She's overcome a satanic mayor, life-sucking mummies and even her own death. But there's one entity that Buffy the Vampire Slayer has yet to slay: a mass audience.

As 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' kicks off its sixth season next week, its heroine, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, is a pop culture icon, gracing Maybelline ads, magazine covers and teen movies. But the show has never been a ratings bonanza, nor has it ever received a major Emmy award, despite enormous critical praise.

UPN is praying that all of that will turn around. It spent more than $100 million to buy the show from the WB for two seasons. That's roughly $2.3 million per episode. The No. 5 network doesn't expect to profit directly from the purchase, but hopes the cult hit will attract younger viewers to the network's other offerings.
It would certainly help matters if the industry finally gave Gellar some respect.
In next week's two-hour premiere, in which the slayer returns from the dead, Gellar shows off her wide range by first playing a Buffy-Bot, built by Willow to trick demons into thinking Sunnydale is still protected. The robot is wide-eyed, gullible and prone to running into walls.

In the second half, the real Buffy returns, only after punching her way out of a coffin. The experience so traumatizes her that she barely says a word for the entire hour, and even contemplates suicide. From slapstick to shock, Gellar is a wonder.
Equally impressive are creator Joss Whedon's scripts, a rapid-fire string of quips and visual images. One of my gripes with the series is that the writers go overboard in trying to be hip; some Borscht Belt ghost seems to be hanging over every conversation. But it's impressive, like a 24-scoop sundae. And it's also smart. These aren't the 'Saved by the Bell' jokesters; these are mature young adults who are business-savvy, studious and parental -- even if the name of the show sounds like a Saturday-morning cartoon.

'I know that when Joss first was creating the show, people didn't want it to be called 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' because they were afraid it would turn people off,' Gellar said. 'But this show is the most wonderful mix of brilliant, witty writing and phenomenal performances and evolving stories. If people turn their heads to it and say they won't watch it, the same way they wouldn't watch 'The Power Rangers,' that really is just ignorance.'

Executive producer Marti Noxon said that when she joined the team she couldn't even get respect from her own family.

'I called my mom to tell her that I got the job, and I was shaking with excitement,' she said. 'I called her from a pay phone and there was this long pause. Then she said, 'Oh, honey, next year you'll do better.'

James Marsters, who recently joined the regular cast as the good-hearted vampire Spike, said he didn't even want to audition for the show -- until he sat down and watched it. 'Then I got so nervous, because I wanted to be on that show so bad,' he said.

Marsters believes that in addition to the premise, people might be wary of the show's mishmash approach.

'We go from hyperrealistic drama to wide farce and then straight back to realism and that takes some talent,' he said. 'But it throws people.'

Based on the season premiere, Whedon isn't planning to change that formula anytime soon. The two-hour episode includes some hilarious scenes with Spike as the overprotective baby sitter, then switches to Willow's attempt at a resurrection, in which a snake oozes out of her mouth and tumors crawl up and down her arms. She does everything but spin her head and vomit blood.

Then there's the tenderhearted departure of mentor Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), who will pop up on a British spinoff in the near future.

Whedon said this season will be more about the crimefighters entering the grown-up world. 'And, of course, they will handle it just as badly as possible,' he said.
Will the show finally be 'adult' enough to garner more recognition? Don't bet on it.
'The fact of the matter is that a show called 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' is never going to be Emmy bait,' Whedon said. 'It's not like we're going to do a very special episode and figure out an Emmy theme. 'What do they like? What do they go for?' It's just not relevant to us.'

Posted by Bob on the Kitten Board on 9-26-01

The ever-popular eidc shoot sheet lists two new Buffy shoots, both on Tuesday October 9. One will be in the day and one will be at night.

Here they are:

quote:
10/9/01
06:00 - 18:00
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX TELEVISION
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
KENNETH HAHN PARK

Kenneth Hahn Park, formerly known as the Baldwin Hills Recreational Area, is located at 4100 S. La Cienega Boulevard in Baldwin Hills. It's a big place, so anyone who goes looking for the shoot will need to watch for the yellow "V" signs.

quote:
10/9/01
16:00 - 23:59
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX TELEVISION
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
CLYDE AV.,FALLS GROVE ST-BOWESMOUTH ST

This one's trickier. There's an intersection of Clyde Avenue and Falls Grove Street, and it's in Baldwin Hills, not far from Kenneth Hahn Park. However, there's no "Bowesmouth Street" in that area. There's a Bowcroft Street one block over from Falls Grove. Could this be a typo? Fortunately, it's not far from the park so if the location is wrong it won't be too much of a wild goose chase.

Posted by Wanda on E!Online on 9-28-01
http://www.eonline.com/Gossip/Wanda/Archive/010928.html

4. Buffy: In the upcoming Halloween show, Giles returns from England to help Buffy and Spike take on a gang of vampires Dawn gets mixed up with on a blind double date.

True: And Giles isn't the only Halloween treat--word around town is that Seth Green will reprise his role as Oz. Meanwhile, Dawn's friend Janice ends up doing a little unintentional necking, so to speak, with her long-toothed beau.

Posted by Wanda on E!Online on 10-1-01

Melissa asks: IMDB is reporting Shannen Doherty on Buffy as Sarah Giles... please say it's wrong!!!
Wanda replies: Let's just get this one out of the way, since many of you are asking. If Shannen's going to be on Buffy, it's news to every inside source I have, it's news to the cast, and it's news to Joss Whedon (unless they've all turned into fabulous liars overnight, which I sincerely doubt). We were on set just last week to shoot footage for E!'s Buffy special (airing tonight at 9) and I assure you, there was no Shannen in sight.

mojo8383 asks: Any Willow news?
Wanda replies: Our first glimpse at what could very well be leading up to an evil Willow: In the season premiere, there's a pretty disturbing scene (at least, to PETA types) where she slaughters a beautiful doe in a very peaceful woodsy setting.
kristodd69 asks: since you have seen the Buffy premiere, could you tell us how good it is please!!!!!

Wanda replies: Fantastic. But it does drag a little in explainy parts, as the producers wanted to make sure that first-timers get a good grasp on the show. Alyson Hannigan and the rest of the Scoobs are great in the episode, but SMG barely talks once she's the real deal and not BuffyBot. By the way, have you all taken our Buffy Personality Test? (It's in a Buffy package we just launched on Friday, which you can find on the front door of the site.)

monicahere asks: Tell us more about Buffy?! What were they taping last week when you were there
Wanda replies: The musical episode. While we were visiting, Sarah was taping her first song, and the rest of the cast was all sweatsuited up for dance lessons. Nothing like a little Buffy goes Broadway--complete with jazz hands.


Posted by saffron on smgfan.com on 10-02-01

James was on KROQ's kevin and bean show this morning, eightish. I missed the beginning of the interview, but the hosts were teasing James about maybe there being a Spikebot on the show, to which he only replied with a lascivious laugh and a boy remark. You all know what the Buffybot did, can you imagine what the Spikebot would do? And who would own it? Okay, train of thought moving away from that COMPLETE OFF THE CUFF REMARK THAT HAS NO REAL BASIS IN FACT and is probably, as I speak, setting the flame of a thousand bad fic writers alight.
Moving on, James revealed he was dealing with some icky flu, and was eating chicken broth, saltines and 7up.

He did a little time capsule for the show's 5th season finale (he really is a fan, he knew what he was talking about. *sigh*) before moving on to tonight's episode, which he paused, before giving this answer...

"Buffy has friends who will do pretty much anything to get her back, especially if they think she's in hell..." (not exact quote, but the gist of it.) Which led into this little debate about Angel and the last portal the show featured, which had Angel roasting in Hell for untold millenia (and he should have stayed there, grr..sorry, anger management, I'm fine) and so the worry that Buffy might have ended up in the same place, even though she is a very good person. I'm not sure if that entire convo was to lead us off the path, but it was certainly interesting.

James later said that there was possible firing of a leak on set, so those entire 'mole' mentions in Buffy articles may have been flushed out and fired. James was way too cheerful with the evisceration talk though.

When talk of the Buffy Musical Ep (Which is Episode 7, and November Sweeps time, confirmed by James) James said that the chord progressions Joss used were quite impressive and that he was just given the musical cd a couple of days ago so he can learn to lip synch to it. So, basically, the actors recorded their songs ahead of time, will be given the computerized producing shine to it, and they lip synch. Just like a Britney Spears concert!

James said that a bunch of the cast members have experience in musical theatre, and that the episode will just rock -- and that no one sucks...the hosts were teasing him and trying to figure out if it was Aly that was the worst singer. James just diplomatically said that he was surprised by the talent around him (singing) and that they all pulled together and that of course, he rocks...*G*

Discussion of how Joss deserved 5 emmys on his shelf by now, a little about the WB/UPN fracas over Buffy, and then the entire, "Buffy can't be dead. She's too hot to die!" remarks from the hosts, which James replied, "Yeah, well she's been in the ground for Six Months...." but he then jokingly said, "But I've seen her recently...and cute as ever..."

so it was another one of those typical Cute James Interviews. He repeated a lot of the information he said on Loveline, minus the swollen body parts commentary, but you know..James...of the good.

Printed in the Calgary Sun on 10-2-01
http://www.canoe.ca/TelevisionShowsB/buffy_vampireslayer.html

Buffy back to life
A new season and network await TV's vampire slayer
By KEVIN WILLIAMSON -- Calgary Sun

SPOILER ALERT! Read no further if you don't want to know anything about the new season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Still there?

Buffy comes back from the dead.

Ok, so maybe it wasn't that big of a spoiler.

"It is called Buffy The Vampire Slayer," producer Marti Noxon notes dryly from the show's Los Angeles production offices.

As fans know, the blond bombshell (Sarah Michelle Gellar) who battles demons and bloodsuckers in her spare time, died at the end of last season while saving her sister, Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg) -- and, oh yeah, all of existence -- from an evil god named Glory. (Really, it's no more ridiculous than The Practice.)

Tonight's sixth-season opener -- which debuts on UPN tonight at 6 p.m. -- finds Buffy still six feet under.

By the end of the episode, she's alive -- if not quite herself. "I think our fans will be happy with it," says Noxon, who wrote the episode. "From our end, we just want to earn it. We didn't want to bring her back and brush it off. There will be serious repercussions from it.

"It'll be believable -- you know, despite the metaphysical impossibility of it."
Buffy's other big change -- beyond the whole return from the dead thingee -- is the series' move in the U.S. from The WB network to rival UPN, which is doling out an eye-popping fee of $2M per episode for the show. The change worried fans, since UPN, home of Star Trek and The WWF, has a predominantly male audience. Would Buffy be butched up to fit in?

"Basically, it's exactly the same. And the network has been very supportive. They obviously believed in the show, and they have pledged not to fix something that isn't broken."

In fact, Noxon says Buffy isn't the only one feeling re-energized these days. "We all feel revitalized." The network switch does, though, mean that the off-again, on-again romance between Buffy and brooding vampire do-gooder Angel -- who has his own show on The WB -- is definitely off.

"I still get three to four letters a week, asking for Angel and Buffy to get back together. I had one fan burn their poster of Angel and Buffy and send me the ashes," Noxon says. "They're in a whole hooting bucket of denial. I tell them, they're not even on the same channel anymore; they must move on.

"Look at Spike. He's a nice vampire and he's even on the same network."

If that's a hint there's romance in the cards for Buffy and Spike (James Marsters), the acid-tongued vampire who has long nursed a crush on the slayer, Noxon says the two's love-hate rapport isn't changing soon. "There will still be that tension, with Spike mooning over her."

There's also plenty of time to get together -- both Gellar and Marsters are committed to the show for the duration of the show's contract with UPN, which runs through the end of next season. "We're all pretty happy here."

Despite that, the series does lose one of its original cast members this year. Anthony Stewart Head, who plays Buffy's mentor Giles, is headed home to London to be closer to his family, and to star in a proposed Giles spinoff, Watcher, for the BBC.

Of course none of this will surprise anyone who frequents spoiler-heavy Web sites, like Ain't It Cool News, which post Buffy plotlines months before the episodes air.
"Yeah, it bothers me. We all work so hard to surprise the audience and keep it a fresh experience. It's like people ruining a movie for you, but on a much grander scale.

"They've been better lately, but they have a leak and we've been trying to find it, but we haven't been able to."

Could that be the basis of a new reality-TV series. "Yeah," Noxon laughs, "the hunt for the Buffy mole."

Posted by Leoff on BC&S on 10-2-01

Driving into work today, I threw my radio preset to one of the "lesser listened to" stations, KISS 103.5. Heavy alternative and dance and crap. Not one of my favorites, but occasionally good when nothing else is on. KISS is one of those nationwide format radio mega- stations, so others may have heard this interview, too.

I heard a familure sounding voice come out of my speakers! Michelle Trachenburg! She was SO delightful to hear and sounded... well, CUTE! Laughing and joking and stuff!

The only real "Spoilers" were very vague...

-Dawn was going to be a bit "rebellious" this year (which she says is SO totally the reverse of Michelle)
-Buffy is gonna have love this year. (???)

The interview unfortunately was an overall disaster, though. Michelle was beautiful, but the DJ interviewing her was acting all slick and stuff, and you could tell that this guy didn't know a THING about the show. Seems as if the shows move from the WB to UPN was a surprise to him, also, but Michelle did a good "build-up" for UPN.
Only thing the DJ/interviewer kept going on and on about was that Buffy died. Well, duh! Couldn't see a single promo for the show and not know that much!

Still, Michelle was a sweet 15 year old girl (turning 16 soon I think?) who was interesting, funny, and fun to listen to!

Printed in Dreamwatch (November 2001)
(paraphrase by Wendy)

Episode 5, Life Serial, is written by Rebecca Rand Kirshner and Dew Greenberg. Later episodes include Asylum, in which Buffy "is invaded by a demon that causes her to question reality, leaving her confined in a mental hospital."

Shown on Behind the Scenes on E!Online on 10-1-01

Spike's new crypt set includes a bed.
A scene of Buffy, Xander, Anya, Willow and Tara at the Magic Box. Buffy is singing "What can't we face if we're together?" and the others join in.

  Join me in the Crypt of Decryption:

First, a bit of self-praise and thanks to my faithful spoiler minions, who are much appreciated but anonymous. The info I received about Eps 1 and 2 was spot on. Furthermore, everything Hercules on AICN posted was correct.

One bit of info I was least sure of was the info I'd received about Episode 3. My source had a shooting summary, a list of all the scenes in the episode. My source transcribed it for me, but I never saw the "real" thing. Well, the promo for Episode 3 that was shown after Bargaining last night reveals that information to be true. This means we can look forward to three major Spike/Buffy scenes next week:

1. Spike finds out Buffy is alive.
2. Buffy comes to see Spike in his crypt during her first night back (the shooting summary describes this scene as "awkward")
3. Spike and Buffy talk outside the Magic Box near the end of the episode.

Comments from Marti Noxon indicate that the show is committed to moving past the Buffy/Angel relationship. A radio interview with Michelle Trachtenberg confirms that Buffy will have "love" this season. And the presence of a bed in Spike's new crypt set surely suggests that it will be used this season.

Spoilage from the Musical is hard to find. The E! special on BtVS showed a clip of SMG singing, but no word on other songs. The Dreamwatch article confirms the spoiler that Xander will do a truth spell.

I continue to be not sorry that Noxon and Whedon and gang are upset by us spoiler whores. They have a right to expect that the people who work for them will not spill information. However, I disagree with their suggestions that they know what is best for fans. If a person has access to information and chooses not to be surprised, that is the person's choice. I do not think it is right for Noxon and others to criticize people who make that choice.

Scheduled writers and episode titles:

Sources: Jane Espenson and Drew Z. Greenberg (BtVS writers) at Succubus Club ( http://www.geocities.com/succubusclub/archives/interviews/JE010523.html ) and Steve DeKnight and Drew Z. Greenberg at the Bronze. Also comments by Jane Espenson at the San Diego ComicCon 2001, posted on the Kitten Board.

Ep#1 Marti Noxon (Part 1 of premiere)
Title: Bargaining 1

Ep#2 David Fury (Part 2 of premiere)
Title: Bargaining 2

Ep#3 Jane Espenson
Title: After Life

Ep#4 Jane Espenson and Doug Petrie (directed by Petrie)
Title: Flooded

Ep #5 David Fury and Jane Espenson
Title: Life Serial
Updated 10-9-01

Ep#6 Steve DeKnight
Title: All the Way

Ep#7 Joss Whedon (musical episode)

Ep #8 Rebecca Rand Kirshner

Ep #9 Drew Z. Greenberg

Do you want to:
Correct me? Yell at me? Praise me? Send me spoilers or inside info?
E-mail me at ww1614@yahoo.com

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