Featuring...
Joss Whedon
Creator of BtVS and ANGEL
Continued from previous page...

Two big moments of last season's Buffy that could have hurt the show in both ratings and fan-base projective were the preemption and delay of two significant episodes, Earshot and the season finale, Graduation Day (part 2). Both decisions were touchy subjects with fans and cast alike but the final decision was the correct one in the situation of Earshot. " [the WB] were touchy," Joss offers "when we first showed them the script, long before what happened. You know, the only thing I was upset with was the fact that Jonathan got up at ‘The Prom’ episode to make the speech about Buffy. People wouldn’t understand why it was important that he made that speech. It had to do with the continuity of the show and that was upsetting. But there was no way we could air that episode.

Some would say there's a thin
line between TV and reality.
I would have been offended had I seen it." In the end it wasn’t a surprise to Joss. "But I think the episode was great, it has a great message. The problem I think is, not that we were glorifying guns, don’t get the wrong message, the problem is any answer, it’s too pat, it’s too trite and therefore offensive in the face of an event like that and so I knew that was going to happen."

In the case of GD2, the situation was cautionary at the least although Joss was not completely on board this time. "I didn’t agree with the ‘Graduation’ thing. I’m a little sad about some of the cuts we had to make because Xander didn’t get to say, ‘We blew up the school, it’s the best day ever!’ (laugh) That was sad. And they hadn’t ever come down and said, ‘Okay, now you’re going to be careful right?’ because they know that’s not what the show is really about. They knew we just got unlucky." But not that unlucky as the results will show, for when the episode finally did air, they brought in some of the highest ratings of the season.

Part of the territory accompanying such events and the close connection that the fans have with the writers, producers and cast of the shows, thanks to the modern age of technology and the Net, fan responses can come quickly and feverishly. "Well, we take reaction very seriously because we can tell when a character is not registering. But at the same time we know there are things we are going to do that are gonna upset people, that we’re doing on purpose," admits Joss. "And we also know that ultimately we’re gonna do whatever the hell we want. (laugh) But we are definitely swayed by what we hear. That’s important, that’s always been the case. I’ve said many times with Oz (portrayed by Seth Green), when people didn’t like Oz we made a real effort to make people like him. He’s one of the heroes."

Another character, new to the fourth season of Buffy was Riley Finn. The fan response was quite aggressive due to the fact he was brought in as Buffy’s new love interest right on the heals of the three year on-again, off-again romance with Angel. (now departed for his own series) "And then with Riley (Marc Blucus)," Joss agrees, ‘Well, you’re just trying to make us like him.’ Well, that’s sort of what we do. I think season 4 had a mixed report card from a lot of people, the way ‘Restless’ did. You know, we did some things that we look back on and go ‘hmm, maybe we didn’t love that’, and some, ‘that was the thing that people didn’t like,’ they were just wrong. We write it, they just can’t stop us. (laugh) There’s definitely a give and take, but we know our course. It’s just a question of making it work.
"If the audience
isn't coming
aboard it's
because we're
writing it wrong."
If the audience isn’t coming aboard it’s not because we’re doing the wrong things, it’s because we’re writing it wrong. Because we’re not writing well enough. Then we say let’s make this better, let’s make it work."

As a writer, Joss can appreciate the talent and effort that goes into a weekly script. Unfortunately not all that gets written or filmed gets into the final finished episode and that can be frustrating. But, according to Joss, his shows fare better than others, yet he still carries a few regrets. "Well, the first cut of that Buffy sex scene was like five minutes longer and that Xander line from before was a painful cut. (laugh) Very early on in the third episode ‘The Witch’ Tony (Anthony Head who plays the role of Buffy’s Watcher, Giles) had done some really funny stuff but we were long and I was really sort of sad because I got so excited when we did it." He’s quick to add in a humorous vein, ". . . that’s when things were still new and fresh and we cared about people and stuff." (laugh)

But does he lose a lot of footage that he wishes had remained? "Not that much stuff that hits the cutting room floor. Because we never know how long the cuts going to be. We put out the script, it’s about 50 pages long, that can come in 10 minutes too long when we film it," he explains, "or it can come in 3 minutes short and it always wants to come in long because you can sort of cut things out. If you come in short then you have to go and film new things and that’s much more work. But one of the things that I work really hard on is the editing, at least making sure we don’t lose anything that we love. Maybe an expendable line, a joke that really didn’t register with us. We’ll never loose the best stuff."

On the set of ANGEL, Joss Whedon gives
David Boreanaz and Glenn Quinn a few
directions before take.
Then there’s what's called the ‘final cut’ and this can be interpreted in many ways, good and bad. "I always think the cut we put out is the best cut we could have put out. When I see directors cuts that are nine hours long and everything they’ve ever filmed, I get so angry. Then I think, put these guys in TV for a while because you learn what you need and what you don’t. So there isn’t a lot of stuff on the floor that you guys would want to see."

A big part of what ends up in an episode begins with what you put in it, or in this case how it gets put in it. Many writers have different work methods and styles and Joss is no exception, especially when having a staff of writers to guide each week. "Most of my writers write from beginning to end and I find anything else incomprehensible. But we spend weeks and weeks breaking a story, outlining it and putting it on the board. I don’t do anything unless I know exactly what I’m going to write through the entire thing. So, I can start anywhere because the script is completely structured in my mind before we start to write it. I’ve got us all over the place. I’ll write the fun parts first. What ever I think I can get a grip on I just have to write." So whether you start at the beginning or start at the end, if will still bring you to the same point eventually. "Yeah, as long as you know where you’re going then everything’s fine. If you don’t, nothing’s fine. You usually write until it’s finished."

"There is one
story about Tara
that I'd like to
do myself..."
Even DK got in on the action, asking Joss if he would be writing more Angel episodes himself this season and how he decides which stories he writes. "Well I really, pretty much, also want to direct," he began, "and although I’ll actually be directing somebody else’s script for the first time on Angel, I choose the episodes to direct based on scheduling. I didn’t direct the first Buffy this year for the first time because I just had too much and I needed to sort of get everything done and not have us all fall behind like I do every year. But the writing, since I’m developing every story with the writers, I feel like there’s a piece of me in there. So I probably won’t do more originals all by myself but then I want to direct which should be about four (episodes)." But then he slyly adds, "Except that there is one story about Tara that I kind of want to do myself but I may not have time."