9/26/02

From ScoopMe.com

Lessons: The Before Time
by Hunter Maxin
9/24/2002

My apologies in advance�this is going to be a long one.

Fight or Flight�The basic human instinct response mechanism, and much in evidence in our faithful flock well before the opening of this season. Long before cementing itself into necessity, we�ve been splitting hairs over heirs apparent.

Will Dawn or won�t Dawn? (Be the titular slayer.)

Will we or won�t we? (Accept this reality, should it come to pass.)

Not that we didn�t know it already, but week one ran a long way with the Dawn as next generation premise, so we�d better batten down the hatches and, I don�t know, get used to getting used to the idea. It was certainly funny (as in "ha ha") each time Buffy got mistaken for Dawn�s mother, but it also bears noting that it is funny (as in "ironic" fore/past-shadowing) that this point would be hammered home.

As far as slayage goes, Buffy is Dawn�s mother. She is the teacher, the provider, the giver, the guide. She blazed the path that, I now whole-heartedly assume, will be taken up by the Little Bit. This level of literary license is relatively obvious.

But on another, slightly less shallow level, we have Buffy�s life as the mother of Dawn�s to be. Much has been made of returning BtVS to it�s original roots, to bring it back to the excitement and emotional trauma of the teenage years to resolve all those unresolved slings and arrows that the popularity dispossessed inevitably experience in high school. This is the right of passage for the tragically uncool, to pass through their school years vaguely traumatized and exact revenge later in life. As the lawyers, doctors, television writers/producers/directors the "cool" kids wish they now were, as they sip warm Bud Light from the dusty stoops outside their doublewides.

Or, so we pray as we change, paranoid, for gym class.

However, Joss has rebuilt Sunnydale High School not to re-create Buffy�s early years. At least not just to do so. Sunnydale High has returned to give Dawn the same training ground, the same foundation, to establish her�what now? Worthiness? Our respect?

The fact is, either we�ll give the Little Bit the chance to prove herself, or we�ll reject her out of hand. Many have made up their mind, and, to a degree, rightly so. No television show really survives into the next generation. At least not while pretending to be the same show.

Which leaves us with a choice, really. We can fight the future. Or, we can embrace it, nurture it. Further it. Fighting the Future did nothing but bury the X-Files, still the best (albeit imperfect) template for the success and rabid following we find with BtVS. Fighting the future, changing it, wielding it as an entirely different weapon, animal, story, sunk the X-Files faster than you could say "multi-galactical alien conspiracy."

I call it hubris.

The real question is, will our abstinence, our pestilence, our violence against this idea�will it stop it from happening? Will Joss listen? Will SMG listen? Or Eliza, for that matter?

I think not.

Joss has traditionally stood up in the face of those who told him he was wrong, that it couldn�t be done, and proven them wrong. Time and time again. Will our bitching alter that in the slightest? Will we "save" Buffy by dismissing Dawn?

Again, I think not.

But, can we be instrumental in guiding the hand that feeds us? Can we, by embracing the Dawn, coax an existence that rises above what we fear we will be served?

I think so.

Joss is no dummy. He is no Chris Carter. And we are smarter than those X-Philes ever were. I say the campaign starts now. If we are to have Little Bit as a headliner (and, make no mistake, we will), it�s time to make it clear what will be required�from Joss, from Michelle, from the story. From the Scrappies, even. It�s time to lay out our half of the contract.

If you do this, we will come�, er, stay.

Whatever.

And to that end, I saw something tonight that brings me hope. At first, I thought that going back to the beginning was a gimmick, but I was wrong. The title itself should have tipped me off (because Joss is smarter than your average bear), but better late than never. Going back serves a far more important purpose, and there are more important lessons here that at first meet the eye.

And the first lesson goes thusly: Those who forget, or ignore, the past are doomed to repeat it. Like our ancestral cave dwellers, in the before time, in the long, long ago, we must pull ourselves up to the campfire and remember the lessons of our mothers and fathers.

For us, here, in our BtVS world, what Joss has done is teach Dawn these lessons first hand. But make no mistake, this season will � in addition to being a new story arc in its own right, and a promising one at that, I might add � be a shorthand for Dawn to learn the lessons of her mother. By experiencing them.

In the beginning, both Buffy and Buffy were raw, but promising. To compare Michelle to our current SMG, or Dawn to our current Buffy, is both unfair and myopic. But compare her to Buffy in the beginning�the learning curve isn�t as steep as we once feared. Given the right story, the right development, and the right friends (too early to really tell about the Scrappies), Dawn could really be a character worth loving.

That�s my story, and I�m sticking to it. And now to the details, big and small�

Location, Location, Location�the three most important words in real estate, and apparently a lesson lost on new Sunnydale High principal Robin Wood. This new guy interests me. I don�t know what to make of him just yet, in all truth he could go either way, but his earnest smiley-eyed optimism makes him a prime candidate for good guy status. But, this being the Hellmouth and all, one never can tell. Just so long as we know that the season finale arc has to (simply has to) take place, at least in part, in this guy�s office. For my part, I hope he�s a white hat, but I wouldn�t mind him pulling a screw job and turning heel either.

Fire Bad, Tree Pretty�So Willow just wants to be�Willow. Personally, I�m happy that there was at least acknowledgement on her part of the horrid things she has done. Nice touch, her believing Giles brought her to England to kill her, or worse. The twisted side of me kind of wishes he did, just so we could see that dynamic, but this will do. The two of them were underused, time wise, but I dig the set up.

Finally, belated acknowledgement that Willow wasn�t really a magic addict. She was simply that damn powerful. Some people are just born for their lot in life, and Willow is a witch of the highest order. Better to try to mold it and harness it than deny it, which is the mistake that the Giles-less Scoobies made last year.

But there are seeds of the old Willow in there, and I like it. The desire to just be, but know that a calling, a gift, a curse, and, most importantly, a responsibility, carry the day. Willow will be both a player in the final battle to come, and, I suspect, in the future of all things Slayer, whether it be Dawn or the Council.

Istanbul, Not Constantinople�so, what now? By that I mean, what the hell was that? What did it mean? Where does it fit in? When does it fit in? Was that the past, the present�WHAT? Bottom line, I don�t like when something means absolutely nothing to me, and, while I�m sure we�ll be let in eventually, having that itty-bitty opener just didn�t need to be in this story.

Double-O-Xander�pressed for space, let me just say, my boy�s grown up. You go, Xander.

Back to your roots�I�m going to leave Spike along for the time being, save a quick couple of notes. I was right, he�s loonier than a �toon. He came back too soon. And I just might have been right when I posited that question about a vampire with a soul and the final battle. This cat figures in the final story. Has to. Otherwise, I see no reason for the Big Evil (see below) to even bother with the mental torture.

Come on up for the Rising�so the lower demons are all in a-twitch. Willow can feel the "teeth of the earth�blackness rising�" The Hellmouth is coming for one last (really the last?) big showdown�and they are making it out to be one hell of a fight to be. It�s nice to know that the Hellmouth will figure in the storyline again, as it�s been too long for the supposed reason for Buffy being in Sunnydale in the first place.

So what do we know? We know the Hellmouth figures prominently in the big evil for the season. We know that, this time around, they are making its opening out to be a very scary and insurmountable thing to come. We know that, this time, when they start talking about the end of the world, they probably mean it. The demons can feel it coming, and they better choose the right side or there will be hell to pay. Anya was being warned to get bad or get lost, pure and simple, because whatever is coming won�t need wafflers on its side.

What interested me most, more than Anya�s intervention, however, was that little conversation Spike had with Warren/Glory/Adam/The Mayor/Dru/The Master/Buffy at the end of the night. The parade of once and future foes was touching in its way (I really miss the Mayor, I really don�t miss Adam or Glory), but it was the between the lines bits that really got me thinking.

Let me put it to you this way�who do you think Spike was talking to? Play the conversation again, whether in your mind or on the VCR, and tell me what the Master hinted at. Before the word�I�ve got a big old hunch as to what is really rising out of the Hellmouth, and, in my opinion, it�s one hell of a gutsy call on Joss� part. Some evils you don�t take lightly, and, if I�m right, this is the hardest one to pull off.

But it also makes the most sense.

Seriously. What else would a Hellmouth be for?

From SciFi.com

Noxon Sings About Buffy

Marti Noxon, executive producer of UPN's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, confirmed a few season-seven spoilers to SCI FI Wire�including one that she will reprise her singing role of the "parking ticket lady" from last season's critically acclaimed all-musical episode. "I actually will," Noxon said in an interview. "I cannot say [when]. The parking ticket lady will be singing. How funny is that? I'm going to make a small career of singing on Buffy and Angel."

Noxon, who recently gave birth to a son, also revealed that she will write a couple of episodes this year and direct one. "I'm going to be doing episode 10 and episode 21 of Buffy and also directing episode 21," she said. "I'm really excited. I've done a couple before. But this is my first big action one, so I'm really psyched about that. And then, you know, given my other responsibilities, that's pretty much what I'll get to do this year."

As for the coming season, which returns Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and the Scooby Gang to Sunnydale High School, Noxon offered these hints.
�Willow (Alyson Hannigan), who turned evil at the end of last season, will have a slow road back. "It's going to be something we have to earn," Noxon said. "The main thing is it's not going to be done in an episode, you know? It's not, like, 'Oops, sorry, guys!' She's not just going to send them a card."
�Anya (Emma Caulfield) will sing in an upcoming flashback. "Just stay tuned," Noxon said. "The fun of it is, you don't know when it's going to happen."
�Amber Benson, whose character, Tara, died at the end of last year, will return�but not as Tara.
�Xander (Nicholas Brendon) may try to patch things up with Anya. "There's a possibility," Noxon said. "I mean, they're dealing with the wreckage of their past. And we've no foregone conclusions."

Buffy kicks off its seventh season on Sept. 24. The CD soundtrack of last season's musical episode, "Once More With Feeling," hits stores that day as well.

Another one from SciFi.com

Buffy Season 8 Mulled

Marti Noxon, executive producer of UPN's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, told SCI FI Wire that producers are already mulling options for how to continue the show beyond the upcoming seventh season, with or without star Sarah Michelle Gellar. Among the possibilities: a show centered on Buffy's little sister Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg) or one centered on wayward slayer Faith (Eliza Dushku), Noxon said in an interview. Gellar's contract expires at the end of the new season, and she has previously expressed doubts about returning full-time.

An eighth season of Buffy "is a discussion that we've begun to start having ... with both [producing studio] Fox and UPN," Noxon said. "But it's really ... stages. I think the main thing that [creator] Joss [Whedon] feels, and I also feel, is that we wouldn't continue if we didn't feel that we had something exciting to bring to the table. If it felt like we were desperately trying to keep the franchise alive, that's not something that I think interests him. I think it's much more about, can we come up with a concept that might be either Sarah-free or Sarah-light that feels, you know, like a show worth doing? And if we're all excited about doing it and have the same level of passion, then gung ho, you know? But if we don't, I think nobody sort of wants to see a pale imitation of what was. It's a tough call. It's a tough thing. We'll see. But we do have some ideas. And Joss has some great ideas. And we're kicking those all around. And we don't know. Sarah has not said definitively no, but I think it's pretty likely that she'd at least want to scale her involvement back."

In the upcoming seventh-season premiere, viewers will see a much more active Dawn. Is that setting the stage for Trachtenberg to take up Gellar's stake and cross? "We don't really have a firm plan," Noxon said. "I mean, that's obviously one of the possibilities. But we haven't settled on that at all. ... I think it was just time to grow Dawn up a little bit. And it's just sort of a natural thing that she would want to sort of follow in Buffy's footsteps. So it's much more about story. And if at the end of that process, we're like, 'Wow, she's a natural replacement,' then that might happen. But it's not a foregone conclusion at all."

Noxon confirmed that Faith will return toward the end of the seventh season. But whether or not she's poised to replace Buffy "depends entirely on [Dushku]," who has an active film career, Noxon said. "But it's definitely a very interesting possibility. I know some fans ... are pretty excited about that. So we'll see. I mean, I can really see that show. I know what that show is. And so that's nice, you know? She's such a good character. And Eliza's very charismatic. So I can see what that show would be. But again, many, many hurdles. And I don't even know if Eliza's interested." Buffy kicks off its new season on Sept. 24 in its regular 8 p.m. ET/PT Tuesday time slot.

An article from CalendarLive.com

Musical 'Buffy' Finally Lands in Stores
By Randy Lewis

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" fans will have double reason to celebrate Tuesday. The series not only launches its seventh season at 8 p.m. on UPN, the soundtrack from last year's Emmy-nominated musical episode "Once More, With Feeling" finally arrives in record stores.

The album includes all the songs from the episode, in which all residents of the fictional town of Sunnydale find themselves under a spell that causes them to frequently break out in song.

Series creator Joss Whedon, who composed the music and lyrics, says he'd long harbored the fantasy of telling a story almost entirely in song. Star Sarah Michelle Gellar and her co-stars did all their own singing. Whedon, series regular Amber Benson and others from the show will be at Tower Records in West Hollywood on Saturday for a record release party.

It took nearly a year, however, for Whedon to work out the release of the soundtrack for the episode, which first aired last October and received an Emmy nomination for best musical direction.

"When you have a huge bunch of actors and a bunch of companies, you run into all sorts of legal foofaraw," Whedon says. "But everyone came through eventually, and the album is coming out, although it's a little bit later than the [episode's] premiere."

The 38-year-old creator of "Buffy," its spinoff, "Angel," and the new "Firefly" is a lifelong musical-theater junkie who took part in high school productions of such musicals as "West Side Story" and "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," and said he "listened to 'Hair' all the time when I was a tiny baby."

In the album's liner notes, which Whedon also wrote, he calls the "Once More, With Feeling" episode and album "the hardest and most rewarding work I've ever done."

"I'm a big fan of the show," says John Virant, president and chief executive of Rounder Records, which is handling the soundtrack's release in North America. "I remember watching the episode when it aired last October, and after it was over, I said to my wife, 'That's the best hour of TV I've ever seen. Someone should put that [soundtrack] out.' I inquired at Fox, just following up, and they said, 'Well, we tried, it didn't happen. If you want to take a run at it, feel free.' "

Rounder is initially shipping 100,000 copies. How it will fare at retail "is a tough call," says Wherehouse senior rock buyer Bob Bell, especially in a week that brings new albums by Beck, Peter Gabriel and the Elvis Presley compilation "30 No. 1 Hits."

"The show's hard-core fans are going to buy it no matter what," Bell says. "That dedication is going to guarantee a certain level of support. The good thing about it is that the music was really involved in the show, as opposed to lot of TV soundtracks where the music is not that prominent, or maybe was heard briefly in the background."

Whedon says he'll be paying attention to the album's sales figures, but they won't make or break his day.

"It would be lovely if hundreds and thousands of people buy it," he says. "But my expectations are pretty simple. I'm just glad that people now have access to it. It if happens to sell lots and lots ... well, nothing would surprise me at this point."

An excerpt from an article from The Baltimore Sun

'Slayer' returns
'Buffy' is back - and she's training her replacement
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Chris Kaltenbach
Sun Staff
Originally published September 24, 2002

Looks like there's a changing of the guard in store for Sunnydale.

Faithful watchers of UPN's Buffy the Vampire Slayer know Sunnydale as the ill-named California town that had the misfortune of being built over the hellmouth, a spot all the world's supernatural nasties call home. They've also doubtless heard that star Sarah Michelle Gellar will have fulfilled her seven-year commitment to the show at the end of this season and may not be returning.

And while it's dangerous to assume too much from watching just the first episode of any Buffy season - season five, which started out with the Buffster battling Dracula, ended with her dying to save a sister who had never even been introduced in seasons one through four - tonight's 8 o'clock opener suggests the creative forces behind the show are getting ready for anything.

Like, perhaps, a name change to Dawn the Vampire Slayer.

Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg) is Buffy's kid sister, and tonight finds her filling the role of apprentice slayer, watching with a mixture of awe and exasperation as the finer points of vampire extermination are explained. "It's about power," Buffy continually reminds her, establishing the rationale by which a teen-age girl can defeat the undead in hand-to-hand combat, "who's got it, who knows how to use it."

By show's end, not only is Dawn proving she's got at least some of the moves, but she's even linked up with her own nascent Scooby gang - a pair of loner misfits whom no one else in school wants any part of (shades of how Buffy linked up with Xander and Willow way back when).

Although it's too early to say much about Dawn's new pals - neither Carlos, first seen skulking off to the basement, nor Kit, who's introduced sobbing in a lavatory stall, is given enough screen time to make an impression. But the budding process of regeneration that begins tonight bodes well for a series that was best back when its characters were encumbered the least.

Not that last season was a bust. The celebrated musical episode, "Once More With Feeling," featuring songs written by series creator Joss Whedon, was exemplary in both its daring and its execution, and the season finale, where a vengeful Willow's determination to destroy the world (after the murder of her lover by the cretinous Warren) was averted by something as simple as childhood friendship, again demonstrated how the show deftly balances the apocalyptic and the mundane.

But the overall tenor of the season was so dark (heck, it began with Buffy being yanked - unwillingly - from heaven), that fans began worrying it had lost its way amid all the melancholy.

Not all the signs tonight are positive. The rehabilitation of Willow (Alyson Hannigan), whose destructive rage caught everyone off-guard last year (she was always such a nice girl!), appears to be taking place in a British pasture way-too-immersed in New Age philosophy; even Willow realizes she deserves harsher treatment than this. And Spike, Buffy's vampire lust object who got his soul handed back to him last year - doesn't seem nearly as compelling as an emotional cripple as when he was an emotional abomination.

Still, Buffy is still Buffy, complete with its universally appealing cast (someday Gellar will get the recognition she deserves for anchoring the show so effortlessly), classic dramatic themes (has there ever been a more doomed love than Spike and Buffy?) and pop-cultural asides galore (tonight's reference points include Harry Potter, The Fantastic Four and Rod Serling's The Twlight Zone). And the closing scene tonight is guaranteed to make longtime fans of the show euphoric.

Whedon has said he's determined to lighten the mood in Sunnydale this year, and he's going about it by revisiting the past. Thus, tonight centers on the re-opening of Sunnydale High, which had been destroyed at the end of season three. A reluctant Buffy, who's had to play mom to Dawn since their real mother died of a stroke, is forced to send her little sis back to a place she knows is dangerous.

Dangerous for Dawn, yes, but probably very good for the show.

An article from The Vancouver Sun

If you liked Buffy, you'll love her sister
Look for the light side to return to Vampire slaying in season's premiere
Alex Strachan
Vancouver Sun

Tuesday, September 24, 2002

Too dark, they whined. Too grim. Too bloody. That twisted romance with Spike -- the tryst of the undead -- yuck! And Willow crossing over to the dark side -- talk about your lost innocence.

Well, like, you know, the show is called Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Not Buffy, Can't We Just All Get Along? Or Buffy, Vampires Are People, Too.

So when Buffy's svengali, creator and father figure, Joss Whedon, promised his fans earlier this summer that, this year, he's going to get the show back to "a lighter, less angsty place," those in the know knew to take his words with a pinch of garlic.

Tonight's season premiere opens with Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar, who has quietly matured into a graceful, nuanced actor, despite Buffy's penchant for drop kicks and demon slaying) teaching kid sister Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg, who, if we are to follow tonight's story through to its logical conclusion, is being groomed as Gellar's logical successor) how to dispatch a vampire with a wooden stake. Not to put too fine a point on it (sorry), Dawn messes up -- badly -- and Buffy is alarmed about the prospect of her kid sister starting her freshman year at the newly restored Sunnydale High, a near-exact replica built over the exact same Hellmouth that caused Buffy so much darkness and angst. Only this time it's the principal's office, not the library, that's built directly over the Hellmouth. (Don't worry about it, Buffy tells her kid sis cheerfully, the last two principals died.)

Buffy accompanies her kid sis to school on her first day -- "You are the coolest mom, ever!" an awed student tells her, causing her to nearly break out in hives; "I have mom hair," she replies with a forced smile, a sly aside that Gellar has practically grown up in front of our eyes -- and things are about to go from bad to worse for her tragically unhip kid sis. The ungrateful dead, the ghoul train of losers Buffy dispatched with such aplomb during her five years at Sunnydale, are out to even the score, and for a show that insists it's going to go to a lighter, less angsty place, tonight's season opener is a wild ride. It's also witty as all get out.

In a quiet and typically affecting scene, Whedon has us accompany a grieving Willow to England, where she has linked up with that old sod Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) in a bid to reclaim her soul.

And the show's soul. There's nothing like tapping an old English ham for inspiration when a show is in trouble, and Head gives it the old school try. Buffy is back with a vengeance, and for those who insist Buffy was on its last legs, it is my great pleasure to report that claims of its death were greatly exaggerated.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer sixth season premieres at 8 p.m. on the New VI and KSTW-UPN.

And finally, an excerpt from an article from Canoe.ca

Buffy still slays 'em
Hills, In-Laws among new series debuting
By KEVIN WILLIAMSON -- Calgary Sun

Buffy The Vampire Slayer
4.5 (out of five)

Yes, yes -- it's not a new show. So sue me. Seven years old now, this blood-sucker should be long in the tooth.

Instead, it's got more bite than any of the new series premiering tonight.

Credit Joss Whedon and co-executive producer Marti Noxon, for keeping it fun and inventive. In fact, fun appears to be the operative word for Buffy's new season, which kicks off tonight.

Last year was a rough time for the "Scooby gang" -- witch Willow (Alyson Hannigan) went to the dark side, Xander (Nicholas Brendon) left his demon bride (Emma Caulfield) at the alter; mentor Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) returned home to England; teenage Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg) developed a case of sticky fingers; and Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) started playing hide the zombie with vampire Spike (James Marsters).

So, tonight's opener goes back-to-basics in Buffy's old high school for a reunion of sorts.

Funny, fast and spooky, it's worth staking out.

SPOILER ALERT Joss Whedon Gives Buffy Back its Bite from TVGuide.com

SPOILER ALERT Buffy Crosses The Pond from SciFi.com

11/07/01

A LOT of reviews on last nights musical episode and one on BTVS in general.

Buffy Slays. Now What? from MSN.com

Musical Buffy could be grave mistake for the vampire slayer from the Seattle Times

"`Buffy' sings -- and the tune carries the day" by the Chicago Tribune

"'Buffy': Where Does It Go From Here" from Zap2it.com.

Musical Buffy Runs Long from SciFi.com

And here's LOOK OUT BRITNEY .. .. BUFFY IS OUT TO SLAY YOU from a UK paper called Sunday Mail

First up is an article on Amber Benson (Tara)Scifi.com

This is from Zap2it.com and discusses the Buffy premiere's excellent ratings.

Yet another James Marsters story, this time from SciFi.com

And a Calagary Sun story with Marti Noxon quotes posted at Canoa.ca

A short James Marsters story from TVGuide.com

Here's a Chicago Tribune interview with Joss Whedon. I got it from the Kitten board

The second is from IGN.com

I actually got this from the Fan Forums spoiler page, but it's from the Chicago Tribune.

This article is from the StarTribune.com

Three articles today. First up is one from Zap2it.com.

This is from TVGuide.com

And the last article is from the October 2001 Cinescape Magazine. It was transcribed on the Buffy Cross and Stake Spoiler board.

Here's a shirt article on the rumored Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie from Empire Online.

Here's a small excerpt from a Joss Whedon interview. The rest of it can be found at the Onion AV Club