"There's a whole recipe for how to make a Buffy. Take one cup Sarah Connor from the first Terminator movie;
one cup Ripley; three tablespoons of the younger sister in Night of the Comet; a few sprigs of A Little
Princess (the book, not the movies); and a pinch of Jimmy Stewart for pain, because nobody does better pain.
Bake those up. Once it's cool, add a little Rosalind Russell from His Girl Friday. All of this must be in a
P.J.-Soles-in-Halloween crust. That's very important."
------ Joss Whedon
In Season One Episode Three, Buffy tries out for cheerleader and ends up saving Amber Grove, another cheerleading hopeful, from a fiery death. According to the Buffy Wiki, Grove was played by an "unknown actress". I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Grove was played by stuntwoman Lisa Dempsey, who was known to have worked on this episode. Dempsey is 1.6m tall, has brown hair and blue eyes, and lists "partial burns" as one of her specialties.
Amber Tamblyn portrayed Dawn's best friend, Janice Penshaw. Penshaw is mentioned throughout Season Six, but she appears in only one episode (Season 6 Episode 6 which is the Halloween episode for 2001). In that episode, she and Dawn tell their mothers they spending the night at each other's homes and then sneak out to with a couple of boys who turn out to be vampires. Dawn gets her first kiss and Janice is bitten. They are both rescued; Penshaw by Giles, and Dawn by Buffy and Spike. In Season 6 Episode 12 Dawn says that Janice's sister is a lawyer.
Ginger Williams, who played the girl whose death brought the gypsy curse on Angel (Buffy Episode #34), appeared on RINGER 14 November as the receptionist for Siobhan's shrink.
Russian PM Vladimir Putin has renamed his new Bulgarian shepherd puppy Buffy, after a national contest to choose a new name for the dog. The Russians admit to no connection to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The name was chosen by a 5-year-old from Moscow, Dima Sokolov. Dima said the name was found on the internet with the help of his parents. The dog was previously known as Yorgo.
Jennifer Sky was Heidi Barrie in Buffy Season One Episode Six
(THE PACK) and (possessed by hyenas) was one of the group who ate Principal Flutie. Sky was also Amarice in 6
episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess.
And Musetta Vander was Ilainus in "Amphipolis Under Siege" (Xena episode 104). She was also Natalie French in "Teacher's Pet" (Episode 4 of BTVS).
In a whimsical moment, Harry Groener, the actor who played Mayor Richard Wilkins in 14 episodes of BTVS, was cast in the role of Nathan Samuels in the penultimate episode of STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE. The name of the episode was "DEMONS"
In Chinese lore, the undead hop like bunnies, and appear in
varying states of decay, depending on how long they were dead before returning to life. They fear their own reflection.
They are called jiang shi, and their hoppiness most likely derives from
the widespread practice in ancient China of transporting a corpse from his place of death to his hometown for burial.
China being a big place even then, that often involved a journey of many hundreds of kilometers.
The bodies would often be carried home by a friend or family member. To make carrying the corpse easier, it was wrapped tightly in a shroud.
Before embalming became common, catalepsy sometimes caused people to be buried when they were not really dead. If the body were tightly wrapped, and a cataleptic "came back to life", hopping would be their natural form of locomotion, at least until they could figure out how to get themselves free of the shroud.
Buffy never got to China, although Spike did. Chinese vampires are never discussed in BTVS.
This video starts with a 1985 Kristine Sutherland ad for Diet Coke, and continues with her first TV role as mystery writer Pamela Johns in REMINGTON STEELE. It finishes with 1991 ad for Lipton Golden Saute.
Sutherland changed her name because there was another actor with the name Kristine Young. She took Sutherland from her cat, which was named Donald (after Donald Sutherland). The actor who precipitated the name change is now Kristine Young Gaffney and works as an editor for various reality shows.
"Living Conditions", Season 4 Episode 2, deals primarily with Buffy's interaction with her demon-like roomie who plays the Cher song "Believe" repeatedly throughout the episode. Not really Buffy's music. Somehow this let to a Gellar appearance at a Cher press conference in New York. "Believe" was number one at the time, and Cher was the oldest person ever to have a number one single.
Note that in the second 1-800-COLLECT ad, Buffy's fingernails have gotten considerably longer than in the first.
Riff Regan was Willow. She is now Director of Operations for a non-profit HIV/AIDS organization in Washington, D.C. Stephen Tobolowski, who was the principal in the MAD ABOUT YOU episode "Uncle Phil Goes Back to High School", played Principal Flutie.
Voice Cast:
Giselle Loren as 'Buffy Summers'
Alyson Hannigan as 'Willow Rosenberg'
Nicholas Brendon as 'Xander Harris'
Anthony Stewart Head as 'Rupert Giles'
Charisma Carpenter as 'Cordelia Chase'
Michelle Trachtenberg as 'Dawn Summers'
Kristine Sutherland as 'Joyce Summers'
Armin Shimerman as 'Principal Snyder'
David Boreanaz as 'Angel'
A RUMOUR from afterellen.com. A writer at TV Overmind reported that one if his friends, whom he declined to name, is helping to produce a new animated Buffy series with Joss Whedon's blessing. In 2002, a cartoon series pilot featuring all of the original cast (minus Gellar) was shot. It never aired. The new animated series would be an adaption of the Buffy comics. But it's unclear if this means the Buffy Season 8 series or the previous comic series.
And according to Famous Monsters of Filmland, a casting call has gone out to fill roles for an upcoming webseries based on Joss Whedon's Buffy The Vampire Slayer comic. It seems likely the webseries will adapt Season 8's second arc, "No Future For You", written by Brian K. Vaughn. They're looking for voice actors, since the webisodes will be in motion-comic format.
The 2008 PALEYFEST: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Reunion is available on DVD from Amazon. Below is a clip.
The above video was posted on YouTube by enilecccc. Below are some photos from CONVENTION:THE MUSICAL by Saeko Doyle and Dalanda D., in Paris.
THE THRONE OF THE SLAYER - BUFFY SUMMERS MAQUETTE, a detailed sculpture presenting an elaborately
seated chosen one, awaiting her next battle with the weight of her duty as the Slayer heavy on her shoulders.
Each piece is individually painted and finished, each with its own unique quality and detail. The limited
edition of 400 by SIDESHOW COLLECTIBLES is sold out.
Question: If they're calling it a maquette, does that mean somebody is going to make a full-size version?
The 2012 Buffy Calendar is now available from AMAZON
According to aceshowbiz.com, Entertainment Weekly's list of the top TV and Movie characters of the last 20 years puts Buffy Summers third behind Homer Simpson and Harry Potter.
The latest Buffy video game, SACRIFICE (for Nintendo DS) has been out in Europe and Australia for some months now and has been getting good reviews. Still not released in the US though.
Alyson Hannigan posted the above photo on her twitpic account. She apparently found a Buffy/Faith hybrid.
A list of The 25 Women Who Shook Sci-Fi compiled by totalscifionline.com put Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy) in second place and Battlestar Galactica's Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck) third. First place went to Sigourney Weaver (Ripley).
Life sized cardboard cutouts of Buffy are available at:
POLITICAL & CELEBRITY LIFE SIZE
CUTOUTS
Total SciFi Online has compiled a list of what they consider the 100 greatest SciFi and Fantasy TV shows. The list is worth reading as it includes many obscure but worthy series (such as Thunderbirds and The Quartermass Experiment). Buffy the Vampire Slayer is #6.
The first line spoken by Buffy in episode one, season one was: "I'm up, mom." In the pilot, her first line (after correcting the Principal about her name twice) was: "Principal Flutie, I'm not here to cause trouble." The last word spoken by Buffy in the last episode of the series was "Spike". (In response to a question by Giles as to what caused the giant crater.)
Buffy's birthday was celebrated each year (except for Season 7) in a mid-January episode. In the first-year
birthday episode, Buffy's school records are displayed twice on a computer. In one view, we see that Buffy
was born on 24 October 1980, and she is a sophomore. The second time we see the records, her birthday is 6
May 1979, and she is a senior. Clearly the records are in error. Joss Whedon asserted at one point that
Buffy's birthday is 19 January 1981, but this is not borne out by other evidence.
The date is January 22, 1981, because in 1999, her eighteenth birthday fell on a Friday. As it is also known that Buffy's birthday is on the cusp of Capricorn and Aquarius, it must be January 22.
Spike, who is not supposed to breathe, smokes cigarettes. He is either a demon or a human with delusions of vampirehood. He is clearly not an illusion, as is evidenced by his trail of cigarette butts.
According to MOVIEHOLE, Netflix's Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos thinks that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is on the list of shows Netflix would possibly consider doing something with in the future. "That's one that'll come up on everyone’s list" he said. "She's a great character. If it was my property I'd do infrequent movies. There's not enough kick-ass female characters like that."
James Marsters turned up in episode #49 of WAREHOUSE 13, The Living and the Dead, as Professor Sutton, who turns out to be several hundred years old and immortal, though not a vampire. (Latimer specifically asks if he is a vampire and gets a firm denial.) Sutton is shot in the heart with an arrow, but his body disappears at the end of the episode, leaving the bloody arrow behind.
The animated film STRANGE FRAME: LOVE AND SAX, with Juliet Landau (Drusilla in BTVS) voicing the character Bitsea, is now available on AMAZON.
And Landau is Astrid in the dramatic romance by South African director Rudolph Buitendach, DARK HEARTS, which stars Kyle Schmid and Sonja Kinski (Nastassja's daughter).
There will be a third season of Jane Espenson's webseries HUSBANDS. It will move to the CW's digital platform. Cheeks and Sean Hemeon will star. No indication yet if Alessandra Torresani, who played the couple's friend Hayley in the first 2 seasons, will participate in Season 3. Directed by Jeff Greenstein. HUSBANDS tells the story of a high-profile, newlywed gay couple.
Joss Whedon is now on Twitter. Whedon's film, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, stars Amy Acker (Fred Burkle of Angel) and Alexis Denisof (Wesley Wyndam-Price in Buffy and Angel). It was shot in 16 days in Santa Monica, California.
At Comic-Con 2012, Whedon said he would like to take Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Broadway as a stage production. I wonder if Alessandra Torresani can sing? (Wouldn't she make a great Buffy?
Eliza Dushku (Faith in BTVS) has been cast by RKO Pictures in a TV movie remake of THE SAINT, based on the Leslie Charteris novels. It has yet to be picked up by a network, but will be screened at the MIPTV market in Cannes. Dushku will play Patricia Holm, love interest of Simon Templar. The Holm character did not appear in the original TV series, and only appeared in one of the films, THE SAINT MEETS THE TIGER (1943), and was played by British actress Jean Gillie.
Michelle Trachtenberg is Miranda Prague in SEXY EVIL GENIUS which also stars Katee Sackhoff and Seth Green. Green tweeted a photo (below right) of Sackhoff and Trachtenberg about to kiss. The film is now available on DVD.
Julie Benz is Amanda Rosewater in the SyFy series DEFIANCE, which is also a game for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. The TV show is set in a post-apocalyptic, renamed St. Louis, and the game is set in San Francisco, but they share a common universe, and developments in the game influence events in the TV show. Others in the cast of the show are Jaime Murray, Grant Bowler, Mia Kirshner, and Tony Curran. DEFIANCE is on SyFy at 9pm Mondays in the US. The game was released on 2 April and is available on Amazon.
Giselle Loren (Achecar), of ECO-RICO, has booked a guest spot on FAMILY GUY. It is not known when the episode will air or what her character will be.
Kyle Kallgren aka Oancitizen, a video reviewer on thatguywiththeglasses.com, has summarized each Buffy
episode through Season 3 Episode 9 on Tumbler in a limerick. Below is an example (Season 1 Episode 1).
The two Summers women arrive
In a new town to start their new lives
Ones with no expulsions
And no gym explosions
(Let’s just hope that Buffy survives)
On Halloween, Kate Nash, Emmy the Great and others took over a screen in the Hackney Picture House in London for a complete performance of the music from the BTVS episode Once More with Feeling. PlanetMusicReviewsHD has video of the whole thing on YouTube. Below is Nash in one of the videos performing "I've Got a Theory".
Erica Luttrell, who was autograph seeker Kelly in the Buffy episode Superstar in 2000, has appeared in 2 episodes of LOST GIRL as Val Santiago.
Amber Benson does the best Vine posts. To the right is one of them. Click on it for full size and sound.
BUFFY CAST ON TWITTER
-- The most interesting Buffy castmember twitter accounts:
Kristy Swanson (the original Buffy) is in a new film called THE WHOLE BANANA, which revolves around a struggling artist (Swanson) who is discouraged by the men in her life. She prays to the Greek god Hermes (Kevin Sorbo) who shows up and sweeps her off her feet, but can only stay for two weeks. The film is expected to be released later this year. And Swanson was Marlowe Viccellio in episode #79 of PSYCH (Yang 3 in 2D). Shawn and Gus blamed her for a vampire-style murder after the police found an exsanguinated body.
Charisma Carpenter will host a new series for Investigation Discovery titled I SURVIVED EVIL, which will tell the miraculous stories of people like Carpenter who have survived violent attacks. In 1991, Carpenter was a cheerleader for the San Diego Chargers when she and two male friends were attacked by a serial rapist. Not only did Carpenter survive the attack, but months later, she provided the clinching piece of evidence to convict her attacker, who is now serving a 56-year sentence.
Carpenter is also Rebecca Anne Sewell on ABC Family's THE LYING GAME.
Sarah Hagan (potential slayer Amanda) is Deitrich in ORENTHAL: THE MUSICAL, a 2013 film about an eccentric theater artist's struggle to stage an OJ Simpson musical with the help of his childhood friends.
Saverio Guerra (Willie the Snitch in 5 BTVS episodes) is Sydney Franklin in HEMINGWAY & GELLHORN, an HBO film about the romance between Ernest Hemingway and WWII correspondent Martha Gellhorn, who was the inspiration for the novel "For Whom the Bell Tolls". The film, which aired in March 2012, stars Nicole Kidman, Clive Owen, and Parker Posey.
Emma Caulfield (Anya), will co-star as Molly in the 2013 film OLD DAYS, which will star Morena Baccarin (V, FIREFLY). OLD DAYS is directed by Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor in SMALLVILLE). Co-author of the webcomic series CONTROPUSSY, Caulfield also was the blind witch who tried to eat Hansel and Gretel in the ONCE UPON A TIME episode "True North".
And Caulfield has another comic in the works. WHO'S THE RIPPER? centers around the rise of psychic phenomena in mid-19th-century London.
The first character to die in BTVS had no name, and was played by Carmine Giovinazzo. He was devoured by Julie Benz in the opening scene of Episode 1. Giovinazzo is starring as a detective named Dare in the 2012 film DUKE, which is a "western" set in West Los Angeles. Dare has a friend from reformatory named Roost who watches old John Wayne films, and helps him pursue his nemesis, Winky.
Kristy Wu (Potential Slayer Chao-Ahn) is Natalia in the 2011 film ALMOST PERFECT, a romcom from Slew Pictures and Director Bertha Bay-Sa Pan, co-starring Kelly Hu and Edison Chen. Wu is best known for the film FACE (2002), also directed by Pan, in which she co-starrred with Bai Ling. She was Janpen in Episode #82 of THE MENTALIST (aired 9 January).
Rachel Bilson (Potential Slayrer Colleen) is Dr. Zoe Hart on HART OF DIXIE Monday nights on the CW. She will also star in THE TO DO LIST, as Amber, a high school graduate who feels pressured to acquire more sexual experience before going off to college. The clip below is from her time on THE O.C.
Bilson and another potential slayer from Buffy Season 7 have recently worked with Alyson Hannigan. Dania Ramirez (Carida) is Trisha in AMERICAN REUNION, the fourth film in the American Pie series. Bilson appeared in two episodes of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER: "Big Days" and "Girls vs Suits".
In an interview with the Sunday Times, Gellar said that she would only reprise the character of Buffy Summers if she were to appear on SESAME STREET, which is her daughter Charlotte's favourite TV show. "I could share a scene with Elmo. I mean, I've worked with some great people – Andy Garcia, Forest Whitaker - but they're not Elmo", she said, noting that she would also be willing to share a scene with Count von Count.
Arielle Kebbel, who was Allison in THE GRUDGE 2, stars with Christopher Gorham (James Stanley in the BTVS episode "I Only Have Eyes For You") in ANSWER THIS!, a 2010 comedy set in the world of competitive bar trivia. The film is now available on NETFLIX.
Amber Benson's latest film DUST UP, as well as its soundtrack, is now available on iTunes. The short story anthology Zombies vs Robots:Women on War is available for pre-order on Amazon. It includes "The Virgin Sacrifices" by Amber Benson.
Benson will also star in the webseries, MARIE'S ZERO GRAVITY BAR AND GRILL which will begin shooting very soon. Here's the premise: Marooned 50 light years from Earth with little else but a computer, Marie (Benson) opens an "intergalactic bar and grill" to support herself. According to AMBER BENSON ONLINE, the series is "'Stranger in a Strange Land' as seen through the eyes of Douglas Adams with a little Firefly & Red Dwarf thrown in for good measure." Jonathan M. Woodward, who was Holden Webster in the Buffy episode "Conversations With Dead People", and Knox in 7 episodes of ANGEL, will co-star.
NBC's GRIMM is based on a story idea from Jim Kouf, one of the writers for ANGEL, and David Greenwalt, writer of 8 episodes of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. The show is about a world in which characters inspired by Grimm's Fairy Tales exist, but not in a nice way. It airs at 9pm Tuesdays.
Alyson Hannigan is the face of a Head and Shoulders shampoo ad campaign.
The comic, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: WILLOW, featuring Hannigan's character, is on sale. There is a preview at afterellen.com.
Indigo (born Alyssa Ashley Nichols), who was potential slayer Rona, is Chloe in the film WEATHER WARS, released last July, with Stacey Keach and Erin Cahill. It's about weather being used as a weapon by a mad scientist. Indigo also appeared in three episodes of TREME on HBO in 2010.
Marc Blucas (Riley Finn), who does not have a website, is Matthew in the pilot of NECESSARY ROUGHNESS, a new USA TV series which stars Hannah Marks and Callie Thorne.
Amanda Fuller (Eve in 2 episodes of BTVS) is Beth in a Louisiana swamp monster flick called CREATURE. It co-stars Serinda Swann and Rebekah Kennedy. Tagline: TERROR HAS TEETH!.
Seth Green (Oz of BTVS, and creator of ROBOT CHICKEN) voices the character of Milo in the Disney 3D animated film MARS NEEDS MOMS. The film also stars the voices of Dan Fogler and Joan Cusak. Seems Martians are just bad mothers (literally), so they need to import moms from Earth.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales is a hardcover book of Buffy stories written by Joss Whedon, Amber Benson, Jane Espenson, and others. Many of the stories were written prior to the Season 8 stories, and others are selected stories from Season 8. It includes the story of the first Slayer drawn by Leinil Yu.
Clare Kramer, who was Glory in Season 5 of BTVS, is directing her first film. HARD LOVE will star Nick Brendon, Amy Lawhorn, and Stu Stone (Ronald Fisher in DONNIE DARKO). The film also stars Camden Toy, who was one of the Gentlemen in the BTVS episode "Hush", and was Ubervamp in several other episodes. Kramer was also Lucinda Reynolds in the original short film D.E.B.S. (2003). Her character was played by Jordana Brewster in the 2004 feature film of the same name.
Julia Lee, whose character in BTVS had no fewer than three names (Chanterelle, Lily and Anne) and which crossed over into three episodes of ANGEL, is the image used (since 2006) by Disney to portray Constance Hatchaway, the "Black Widow Bride" at their Haunted Mansion. Interestingly enough, she has not appeared on television or on film since her Disney association began.
According to James Hibbard of Inside TV, a survey commissioned by the Syfy Channel to celebrate their 2012 US launch of fantasy series Lost Girl, asked fans to vote for the sexiest sci-fi stars. The top five women were:
FAIRLY LEGAL, on the USA network, and stars Sarah Shahi as Kate Reed, is the second TV show to have a character obsessed with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (The first one is SyFy's EUREKA.) Kate's assistant, Leonardo Prince (Baron Vaughn), has a Sarah Michelle Gellar inscribed Buffy the Vampire Slayer watch.
Part One of Season 9 of Buffy is out, and according to AfterEllen.com, as Season 9 opens, Buffy is a waitress in San Francisco. Dawn and Xander live together. Willow has a new girlfriend, Aura, and Spike is still lurking in the dark. Buffy takes advantage of the drastic reduction in the demonic threat level by partying hard. we first see her in the throes of a post-blackout hangover, wondering what happened, and thinking that she and Willow might have slept together. A series of flashbacks tells us that Buffy has a new apartment with two roommates (Anaheed and Tumble) and they had a huge housewarming party with lots of booze.
And Dark Horse Senior Managing Editor Scott Allie has said this about the character Tara:
"Not gonna say what we have planned for Tara in Season 9 but let's just say that Willow has some major trauma ahead of her. Willow maybe has reacted the least well at the end of Season 8 and she will be feeling that daily in the series."
The Season 8 Motion Comic is now available as a Blu-Ray/DVD combo on Amazon. It includes all 19 episodes.
The characters are voiced by:
Buffy - Kelly Albanese
Dawn - Julie O'Connor
Xander - Daniel Taylor
General Voll - J. Anthony McCarthy
Leah - Jane Mendez
Satsu - Michanne Quinney
CIA suit - Gary Clemmens
Lab Tech - Alex Collins
Renee - Heather Hemmens
Demon - Dan Kirschner
Rowena - Kristina Klebe
In an interview with complex.com, Joss Whedon said this about the Buffy Comics:
"Well, 40 issues was always the goal, and that's how we're playing it. We're around issue 30 now, we've got about 10 to go, five of which I have to write, so I have to get on that. Then we'll pause for breath and then we'll start Season Nine." When asked if Season 9 was a definite thing, Whedon went on to say: "Yeah, unless Dark Horse suddenly doesn't want it. I have had for a long time a conception for Season Nine that is very different from Season Eight. It may not run as long, because 40 issues sounds great until you realize that it's four or five years."
