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Creator of BtVS and ANGEL |
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| Continued from previous page... "Hello! . . . uhm, okay well, that’s it. Thank you all for coming." As he smiles and begins to leave, the crowd responds laughing. Yes, this is the man so often referred to as Evil. In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer (staring Sarah Michelle Gellar) beginnings, the character of Angel (portrayed by David Boreanaz) was rather aloof and it seemed that the viewer was never sure as to who or what he was. This also may have been the dilemma of the writers themselves as they fleshed out the future of this doomed and destined romance . . . or not. "We knew he was a vampire and we were trying to hide it." Joss admits, "I thought everybody, the moment he walks on screen," Joss raises his out-stretched arm in the air and points wildly with a mocking shocked expression, "Ahh! Vampire!" (laughter) He was genuinely surprised that viewers were shocked to discover this.
Angel took on an unlife of his own but in a new direction which allowed him to spin off into his own story telling series. This differed from Buffy and the success of this strong female character. "The series was really the high school influence that sustained Buffy so that’s why I decided she had a natural kind of series," Joss explained, "The more I took a look at the bulk of [Angel] the better the show became. Because the episode with the actress (Eternity) and the episodes with Faith, where we really had to deal with the idea of evil invention, that made it a different show than Buffy. That made it simply something which I would want to see." Another topic that fans would want to see themselves, which Joss has hung before us like the proverbial carrots, is the much rumored and joked about Buffy musical! So he offered this explanation. "The only reason we haven’t done a musical Buffy episode is I said it would have to be good and it would take about six months to write. A good musical is not easy to make — everybody gets it wrong. I could go on for hours about how to explain a musical comedy." He is eager to provide this example, "Every time you see a television show that’s a musical, they have a scene, they end the scene and then they sing a Randy Newman song.
This is not a Buffy musical! With the success of the series far outlasting any expectation of Joss’s story idea once set in his original screen play, it is sometimes wondered what he would do if he could make that movie again, his way and with the current Buffy line-up. "I thought about making a Buffy movie with my actors because how cool would that be? But I wouldn’t want to do the old script again because I think I’m a better writer then I was back then." Does this mean he has a whole new idea in the works? "No," he replied, "I think, I kind of feel, stories out there exist and I’m sort of tip-toeing the next one." Never one to commit himself to the future there is always someone to remind him of the past. One such audience member did this with reference to the fact that the movie was shot during Buffy’s Senior year of High School which suddenly reversed itself in the television series where it began in her Sophomore year. "Yeah, I’d appreciate if you just didn’t mention that." (laughter) Given an opportunity to stand before the great and powerful Joss is close to a once in a life time chance and for some fans an opportunity not to be forsaken. Even at the cost of crossing a few lines of protocol. But one eager soul, completely adorned in his home-made Atomic-Man power suit, flagrantly pitched his story idea.
A few things that missed their mark in the fans eyes were storylines that just didn’t seem to flow or maintain a purpose such as the roll of the Initiative with Adam, its Frankenstein creation gone bad, and the character of Spike (James Marsters) who fell into their demon-spaying hands. "You know, what happened is basically, ‘how do we fit it in, how do we make it work?’ I agree, I think it was very useless stuff. Borrowing a cup of sugar and leaving. (laughter) He’s not a Scooby and he’s never gonna be a Scooby and so working him in is different than it is like when they’re all hanging out at Giles’. I can say easily that he’s going to have a great deal more to do this year and it’ll be really cool."
Adam - pretty much what was intended. Another directive focusing upon the series Angel is the duality of its characters and their usage. "We wanted to bring on characters and walk them through their paces, corrupt them, hurt them, all that stuff. No one’s safe. We wanted to reach that kind of emotional pitch we did with Buffy on Angel," states Joss. No character has been walked through more paces than that of Faith, (portrayed by Eliza Dushku) and whether you love her or hate her you have to admit she has a strong following, perhaps even the strongest of any reoccurring character on either series to date. When one fan shouted out, "Bring back Faith!" Joss quickly responded, "Yeah, I’m all for it." He did further express that the availability of Eliza, "She’s a movie star now," would always be the pivot point of Faith’s return, for without a doubt the story ideas do exist in Joss’s head. In retrospect of this past season of Buffy, an obvious observation is that in college life there seems to be less vampires then there were in high school. Perhaps a higher educational environment offers an opportunity demons are more attracted to but then again, Buffy is a Vampire Slayer. "There will be a bunch of vampires going on," Joss assures us for the new season, but he also offers this explanation. "You know we sort of, like you, get tired looking at the same old stunt men. ‘Put some horns on! Okay, that’s good.’ A lot of people were really offended that we strayed from our vampire roots, so yes, there will be some more vampires happening. But we’ll also get demony too." There are reasons for the advancement of higher learning demons! "The monsters became less important as the show progressed. As the emotions of the characters were so complex and there were so many of them. The soap opera as a continuing series became really what we were focusing on and the demons became whatever we needed to service that. It wasn’t like, ‘Okay we did Frankenstein, this week it’ll be Dracula.’ Whereas, in the first year it was like, ‘how could we best express [the metaphor]’ so demons which are sort of generic serve that. But we are going to have more vampires this year." Here are a few quick snippets that brought on a few laughs. Some people just don’t get it! Question: ?Did you see X-Men? Q:?Did you like it? Q:?Tara, human or slightly less than monster? Q:?I'm wondering if Spike is ever going to get that ‘V’ chip out of his head? Q:?Is Anya ever going to get any of her powers back? |
