Family reactions

Eliza Dushku spoke about her family’s reaction to her sex scene with Xander in The Zeppo:

Nicholas on The Zeppo

Nicholas Brendon has said that he cried when he first read the script for The Zeppo as he was so delighted with it, and it’s meaning for his character. He says it is one of his favourite episodes.

No resurrection

Jack O’Toole’s line, “That’s it. No way am I bringing him back after I kill him” was deleted from the final cut of the episode The Zeppo.

Zeppo misunderstanding

Many fans hated The Zeppo when it first aired, as they missed its point. It’s an episode through the eyes of Xander. The sub-plot about the end of the world isn’t important, it’s Xander’s view (or rather, lack of view) of it. His melodramatic view of Buffy and Angel’s relationship and Faith kicking him out are definite highlights.

Channon Roe

Channon played Jack O’Toole in The Zeppo. He can be seen with Seth Green in the movie Can’t Hardly Wait, and with Nicholas Brendon again in the 2000 movie Psycho Beach Party. He played a surfer in Boogie Nights and has been in episodes of Charmed, Diagnosis Murder, NYPD Blue, The X-Files and My So-Called Life. Channon played Cash, head of the Gangril clan of vampires in the 1996 TV series Kindred: The Embraced.

Michael Cudlitz

Michael Cudlitz, who played the zombie Bob in The Zeppo, has also been in Band of Brothers (as Sgt. Denver ‘Bull’ Randleman), Forces of Nature, The Negotiator, Grosse Point Blank, A River Runs Through It, Beverley Hills 90210 (as Tony Miller) and 24 (as Agent Rick Phillips).

Spice Williams

Spice Williams played Patrice the demon assassin policewoman in What’s My Line? (Part 2). She played Debbie in the Angel episode ‘Salvage‘ (the woman who tries to kill Faith in prison), and she played a vampire in From Dusk Till Dawn. Spice is a stuntwoman who has done stunts for Spider-Man, Galaxy Quest, For the Love of the Game, Spawn, Batman and Robin, Natural Born Killers, Liar, Liar and The Lost Boys. Spice is married to Gregory Crosby, who is a screenwriter and the oldest grandson of Bing Crosby.
She was not credited for her role in Buffy as (in her words in an email to the Buffy Trivia Guide):

Spice also appeared in the episode The Zeppo as a member of the Sisterhood of Jhe. She says:

Vaughn Armstrong

Vaughn Armstrong, who played the cop in The Zeppo, may be familiar to Star Trek fans. He has made 18 appearances in various Star Trek series, as 11 different characters of 8 different races. He played Admiral Maxwell Forrest in Star Trek: Enterprise. Vaughn played Harry in Days of Our Lives and has also appeared in episodes of The West Wing, ER, Beverly Hills, 90210, Frasier, Seinfeld and Cheers.

Whitney Dylan

Whitney Dylan, who played Xander’s car-mad date Lysette in The Zeppo, played a serving girl in the Angel episode ‘There’s No Place Like Plrtz Glrb’. She also appeared in Coyote Ugly.

Bob

Bob was shot dead whilst trying to rob a liquor store, then raised as a zombie eight months later by Jack O’Toole. A fan of Walker, Texas Ranger, Bob was crushed by a drinks machine whilst chasing Xander in The Zeppo.

Dickie

Dickie was one of the zombies in Jack O’Toole’s gang. The first thing he wanted to do when resurrected was to bake a cake - make a bomb. Dickie was killed by the Hellmouth demon in The Zeppo.

Jack O’Toole

Jack was the school bully who was killed in a drive-by shooting, but his grandfather brought him back as a zombie within ten minutes. He threatened Xander with the knife he called Katie, then made Xander drive him and his zombie buddies around for the night, before setting a bomb to blow up the school. Jack was killed by werewolf-Oz in The Zeppo.

Parker

Parker was killed when he was thrown off of a bridge by a gang called the Jackals and then turned into a zombie by Jack O’Toole. He was later decapitated by Xander in The Zeppo.

Alpert tomb

The Alpert tomb is a memorable tomb which can often be spotted when the Scoobies are wandering through Sunnydale’s graveyard. The tomb is named after Buffy producer Marc David Alpert. The tomb can be seen in Becoming (Part 1) (Angel comes out from behind it to fight Buffy when the other Scoobies are being ambushed), Revelations, The Zeppo, Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, Killed By Death, Something Blue (when Buffy wants her wedding photos taken there), Superstar, Real Me, and Grave.

Flugelhorn

Xander reveals in The Zeppo that he used to play the flugelhorn in 8th grade. A Flugelhorn is a trumpet-like instrument that sounds very much like a French horn.

Hellmouth reminders

The quotes in The Zeppo, “The one that opened…,” “about twenty feet from where you’re standing” and “Do you remember the demon that almost got out the night I died?” are references to Prophecy Girl in which a big ugly monster burst through the floor of the library.

Snack job

In What’s My Line, Part One, Buffy excuses herself from research, so that she can go ice-skating with Angel:

In The Zeppo, we see that their roles have been reversed and Xander is relegated to the go-for-snacks (doughnuts, specifically) role in the Scooby gang.

Uncle Rory

Xander’s Uncle Rory, who was a “stodgy taxidermist” by day and at night it was “booze, whores and fur flying”. Mentioned in The Dark Age, The Zeppo (when he lent Xander his car), Fear, Itself, Gone and As You Were. We finally got to meet Uncle Rory when he was a guest at Xander’s wedding in Hell’s Bells - and he didn’t disappoint. He pretended to be electrocuted by a toaster and hit on a waitress at the wedding, pretending she was his date. He then explained the finer points of taxidermy to her.

Xander’s bedroom

We get a decent look at Xander’s bedroom in the episode Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered. He has loads of Marvel posters, a Widespread Panic poster, a ‘Hazardous Waste’ sticker, a giant alarm clock, and an acoustic guitar. We see Xander playing the guitar in his dream in Teacher’s Pet but he doesn’t seem to play as he asks Oz in The Zeppo, “Is it hard to play the guitar?”

Sound Stage

‘Dodgems’ by Sound Stage can be heard in The Zeppo as Xander is showing Buffy and Willow his new car.

Supergrass

In The Zeppo, we hear Supergrass’s ‘G-Song’ as Xander talks to Lysette in The Bronze.

Tricky Woo

In The Zeppo, we hear ‘Easy’ by Tricky Woo while Xander drives Jack O’Toole and the zombies round Sunnydale.

Binding spell

Along with the handy ‘Locator spell’ the ‘Binding spell’ is one of the most commonly used plot devices spells in the Buffyverse. It is used in I Robot - You Jane (on Moloch the Corrupter), Faith, Hope and Trick (Giles pretends he needs to do one on Acathla), The Zeppo (on the hellmouth demon) and Grave (used on Evil Willow by Giles). The spell is seen in Buffy’s spin-off show Angel too. In ‘Over the Rainbow‘ Wesley has the idea of using a binding spell on himself, Angel and Gunn to get them into another dimension, Pylea, and in ‘Lineage‘, Wesley suggests that the pattern on a cyborg could be some kind of binding spell.

Hebron’s Almanac

Giles performed a binding spell on the creature which emerged from the Hellmouth in The Zeppo. Willow says he got the spell from the magical book Hebron’s Almanac. We also hear reference to The Books of Pherion.

Sisterhood of Jhe

The Sisterhood of Jhe were an apocalyptic cult, seen in The Zeppo. They were female demons with long dark hair who attempted to open the Hellmouth.

Zombies

Zombies have been seen several times in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The loosest explanation of a zombie is a corpse which has been reanimated in some way - mainly through magic. Examples of zombies seen on the show include those in Dead Man’s Party (who were revived by a magical Nigerian Ovu Mobani mask); Forrest and Maggie Walsh in Primeval (brought back to “life” by Adam); Joyce (resurrected by a spell by Dawn in Forever); and Jack O’Toole and his pals in The Zeppo. With the exception of The Zeppo zombies, most zombies have no free will and are essentially automatons. Click here for a full explanation of different types of zombie.

Beastie Boys

In The Zeppo, Xander says to the bomb, “Hello, nasty”, a reference to the Beastie Boys album of the same name.

Gatorade

Gatorade is an American sports drink, referenced on Buffy three times: In Angel, Xander says, “Duh! I mean, guys’ll do anything to impress a girl. I once drank an entire gallon of gatorade without taking a breath.” In The Zeppo, Buffy says, “‘Sisterhood of Jhe. Race of female demons, fierce warriors…’ Eww. ‘…celebrate victory in battle by eating their foes.’ They couldn’t just pour Gatorade on each other?” In Smashed, Buffy says to Amy, “Oh - Gatorade has a new flavour. Blue.”

Michael Jackson

In The Zeppo, Jack says, “You wanna be startin’ somethin’?” Xander’s replies, “What? Starting something? Like that Michael Jackson song, right? That was a lot of fun. ‘Too high to get over, yeah, yeah…’ Remember that fun song?” They’re referring to Michael Jackson’s song ‘Wanna Be Starting Something’.
Oz sings the song “Ben” by Michael Jackson in Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered when he’s trying to find Buffy, who has been turned into a rat. The song was used as the title song for the 1972 movie Ben about a boy who befriends a rat.

Star Wars

George Lucas’s Star Wars films are a cult phenomenon. They are referenced numerous times in the Buffyverse. The original trilogy included the movies Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return Of The Jedi (1983) and the movies The Phantom Menace (1999), Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005) were made later on.

• In When She Was Bad, when Xander and Willow play Guess the Movie from the tag line (Willow: “Use the Force, Luke.”,
  Xander: “Do I even have to dignify that with a guess?”)
• In School Hard, Spike told Angel that, “You were my Yoda!” Yoda was the ancient Jedi master who became the mentor and teacher for both Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker.
• A visual reference to Star Wars can be seen in The Zeppo, when Xander runs into the corridor and runs back out with the gang members chasing him. Han Solo does the same thing in Star Wars.
• In Choices, Buffy says that Faith has turned to ‘the dark side’.
• In The Freshman, Xander confuses the Star Wars Jedi code quoted by Yoda in The Phantom Menace. (”Hate leads to anger…no wait…Fear leads to hate, hate leads to the dark side”). Also in that episode, the old frat house that the vampires are holed up in is the Psi Theta house. If you write those two greek letters together, and pronounce them together, you get Sith.
• In Fear, Itself, Xander says to Oz, “Sensing a disturbance in the Force, Master?”
• Buffy using the chain to choke Sobek the snake-demon in Shadow is reminiscent of Princess Leia killing Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi.
• In Forever, Ben calls Glory’s minions “Jawa rejects” after the small hooded and robed creatures in Star Wars.
• In Life Serial, Andrew paints a Death Star from Star Wars on the side of the gang’s van. It’s the Empire’s revised design from Return of the Jedi, which Jonathan says is flawed.
• In the episode Two To Go, Andrew says, “We’ve got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds us all into to Jawa burgers and not one of you bunch has the Midichlorians to stop her.” These are all Star Wars references: Darth is a title given to a Sith Warrior (such as Darth Vader); Jawas are the hooded creatures who live on Tatooine, and Midichlorians are micro-organisms which exist in all living things. Andrew says, “Laugh it up, Fuzzball” which is a quote from Star Wars. Andrew also later says in Two To Go, “…in a galaxy far, far away” - yet another Star Wars reference.
• In All the Way, Tara and Willow see a couple dressed as Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker kissing in the Bronze. Willow asks, “Do they know they’re brother and sister?”
• In Smashed, we see that the three nerds own a mint condition (though out of its packaging) 1979 Boba Fett action figure. Though Boba Fett was first introduced in The Empire Strikes Back (made in 1980), the earliest Boba Fett figure was made in 1979, before the film was released.
• In Dead Things, Jonathan and Andrew play fight with green light sabres.
• In Entropy, Warren calls Jonathan “Padawan”.
• In Conversations with Dead People, Jonathan and Warren have the following conversation: Warren: “Come on, “If you strike me down…” Andrew: “I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine…That boy is our last hope.” Warren: “No, there is another.” These are all quotes from Star Wars.
• In Potential, Xander says to Andrew, “Say Skywalker, and I smack you.” He is, of course, referring to Star Wars‘ Luke Skywalker.
• In Showtime, Andrew says, “I’m bored. Episode I bored.” He’s referring to George Lucas’s disappointing movie Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
• In Never Leave Me, Warren/The First says, “I’m like Obi Wan”. He also says to Andrew, “We’re right in the trench, and the exhaust port’s in sight.” This is a reference to the scene in Star Wars in which the Death Star is under attack.
• In Bring on the Night, Andrew says, “I’m like Vader in the last 5 minutes of Jedi with redemptive powers minus a redemptive struggle of epic redemption which chronicles…” He’s referring to the last scenes of the final Star Wars movie Return of the Jedi.
• In Storyteller, there are two framed Star Wars comics on the wall in Andrew’s opening scene.
• In Dirty Girls, Andrew says, “But like so many tragic heroes, Faith was seduced by the lure of the dark side.”

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?”

Walker, Texas Ranger

In The Zeppo, Jack O’Toole resurrects his friend Bob, who asks, “Walker, Texas Ranger. You been taping ‘em?” The TV show ran from 1993 to 2001 and starred Chuck Norris as a Texan police officer who is an expert in martial arts.

Zeppo Marx

In The Zeppo, Cordelia calls Xander “the Zeppo of the group”. She’s referring to Herbert “Zeppo” Marx, the youngest of the five Marx brothers who were a comedy troupe from the 1920s to the 1940s. He always seemed to be in the background, acting as a foil for Chico or Groucho. He joined the act after Milton “Gummo” Marx left during their early vaudeville days. He completed 5 movies for the brothers, but finished with the wonderful Duck Soup as he felt a) that his talents weren’t being properly utilised and b) that he was out of place as a straight man in a comedy troupe.

Seen at 06.41 minutes:

The scene where Xander and Oz discuss “coolness” starts with a voiceover of Xander talking, over a shot of food being cleaned up. In the background of this shot, you can see Xander, Buffy, and Willow at a table. But the next shot (and the rest of the scene) shows just Xander and Oz sitting together. This is because that first shot was re-used footage from I Only Have Eyes For You.

Seen at 34.17 minutes:

As the zombie Parker is decapitated by the mailbox you can see there is a lot of mail sticking right out of it. After Xander drops the body we see that the mail is sticking out only a couple of inches.

Seen at 39.10 minutes:

When Jack and Xander are facing off while the bomb timer ticks away, the timing is not correct. At one point, the timer says 00:11, but two seconds later (and the beeps are audible, so you can count the seconds easily), it says 00:12. Then, exactly when it should explode, we see that it is at 4 seconds.