The WBTonight, we laughed at God (that's Joss Whedon to you newbies); we cried—all over again—at Amber Benson's exquisite "Under Your Spell"; we came together to celebrate a show that many in the crowd testified "saved my life," "changed my life," "made me the person I am today..."
From 10 years on, Buffy the Vampire Slayer appears to be not so much a TV show as a masterpiece of human empathy. To celebrate Buffy's decade anniversary, the Scooby Gang reunited Thursday night at the ArcLight Theater in Hollywood for the Paley Center for Media's 25th Annual Television Festival. The evening celebrated a show that is not just a landmark of television, but almost certainly a landmark in the souls of its millions of fans.
Click in for scoop, quips, stars, fandom and, above all, the love, from what was truly Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More, with Feeling (and check back later for exclusive video of the cast!)...
The Writers
- Joss Whedon: "With all respect to the actors sitting next to me, what I miss most is the writers room."
- David Greenwalt: "There's nothing like taking all your pain and misery and shoving it into a bunch of really good-looking people."
- Marti Noxon: "I'd like to thank Joss Whedon for this show, because if my writing career ever stalls, I can always just go from WizardCon to WizardCon..."
- Joss' and Sarah Michelle Gellar's chemistry was on full display tonight. They both seem to dearly love Buffy Summers. I tell you, fannish hearts were warmed by the mutual admiration society.
- Joss on the age difference between sophomore-in-high-school Buffy and centuries-old Angel: "It was love...even if it wasn't legal."
- Joss said that shooting "Hush" without a dialogue framework for each scene was difficult because, "Everybody just did everything at once, and it was all over in 10 seconds."
- The network was underwhelmed by the idea of the Willow-Tara kiss ("We're gayed out," said the network. "We've had a lot of gay this year."), so Joss threatened to quit if they refused to allow it. "That was the only time I ever did that."
- Emma Caulfield's memory of Anya's devastating "I don't understand" monologue at the end of "The Body"? "I really had to pee."
- Michelle Trachtenberg: "Nick's just jealous because I'm taller than him now." Nicholas Brendon: "Yeah, well...I have bigger boobs. So there!"
- Sarah didn't know until someone told her tonight that Buffy's hooking up with a girl in the comic. Joss, on Buffy's temporary change of team: "They have a lot of time on their hands...What? None of you went to college?"
- Oz will almost certainly appear in the Buffy season eight comic. (Speaking of Oz, Willow's two major significant others—Seth Green and Amber Benson—cracked each other up all night, but sadly Alyson Hannigan was not present to participate in a threesome of awesomeness.)
- Will there be any filmed continuations of the franchise? Says Joss, the "stars would have to align." Just tell us where the stars need to be to get a Buffy movie, and we'll rearrange them!
Honestly, it was a signal night and a joy to experience, and I wish you all could have been there live.
Check back later today for exclusive video and a photo gallery, but in the meantime, if you have questions about exactly what went down, post 'em below, and I'll post answers as soon as I can.
Finally, before we wrap this, I have a personal favor to ask.
Post your favorite Buffy quote in the comments. I wanted to sprinkle BtVS quotes through this item, because while they say almost everything that needs to be said about life in bite-size format, but there were too many to choose from, so I'm throwing the selections to you...Go!