.05 Dollhouse, Fox Television, and Cultural FragmentationBy Rana Emerson

6.06 Fantasy Is Their Business, But It Is Not Their Purpose”:The Metaphor of Dollhouse By Don Tresca

FILMS

7.01 Joss Whedon 101:Buffy The Vampire Slayer (The Movie) By Laura Berger

7.02 Alien Resurrection, the Script That Shaped Joss Whedon’s CareerBy Raz Greenberg

7.03 Joss Whedon 101:The Cabin in the Woods By Christopher Conaton

7.04 Joss Whedon 101:The Avengers By Kristin M. Barton

7.05 Six Reasons Why Joss Whedon Is the Perfect Director for The AvengersMatthew Hurd

APPENDICES

A.01 Mapping the Whedonverses:Whedon Studies 1999 and Beyond By Alysa Hornick

A.02 Buffy the Vampire Slayer Episode List

A.03 Angel Episode List

A.04 Firefly Episode List

A.05 Dollhouse Episode List

A.06 Author Biographies

A Note from the Editor

First of all, I want to tell you something about Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion: It’s different all the way through. Some essays are short reviews that introduce a show or comic or movie to a reader who has never seen/read it. Some of the selections are long, serious-looking academic articles (footnotes, multisyllabic words, deep thoughts) by internationally known scholars. Some are fascinating interviews with actors or writers. Some are fond reminiscences of a fan’s pleasure in Buffy or another Whedon masterpiece. Some are psychological studies. Some are explanations of the fandom and/or the industry that support—or not—the television, movie, and book worlds. Some are impassioned, sometimes really provoking arguments for or against a certain interpretation of a work. So I hope any admirer of Whedon’s creations will find essays to enjoy, debate, and value here.

I didn’t expect to be editing this book during the fall of 2011. In August I was celebrating my birthday with a two-week stay in London after attending the delightful St. Hilda’s Crime and Mystery Weekend at Oxford when I received an email from Karen Zarker. She asked whether I might be interested in editing a collection of articles, many from PopMatters’ April 2011 special feature, “Spotlight: Joss Whedon” (edited by Robert Moore), on Joss Whedon’s works in all media. Of course I might! The only catch was that the 60-odd (some quite odd...) essays from 46 writers had to be edited and submitted to Titan by November 21. Of course I said yes! After all, as Han Solo once said, how hard could it be? After grading too many thousands of English themes and research papers, evaluating more than a few manuscripts for publication as journal articles and books, presenting many papers at various academic conferences, and publishing a few essays—surely editing one little book on my favorite television genius wouldn’t be too difficult. Well, it was and it wasn’t.

Consider the subject: the works of Joss Whedon. What better subject could I have asked for? Confession: I was not one of the people who watched Buffy from “Welcome to the Hellmouth” on March 10, 1997. While I thought Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the funniest, coolest series title I’d ever heard, I wouldn’t be caught dead or even undead watching the show: it was about nasty, mean, evil vampires, for heaven’s sake. I don’t like vampires. But my friend and fellow English professor (you might have heard of her: Rhonda Wilcox) kept saying You have to watch this show! It’s the best-written, wittiest, most brilliant series on television! Go watch! Now! But I resisted. Until spring quarter ended and the network-that-shall-not-be-named reran all the little bitty first season of 12 episodes; then I forced myself to watch the evil vampires, just as a special favor to my friend. By the third episode I was hooked. And I haven’t missed a Joss Whedon series since then (thanks, Rhonda). I loved Angel and appreciated Dollhouse. (I even enjoyed Waterworld before I had ever heard of Joss.) And how could I resist Fray, X-Men, Dr. Horrible, and The Avengers? Best of all, I was rewarded with a series obviously created just for me, who had written a dissertation on popular Westerns and read science fiction for decades: Firefly.

Consider the writers in this book: What more interested writers could I have dealt with? Whether undergrads, critics, journalists, lawyers, professors, theologians, or regular fans, they all truly wanted to say something about Joss’s creations; every writer I contacted was eager to clarify or add something to make his/her/their essay even better. Each essay is in a different style, a different dialect (mostly shades of American and British), a different voice—and I quickly discovered approximately 127 different ways to document sources. I attempted to make at least the format reasonably consistent. Otherwise, each writer in the book says what she/he wanted to say. If you put all of them together in a room, it would be difficult to distinguish the types of fans. And I can verify that those staid, overeducated professionals (professors, especially) are just as enthusiastic—rabid?—as the twenty-year-old who just discovered Buffy or Angel or Firefly and stayed up all night watching an entire season on DVD. If you don’t believe me, please attend a Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses and see for yourself; SC5 meets in Vancouver in July 2012. And you can read Slayage, the online Journal of the Whedon Studies Association anytime.

And, finally, consider my project manager. No one could have been more helpful and witty than Karen Zarker of PopMatters in shepherding me through the perilous experience of being a content editor. Having the opportunity to edit Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion is the best seventieth birthday present I could have received.

Mary Alice Money

Emerita Professor of English

Gordon College, Barnesville, Georgia, USA

0.01

Introduction

Why Cast a Spotlight on Joss Whedon?

Robert Moore

Why another examination of Joss Whedon? He has been the most intensely studied TV creator in popular culture, with dozens of books and thousands of essays covering and recovering every aspect of his television series, movies, and comics. What is it that has generated such unprecedented interest? Why do so many people care so deeply about his television series, comics, movies, and Internet musicals?1

Whedon’s influence on pop culture has been so deep and wide-ranging it is hard to realize that we are only a decade and a half removed from the debut of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on the fledgling WB network. The WB is long gone at this point—as is UPN, where Buffy relocated after a dispute between Twentieth Century Fox and the WB over money—but Buffy continues to obsess and delight fans to a degree granted only a handful of shows.

Lest one try to marginalize the show by assigning it “Cult TV” status, one should also keep in mind that Buffy remains the most intensely studied television series by television critics and scholars in the history of television, which does not preclude its being a cult show, though it would be a most unusual one. Unlike many other series targeted by TV scholars, such as the shows making up the Star Trek franchise, studies of Buffy are almost entirely textual analyses of the show’s content instead of studies of the show’s fandom. People remain primarily concerned with what Buffy, Angel, Firefly, and Dollhouse have to say about culture almost to the complete exclusion of questions about who watches these shows or why.

Writing was almost literally in Joseph Hill Whedon’s blood (he later morphed his first name into “Joss”). While his mother was an active feminist, his father Tom was a television writer, working on series like Benson, The Golden Girls, and Electric Company. Joss’s grandfather was also a television writer, enabling his grandson to assert that he was the world’s first third-generation television writer. Grandfather John wrote for such famous 1950s and 1960s shows as The Donna Reed Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and The Andy Griffith Show. Joss’s brothers Jed and Zack have followed in the family tradition, while Jed’s wife Maurissa Tancharoen (the self-described “Asian Whedon”) is also a TV writer (Jed and Maurissa—who write as a team—are currently staff writers on the Starz series Spartacus, which was created and is run by Buffy veteran Steven DeKnight).

Joss Whedon had more than a minor impact on popular culture prior to Buffy, through his writing on Roseanne, screenplays for Titan A.E., Toy Story (doing an important late rewrite of the script that helped the film net an Oscar nomination for best screenplay), Alien Resurrection, and (perhaps most famously) the film version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and for his work as a script doctor on films like Speed, Twister, and Waterworld. Yet his real impact is on television. The success of Buffy on TV created the demand for the spinoff Angel and created the opportunity for the space Western Firefly, which although quickly canceled by Fox TV after it failed to be the hit replacement for The X-Files that they hoped it to be, went on to become one of the most beloved series ever. Due to remarkably strong DVD sales, Firefly was continued in the feature film Serenity. Although the film was not a box office success, it has gone on to be a consistent seller on DVD and Blu-ray, so that the film has turned a substantial profit for Universal Studios, which had purchased the film rights from Twentieth Century Fox. In addition, it has grown in critical regard and today persistently makes lists of the best SF movies ever made.

After the cancellation of Angel by the WB and the box office failure of Serenity, Whedon turned to comics. While still working on Buffy he had produced the critically acclaimed comic Fray, a story of a vampire slayer in the future, while his later work with famed artist John Cassaday on Astonishing X-Men resulted in one of the more celebrated superhero stories of recent years. Typically, Whedon elevated a female heroine in his story, creating the Kitty Pryde story. He later took over from creator Brian K. Vaughan on Runaways, a comic that itself had been deeply influenced by Buffy.

Joss then embarked on his most ambitious comic book project, working with the Dark Horse label to continue Buffy’s story by producing Season 8 in comic book form. Although there have been many comic book continuances of movies and television series, having new and canonical versions of series with full involvement of the creator was practically unheard of at the time. (Since then others have followed Whedon’s example, such as Rockne O’Bannon writing Farscape stories, while Bryan Fuller hopes to continue his utterly brilliant but prematurely canceled Pushing Daisies as a comic). Whedon has continued other series in comics as well, having done prequels to Serenity and continuing Angel past the events ending Season 5 in the IDW comic Angel: After the Fall.

Whedon returned to television in the flawed but often brilliant Dollhouse, a series that was relatively little watched—not least because Fox put it in its notorious Friday Night Death Slot—but which did evolve into a fascinating series that showed enormous potential. Like Firefly, it may in the long run prove to have been a series that was a bit too far ahead of its time.

Immediately after the announcement by Fox of the greenlighting of Dollhouse, Hollywood was hit by a strike by the Screen Writers Guild. During the strike Whedon conceived of writing a direct-to-Internet musical, which he proceeded to write with his brothers Zack and Jed and sister-in-law Maurissa Tancharoen. The musical, taking the form of an Internet video blog, was Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, and starred Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible, a would-be member of the Evil League of Evil, though in fact a bit of a moral anarchist trying to cause the downfall of the capitalist system through acts of terrorism (fighting the status quo which, he says, is “not quo”). The story also focused on the Doctor vying with his arch nemesis Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion) for the affections of Penny (Felicia Day), and contained a string of catchy original songs that were appealingly performed by the participants. Dr. Horrible was shown online for free on three consecutive days in July 2008. Later it was sold via iTunes and on DVD/Blu-ray (with a truly funny musical cast commentary) in an attempt to make back production costs and put a little money in the pockets of the people who made it.

Dr. Horrible is in many ways the most unique and could, in the long run, prove to be one of Whedon’s most important achievements. Many regarded it as the first great thing produced directly for the Internet, and the way the participants self-funded the project could provide a template for other producers of scripted content who want to work outside the studio system. The entertainment industry didn’t quite know how to categorize the musical. The American Film Institute dubbed it one of “Eight Moments of Significance” of 2008, while it won an Emmy despite never having appeared on TV, though when Neil Patrick Harris hosted the Emmys, he and his fellow Dr. Horrible cast members did a short reprisal of their roles onstage. But what Dr. Horrible showed was that it was possible to produce exceptionally fine direct-to-Internet content without the help of the studio system, something that Dr. Horrible female lead Felicia Day has demonstrated as well, producing a number of Internet series, most famously The Guild, an online series about a MMORPG gaming guild which she not only stars in but also writes and produces.

In the future, the Internet could well be where Whedon does much of his work. He had announced intentions to do so earlier in his career, but Dollhouse and film projects intervened. It will be surprising if Dr. Horrible, or its highly anticipated sequel, is the last Internet production in which Whedon is involved. In fact, in October 2011 fans were stunned to learn that somehow, despite spending months filming the big budget Marvel film The Avengers, Whedon had found time to do a low budget film entitled Much Ado About Nothing, a version of the Shakespeare play that stars many of his regulars. Many have hoped for the Internet to be a platform for innovative and experimental content that is not limited by the lowest-common-denominator mentality that afflicts so much Hollywood thinking. There have been some excellent ongoing Internet series, not least the aforementioned The Guild, but the sense remains that a vast untapped potential lies there. Whedon could well be the person to tap it.

But before he gets back to the Internet, Joss Whedon has some movies to make or release. Whedon and former Buffy and Angel writer Drew Goddard (who later gained acclaim writing for Lost and for writing the script for Cloverfield, but who also managed a cameo in Dr. Horrible as Evil League of Evil member “Fake Thomas Jefferson”) wrote the script for The Cabin in the Woods, which Whedon produced and Goddard directed. Although the film—which stars Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford, and Chris Hemsworth (who was reunited with Whedon when he played Thor in The Avengers) was in the can, MGM decided to delay the release in order to convert it to 3D. Meanwhile MGM experienced a complete financial meltdown and the release was delayed indefinitely. MGM finally worked through its financial woes and sold the American and British distribution rights to Lionsgate. An April 13, 2012, release date has been announced, three weeks before the release of The Avengers, no doubt in the hope that star Chris Hemsworth and producer/writer Whedon’s involvement in the latter will pull in fans to the former.

If there is a significant delay in Whedon fulfilling his Internet dreams, it will be because of the biggest project of his career to date. In the spring of 2010 rumors began circulating that Joss Whedon was being tapped to direct what many anticipated as being the most ambitious superhero film yet attempted, Marvel’s The Avengers, the film towards which the two Iron Man movies, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger were all building. The Avengers, slated for a May 2012 release, will bring Whedon his largest audience yet.

WHY DO WHEDON’S CREATIONS RESONATE SO STRONGLY WITH HIS FANS?

Indeed, his various projects do inspire a passion that is rare in the industry, a goal that conforms with Whedon’s explicit intentions; he has said that he would rather have 100 viewers who had to watch one of his shows than 1,000 who liked to watch. What are some the qualities that have made viewing his shows or reading his comics so compulsory? Why do so many of us have to watch (and re-watch) his shows and films? Answering the last question adequately would require its own book, and even in a short essay a dozen or so possible answers are possible. The essays comprising this book provide several answers to this question, but let me touch three things that suggest some of the reasons his work is so entrancing for so many.

1. JOSS WHEDON LIKES WHAT WE LIKE

In an August 2010 interview with io9.com, writer China Miéville explained why he dislikes J. J. Abrams’s SF films:

“I’ve never met [J.J. Abrams]. I am not a member of his fan club or anti-fan club. I disliked Cloverfield a very great deal. I disliked Star Trek intensely. I thought it was terrible. And I think part of my problem is that I feel like the relationship between J.J. Abrams’ projects and geek culture is one of relatively unloving repackaging—sort of cynical. I taste contempt in the air. Now I’m not a child—I know that all big sci-fi projects are suffused with the contempt of big money for its own target audience. But there’s something about [J.J.’s projects] that makes me particularly uncomfortable. As compared to somebody like Joss Whedon, who—even when there are misfires—I feel likes me and loves me and is on some cultural level my brother and comrade. And I don’t feel that way about J.J. Abrams.” (Miéville)

Without passing judgment on J. J. Abrams [for my part I suspect that he cares for SF and fantasy more than Miéville imagines; after all he has continually returned to action, SF, and fantasy genres, and even Felicity—a show grounded in everyday reality if any is—featured an alternative reality segment near the end of its final season], there is no question that Joss Whedon is not merely a TV creator and writer: he is a fan. He has frequently expressed his love for other TV series, such as Veronica Mars and Battlestar Galactica, appearing in a guest cameo in the former and allegedly being invited to direct an episode of the latter, though work on the Dollhouse pilot prevented his involvement. He writes comic books as an insider, and his shows are delightfully littered with references to other TV series, movies, books, and comic books.

Many TV series name check movies, TV series, and comics, but all too frequently with the unloving care that Miéville detects. Not Whedon. His shows are filled with geeks and nerds, and even when their obsessions are treated humorously, it is done so with a degree of affection. Take the Season 6 episode of Buffy (“Smashed” 6.9), in which Spike goes to Warren and his fellow geek villains to have him verify whether the chip the Initiative implanted in Spike’s skull was still working. Warren initially refuses; and Spike, unable to hurt Warren or his friends because of the chip, sees their Boba Fett figurine and realizes how he can force them to cooperate:

Spike: Examine my chip, or else Mister [looks at label] Fett here is the first to die.

Jonathan: [Panicking] Hey, all right, let’s not, let’s not do anything crazy here.

Andrew: That’s a limited edition, 1979 mint condition Boba Fett.

Warren: All right, dude. Chill. You can still make it right. You know you don’t wanna do this.

Spike: What I want is answers, nimrod.

Warren: Right. But you don’t wanna hurt the Fett, ‘cause man, you’re not coming back from that. You know, you don’t just do that and walk away.

To the degree that he is able—given network and studio interference—Whedon tells the stories he does because he belongs to his target audience. Miéville’s criticism of Abrams is grounded in the fact that he believes Abrams is an outsider and that his movies and shows are imbued with condescension and cynicism. Whether this is true of Abrams, it is true that too many SF series and movies feel like they were made by people who look down on those they hope will buy tickets to see their films or tune in on their TVs.

This is one reason that the announcement of Marvel Studios’ decision to have Whedon direct The Avengers was greeted with such enthusiasm: he not only likes comics but writes them. One senses a deep affection for these characters on the part of Whedon and the well-justified hope is that he will produce a film that will not just be a summer blockbuster but will also have credibility with those hardcore comics fans who have grown up reading The Mighty Thor, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, and The Invincible Iron Man.

Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, Fray, Amazing X-Men, and Dr. Horrible were all made by a SF and fantasy insider for people who love SF and fantasy stories. And while he has directed memorable episodes of other shows—he has directed especially fine episodes of The Office and Glee—the kinds of genre shows he has excelled in represent a kind of home base for him.

2. JOSS WHEDON THINKS WE ARE SMART

Most TV writers assume that their viewers are idiots, completely gullible, or at least not terribly intelligent. A significant number of series are invariably targeted at the lowest common denominator and only rarely demand that the viewer pay close attention to what is going on. Whedon, on the other hand, credits his viewers with a high degree of intelligence and assumes that they are capable of absorbing a considerable degree of detail. He assumes a high level of literacy on the part of his audience, and frequently makes reference to classic films and books in addition to pop culture. For instance, in the Buffy episode “Goodbye Iowa” (4.14) the Cyborg Adam encounters a young boy in a scene that is supposed to remind viewers of a comparable scene in James Whale’s original Frankenstein (1931), in which the Monster meets a little girl as he first goes out in the world. You can still enjoy the scene if you don’t get the reference, but it is all the more satisfying if you do.

Or take the Season 6 episode “Older and Far Away” (6.14), in which all the guests at Buffy’s birthday party are trapped after Dawn makes an unfortunate wish to the vengeance demon Halfrek. Dawn complains that everyone she knows keeps leaving and wishes that they wouldn’t. As a result of her wish none of the party guests are able to leave the Summers’ residence. Foreign film buffs will recognize the plot as deriving from the Luis Buñuel film The Exterminating Angel (1962). In both film and episode there is no discernable physical barrier keeping the guests from leaving, but something mysterious and ineffable, the only difference being that in Buffy we discover the magical cause while in the Buñuel film we never learn why they are unable to leave. Again, not knowing the film is no hindrance to enjoying the Buffy episode (even Kenneth Topping in his usually incredibly informative The Complete Slayer, 2004, fails to note the connection to The Exterminating Angel), but it adds to the fun.

Sometimes the writing requires at least a little knowledge to make sense of a scene, and if you don’t possess the knowledge Whedon doesn’t have his writers go out of their way to explain the reference. When Oz is captured by the Initiative (“New Moon Rising” 4.19), Buffy and the Scoobies break into the Initiative’s underground bunker and rescue him, taking its leader as hostage. When they run into a group of soldiers, Buffy quickly holds a crossbow to the head of the commanding officer and orders the soldiers to keep away:

Buffy: Stay back, or I’ll pull a William Burroughs on your leader here.

Xander: You’ll bore him to death with free prose?

Buffy: Was I the only one awake in English that day?

If the viewer is unaware that William S. Burroughs often employed free association in his writing (so that Xander was in fact paying a little bit of attention in class), one might not get Xander’s reference; but if one is also unaware that Burroughs accidentally shot and killed his wife while drunkenly playing a game of “William Tell,” one would not get Buffy’s.

Watching Whedon’s shows carefully repays all the effort one expends, with the payoff coming in both big and small ways. Near the end of Season 6 of Buffy, after her girlfriend Tara has been killed by a stray bullet, Willow is literally hell-bent for revenge. When she catches up with the gunman, Warren, in the woods, he frantically begs for his life before Willow says “Bored now” and through magic flays him alive. Viewers familiar with the series instantly recognize the phrase from the Season 3 when we meet a vampire version of Willow from an alternate world. That Willow, thoroughly evil, often tells others “Bored now” (“Doppelgängland” 3.16). The implication is that our Willow—goodhearted, sweet, reliable Willow—whom viewers have loved for six full seasons of Buffy has become as corrupt as her evil doppelganger. Marti Noxon, the writer of the episode, does not underscore or emphasize the reference, and not getting it doesn’t detract much from enjoying the episode; but for those who recognize the reference, it provides an additional layer of explanation for just how dark Willow has gone. It also tells us what has happened to our Willow. Just as the other Willow turned evil upon losing her soul upon becoming a vampire, so ours has become evil after losing Tara, which is for her tantamount to losing her soul.

The same kind of intelligent care has gone into the narrative structuring of the show. Stories are planned not merely over several episodes but even into future seasons. Although Buffy’s sister Dawn does not appear until Season 5, it is something foreshadowed in a Season 4 dream sequence in which Buffy and the rogue Slayer Faith are making a bed together. Recognizing that Buffy needs to leave, Faith remarks, “Little sis coming, I know. So much to do before she gets here” (“This Year’s Girl” 4.15). No explanation is given as to what Faith means; the hint is just left hanging in the air. But fans re-watching the episode after Dawn’s mysterious appearance at the beginning of Season 5 find the reference delightful, just as they can Tara’s words to Buffy in another dream sequence in the Season 4 finale “Restless” (4.22): “Be back before dawn.” All this points to the depth of Whedon’s shows, the sheer quantity not merely of text but also subtext. That Whedon is aware of the layering is obvious. Giles even remarks to Buffy in one episode that subtext had become text; that is perpetually true of the show.

In a Season 2 episode, Giles, Buffy’s middle-aged Watcher, becomes interested in asking his fellow teacher Jenny Calendar out on a date. When Xander, Willow, and Buffy—who have been discussing a classmate they believe has been collecting body parts to reanimate his dead brother—see Giles nervously waiting for Jenny in order to ask her out, Xander suddenly says:

Xander: And speaking of love.

Willow: [Confused] We were talking of the reanimation of dead tissue.

Xander: Do I deconstruct your segues? (“No Assembly Required” 2.2)

Xander, of course, is cleverly suggesting that Giles’s—whom they all regard as impossibly old—romantic interest in Jenny is the reanimating of a different kind of dead tissue.

It is the deep embrace of subtext that has resulted in the exhaustive examination of productions like Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Serenity, Dr. Horrible, and Dollhouse by television critics and scholars. Buffy has inspired countless narratives about its narratives. Seven years after the final episode of Buffy there is no end in sight of books and essays and academic conferences covering every conceivable aspect of the show. Even critically acclaimed series like The Sopranos and The Wire receive only a small percentage of the critical attention that Buffy has. The reason lies in the rich subtext that undergirds the show. We can say so much about Buffy because it says so much to begin with. And what is true of Buffy is true as well of Angel, Fray, Serenity, The Astonishing X-Men, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, and Dollhouse, and will, we hope, prove true of The Avengers, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Cabin in the Woods as well.

3. JOSS WHEDON TRULY LIKES AND RESPECTS WOMEN

Buffy Summers was not the first female hero on television, but her appearance was a pivotal moment in the history of women there. Prior to Buffy, one could count the number of heroic females in television on the fingers of both hands with several digits left over. But after Buffy, there has been an unceasing string of female heroes who follow the pattern established on Buffy. (See my essay elsewhere in this volume on “How Buffy Changed Television” for greater detail on the role Buffy played in establishing a major presence of female heroes on TV.)

Because so many other essays in this book will delve into Whedon’s regard for women there is no need to explore this more fully here. Simply, his shows reflect again and again his respect for and appreciation of women, and he consistently places heroic women in his every project. Anyone who has heard his remarkable acceptance speech upon being presented an award by Equality Now understands much of what goes into his portrayal of strong female characters. And this is clearly one of the reasons his shows have been so passionately embraced.

Why is this important? Why particularly is it crucial that there be these vital, strong, heroic women?

To answer this question I must turn to the personal. As a single father raising a young girl, I quickly learned to appreciate how desperately my daughter wanted to see heroic girls and women in movies and on TV. Watching Peter Pan, she unexpectedly viewed Wendy as the hero of the story. Many classic films were rejected when we visited the video store, Elizabeth asking instead for movies “with girl heroes.” This was immediately pre-Buffy, but after watching The Wizard of Oz, The Journey of Natty Gann, and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, pickings were slim.

All this changed with Buffy. Instead of the occasional movie or television series with strong females, there is now a host. It is possible that shows, such as Roswell, Farscape, Dark Angel, Alias, Veronica Mars, Battlestar Galactica, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Fringe would have appeared anyway, but the fact is that it was only after Buffy that such shows hit the networks in any quantity.

I learned firsthand through my daughter just how important it is for young girls—or even older girls—to have examples women who demonstrate that it is good to be strong. It is just as important for men to grasp and understand that men are not really strong unless women are also strong. Men are not strengthened by the diminishing of women and vice versa.

My daughter wanted “girl heroes” that she could identify with and whose exploits she could enjoy. Unfortunately, she had few. Today, post-Buffy, there are many. Anyone who has helped change the cultural landscape to that degree deserves considerably more than a mere book.

Yet we respectfully and enthusiastically submit our book on Joss Whedon’s works so far. The essays and interviews in this collection cover in detail all of the TV series, comics, and movies that have been mentioned here. Some of the essays examine themes in particular shows, while others trace ideas that cut across all of his work. Some essays explore specific characters in detail, while others ask what his work has meant for the depiction of gender or heroism or sexuality. Other writers examine specific episodes in especial detail, while others look at his struggles with studios or how his work has inspired fans to assert their power in new and innovative ways. Meanwhile “Joss Whedon 101” essays serve as introductions to all of Whedon’s best-known productions and even many of his minor ones, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer all the way down to his one-shot comic Sugarshock!. We also feature in-depth interviews with prominent figures from the Whedonverse. In the future we expect to enjoy the expansion of that Whedonverse into realms of television, film, print, Internet, and media now unexplored.

________

1 To grasp how wide-ranging and intense the interest has been in only two of his creations, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, see Don Macnaughton’s The Buffyverse Catalog: A Complete Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel in Print, Film, Television, Comics, Games and Other Media, 1992-2010. What is striking about many of the publications recorded there is how many are either serious critical pieces or academic essays. While the Star Trek franchise can surpass Buffy and Angel in terms of merchandise, neither it nor any other television series has inspired anything approaching the same degree of serious critical and scholarly attention.

CHAPTER 1

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER

1.01

Joss Whedon 101:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Robert Moore

The story of the transformation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer from a low-budget feature film into a critically acclaimed television series is an improbable one. Joss Whedon was not, in fact, the instigator. That credit goes to producer Gail Berman, who in the mid-1990s was looking for new projects to develop for television. In 1992 the film version of Buffy had been released, based on Whedon’s original screenplay. Exasperated with changes being made to his script during filming, he eventually left the set and avoided the studio during the later stages of filming. Whedon had gone on to enjoy a flourishing and highly remunerative career as writer and script doctor and had, in fact, put Buffy behind him by the time Berman approached him about the possibility of turning the film into a television series. Berman had presciently anticipated that the movie would provide the basis for an excellent series and sold Whedon on the idea (Whedon 25). Although she would later be mercilessly castigated as the villain who pulled the plug on Firefly when she was head of programming at Fox TV, the fact is that without Berman’s initiative, neither Buffy nor Firefly would ever have been produced.

Berman and Whedon took the idea of Buffy to all of the major networks but were rejected by each one. The fledgling WB network, however, was in search of original programming and ordered a pilot. Although they did not place it on their schedule for the fall of 1996, they did order it to series as a mid-season replacement in the winter of 1997. While a number of major TV critics were immediately taken with Buffy’s clever dialogue and meshing of comedy and drama alongside fighting vampires and demons (Matt Roush of TV Guide was perhaps the show’s first high profile fan), the ratings through its first season were never strong and renewal was uncertain. The WB finally decided to give the show another chance and during its second season, with greatly improved writing and a larger budget that made possible higher production values, the show became a hit.

The TV series picks up three months after the end of the movie, with Buffy Summers relocating from Los Angeles to a new school in Sunnydale, California. The move by Buffy and her mother was forced by her expulsion from her former high school after she burned down the gym, which was filled with vampires, an event contained in the film’s screenplay but which was eliminated due to budgetary limitations. The TV series is, therefore, strictly speaking not a sequel to the movie, but to the screenplay that Joss wrote that the movie was based on. Those wishing to see something like what he had in mind in writing the screenplay should see “Buffy: The Origin” in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus, a comic that was “Adapted from Joss Whedon’s original screenplay” by Dan Brereton and Christopher Golden (35-102).

In the film high school cheerleader Buffy Summers learns that she was the Chosen One; the formulation is sharpened in the TV series: “Into every generation a Slayer is born: one girl in all the world, a chosen one. She alone will wield the strength and skill to fight the vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness; to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers. She is The Slayer.”

As Joss Whedon has pointed out, as silly as the title of the show is, it hints at several major aspects of the series. “Buffy” is intrinsically comical and leads the viewer to expect humor; “Vampire” indicates that the viewer can anticipate the scary and supernatural; while “Slayer” promises action, with the expectation that the action will involve girl with the silly name.

One of the central themes in the show is Buffy’s reluctance to embrace her calling, from denying it in the show’s pilot, to begrudgingly acknowledging its inevitability in the next few seasons, until fully embracing it in Season 5. Being The Slayer, the Chosen One, was thrust upon her, without her having a say in it. Although the show is frequently comic in tone, Buffy’s story is at its core a tragic one. Why? Because one only becomes The Slayer when someone else has died, which points to the future and one’s own inevitable death, which is likely to be violent. As Buffy tells Giles in Season 5, “Look I realize that every Slayer comes with an expiration date on the package, but I want mine to be a long time from now. Like a cheeto” (“Fool for Love” 5.7). But the brute fact is that for Buffy many of the dreams she had when fifteen are no longer possibilities; instead her life situation is truly Hobbesian, a perpetual war against vampires and demons in which her life could well prove to be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

Though, in fact, not solitary. One of the major differences between the film and the series is that in the movie Buffy, though with some help from her love interest Pike, fights more or less on her own; in the series she instantly acquires a group of friends who form a team to aid her in her struggle against the demons and vampires. Willow and Xander, along with her watcher Giles, form the core of the Scooby Gang—whose ranks swell and ebb as the series progresses—who aid Buffy both as friends and sidekicks, in addition to engaging in the ceaseless research that backgrounds all their activity. The more frequent paradigm of the hero—such as Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name—is of a loner, someone who neither desires nor can afford friends or companions. Although Buffy is the most powerful of the Scoobies (though she is rivaled in later seasons by Willow’s emergence as a witch) and the only one who has no choice about fighting the powers of darkness, what sets her apart as a hero is the support she receives from friends and family. As the vampire Spike (later himself to be a member of the Scoobies) remarks after his first encounter with Buffy, “A Slayer with family and friends, that sure as hell wasn’t in the brochure” (“School Hard” 2.3).

The narrative format of Buffy was established in Season 1. A Big Bad (in the first season, an extremely ancient vampire known as The Master) is introduced, against whom Buffy engages in a season-long confrontation. Each season features several standalone episodes, but even in these some portion of the longer narrative is developed. The season-long arcs are focused mainly on the struggle against that year’s Big Bad. The arcs of the various characters are not, however, necessarily limited to a single season, but extend over two or more seasons. While neither Buffy’s, Willow’s, nor Xander’s personal stories are articulated in single-season chunks, those of The Master, The Mayor, and Glory are.

Joss Whedon is a risk taker, and that fact accounts for some of the most thrilling as well as some of the most disappointing moments in Buffy. The upside of taking risks is that when they pay off, the results can be extraordinary. Seasons 2, 3, and 5 show what can happen when the risks pay off, these being some of the most compelling seasons of any show in the history of TV. The downside of risk taking is that gambles don’t always pay off. Season 4, with its rather unconvincing and somewhat of-putting arc dealing with The Initiative, never really becomes particularly compelling, while the cyborg Adam is one of Buffy’s least interesting Big Bads. Season 4 is one of the show’s weakest, despite an abundance of outstanding standalone episodes. But despite this plethora of great episodes (“Wild at Heart” 4.6, “Something Blue” 4.9, “Hush” 4.10, “A New Man” 4.12, “This Year’s Girl”/“Who Are You?” 4.15-16, “Superstar” 4.17, and “Restless” 4.22, to name only a few), they could not compensate for the weak central narrative.

Buffy was the WB’s flagship series through Season 5. Then, after bitter contract negotiations between Twentieth Century Fox, the studio that produced the series, and the WB broke down, the show moved over to UPN. The final two seasons are generally not felt to be Buffy’s finest. Both seasons were dark and featured too many weak episodes, while the Big Bads were not up to the level of previous baddies. The show nonetheless managed some spectacular episodes, such as the unforgettable musical episode “Once More, With Feeling” (6.7), “Conversations With Dead People” (7.7) and “Chosen” (7.22), the series finale. The show continued to take risks and refused to repeat itself; if the risks did not quite pay off, neither can it be said that Whedon and new show runner Marti Noxon were ever willing to stand pat.

The story of Buffy’s success remains one of the most improbable in the history of TV. After all, most attempts at converting films to TV involve successful films, not failures. Not merely a successful television series, the show not only created a cultural icon in the character of Buffy Summers, but established new precedents in what it was possible to do with television. Few seeing the film in 1992 would have imagined that the little blonde vampire-slaying cheerleader would become an indelible feature of our cultural landscape.

Works Cited

Brereton, Dan, and Christopher Golden. “Buffy: The Origin.” Adapted from Joss Whedon’s original screenplay. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus. Vol. 1. Milwaukee, OR: Dark Horse, 2007. Print.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Chosen Collection. Cr. Joss Whedon. Perf. Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hannigan, Nicholas Brendon, Michelle Trachtenberg, and Anthony Stewart Head. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2006. DVD.

“Chosen.” 7.22. Writ. and dir. Joss Whedon. Buffy.

“Conversations with Dead People.” 7.7. Writ. Jane Espenson and Drew Goddard. Dir. Nick Marck. Buffy.

“Fool for Love.” 5.7. Writ. Doug Petrie. Dir. David Solomon. Buffy.

“Hush.” 4.10. Writ. and dir. Joss Whedon. Buffy.

“A New Man.” 4.12. Writ. Jane Espenson. Dir. Michael Gershman. Buffy.

“Once More With Feeling.” 6.7. Writ., dir., and music by Joss Whedon. Buffy.

“Restless.” 4.22. Writ. and dir. Joss Whedon. Buffy.

“School Hard.” 2.3. Writ. David Greenwalt and Joss Whedon. Dir. John T. Kretchmer. Buffy.

“Something Blue.” 4.9. Writ. Tracey Forbes. Dir. Nick Marck. Buffy.

“Superstar.” 4.17. Writ. Jane Espenson. Dir. David Grossman. Buffy.

“This Year’s Girl” (part 1 of 2). 4.15. Writ. Douglas Petrie. Dir. David Grossman. Buffy.

Whedon, Joss. Interview by Tasha Robinson. The A.V. Club.com. 5 Sep. 2001. Onion. Web. Joss Whedon: Conversations. Ed. David Lavery and Cynthia Burkhead. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 2011. 23-33. Print. Television Conversations Series.

“Wild at Heart.” 4.6. Writ. Marti Noxon. Dir. David Grossman. Buffy.

“Who Are You?” (part 2 of 2). 4.16. Writ. and dir. Joss Whedon. Buffy.

1.02

“Raise Your Hand If You’re Invulnerable!”:

An Interview with Harry Groener

Tanya R. Cochran

On Monday, January 24, 2011, I had the privilege of spending some phone-time with Harry Groener. A versatile and seasoned actor, Groener may best be known to readers as the third-season Buffy the Vampire Slayer antagonist Mayor Richard Wilkins, a frontrunner for the Buffy fan’s favorite villain. Yet Groener has been acting for decades, commanding both screen and stage. In the following interview, Groener answers questions about what it means to be honored by his peers and remain rooted in the theatre, what it was like to work with Whedon and Buffy actors Sarah Michelle Gellar and Eliza Dushku, what constitutes a healthy actor/fan relationship, and what he’s excited about concerning his latest project.

PopMatters: First and foremost, congratulations on the Ovation Award for Equivocation. After quite a few prestigious nominations—including nominations for several American Theatre Wing Tony Awards®—over your career, what does this particular award mean to you? How does it feel to be recognized in this way?

Harry Groener: It’s recognition by the community of my work, and it means a lot because of the play itself. I love the play, and I adore Bill Cain who wrote it. The experience was a very meaningful one for me, so it meant a lot that [my role in Equivocation] was the one that was pulled out and was recognized. It’s always good when your peers in the community recognize you for your work. It makes you feel good! And it is good to be nominated. People make fun of saying that, but it is, in fact, true. Somebody has to win because that’s the contest, right? Those are the rules. But in truth—and this is the way I felt about the other nominations—the fact that you are singled out as one of the few for that season does mean a lot to me. Winning is the icing, the recognition of it, the acknowledgment of it. It means a lot.

PM: I know that you and your wife Dawn Didawick are among the founding members of the Antaeus Company in North Hollywood, California, and that the theatre’s mission includes helping actor-members stay grounded and rejuvenated, mentoring each other, and reaching out to the community. As a teacher myself, I’m interested in the teaching roles you have taken on in the company (or on the sets of your various projects) and what you enjoy most about teaching others—actors or community members—your craft.

HG: Well, this is funny because I’ve been asked if I wanted to teach. At the moment, what I enjoy doing are the question and answer sessions with the younger actors, as opposed to master classes. Going in and working on scene work... I still have a reluctance to do any of that, only because I feel that I’m still working it out myself so I don’t know that I’m... I don’t want to say “qualified” because I think there is a certain qualification that I have to give out information. But as far as being in a classroom situation, I’m a little uncomfortable with that at the moment. I might not be later on. But I’m not uncomfortable in the question and answer format. I know that benefited us greatly when I was [a student] at the University of Washington and we had actors come in. We would pump them for information and get as much as we could about what it was like “out there.” And I liked that. It opens up all kinds of subjects. And if that leads to some demonstration, that’s one thing... but it’s that type of work that I enjoy. As far as [The Antaeus Company’s] concerned, I’ve done some of that. We’re very involved and we have a wonderful outreach program and we go out to schools. Our company does mainly classical plays, so we try to bring those plays to a younger audience and try to help build [the art] because we’re losing that audience to computers and other media. We have to try to find a way to bring them into the theatre, and I enjoy that. In fact, many people in the company enjoy that. We have a lot of good teachers in the company, many who teach Shakespeare classes and all kinds of other things.

PM: Yes, I looked at the list of members, and you have an impressive group of people working together there.

HG: Yes, yes. It really is. It’s an amazing company: over a hundred actors. Not all working at the same time. Most of the actors work in television and film and other places. There are usually between 40 and 60 who are available at one time to do a project, and even that gets mixed up because one of the tenets of our company is that we double cast all of our plays. That was something set up by Dakin Matthews who, along with Lillian Garrett-Groag, started the company as a way to function in Los Angeles where you come to do television and film not theatre. And [Matthews] said, “How do we do this?” Well, if you double cast, you’re free to go and do and make the money you need to survive, to live. And the integrity of the play is not compromised because you have an equally wonderful actor in the role who takes over for the time that you’re gone. At one point it was even thought maybe we could go as deep as triple casting, but that would have been insane! Yet that was thought of, to cover our bases.

From the beginning, we knew that we would be different, very different than an understudy situation. There are actors, including myself, who realize you’re doing it for nothing. Yes, you’re doing it for love, but it’s time consuming. Part of the deal is that you actually get to perform. Nobody wants to work in an understudy situation; no one would take that responsibility on because it’s too much time. And so who would take on an understudy position? Well, the actors who need the experience and need the work and might not be as proficient in their work yet, and so the quality of the production is diminished—or can be or possibly is diminished—to some extent, and that’s not something our company wants to deal with. There’s a lot of talk about the double-casting situation because it’s difficult primarily on the directors, unless they really come into it knowing it’s going to be difficult and they accept it, but it’s really hard for them. It’s harder for them, I think, and for the stage manager in terms of scheduling, than it is for the actors. There are some actors in the company who don’t like it, who don’t want to do it. They would prefer to have a single cast, but that isn’t always possible. I think it’s impossible. For the company to survive, I think you have to double cast. In fact, I couldn’t work with the company unless it double cast.

PM: In a 2002 interview with Nancy Rosati of Talkin’ Broadway, you say, “The goal is really the same whether it’s television, film, or theater, and that’s to tell a good story.” You feature prominently in the third-season narrative arc of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Would you define that season’s story as “good,” and if so, what specifically made it good?

HG: Yes, I would say that it was good, and I think the fans confirm that it was good. I think it was probably the way the mayor was set up and then the way he was written. Joss was very specific, very clear about what he wanted with this particular guy. [Mayor Richard Wilkins] was innocuous. [Whedon] didn’t want someone with a very thin moustache saying, “You must pay the rent, you must pay the rent,” and if ever I crossed over into that sphere, he would say, “No, no, no. Don’t worry about that. Throw it away, throw it away, throw it away.” He was very clear about selling that story. And what I thought was wonderful, and what I got from a lot of the fans, was that the mayor was much more scary because he didn’t have any horns or scales or fangs or whatever. He was like your guy next door. He was like your uncle. And he was dangerous and deadly. Don’t we see that all the time in the news? We see very plain-looking people and they’re evil and they kill children. Awful people. I think it’s the way that [Whedon] told this particular story. You locked into that arc. And you really got it. The mayor seemed unstoppable, the way they were setting him up. Of course, you all knew in the back of your head that Buffy was going to win—she had to win—but the way they were setting it up, [viewers] kept wondering, When is it going to happen? He’s getting stronger and stronger, and he’s gonna win, he’s gonna! It’s the way Joss wrote it that made it a really good story. They gave me great, great things to do. Very funny things. The humor was very important along with the danger of it.

PM: You have performed in a wide variety of roles, venues, and genres. Yet I suppose there is something unique about each one. What made working on Buffy distinctive?

HG