Bye, crossovers

Angel discovers that Buffy is alive during an off-screen phone call from Willow in the Angel episode ‘Carpe Noctem‘. Angel calls the Slayer in the Buffy episode Flooded, and she goes off to meet him - not in Sunnydale, not in L.A., but somewhere in the middle. This is a nod towards the fact that there are no more Buffy/Angel crossovers now that Buffy has moved from the WB to UPN. Buffy returns to Sunnydale in Life Serial but doesn’t want to talk about her meeting with Angel (she just says it was “intense”), another nod to the lack of crossovers. Likewise, in Fredless, Angel says he really doesn’t want to talk about meeting Buffy.

Casting Clem

James C. Leary (who played Clem) told the BBC about how he got the part:

Giles’s cheque

In Life Serial, Giles gives Buffy a cheque to ease her financial woes. The cheque (or a copy of it) was sold on ebay in August 2004 for $990 (!!!). The cheque was made out for $10,000.

Kitten trouble

James C. Leary (Clem) talked to the BBC about the kittens in Life Serial:

Laughing James

After Jonathan (in demon guise) sets off the smoke bomb to escape in Life Serial, we can clearly see that James Marsters can’t help but laugh at the situation.

Tom’s own stunts

Tom Lenk (Andrew) mentioned in an interview that he inadvertently did his own stunts in a couple of episodes:

Alice Dinnean Vernon

Alice Dinnean Vernon worked the demon puppet in As You Were, and was the hand behind the mummy hand in Life Serial. She’s also worked on Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, Men in Black II and Bear in the Big Blue House. Alice was one of the puppeteers in the Angel episode ‘Smile Time‘.

James C. Leary

James C. Leary played the baggy skinned demon Clem in seasons six and seven. James grew up in Dallas, Texas and currently lives in Los Angeles. He was a founding member of an improvisation comedy troupe called Freudian Slip, using the name Jimmy Leary. James has appeared in Stunt C*cks (which he also wrote and produced) and Beltrán, Los (as Kevin Lynch). He appeared as Clem in eight episodes of Buffy.

Jennifer Shon

Jennifer Shon played the student Rachel in Life Serial and Selfless. She has also appeared in No Prom for Cindy, Malcolm in the Middle, NYPD Blue, Strong Medicine and Boston Public.

Mark Ginther

Mark Ginther, who played the horned demon in Life Serial, has previously appeared on Angel as “Lasovic” in ‘The Ring‘ and “Head Demon Guy” in the episode ‘The Prodigal‘. He has done stunts for Daredevil, Big Fat Liar, Jurassic Park III, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Wild Wild West, Arlington Road, Addams Family Reunion, BASEketball, George of the Jungle, Batman & Robin and Joe Versus the Volcano. Mark has appeared in The Master of Disguise, Babylon 5, Con Air, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze.

Noel Gugliemi

Noel Gugliemi, who played Vince in Life Serial, also played “Driver Vamp” in the Angel episode ‘Deep Down‘. He can also be seen in Duck, Party Animalz, Wrong Turn (starring Eliza Dushku), S.W.A.T., Bruce Almighty, Old School, Training Day, The Fast and the Furious, The Animal, Price of Glory (as Angel), 24 and The X Files.

Clem

Clem was a friendly, baggy-skinned demon who loved kitten poker, TV, movies and tasting food. He was first seen in Life Serial, at a poker game with Spike. Buffy entrusted him to look after Dawn when Willow went evil. In season seven’s Potential, Buffy took the potential Slayers to a demon bar where she got Clem to scare them.

Black nails

Three characters have painted their fingernails black on the show: Oz, Spike (seen painting them in Blood Ties, as well as various other episodes) and Dawn (in Life Serial).

Bloody bell

In No Place Like Home, Giles says of the bell on the door in the Magic Box, “Would someone please rip that bloody bell off its hinges?” Buffy pulls it off in Life Serial.

Buffy drinks

Buffy gets drunk with Spike in Life Serial. The last time we saw her drinking was in Beer Bad. The first time she had alcohol was in Reptile Boy.

Buffy’s name badge

Buffy’s Magic Box name tag in Life Serial says, “Hello! My Name’s Buffy. Ask me about Curses!”

College life

In Life Serial, Willow’s class is studying the ’social construction of reality’. The lecturer’s name is Mike, who leads a lively discussion unlike any I ever witnessed in college. The students confusing Buffy are Rachel, Steve, Ruby and Chuck. Buffy wishes she could take “Introduction to Pies”, or “Advanced Walking”. Meanwhile, Tara takes an Art Appreciation class and loans Buffy a book on “mellow” Renaissance paintings.

Kitten poker

Some demons and vampires use kittens as currency in games of poker. Spike joined a game in Life Serial, which was where we first met Clem. A literal lone shark came after Spike in Tabula Rasa looking for kittens he was owed.

Magic Box products

The Magic Box has the following items, according to the Watchers in Checkpoint: focusing crystals, runic artefacts, an amulet of Cauldis and a Burmese statue which can melt eyeballs. In Life Serial, we see that they also sell ‘Lemon Seduction’ and ‘Essence of Slug’ candles, Eyeballs in Honey, Mummy Hands and the Dagger of Lex.

Nerdmobile

The nerd’s black van, seen for the first time in Life Serial, has: nine high resolution surveillance cameras; super wide angle; infra red; auto iris and six types of audio matrix monitoring filtered through a DVS system. It also has free cable porn; a death star mural (painted over) and a horn than plays the theme to Star Wars.

On campus

In Life Serial, the nerd’s van is parked near the UC Sunnydale notice board, which Buffy and Faith fought in front of in This Year’s Girl.

Petrified hamsters

In Tough Love, Giles says people keep trying to return petrified hamsters to the Magic Box. In Life Serial, Buffy discovers a jar of petrified hamsters in the basement of the magic shop.

Let the spell be ended

Jonathan’s demon-making spell in Life Serial is ended with the words “let the spell be ended”. In The Replacement Willow enjoined the two separated Xanders using the same words.

Time loop spell

Jonathan’s spell to put Buffy in a time loop in Life Serial is “Opus orbit est, et ea in medio, tempus ad calcem intendit”. Roughly translated it means “The work is a circle, and she is in the middle, the time stretches out”. The spell also needs a bone, a burning piece of paper, a red triangle and the holding of hands.

American Pie

In Life Serial, Tara says, “One time, when me and Willow were watching…” This may be a nod towards Alyson Hannigan’s character Michelle in American Pie who kept repeating, “And this one time, at band camp…”
In Tough Love, after Willow explains to Buffy that she was teaching Dawn about Geometry with a human triangle, she says “You know me, I’m aways like ‘Go school, It’s your birthday!’”. This is probably a reference to American Pie: “Go Trig-Boy, it’s your birthday!”

Britney Spears

Pop starlet Britney was supposedly due to play April the robot in I Was Made to Love You. She backed out at the last minute. Adam Busch (Warren) told Zap2it, “But then Britney backed out in the last minute and they got this other actress.” Coincidentally, Shonda Farr, who ended up playing April, appeared in the movie Crossroads, which starred Britney Spears.
There were rumours again that Britney was due to play another character in season seven, but Sarah Michelle Gellar apparently said no, as she felt the show wouldn’t benefit from the kind of publicity which follows Spears.
Britney is referenced in Life Serial, when the construction site foreman calls Buffy “Britney”. In Lessons, Dawn tells her class, “I love to dance. I like music. I’m very into Britney Spears’ early work before she sold out, so mostly her finger painting and macaroni art. Very underrated.”
In Sleep Tight, Angel says, “Yeah, and you look like hell. Not the fun one where they burn you with hot pokers for all eternity, but the hard core one. You know, Nixon and Britney Spears.”

Gidget

Gidget was a 1960s American sitcom starring Sally Fields. It is referenced a couple of times in Buffy: In the Witch, Joyce tells Buffy she had “Gidget hair” and in Life Serial, Tony calls Buffy “Gidget”. Gidget was always getting into trouble and often wore her hair in pigtails.

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.”

Life Cereal

The episode title Life Serial comes from the breakfast cereal Life Cereal.

Logan’s Run

Warren’s call sign in Life Serial is ‘Logan Five’. Andrew and Jonathan answer to ‘Francis Seven’. This is a reference to the 1976 sci-fi film Logan’s Run in which nobody is allowed to live past the age of 30. It starred Michael York (as Logan 5), Richard Jordan (as Francis 7), Peter Ustinov and Jenny Agutter.

Monty Python

British comedy team Monty Python have been referenced a few times in Buffy: In Life Serial, Andrew and Warren mimic Monty Python’s parrot sketch when watching Buffy’s adventures with the Mummy hand (Warren: “This mummy hand has ceased to be!” Andrew: “It is an ex-mummy hand!”).
In the episode Primeval, when Spike and Adam realize that Spike failed to do what Adam wanted, Spike says “Let’s not quarrel about who failed who.” This could be a nod to Monty Python and the Holy Grail in which Sir Lancelot slaughters many people at a party and the King says “Let’s not bicker and argue over who killed who.”
In Him, Dawn says, “Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition” and in Touched, Spike says, “The dreaded torture device, the comfy chair.” These are references to The Spanish Inquisition sketch from Monty Python’s Flying Circus. The inquisitors try to torture people by making them sit in the comfy chair.
In End of Days, Spike says, “the holy hand grenade or whatever the hell that is”. The “holy hand grenade” is what the knights throw at the killer rabbit in Monty Python’s Holy Grail.
In Shells, Spike says he was, “flash fried in a pillar of fire, saving the world… I got better.” This is a reference to a line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail in which one of the witch-accusing peasants shouts, “She turned me into a newt!… I got better.”
Additionally, Alan Tudyk (who played Wash in Firefly and Serenity) took over the role of Lancelot from Hank Azaria in the Monty Python musical, Spamalot, between June to November 2005.

Spongebob Squarepants

Andrew wears a Spongebob Squarepants t-shirt in Gone. This cartoon was also referenced in Life Serial by Tara, who revealed she once ‘zoned out’ when watching it. Spongebob Squarepants has become something of a gay icon, so this may be an in-joke into Andrew’s questionable sexuality, and Tara’s obvious one.

Star Trek

There are many cast/crew links between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the long-running cult sci-fi show Star Trek. Armin Shimerman (Principal Snyder) played Quark in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for seven years. Dominic Keating, who played Blair in the episode Helpless, later went on to star in Star Trek: Enterprise as Lt. Reed. Jennifer Hetrick, who played the teacher Ms. Moran in Homecoming (whom Buffy asked for a reference) played the girlfriend of Jean Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Buffy writer Jane Espenson wrote an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine called ‘Accession’. Star Trek has also been referenced numerous times in Buffy the Vampire Slayer:

• In Prophecy Girl, Xander says, “Calm may work for Locutus of Borg here, but I’m freaked and I intend to stay that way.” Upset by Giles’ reserve, he is referencing Star Trek’s emotionless cyborgs from the episode ‘The Best of Both Worlds’. Locutus was the name given to Captain Pickard (Patrick Stewart) when he was captured, and ‘assimilated, by the Borg.
• In Homecoming, Cordelia woos the nerds at Sunnydale High by saying, “Are you kidding? I’ve been doing the Vulcan death grip since I was 4.”
• In Consequences, Cordy calls Wesley, “Giles the next generation” in a reference to Star Trek: The Next Generation.
• 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 The Replacement, the two Xanders say, “Kill us both Spock” - a reference to a Star Trek episode where Kirk is split two - one being good and one bad.
• In Flooded, the nerds vote with the Star Trek Vulcan salute, which is the same salute that Cordelia used to impress the ‘geeks’ in Homecoming.
• In Smashed, Spike tells the nerds, “You can play holodeck another time” - he means the virtual reality technology used in Star Trek.
• The nerds compare Buffy’s time loop in Life Serial with an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called ‘Cause and Effect’ (Andrew: “I just hope she solves it faster than Data did on the ep of TNG where the Enterprise kept blowing up.”)
• In As You Were, Buffy says. “they’re like really mean Tribbles”, referring to the popular, but quick breeding, pets on board the Starship Enterprise.
• After her visit to the nerds’ ‘lair’ in Doublemeat Palace, Willow says that they had numerous pictures of the “Vulcan women from Enterprise“. She’s referring to Jolene Blaylock, who played T’pol in UPN’s Star Trek show.
• The episode Normal Again is similar to the season five episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine called ‘Far Beyond the Stars’. In that episode, Captain Benjamin Sisko imagines that he is a science fiction writer living on 1950s Earth and writing about a station full of aliens called Deep Space Nine. He hallucinates that the people he knows in the 1950s are futuristic aliens and is thrown into an asylum.
• In Seeing Red, Andrew references Star Trek: The Next Generation when he discusses who’s boss of the nerds: “Warren’s the boss. He’s Picard, you’re Deanna Troi. Get used to the feeling, Betazoid.” In that episode, Xander realises that the nerds had love poems in their lair written in Klingon.
• In Grave, after the Magic Box has been destroyed, a William Shatner book can be seen on the floor.
• In Conversations with Dead People, we learn that Andrew learned Klingon (a language in Star Trek) from a dictionary in two and a half weeks.
• In Dirty Girls, Andrew hilariously confuses Faith’s murder of a Volcanologist with a Vulcan:
  

  Andrew: “Nobody was immune to her trail of destruction. Not friends, not family, not even the most pacifist and logical of races…”
  Amanda: “What the hell are you talking about? I thought Faith killed a volcanologist.”
  Andrew: “Silly, silly Amanda. Why would Faith kill a person who studies Vulcans?”

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.”

The X Files

The X Files was an influential TV show (1993-2002) following two FBI agents, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, who investigate the unexplained. It has been mentioned in the Buffyverse on several occasions.
In The Pack, Buffy accuses Giles of trying to “Scully” her (Scully was sceptical about Mulder’s supernatural beliefs).
In Living Conditions, Buffy says about Kathy, “You’re right. Ooh! She’s even affecting my work, now. She’s the Titanic. She’s a crawling black cancer… She’s… other really bad things.” The “crawling black cancer” line is likely a reference to The X-Files. In the show, it’s an alien liquid organism which looks like oil. When someone is first infected by the black substance, it crawls up the body like bugs under the skin.
In Life Serial, the trio of nerds test Buffy using different methods, one of which being a time loop. Warren mentions a similar plot in an X Files episode “where the bank kept exploding”. The episode was called ‘Monday’ and was during season six of the show.
In Gone, Buffy says, “Xander and Anya are working on it. Mulder-ing out what happened.”
In Sanctuary, the following conversation takes place:

Kendrick: “Come on Kate. Everyone knows you’ve gone all Scully. Anytime one of these weird cases crosses anyone’s desk, you’re always there. We used to be friends - what’s going on with you?”
Kate: “Scully’s the sceptic”.
Kendrick: “Huh?”
Kate: “Mulder’s the believer, Scully’s the sceptic.”
Kendrick scratches his head: “…Scully’s the chick, right?”

The X Files returned the favour in it’s season nine episode ‘Daemonicus’ by referencing Buffy with the following dialogue:

Scully: “For the past eight years I was part of a unit known as the X-Files. Some of you may have heard of it.”
Cadet: “Ever slay a vampire?”
Scully: “Sorry to disappoint you, but this is a course in forensic pathology. Hard science. An X-File is a case that has been deemed unsolvable by the Bureau, because such a case cannot be solved it may beg other explanations… a vampire, perhaps.”

Seen at 13.40 minutes:

When Andrew blows on his pan pipes, the pitch incorrectly goes from low to high, though he’s blowing from high to low.

Seen at 27.59 minutes:

Spike’s hair changes between the scene where he drinks with Buffy in his crypt and the scene when they go to a bar to question demons. His hair has definitely been bleached between these to scenes, and I can’t imagine Buffy waited round to let him dye his hair!