1800-COLLECT

When the episode Lover’s Walk was aired in the U.S, it was followed by an advert for the phone service 1800-COLLECT, in which Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Boreanaz, as Buffy and Angel, offered a prize of a walk-on part in the show.
The winner of the competition was Jessica Johnson of Maryland, who won a three day trip for two to participate in the episode The Prom.

Buffy and Angel get married

Angel dreams that he and Buffy get married in The Prom. A photo of Buffy and Angel in their wedding outfits appeared in TV Guide before the episode aired, leading to fan hysteria that the two would marry.

It’s a designer label

Buffy’s wedding dress in the episode The Prom was designed by Vera Wang. In real life Sarah Michelle Gellar’s wedding dress for when she got married to Freddie Prinze Jnr. was also designed by Vera Wang. Buffy’s pink prom dress was designed by Pamela Dennis.

Marley Shelton

Nicholas Brendon’s Prom date (in real life) was Marley Shelton who later appeared in the film Valentine with David Boreanaz. Nicholas bought Marley 100 roses, wore a tux and drove a black convertible Mustang. Marley said that he “totally did it right”.

On my trout

This conversation was cu from the episode The Prom, due to length:

Sarah’s favourite episodes

Sarah Michelle Gellar talked to Entertainment Weekly about her personal favourite Buffy episodes:

Bonita Friedericy

Bonita Friedericy, who played the manager of the clothes shop April Fools, Mrs Finkle, appeared in the Buffyverse once more as Patience in the Angel episode ‘Peace Out‘. She has also been in Scrubs, Malcolm in the Middle, 3rd Rock from the Sun and Judging Amy.

Brad Kane

Brad Kane, who played Tucker in The Prom, was the singing voice of Aladdin in the Disney movie. He also provided the singing voice for Jonathan’s rendition of ‘Serenade in Blue’ in season four’s Superstar. He is sometimes credited as ‘Caleb Kane’.

Joe Howard

Joe Howard, who played the priest in The Prom is the father of actor Jeremy Howard, who played the “Dead Nerd” in the season seven episode Lessons. Joe has also appeared in Anger Management, Grumpy Old Men, The Mighty Ducks, Mathnet, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Boston Public, Frasier and Mork and Mindy.

Mike Kimmel

Mike Kimmel, who played the butcher in The Prom, was a professional wrestler from New York, who competed throughout the 1980s. He was known as “Mighty” Mike Kimmel and he appeared in Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends wrestling episode, playing “The Masked Marvel”.

David Metz

David Metz was a friend of Tucker Wells, never seen on screen. Tucker sent David an email gloating about his hellhound idea in The Prom.

Mrs. Finkle

Mrs. Finkle was the owner of April Fools clothes shop, and Cordelia’s boss when she worked there in Choices and The Prom.

Tucker Wells

Tucker was the older brother of nerdy Andrew. Tucker attempted to ruin the Prom by setting hellhounds loose on the school, because he couldn’t get a date. He trained them to hate formal wear and party music by forcing them to watch Prom-related movies (The Prom). He emailed his friend David Metz before the event to say that the lemmings at Sunnydale High didn’t know what were coming to them. Andrew and Tucker are never seen together and we never found out what happened to Tucker.

April Fools

April Fools is a dress shop in Sunnydale, owned by Mrs Finkle. It specialises in formal wear. In Choices and The Prom, Cordelia briefly worked in April Fools after her father lost all his money through tax evasion. In Family, Harmony comes home to Spike’s crypt laden with bags from the shop, saying everything was on sale.

Bye, vamp

In The Prom, Angel announces his plan to leave Sunnydale to Buffy, which he does at the end of the season in Graduation Day (Part 2). He starts life afresh in L.A.

Class Clown

Xander was disgusted that he didn’t win the ‘Class Clown’ award at The Prom: “Anyone can be a prop class clown!” The award went to Jack Mayhew.

Class Protector Award

During The Prom, the students of Sunnydale High gave Buffy a special award, The Class Protector Award, to acknowledge the many times she had saved their lives. It was presented to her by Jonathan Levinson, who Buffy had saved from suicide in Earshot. The award was a gold and pink parasol with tinsel and glitter on it (so not that special, really - but it’s the thought that counts). Jonathan gave the following speech:
“We’re not good friends. Most of us never found the time to get to know you, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t noticed you. We don’t talk about it much, but it’s no secret that Sunnydale High isn’t really like other high schools. A lot of weird stuff happens here. But, whenever there was a problem or something creepy happened, you seemed to show up and stop it. Most of the people here have been saved by you, or helped by you at one time or another. We’re proud to say that the Class of ‘99 has the lowest mortality rate of any graduating class in Sunnydale history. And we know at least part of that is because of you. So the senior class, offers its thanks, and gives you this. It’s from all of us, and it has written here, ‘Buffy Summers, Class Protector.’”
Buffy’s award was broken by the vampire Sunday in The Freshman.

Jittery vamp

Angel says in The Prom that he doesn’t drink coffee. Not because he can’t - it just makes him jittery. He drinks a hell of a lot of it in the spin-off series Angel though.

Soul Purpose

In the Angel episode Soul Purpose, Angel hallucinates that Spike is having sex with Buffy. Dialogue from the Buffy episode The Prom was used in the scene:

Buffy: “Every time I say the word prom, you get grouchy.”
Angel: “Buffy?”
Spike: “Won’t be long now.”
Angel: “You’re taking Buffy to the Prom?”
Buffy: “Can you say jumping the gun? I kill my goldfish.”

Video player

The video player used to train the hell hounds in The Prom is identical to the one used by Mr. Trick in Homecoming to announce Slayerfest 98.

Zombies and hyenas

In The Prom, the kids of Sunnydale High shout out some of the weird things which have occurred in Sunnydale: “Zombies” (from Dead Man’s Party) and “Hyena People” (from The Pack).

Cracker

We hear Cracker’s ‘The Good Life’ when Buffy finally get to The Prom.

Fatboy Slim

In The Prom, we hear Fatboy Slim’s ‘Praise You’ from his album You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby.

Kool and the Gang

Kool and the Gang’s ‘Celebrate Good Times’ is the song which makes the hellhounds run back towards The Prom.

The Sundays

The song which Buffy and Angel dance to at The Prom is ‘Wild Horses’ by The Sundays. It’s from their 1992 album ‘Blind’ and is a cover version of a Rolling Stones track from the 1971 album ‘Sticky Fingers’

Hellhound

Tucker Wells attempted to ruin The Prom by setting hellhounds loose on the school. He trained them to hate formal wear and party music by forcing them to watch movies including Prom Night, Prom Night IV, Pump Up the Volume, Pretty in Pink, The Club, and Carrie. Giles says of hellhounds, “It’s sort of a demon foot soldier bred during the Machash Wars. Trained solely to kill. They feed off the brains of their foes.” The most famous hellhound is probably Cerberus, a three-headed dog in Greek mythology, who stood guard over the entrance of the Underworld.

Carrie

In the episode The Prom, Tucker Wells tried to ruin the School Prom by training hellhounds to attack people wearing tuxedoes. Buffy says she’s “Gotta stop a crazy from pulling a Carrie at the prom”. She’s referring to the book Carrie by Stephen King, in which a telekinetic girl destroys her home town after her classmates play a cruel joke on her at the Prom.
In Nightmares, Giles, Xander and Willow find Buffy’s grave. Suddenly, Buffy’s hand comes out of the ground and grabs Giles, scaring everyone. This is a visual reference to the movie version of Carrie, in which the final sequence shows a nightmare a character has about being attacked by Carrie’s hand from a grave.
In She, the following conversation occurs, with Cordy using ‘Carrie’ as a verb:

Cordelia: “A chick that burns? Are you okay? Did she Carrie you?”
Angel: “Did she care about me?”
Cordelia: “Did she Carrie you. Carrie? the movie? You know?”

Hellhound movies

The movies that Tucker used to train the hell hounds Clockwork-Orange style in The Prom were: Prom Night, Prom Night IV (what happened to II and III?), Pump Up the Volume (which Seth Green and Juliet Landau appeared in), Pretty in Pink, The Club, and Carrie. They were from a video store called Big Lou’s.

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.”

Men’s Wear Daily

In The Prom, Xander says, “He left behind his copy of Monsters Wear Daily.” This is a pun on the magazine Men’s Wear Daily.

Prince

Buffy says in The Prom, “Now I’m gonna lock you in here, and then I’m gonna party like it’s…” This is a reference to a lyric from the Prince song ‘1999′.

Robert Frost

In The Prom, Buffy says “Miles to go before we sleep”, referring to Robert Frost’s poem Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening. The poem is quoted again in the dream sequence between Faith and Buffy in Graduation Day (Part 2), when Faith says, “Miles to go.”

Snausages

In The Prom, Xander refers to the dog treat “snausages”. Buffy mentions them again in Potential when she says to Andrew, “You’re like a small dog dancing for Snausages.”

Seen at 08.21 minutes:

While the group is discussing the Prom in the Library, there is a close-up shot of Giles, and a small pile of books on a cart near the cage. In the longer shot there are more books on the pile.

Seen at 20.10 minutes:

When the hellhound bursts loudly through the window of the store, “Tux Boy” keeps calmly adjusting his tuxedo right up until he is attacked.

Seen at 29.29 minutes:

At the Prom, Wesley is holding a red napkin when he first spots Cordelia. The camera cuts to her, and when it cuts back to Wesley, he’s holding a yellow napkin.

Seen at 34.22 minutes:

Buffy takes her prom dress out of her bag (which is amazingly uncreased), then just leaves the bag full of weapons on the grass outside the school.