Amy’s back

Elizabeth Anne Allen, who played Amy, had the following to say about reappearing on the show:

Cheesy

Elizabeth Anne Allen is lactose intolerant (which means she’s allergic to dairy products), which is ironic as her character Amy was turned into a cheese-eating rat for three seasons. Amy was turned human again in season six’s Smashed, and when Buffy asked what she wanted to eat. She replied “Anything. Not cheese.”

Drew’s joy

Buffy writer Drew Greenberg told the BBC his feelings when he discovered that Amy’s de-ratting storyline would be in his episode (Smashed):

Italian Alyson

When interviewed by the BBC, Drew Greenberg, who wrote the episode Smashed, mentioned that Alyson Hannigan had difficulty with doing the Italian spell in that episode:

Willow’s spell was: “Cio che fu non e piu. Cio che fu fatto disfa. Passata e il pericolo, finita e la prova. Mette le cosa a posto.”

Marti on Buffy and Spike

Marti Noxon had the following to say about the episode Smashed:

Adam Weiner

Adam Weiner, who played Simon in Smashed, also played a caged guy in the Angel episode ‘Disharmony‘.

Drew Z. Greenberg

Drew Greenberg wrote the episodes Smashed, Older and Far Away, Entropy, Him, The Killer in Me and Empty Places. He has also written for Joss Whedon’s Firefly, The O.C., Queer as Folk and Smallville.

Elizabeth Anne Allen

Elizabeth Anne Allen played Amy Madison.. She played Carri in Green Sails and Pam Boyd in Bull (which also starred Christopher Wiehl who played Owen in Never Kill a Boy on the First Date and Elisabeth Rohm, who played Kate in Angel). Elizabeth has also been in Bill the Intern, High Tide, Renegade, Silk Stalkings, Baywatch and Doogie Howser MD.

Jack Jozefson

Jack Jozefson, who played the security guard Rusty in Smashed, has also appeared in Bruce Almighty, Trade Day, Almost Dead and Lonely Hearts.

Rick Garcia

Rick Garcia, who played the reporter in Smashed, is the sports anchor for Fox 11 10 O’Clock News. He has played reporters on many movies and TV shows including Collateral Damage, Shadow of Doubt, Volcano, Talent for the Game, 24, The X Files, Sliders, The A-Team and The Fall Guy.

Turi Meyer

Turi Meyer directed the Buffy episode Smashed and the Angel episodes ‘Belonging‘, ‘Offspring‘ and ‘Forgiving‘. Turi wrote and directed the third Candyman movie and has written for Mutant X.

Brie

Brie was the girl Amy enchanted to chat Willow up in the Bronze in Smashed.

Rusty

The name of the security guard at Sunnydale museum in Smashed was Rusty. He was frozen by the Trio’s freeze-gun. Hair dryers were used to thaw him out. The newspaper headline later read, “Museum Guard Attacked, Frozen. Body Thawed, Remains Unconscious.”

About Larry

In Smashed, Willow tells Amy that Larry was gay (discovered in Phases) and that he died in the attack by the Mayor in the season three finale Graduation Day (Part 2). Larry’s death was never explicitly stated before this episode.

Big snake

In Graduation Day (Part 2), the Mayor turned into a giant snake-demon. His Ascension is referenced in several future episodes. In The Harsh Light of Day, Harmony and Willow discuss the “big snake” that threatened Sunnydale High in Graduation Day Part Two. It was during the confusion at the end of this episode that Harmony was bitten and turned into a vampire. In Shadow, Buffy says the snake is “big, but not Mayor-big”. In Primeval, Xander says, “Does anyone miss the Mayor? ‘I just wanna be a big snake?’” In Smashed, Amy mentions a “giant snake thing” and “Snyder got eaten by a snake”.

British Museum

The Illuminata - the diamond the nerds stole from Sunnydale Museum in Smashed - was on loan from the British Museum, where Giles worked before becoming Buffy’s Watcher. Willow mentioned this in Welcome to the Hellmouth.

Bunnies

Anya has a fear of bunnies, first referenced in Fear, Itself when she wore a bunny costume to a Halloween party, with the simple explanation: “bunnies frighten me”. This fear is shown in Shadow, The Gift, Once More, With Feeling, Tabula Rasa, Smashed, Selfless and in Chosen. In Bargaining (Part 2), Razor asks Willow what she’s going to do, “pull a rabbit out of a hat?” Anya turns to Tara to be reassured that she won’t. Anya’s final words on the show are about bunnies. She thinks of them whilst preparing for the huge battle - “Bunnies. Floppy, hoppy, bunnies.” Anya’s bunny suit in Fear, Itself became so popular that modelmakers Clayburn Moore created a figure of the character.

Captain Peroxide

In Smashed, Xander calls Spike, “Captain Peroxide”. In Chosen, Angel says to Buffy about Spike, “I’m getting the brush-off for Captain Peroxide”.

Doublemeat offer

In Smashed, Amy watches an ad on TV for the fast food restaurant Doublemeat Palace (”Now you get two Doublemeat Medleys for the price of one!”). Buffy ends up working at the Doublemeat Palace three episodes later.

How I got there

In Smashed, Amy and Willow have the following conversation:

Willow: “Don’t you want to go see your dad?”
Amy: “No. Can’t. Not yet. Too many questions.”
Willow: “About where you were?”
Amy: “No, about how I got there.”

This is a reference to The Witch, in which Amy went to live with her father after her mother’s life was taken over by dark magics. Obviously her father would not be happy with Amy practicing magics!

Kinda over

Willow tells Amy in Smashed that Larry was gay (discovered in Phases) and that he died in the attack by the Mayor in the season three finale Graduation Day (Part 2). Larry’s death was never explicitly stated before this episode.

More lint

Xander mentions Buffy’s “exploding lint” from Life Serial in the episode Smashed.

Nemesis weakness

The trio of nerds reveal some of their weaknesses in Smashed: Jonathan is allergic to methane and Andrew is afraid of hot things.

Sew your name in

In Smashed, Willow tells Amy she can provide a forgetting spell “only, you might wanna sew your name into your clothes first”. She’s referring to the events of Tabula Rasa when her spell caused the Scoobies to forget their memories.

The museum

Buffy’s class go on a school trip to the museum in Inca Mummy Girl. The scenes were shot at the Natural History Museum, at 900 Exposition Boulevard (very apt) near the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
Sunnydale Museum is also seen in Becoming (Part 1) (where Acathla was examined), Doomed (where the gang studied the Word of ) and Smashed (when the nerds stole the Illuminata diamond).

Virgil and Halo Friendlies

The band Virgil perform ‘Vermillion Borders’, ‘Parachute’ and ‘Here’ at the Bronze in Smashed. Willow later magically transforms them into another group, Halo Friendlies, who play ‘Run Away’.

Freeze ray gun

The trio of nerds invented a freeze ray gun in Smashed. They used it on Rusty, the security guard at Sunnydale museum, while they were stealing the Illuminata - a diamond which they used in their invisibility gun.

Batman

The comic Batman, by DC Comics, is mentioned several times in Buffy.

• In Some Assembly Required, Buffy says to Willow, “Sorry to interrupt, Willow, but it’s the Bat-Signal.” She’s alluding to the ‘Bat-Signal’ in Gotham city which is used to alert Batman that he is needed.
• In Halloween, Xander says to Cordelia, “Catwoman, you’re with me.” In the Batman comics, Catwoman is a cat-burglar, and the alter ego of Selina Kyle.
• In The Yoko Factor, Xander says, “You and Willow go do the superpower thing, I’ll stay behind and putt around the Batcave with crusty old Alfred here.” The Batcave was Batman’s high-tech base and Alfred was his loyal butler.
• The nerds’ freeze ray gun in Smashed may have been inspired by Batman’s Mr Freeze, who used a similar device.
• In Beneath You, Spike says, “A little touchy-feely, and you’re off to the Batpoles?” He’s referring to the 1960s TV show Batman in which Batman and Robin would slide down poles to the Batcave when they were needed.
• In Bring on the Night, Andrew mentions Batman’s foe The Riddler.
• Vincent Schiavelli, who played Jenny’s uncle in Surprise and Innocence played the Organ Grinder in the movie Batman Returns.
• In the Angel episode Lonely Hearts, Doyle says, “It’s not like you have a signal folks can shine in the sky whenever they need help, you know?”, referring to the Batsignal.
• In ‘In the Dark‘, Spike says of Angel, “quickly to the Angelmobile, away” - another Batman reference.
• In Benediction, Lilah says of Connor,”Who’s the boy wonder?” This is the name often given to Batman’s sidekick, Robin.

Disneyland / World

In Smashed, Warren says to the security guard, “Museums, libraries, Disney Hall of Presidents … not boring.” The Disney Hall of Presidents is in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida. Disneyland is referenced in What’s My Line, Part Two (Buffy: “No, Disneyland would get boring after a few months”) and Doublemeat Palace (Amy: “That was like a trip to Disneyland without the lines”).

Doctor Who

In Smashed, Andrew mentions Doctor Who, a cult British sci-fi series following an eccentric doctor and his companion as they travel through time and space. Several actors have portrayed the Doctor since 1963. A new series is currently being aired, starring Christopher Eccleston as the tenth Doctor and Billie Piper as his fellow traveller.
In As You Were, Riley says that the person with the demon eggs calls himself “The Doctor”, which may also be a reference to Doctor Who.
Anthony Stewart Head auditioned for the role of the eighth Doctor, before his Buffy fame. The role eventually went to Paul McGann, but in 2003 Tony was voted by Radio Times and SFX readers as the person they’d most like to play the Doctor.

Dungeons and Dragons

Giles, Xander, Andrew and Amanda play the game Dungeons and Dragons to pass the time before going to battle in Chosen. The nerds were playing Dungeons and Dragons when they decided to take over Sunnydale, seen in a flashback in Flooded. Xander thought he found the “frost demon” from Smashed in a Dungeons and Dragon manual. In Showtime, Giles and Anya visit Beljoxa’s eye. This is a reference to Beljoxa - a dangerous Dungeons and Dragons creature which has many eyes.
In War Zone, David Nabbitt says, “”Are you familiar with Dungeons & Dragons?” and in To Shanshu in L.A., he says, “Tonight’s my turn to be Dungeon Master”, on his way to a Dungeons and Dragons game.

Ellen DeGeneres

A guy at the Bronze says to Willow in Smashed, “Well, nobody asked you … Ellen”. He means the comedienne Ellen DeGeneres who publicly came out on her show Ellen in April 1997.

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.”

Murder She Wrote

Buffy says to Spike in Smashed, “Way to go with the keen observingness, Jessica Fletcher”. She’s referring to the lead character of the murder mystery series Murder, She Wrote. Jessica Fletcher was a murder mystery author who always seemed to be around to solve mysteries when those around her were murdered.

Rack and ruin

Where does the name Rack come from? There is an old saying ‘gone to rack and ruin’, to indicate the complete destruction of something. ‘Rack’ here is a derivation of the older word ‘wrack’, now meaning ‘wreck’. Another derivation of Rack is the medieval instrument of torture of the same name. The rack was a device to which a victim would be tied and stretched by a system of wheels and rollers.
So a note to parents, Rack is not a cool name.

Red Dwarf

Andrew mentions the British sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf in Smashed. Created in 1988 it follows a group as they attempt to return to Earth after being stuck in deep space three million years away.

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.”

Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman

In Smashed, Amy says, “did you hear about Tom and Nicole?” She’s referring to Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, the famous acting couple who appeared in Days of Thunder, Far and Away and Eyes Wide Shut together. They married in 1990 but surprised many by divorcing in August 2001.

X-Men

Buffy creator Joss Whedon is a huge comics fan, particularly the Marvel comic X-Men. His dream came true when, post-Buffy, Joss wrote the Astonishing X-Men comics. The comic has been referenced numerous times in Buffy:

• In No Place Like Home, Riley says, “Giles, you got that Danger Room set up out back?” The Danger Room was a training room in the X-Men.
• In Tough Love, Xander reads an X-Men comic while in the Magic Box.
• In Two to Go, Jonathan says Willow is like the “Dark Phoenix” who was a character in the X-Men comics.
• In Him, Xander calls Spike a “nimrod”. Xander himself was called this by a soldier in Innocence, and Spike called Warren a nimrod in Smashed. Nimrod was a figure in ancient Babylon, and was also an X-Men character.
• In Bring on the Night, Andrew mentions Apocalypse, who was also an X-Men character (”Okay, I know what you’re thinking. Andrew, bad guy. You think I’m a super-villain like Dr. Doom or Apocalypse or The Riddler.”)
• Gwen Raiden in Angel’s season four appears to have been inspired by Rogue from the X Men - the two had great powers which could harm other humans by touch, and had to wear gloves to protect others.
• Joss Whedon has said that the X-Men character Kitty Pryde (AKA Shadowcat) was a large influence for the character of Buffy.

Seen at 04.55 minutes:

Why is Amy’s hair longer and lighter than before she became a rat? Her hair has even been styled differently.

Seen at 08.05 minutes:

In the episode Smashed, Jonathan shoots Rusty the museum security guard with a freeze ray. The gun and his arm are frozen solid by the blast. In the next shot, we see Jonathan and Andrew walk past Rusty - and Jonathan is clearly not holding the frozen gun anymore.

Seen at 23.00 minutes:

Vampires are supposed to have heightened hearing capabilities so why can’t Spike hear the nerds discussing their plans for the Slayer? He’s only standing a few feet away. If he identified the people who had been meddling with him, Spike would have scored some serious points with Buffy.

Seen at 25.42 minutes:

Andrew claims to have seen every episode of Doctor Who. However, over 100 episodes of Doctor Who have been missing from the BBC archives since before he was born. Considering he’s a complete nerd, Andrew would have known this and commented on it.