Alyson’s favourite episodes

Alyson Hannigan told Entertainment Weekly which her favourite Buffy episodes were in an interview in October 2005:

1. Hush: “It was a whole new way of figuring out how to act, the not-talking thing.”
2. The Body: “I just remember the no sound, no music - it was so disconcerting.”
3. Ted: “John Ritter was the best. We would all just hang out in his trailer and be like, ‘Hi, John Ritter!!’ and he didn’t care. And, we got to shoot at a mini-golf place.”
4. Doppelgängland: “I was in the vampire Willow outfit, and Alexis had some holy water, and he made this noise, like FFFFT!! And it just cracked me up. I had such a crush on him.”

Cast costumes

The episode Ted was shot during Halloween. Many of the cast and crew came in costume to the set. Kristine Sutherland (Joyce) wore 50s clothes - dressed as Ted’s first wife - and Sarah Michelle Gellar came as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, including Toto - her dog, Thor.

Illness

In the final fight scene between Sarah Michelle Gellar and John Ritter in Ted, both Sarah and John were sick. Sarah had the ‘flu and John had food poisoning.

Kristine’s favourite episodes

Kristine Sutherland’s (Joyce) favourite Buffy episodes are Ted, Band Candy and When She Was Bad.

The captain hat

A line cut from Willow and Xander’s conversation about the Captain and Tennille was:

James G. MacDonald

James G. MacDonald made his first appearance as Detective Stein in the episode Ted, questioning Buffy over Ted’s death. James appeared as the same character in Consequences and Becoming (Part 2). James has also appeared in Phone Booth, Sour Grapes, Vanishing Point, Malcolm X and Roswell.

John Ritter

John guest starred as Ted Buchanan in the episode Ted. He had previously played a chef called Jack in Three’s Company in the late 70s and early 80s. It’s possible that his amazing skill at cooking in this episode is a nod towards his character in the sitcom. John previously worked with Joss Whedon’s father, who was also a writer. His son once appeared in a play written by Joss’s brother Zack Whedon. At the 2003 Teen Choice Awards, John introduced the nominees for ‘Best Drama’, one of which was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. John tragically died on September 11th 2003, a few days before his 55th birthday. He collapsed on set of his TV sitcom 8 Simple Rules … For Dating My Teenage Daughter, and later died. He had an aortic dissection, or a tear in the wall of his heart. He will be missed by a legion of fans around the world.

Ted Buchanan

Joyce’s seemingly perfect boyfriend: successful at work; an amazing chef; good values; caring and kind - his only flaw is that he’s a psychotic robot. Ted Buchanan actually built a robot of himself when he was dying, and his wish is to recreate his life with his first wife. Over and over. Buffy was jealous of Ted when she still believed he was human and the two had a couple of stand-offs. Finally, Ted threatened to show Joyce Buffy’s Slayer diary and the two fought. Buffy kicked Ted down the stairs, and believed she ‘killed’ him. He later came back but his wiring was broken and Joyce realised what he was. Buffy destroyed the robot using a frying pan.

Belinda

Buffy goes to Ted’s workplace to spy on him. She pretends she’s a new temp and calls herself Belinda.

Miniature Golf

Ted takes Joyce and the Scoobies for a game of miniature golf. Willow said in When She Was Bad that there no mini-golf courses In Sunnydale, but I guess it’s possible that Ted drove them somewhere else for their game. Mini-golf was also the favoured pastime of season three’s Mayor Richard Wilkins III (he suggested a game in Enemies). Clearly, miniature golf is the game of choice for evil patriarchs.

Own fun

In the episode Ted, Willow says, “I have my own fun.” In Innocence, she says of herself and the Scoobies, “Well we don’t have cable so we have to make our own fun.”

Sad overalls

There seems to be a continuing theme that Buffy wears dungarees (overalls) when she’s sad. She wears them in Ted after she thinks she killed Ted; in Becoming (Part 2) before boarding the bus to run away; in Helpless when arriving, sans her power, to save her mother; and in Inca Mummy Girl when she wears them to hunt Ampata instead of going to the dance.

Three weeks

In Ted, Cordelia refers to the events of The Dark Age, remembering how Giles helped raise Eyghon. Jenny says it’s been three weeks since the events of that episode.

What happened to the Order of Taraka?

At the beginning of the episode Ted, Buffy, Xander and Willow refer to the events of What’s My Line? (Part 2). The Order of Taraka has apparently been called off, and Angel is still recuperating from the injuries he got from Spike and Drusilla.

Xander the Jinx

In School Hard, Xander gives the “ultimate jinx” by saying, “Nothing’s gonna happen” and Willow and Buffy walk off in a huff. In Ted, Xander says, “Yeah, with Spike and Drusilla out of the way, we’ve really been ridin’ the mellow… and I am really jinxing the hell out of us by saying that” to which Buffy replies, “Yeah, but we’ll let you off this time”.

Slayer power

The theme of ‘Slayer power’ is explored deeply in the episode Ted. Buffy feels that there is something wrong with Ted, but we’re never sure whether this is down to her Slayer intuition or whether she’s just jealous of Ted’s relationship with her mother. A similar theme is explored in season four’s Living Conditions when Buffy accuses her annoying roommate of being a demon, though, in fairness, she eventually turns out to be right! It’s an interesting conundrum for her friends - is Buffy simply using her Slayerness/Spidey-sense (see below) as an excuse for her personal dislikes, or does she really feel that something is wrong?
Another of the episode’s important developments is Buffy’s realisation of her strength, and how to use it. She accidentally kills Ted and is instantly horrified by her actions. She realises that she wasn’t chosen to kill humans, no matter how bad they are, or may seem to be. This is something which Buffy strongly believes in throughout the series. In Bad Girls, Faith accidentally kills a man and the differences between her reaction and Buffy’s are marked. Buffy, and possibly more noticeably its spin-off Angel, also explores how power shouldn’t be used indiscriminately when it comes to demons. Buffy realises that there are many different types of demons, and they’re not all evil so she shows mercy to helpless or harmless demons. For a different slant check out Riley’s reaction to this ‘multi-culturalism’ in New Moon Rising. Of course Joss was in no way influenced by Stan Lee’s famous Spider-Man motto: “With great power comes great responsibility”.

Crime and Punishment

In the episode Ted, the Scoobies have a discussion about Buffy killing a person that follows as such:

Cordelia: “I don’t get it, Buffy’s the slayer shouldn’t she have - ”
Xander: “What, a license to kill?”
Cordelia: “Well, not for fun. But she’s like this superman, shouldn’t there be different rules for her?”
Willow: “Sure, in a fascist society.”
Cordelia: “Right! Why can’t we have one of those?”
Willow: “Buffy’s not going to jail, it’s not fair.”
Giles: “Whatever the authorities have planned for her can not be worse than what she is doing to herself. She’s taken a human life. The guilt, it’s pretty hard to bear and won’t go away soon.”

This entire section of dialogue is an allusion to the book Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. One of the central themes in Crime and Punishment was the concept of the Overman theory by Nietzsche, which is commonly refereed to as the ‘Superman’ theory in English. Nietsche’s theory is that there are certain extraordinary people who are beyond good, evil, and especially the laws of society. Dostoevsky uses Napoleon as an example in his book. In the book the main character plans to, and commits, murder to see if he is one of these great people who are above society. After committing said murder, the main character is over taken by grief, guilt, and the fear of being found out.

Influences for Mr. Buchanan

In The Monster Book (page ix), Joss Whedon states that, “we refer to Ted as ‘The Stepfather-Terminator-Collector’”, revealing three of the films that contributed to the frame of reference for a single character.

James Bond

In the episode Ted, Cordelia states Buffy should have ’special rules’ when it comes to the subject of murder to which Xander replies, “What? A license to kill?” This is the title of the 1989 James Bond movie starring Timothy Dalton.
In The Prom, Cordelia says that Wesley would look “way-007 in a tux”, referring to Agent 007 - James Bond. In Flooded, the nerds can be seen playing 007 Golden-Eye on their Playstation. In Out of My Mind, Buffy says, “You’re like my fairy godmother and Santa Claus and Q all wrapped up into one… Q from Bond not Star Trek“.
In Life Serial, Jonathan, Andrew and Warren discuss the different actors who have portrayed James Bond. Warren likes Sean Connery, Jonathan favours Roger Moore and Andrew’s favourite is Timothy Dalton. They mention the movies Dr. No, Moonraker, Licence to Kill and The Living Daylights.
In As You Were, Buffy says to Riley, “you still carry around all that James Bond stuff.” They later abseil down a giant dam, 007-style.
In Lessons, Dawn says, “Check out double-oh Xander”, referencing James Bond. In Showtime, Andrew tells Dawn she has a “License to Kill” and in Villians, Buffy, Xander,and Dawn are talking about what to do with Warren and Buffy says, “That doesn’t give me a license to kill.”

Kevlar

Giles says to Jenny in the episode Ted, “The advantages of layers of tweed. It’s better than Kevlar.” Kevlar is a material which is used to make bullet proof vests.

Superman

Comicbook hero Superman has been epitomised in many comics (by DC Comics), movies (starring the late Christopher Reeve), TV shows (eg. Lois and Clarke, Smallville), cartoons (eg. The Adventures of Superman) and even a musical. He and the world he lives in have been referenced many times in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel:

• In Never Kill a Boy on the First Date, Buffy says, “even Clark Kent has a job”, alluding to Superman’s alter-ego.
• In Reptile Boy, Xander’s chances of ever belonging to a fraternity of rich and powerful men are rubbished by Cordy as likely only “in the Bizarro world.” The Bizarro world is a weird, back-to-front version of the real world in Superman.
• In the episode Ted, Cordelia says of Buffy, “But she’s like this Superman.”
• In The Wish, Cordelia says to vamps Willow and Xander, “No. No! No way! I wish us into Bizarro Land, and you guys are still together?! I cannot win!”
• In Helpless, Oz and Xander discuss which colour Kryptonite hurts Superman. Writer David Fury said in his DVD commentary for the episode that he wasn’t sure which Kryptonite was which so wrote this scene as such.
• In The Zeppo, there area few references to Superman: Xander’s line, “But, gee, Mr White, if Clark and Lois get all the good stories I’ll never be a good reporter”, which he acknowledges as a “Jimmy Olsen joke”. He also name-checks the Daily Planet’s editor Perry White, Superman’s alter ego Clark Kent, and his colleague Lois Lane. Cordelia’s jibe “You must feel like Jimmy Olsen” is another reference to the Daily Planet’s youngest photographer.
• In Doomed, Forrest says to Riley, “Granted they’re a little rarer than the one’s you grew up with on that little farm in Smallville.” Smallville, Kansas, was the small town where Clark Kent (Superman) grew up.
• In Superstar, Xander mentions Kryptonite again.
• In Real Me, Xander says, “She can turn this place into the fortress of solitude again”. Superman built the Fortress of Solitude in the North Pole as a place where he could relax and keep his souvenirs.
• In Gone, Andrew mentions Superman’s nemesis Lex Luthor. Buffy also mentions Bizarro World again.
• In Two To Go, Andrew says, “Lex Luthor had a false epidermis escape kit in Superman Versus the Amazing Spider-Man Treasury edition”.
• In Bring on the Night, Andrew says, “An evil name should be something like Lex” He’s referring to Superman’s nemesis Lex Luthor.
• In the Angel episode Blind Date, Wesley says, “The human eye is only capable of registering a small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. But if Brewer were somehow equipped to see outside that range…” to which Cordelia replies, “She’d be Superman.”
• In You’re Welcome, Cordelia ends her seeming obsession with the Bizarro world when she says, “What Bizarro-world did I wake up in?”

The Stepford Wives

The ‘Stepford’ mention in the Buffy episode Ted refers to The Stepford Wives, a 1975 movie about a town in Connecticut where all the women seem to live perfect lives as housewives but turn out to be robots. The entire episode is a slightly different take on the movie. The movie was remade in 2004, starring the ubiquitous Nicole Kidman.
In the Angel episode Sacrifice, Lorne says, “Does anyone else feel like the last fiesty wife in Stepford?”

Thelma & Louise

Buffy says to her mother in Ted, “I guess we’re Thelma & Louise-ing it again.” The 1991 movie Thelma & Louise, is about two women (Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon) who go on a road trip, where things go from bad to worse. It’s a movie often associated with female bonding.

Seen at 20.45 minutes:

When Buffy climbs into her room, most of her nightstand is in darkness, though in close up shots it’s illuminated.

Seen at 33.23 minutes:

How did Giles really survive being hit by a crossbow? “Layers of tweed” doesn’t seem to be a satisfactory explanation.

Seen at 36.55 minutes:

Xander opens Ted’s cupboard door holding the torch in his right hand by his side. The shot cuts to a different angle and the torch is by his head.