Episode 29: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
That's that's not that's not what we're doing. This isn't
this is the different show. This is NERD difficent. Yeah,
this is nerdifficent, time for the spooky, time for the spooky.
This is the sister nerdident said, this sis NERD different

(00:38):
s spooky. Yeah. If you hosted, and across from him
is Danny, and we have a guest here to heat
and pain is Daniel Radford. And we're talking fuffy today. Nerdy, Nerdy, Nerdy.

(01:01):
That was a banker intro. Right. I love you for
doing the goose Bumps not on our goose Bumps episode,
you know that's that for that episode we're doing the
Halloween theme. Yeah. Yeah, you said make it spooky. You
can't do the song of the thing you're doing the thing.
You're doing it like shirt. Oh my gosh, do you

(01:24):
do that argument? I agree. Look, if I go to
if I can afford tickets to On the Run three
or whatever, I'm wearing to Gloria Stefans like concert, I'm
wearing a Gloria shirt. When I went to the Life
of Pablo Tour, I wore the Life of Pablo Tour
merch I went I bought when I saw the first
time because I went to see it twice. Uh didn't

(01:45):
hold up. What a rough ass year for Kanye fans.
You know, we first Kanye then Taylor Swift. They flipped sides.
Like I said, it's like a third the third movie
in a trilogy. And uh and Taylor Swist good, can't
you way betrayed us? All? Uh? You know, look you

(02:07):
have to have that. Really we had that. But now
I think we're coming out of it. I'm hoping that
this is actually the part, like this is the act too.
Things get real dark and then they get a little
darker before the dawn. But we'll see what happens. And Danny,
when you say, who made up that rule? Metal nerds
and they're dumb metal nerds made up that rule. Yeah,
it was all grunge and metal dudes. And then they like,

(02:29):
you can't wear the shirt. You got to buy a
new shirt. Yeah, and to bring it back to nerdives
and it was probably because the gate keeping somebody was like, oh,
you you like you like fist Fire, Then name five
of their top hits and why are you wearing their
shirt to the show and strong We'll take you. That's
always my go too is that Trapped song strong take

(02:52):
on anyone, you know what. I worked at Game Works
for a while and Trapped was one of the songs
and then videos we played most often g TV. How
can you? We're just gonna keep singing everything. Um. Yeah,
welcome Tontificent. We have with us the host of the
Tits and Fights podcast, as well as a host at
Screen Junkies, Dale Radford. Thank you guys so much driving me. Yeah,

(03:15):
you're one of our best friends. Yeah, it's true, it's true. Uh,
we're covering Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which you were the
obvious choice because you just love it so much. Yeah,
I'm really I guess too. I started watching Buffy right
when it was ending, okay weirdly enough, so I started

(03:37):
in the seventh season, which most people think is like
the crappiest on up n on up n Yes, um,
and so a lot of people think it's like not
the best season, but that was the one I started
on because I saw Firefly first, and then when I
got canceled, I was like, let me go back and
check out. Also, you're not loud because we're close to

(03:58):
the It might just be your phone because I'm really
loud and then our guests are always quieter than me,
so it'll because I am the loudest person, please be.
You got your wrestling voice on, so you know. Uh so, Yeah,
Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Everyone pretty much knows it as
a show, but it really started off as a movie.

(04:19):
I actually knew about the show before the movie, and
I was like, what's the bootleg movie? It does feel
like a bootleg movie after you've seen the show. It
feels like the cheaper version of that. Yeah, there's a
reason why that we get into as to why it
came out the way that it did, but just starting out.
The creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Josh Sweden uh

(04:41):
He is an American screenwriter, director, a comic book writer
known for creating the shows of Angel, which came after
Buffy Firefly, and writing directing the Avengers film as well
as Age of Ultron sort of skipping Dollhouse and doll House.
You know, he has a lot of things on here.
He also was one of the screenwriters for Toy Store,
which got him an Academy Award nomination. We could go

(05:02):
on forever, but we are talking about Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Danielle we're talking to make fun of that. I just
wanted to make fun of Dollhouse. Okay. So when he
went into Buffy the Vampires, when he was going into
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, he was coming fresh off of
the show Roseanne. Do you know that I did, which
is like such a weird Well, he was like a

(05:22):
comedy writer. Yeah, and so he My understanding is so
his folks are both writers in England. Um, and so
that is how he became a writer, and Roseanne was
one of his biggest gigs before he was able to
go do Buffy. Yeah, he also did was like a
script doctor Princess princess who for I just got that

(05:47):
reference um for for um like Twister and water World
and and movies like that, other movies that didn't work
behind the scenes. So, yes, he was coming fresh off
of Roseanne, and he wrote the screenplay about Buffy the
Vampire Slayer. He says that Rhonda the Immortal Waitress was

(06:08):
really the first incarnation of the Buffy concept. This isn't
quote the idea of some woman who seems to be
completely insignificant who turns out to be extraordinary. He basically
wanted to go against the Hollywood formula of a little
blonde girl who goes into a dark alley and gets
killed in every horror movie by making that little blonde
girl the hero instead. And uh yeah, so he wrote

(06:29):
the screenplay for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is great
and also one of the reasons why. And we'll talk
about this, i'm sure later when people have been complaining
about the reboot um which again is not going to
be it's not like a retelling. We don't know what
it's going to be yet. But yes, the idea that
you take a black woman who is also one of
the first people to get killed in a horror movie

(06:53):
and you make that person and you center them. It
continues the legacy of Buffy. But blah blah blah. Also,
just it's not real. It's sci fi. There's vampires, so whatever.
People like, how could it be a black woman because
it's sci fi, like it could be. Actually, I'd say
it classifies as a neo fantasy because we're talking about

(07:13):
vampires in the lines. You could have demons that can't
have like people of color. Yeah, no, that was the
excuse forever with Game of Thrones and like there's dragons
like it doesn't. Well, it's just because they were in
this time, in what time? And dragon time? Well, what
time is that. It's a different continent. It's not it's
not our earth. Well, if I can pause them and

(07:35):
then meet them on the same playing field, they are
still wrong. There is a common misconception that black people
didn't exist in medieval time because of the way that
we're taught history. But teach them. There are many good
resources online now, like Medieval POC, which will show you
many medieval era art that shows black people not only
existing but being in monarchy and high positions and nobility

(07:59):
in fancy, fancy fancy outfits, not just like oh I'm
a maid or whatever, because you all just like manifest
one day, how does it even work? We're like zeus,
he just like cleaved us out of the head of
another just like one day and egg cracks and a
black person comes out, like, what the heck happened? How
do they think that? I'm just confused by the I'm sorry,
I didn't mean to cut you. Oh no, it's no,

(08:21):
this is a good convo. And no, you're right, because
I almost don't blame anyone because we're not even talk
like if you remember when the Moors were discussed, you
the language used is Muslim, which there were primarily Muslim,
but they were black, and but that's never specifically said.
So you hear Moores and it sounds like another type

(08:43):
of person, unless your teacher were to elaborate. Oh, it's
like a darker Italian. All right, let's go back to
exactly four years after me and Danny first came to
this trash read me. The film went into production at

(09:08):
one century Fox. The comedy about a valley girl turned
vampire slayer starred Christie Swanson, Luke Perry, and Donald Sutherland.
Wanting it to be a summer blockbuster, they rushed the
production of the film. Josh Weeden said of the movie,
there were certain people instead who clearly didn't get it
or care about it. And I'm not talking about the director.
I'm talking about other people that it made me crazy

(09:29):
and I eventually left. The movie was released on July
thirty one. Didn't do so hot. I didn't do so
hot at all. I loved it. I remember when the
first Buffy the Vampire Slayer, like I shouldn't say the first.
I remember when Buffy the van Bear Slayer came out
and something that I've talked about in multiple places and

(09:49):
multiple platforms. I love me a bad movie. I love
them so much, and so for me, Buffy was a
really fun bad movie. I remember you loved Venom, Um.
I did because it's hot, trash and it's amazing garbage.
Oh it's garbage. If you don't like garbage and you
want something that's well made with characters you care about,

(10:10):
don't watch Venom. Do you want to watch something that's
trash and that brings you back to the nineties and
makes you think, like a man, this is like Mortal
Kombat the movie, Go see Venom. But again, if you
want to care, don't do that thing. Um. But so
when I found out about the Buffy for um that

(10:30):
was coming out for the WB at the time, I
didn't take it seriously because I was like, Oh, they
took this thing that was one of my hot, garbage
favorite movies, and now they're making it too serious. Because
when you looked at the promos, they were plugging it
as though it was something that was very serious. They weren't. Yeah,
they weren't really honing in on the humor unless you

(10:53):
watched it. I think because of the reception that the
original Buffy got because there were a lot of jokes
that didn't land. And as we know about Josh Weeden
as evidenced by my wife Holly Berry in X Men,
you either get his weird ass dialogue or you don't get.
If you don't get it, it doesn't land. And maybe

(11:15):
it serves you to ask, Maybe it serves you. Um,
And they've done a lot of talk about how Sarah
Michelle Gellar asked a lot about his weird yet. Yeah, yeah,
we're gonna get into that in the in the episodes,
but it didn't do that and he moved on with

(11:35):
his life. Uh and then um, then sand Dollar Television
executive GAYL Berman actually approached Weeden with the plan to
bring Buffy to the TV. So I guess it did.
It didn't do well, But like the concept of the
idea of having this because at the time too, they
were talking about like girl power and the Spice Girls

(11:56):
were really big at that time, so they definitely didn't
have I feel like a female superhero protagonist, right, And
I'm trying to remember what was happening at CW at
the time, But there were other shows like Popular, There
were a lot W sorry w B. There were other
shows like Popular and things that were very female driven,
and so I think they were specifically looking for something

(12:17):
that was female driven. This was also during the time
of um what I like to call the Outdoor Walk Around.
I'm sure they have a better name, but it's you know,
the Zena's, the Hercules, the the They did that reboot
of Robin Hood would start the guy that played Will
and Robin Hood men in tights and it was weird

(12:38):
but hot. So this was happening at the point where
it was like, oh, yeah, it's all of these people
just like walking and not watching the underwear and fighting
bad guys and then walking to the next place where
they can't watch the underwear. And so they also they
even did um A live and part of that was
also helped because everything is kind of cyclical. What by

(13:02):
what was happening with the Power Rangers. They did a
reboot of Teenage Turtles at the time, which added a
woman turtle named Venus de Milo. When everyone was like,
but yeah, it was a beautiful time because things like
that could happen and twit and didn't didn't exist. People
were complaining about it on news groups. Yeah, no one

(13:23):
ever saw it. Yeah, we got to live life. We
have to live our lives and not be like what
vetus think. Big enough titties. Why don't I want to turtle? Yeah,
I can say here right, No, it's gonna get Why
don't I want to gently hug that turtle for five minutes?

(13:46):
Still believe that? So? Yes, horizontally, NBC passed on the
idea of Buffy, so did Fox. But the w B,
which you had stated, which was actually only two years
old at the time, did want to them to do
a presentation. So they started casting, and they came across
a seventeen year old Sarah Michelle Geller, who was already

(14:09):
an Emmy Award winner. For all my children, yeah, so
and all my children. I believe I'm not mistaken because
I was watching it at that time. I was in college.
I have nothing better to do, and I have cable,
so I was watching a lot of soap operas when
I would come home from different things, and she was
playing a character who I believe was twenty four years old,

(14:30):
like she was playing and making it. It's fine. It's weird,
but it's fine. But I think her an angel like
that was you know, it's not as bad as the
movie teen, which okay, but it's still pretty not great.
But so I remember when she came on because one
of the big deals was that she was a teenager

(14:53):
that was able to play someone so much older. And
I remember Sarah Michelle Geller, oh my god, this is
me um aging my from a show called Swan's Crossing
that was um a show that came out during a
summer of a year. I want to say it was
two or ninety three, and it was about a bunch
of kids because essentially what people learned about those summer

(15:17):
episodes of a Nino two and No or of a
UM Saved by the Bell was that you could do
summer episodes of something and people would be watching because
there's nothing else there, and teams are watching. And so
Swan's Crossing, to quote something my stepfather would say, this
m had everything. It had um evil twins, a band

(15:41):
that might not be a good band. It had Sarah
Michelle Geller with her first nose at not shaming, just
true um as a social light who was like the
hot popular one that was trying to get to I
believe his name was Shane McDermott and he only went
on to make a skateboard move. And at the end

(16:03):
of it, it turned out that the Black nerd and
I thank god the Asian nerd, huh. At the end
of it, they discovered a new kind of rocket or
rocket fuel and the government came to shut the town down.
That's how it ended. So it also had these elements
of like weird sci fi and like spy stuff, which
I didn't know at the time, but that's my wheelhouse.

(16:24):
I watched every episode. I was a cheerleader for on
base cheerleading because I was I grew up as a
military kid, um, and I was with a bunch of
the other twelve year olds. But I looked like I
look now, and so I was like, I gotta my
uniform fits different. I feel I feel weird, and so
I quit. And I really got into the show. And

(16:45):
everyone's like, well, Danielle quit because she really hated cheerleading
and wanted to watch the show. I'm like, no, I
quit because I look like your mom and it's like upsetting.
I would love for you, like if you meet Sarah
Michelle Geller, which we can work out because Mark's really
good friends with Freddie. Um. Yeah, and I want to
meet Freddy because Freddy used to write for w W
E I Girl. When Mark and I were dating, there

(17:08):
were so many nights when they would have like game nights,
and I was like, I just need a kid. Are
you gonna have a game night like a couple's night?
Can we go over? And then now I'm not dating them,
so it doesn't matter, but I can still maybe squeeze
in there. What I was gonna say is, I would
love if you met Sarah Michelle Gellar to be like
I loved you and Swan's crossing, like, don't bring up
probably because I don't bring up anything she's done since then,

(17:33):
So that's trash. Danielle, I love it, No, do it?
I mean she might like it. Um, I think she'd laugh. Yeah,
so she So she auditioned for the role of Actually,
she first audition for Cordelia Chase before eventually being cast
as Buffy. This is in quotes from the casting director
Marcia Shulman. At the time, we were all trying to

(17:53):
find our way to make the show something its own
thing apart from the film. We didn't think of Sarah
as Buffy because we thought she was too smart. It's
not crazy. She was too smart and too grounded and
not enough of a misfit in a sense. Because Buffy
was this outsider. How could Sarah be an outsider? She's
so lovely. So he brought her in as Cordelia and
she was fantastic as Cordelia. Then we went to the network.

(18:16):
They knew that Sarah was a star from her previous
work and that she could be Buffy and that we
could do that Buffy. I mean, and this is such
a great insight into how Hollywood works, just assuming who
can be smart you can't, well, assuming there's there was
so much that went on first off, the casting choice
that they're like, all right, well, this is how we

(18:36):
feel that she's betrayed, and then networks like, no, she's
going to play the main character because she's a name,
so so so that that's something to go in a
pilot season. Remembering when you're auditioning for Lee's that you
know all it takes is one, uh, one name to
come to bump your whole life off of a list. Look,
this is why we missed soap operas because there used
to be so many of them, and they used to

(18:57):
cast anyone that was hot. Yeah, and now that job
goes to when I was at New York Comic Con.
It was so funny because there would be like just
it would be a hot young person and people would
be screaming, like line to people, just screaming waiting for
them outside of our little green room. And uh, I
remember one of the artists that was with me was like,

(19:18):
who is it. I'm like, probably from the c W.
And then and now every time they saw a hot
because it kept happening, like anytime there was a hot
young person, they're like, it's from the cwe probably any hot,
any hot, Yeah, yeah, they're from the CW. They're acting skills,
can be whatever, but they certainly are hot and unthreatening.
The world is so weird, like that whole screaming thing.

(19:41):
Like I remember when I went with Echo to the
e W Stack party and they had just that weird
line of people who I still think are paid to
like stand in front of the think they're not they're fans.
So they came and I was with Um. I drove
because I'm a dork and not a rich dude who
was going to pay for an uber X to this

(20:02):
Hollywood party, and so I was given Echo and then
our friend Amber Stevens West a ride and at the
time Amber was in Ghosted Echo is Mr Terrific. So
they had all these people snapping pictures and it was
funny to see someone like they looked at me, they
squinted and then just took a picture. Just Oh, maybe

(20:22):
he'll be the hot man I'm in love with next season.
But he's not the hot one. I'm in love with
this who you are, but you might be somebody well
and that was what was so slight. But so when
um they did the first crossover between Supergirl, which at
the time was an ABC and then The Flash, which
is at c W, one of the jokes that they
had someone make was you all look like the ethnically diverse, um,

(20:48):
you know, attractive but assuming cast of a c W show.
Love it. I love when they're self aware. Yeah, well
ABC they stopped making those jokes since an They're like,
we're cutting it. Those job did now that you're at
the W. So Sarah Michelle Gellar said that she watched
the original movie to prepare for the role and that

(21:09):
that's actually not what they wanted at all, So she
had to come back. She said, and I quote quite
a few more times to audition for Buffy before she
got it. And this is literally in fact, Buffy actually
didn't get picked up by Warner Brothers after their presentation.
So they did this whole thing. They cast it, they
shot a pilot or yeah, did a pilot presentation for them,

(21:31):
and one of the producers were saying that they looked
at what they did pick up and they picked up
Seventh Heaven instead. Very different, so very different. Yeah, it
looks like they did. But then four months later they
finally picked up Buffy the Vampires later. Oh yeah, so
it premiered in March ten. I'm not going to tell

(21:53):
you how long it's been since we were born at
that time because that's too much math for me. But
just know if I was better at math, you would here.
But it ran for a minute because it started and
ended ten days after the launch in two thousand and
three on up N Big Jump. Usually that the up
N was where the uh where shows went to die,

(22:14):
also where all the black shows were, which is why
you people network what they used to be. My mom
called it the underpaid Negroes. Oh your mom, the nice
version of you people network. Yeah, but yeah, so U
p N but they had the hits. That's where we
had to go to watch all I think hits. I
mean they had shows that I enjoyed, but they they

(22:38):
were not hits. Whatever they know because in blind Items,
if you're talking about even the CW, it's still like
barely network when they talk about it, And so if
you're going back looking at up N, it's probably like,
well they network had um what was it? Was it
half and half? Or stepped by the one with Kyla

(22:58):
Prette and her dad flex Flex williams oh Flex Remember whence? Yeah,
he had a strong The series depicts Buffy Summers, a
student at Sunnydale High School who is called to battle
against vampires, demons, and other forces of the darkness. The

(23:21):
ladies in the line of young women known as the
Vampire Slayers are simply slayers in the story. Slayers are
chosen by Fate, and Buffy is the newest in the line.
But Buffy wants to live a normal life, kind of
like Spider Man. But as the series, it's so funny
because we do need that. That's what I like about

(23:42):
Miles is like, I feel like every early superhero that
was a team who was like I just want to
do high school, and I was like, I don't know
what you're talking about if I had superpowers like piece out.
That's why I like Invincible so much, because he's like,
let's go. This is what I've always can't y'all just
tutor me. That's what they do want. Yeah, look, I
gotta safe you. I ain't got time to learn. Uh

(24:04):
but yeah. So as the series progresses, she learns to
embrace her destiny, and like previous Slayers, Buffy is aided
by a Watcher who guides and teaches and trains her.
And unlike her predecessors, Buffy surrounds herself with a circle
of loyal friends who become known as the Scooby Gang.
I like that reference. Yeah, that's what happens when you
get to be on a w B base net. Who

(24:28):
cares you'll be canceled. It doesn't matter because nothing had
a chance of existing. Um, well, they own Scooby Doo,
so they can make that. Yeah, but even if they didn't,
no one cares. Because the DC shows make references to
a lot of stuff all the time. At w B.
I really don't think that that rule is that big
of a deal. Like, you get all these shows that
that with the three of us, do they always like

(24:50):
no logos when we're shooting something. I'm like, trust me,
they don't care like they like that you're promoting their stuff. Yeah.
If anything, you say no logos because you don't want
us to give someone for promo, even though that's what
we're talking about, right, It's like, oh no, but if
you're wearing it and then you say that you like it,
and then I was like, well I paid for this

(25:12):
threat shirt, I must love it. Yeah. Also I want
them to send me more of this for free. Do
the thing those ten thousand subscribers. Um. But yeah. One
of the interesting things was that the Willow Rosenberg character
was recast in the pilots UM. So she was originally
played and you can find those online, but she was

(25:34):
originally played by someone who was somehow even more like
nerdy and unrealistic and chubbs and gorgeous thick with two cs. Um.
That actress is like twenty I can say that, but
thick with two cs. And the network was like, you

(25:54):
have to pare that down. So even then Josh paired
it down for when they brought Alison Rosenberg in UM
and then pared it down again because she was Alison Hannigan, Sorry,
Alison Hannigan House and Rosenberg. Alison Hannigan, I was mixing
Willow Rosenberg because she'll always be blowed to me. Leep

(26:14):
you how I met your mother? So she um. They
toned her down for the pilot and then toned her
down again because they were like, where did you go
to school? And he was like England and they were like, well,
that's not gonna work in California. Kids don't dress that way,
and also your forty Yeah. Yeah, So they brought in

(26:35):
Alison Hannigan and she ended up being Willow Rosenberg. Who
is her Buffy's best friend or one of her best friends. Yeah,
it's her and Xander. And then later more so they
re shot the pilot again with her in it. Yeah,
like all the scenes obviously, the scenes that were shot
were shot and you keep them, but anything that had
to be with Willow they wound up shooting. Because you

(26:56):
remember in the New Girl pilot they just brought they
whitched out, switched it out, and they referenced it in
the episode two, but they didn't change it. They so
so and yeah, so what's the character's name? Starts with
a w because David Waynes was in JR. Was he was, Yeah,
he was in the show. Yeah, he was in the

(27:17):
original pilot. Was in the pilot. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
They kept him in the pilot, and then when he
wasn't in the show, they kept referencing that they and
they brought him back, and they brought him back because
they loved him, and he can't stop working and not
so good. Come on, it's seen happy endings. All of
those happy endings. People are so good. And they ruined

(27:38):
all of my shows for a season because after it
was got canceled, everyone wanted to give them work. And
so suddenly you have him there, you have Alan Patty
or Alan right, you have what's his name who goes
over to Mindy Project. Um, you have people who suddenly
start showing up in all of these shows I love
because people love the show so much. They were giving

(27:59):
everyone work, which like great for them, but like, just
give them another show chemistry of my show. Just keep
happy endings. I run into him. He's at UCB Functions
because from yeah, we are actually going to run into

(28:19):
the characters right after the breaks, we are back and
we're going to talk about some of our favorite Buffet
Vampire Slayer characters. So yeah, So Willow Rosenberg was played
by Alison Hannigan and she actually said that she blew

(28:42):
her audition. She she was like, I don't even know
they wanted her nerdy And Jos said that a lot
of the people that came in their idea of nerdy
was like, you know, glasses and like being like a
stereotypical nerd, and she just came in and was herself
and that's what I Yeah, we know here the Pope

(29:03):
didn't know. They weren't ready for I mean, I feel
like no still to this day. Every time I go
on to an audition and I'm typecast as a nerd
and you'll see all these actors like chiseled face, big glasses,
I'm like, first off, get these glasses posers out of here,
only real glasses on. Second off, some of us can't
help our chiseled faces. For for example, chee cheekbones. I

(29:28):
can't help my jaw. Okay. I I walked into audition
for The Welcome It's called The Neighborhood Now went through
so many name changes, but Marcel Spears part audition for
I got a call back. I did pretty okay. I
never I knew from the jump it's hard for me
to get roles like that because I can play a nerd,

(29:50):
but I'm also six one and so it just always
you like they'll laugh and then they'll look and be like, yeah,
I'm sorry, bro, but you want to be like you
want me to talk about Dragon Ball zo, you rip
your shirt off your chest and tattooed on you. Gosh.
So then but I went in and I was in there,

(30:12):
and I it was like a nerdy engineer character, and
I just kind of came as myself, just in a
button up just because they did want like a little
on the cartoon side. But I didn't want to go
too hard because but this also is the same guy
who did Big Bang Theory. So I was like, just
be a little dressed up and uh. And I went

(30:32):
in and the way some of these actors were dressed
was offensive to me because because like the character. When
I read it, I was like, oh, this is kind
of like me. It's just me if I was an engineer. Yeah,
they probably just researched black nerd and like you showed
up like if he lifts, so I can probably get

(30:54):
away with one Fannie Pack. God, that's so true. Sorry, babe.
So Willow Willow. As the series progressed, Willow became a
more sort of and even sensual character. I didn't write this.
Um In particular, she realized that she was a lesbian
and became a powerful, wicked Holy crap, those are two

(31:16):
amazing things combined. They happened at the same time. That's
the way did that do? Yeah? The way, that's how
it happens in real life? Like incense BP yep um,
Willow is uh, well, it makes sense because because cats
and which is the kitties, so many kitties and there
are and they did have a kitty for a while,

(31:37):
and then there were just so many good moments of
doing magic and Willows Buffy's best friend through everything, and yeah,
and originally she was super into Xander and then you know, yeah,
so Xander. So Xander is also Buffy's best friend, trying

(32:00):
goals with best friends. Yeah, Zander was basically even though
this predates Avatar, but just to keep you know, random
Avatar pop quiz, Xanda was like the soccer of the group. Yeah,
I love Xander. Xander evolves into being something great. Xander's
and in Cell, He's definitely like that that first season.

(32:22):
My dude, I know I'm going to get some hate.
Remember that. I love the series, but the first couple
of episodes, Xander's definitely like, well, why doesn't she like
he was a virgin? For yeah, because there wasn't wasn't
there a thing where they needed a virgin? And one
of his one of his divining characteristics, which is something

(32:43):
I loved about the show, was that he was such
this like nerdy in cell like stereotype, but every time
a hot monster woman came into town, there like I'm
gonna get that, you know it. Here's the thing though,
that's like my type, not in use, but like the nerdy,
unsuspecting and well and it's always a man eater. So yeah,

(33:07):
it's because they don't chase at like they're too they're shine.
You just want to dominate them. Anyways, moving on, do
we have to Yes, we definitely do. Um Angel, Yeah,
we got our man Angel, a character so good and
I guess he needed his own show. It's those cheekbones. Look,
I look, I get it. I get it. With Angel,

(33:30):
he's very like, oh, I've got more eyebrow than a
person needs show type. Yeah. See, and he's like tall
for TV. I don't know how tall he is in
real life. Everyone disappoints me. Um, he's like five eight
tall for TV, though you would be. I am amazed
by how tall I am. Yeah, I'm not. I'm five

(33:52):
four and I'm not. I'm not strong men unite, no, no, no.
I like guys that are around my my I like
guys of all all heights, but I'm not. But I'm
just saying a lot of people out here, which you
all don't know. I'm not saying five. I'm just saying
that's like like when we say tall, that's tall for
an actor, because a lot of actor I'm five four
and a lot of actors are around my height, and

(34:13):
they wind up doing a lot of tricks to make
people work they are, which obvious. I mean when you're
dealing with Michelle Geller, who I don't know this one
off the top of my head, and it feels creepy
that I would She's like, what five one maybe, but
she she real tiny, so it's very easy to be
very tall around her. Um. But yeah, so you have
angel who plays um Angelus, who is a one hundred

(34:39):
and I want to say, fifty year old vampire Um
used to be a complete pos Irish pos um with
an interesting Irish accent. It sounds like me doing an
Irish accent where sometimes just slides into Jamaican. It's fine
and like a bad curly wig. And he's like dealing
with some gambling debt or something and then uh, some

(35:02):
some hot vampiruses find him and are like that one,
and it's like why, but then he becomes really hot
and evil and so yeah, any and he hooks up
with with our lady. Yeah yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.
So he becomes um his soul. This is so much.

(35:26):
I love nerdy stuff. It's so much. So he like
eats and sleeps over the like golden child of this
gypsy clan I know. And the clan is like, oh no, Romani,
thank you. But in but in the show they use

(35:48):
the really compensive yikes. Also, if y'all don't know to
not say jip, don't say jip. It's not a good word.
And so the clan is like, oh, well, we're gonna
punish you the worst way we know how. And what
they do is so when vampires like you die and
your body is inhabited by this other thing which is you,

(36:09):
but isn't you because it doesn't have a soul. So
an angel becomes the first vampire with a soul, and
they throw the soul up in him to punish him,
and they're like, you're gonna like have a soul now
and have a conscience, and you're gonna hate everything you've
ever done, and then only during your happiest moment ever

(36:30):
are you going to go back to not having a
soul and being angelists. But until then you're gonna be
like this really sad, trench cut wearing dude, and there's
nothing we can That's pretty much it. By the way,
he is a six one, so he is quite actually tall.
Oh look at him and Sarah Michelle Geller at five,
so we're the same high nine. Actually, that's yeah, the

(36:54):
cast director said. The breakdown said, the most gorgeous, mysterious, fantastic,
the most incredible man on the face of the earth.
I think I saw every guy in town. It was
a day before shooting and a friend of mine called
me and said, you know, there's this guy that lives
on my street who walks his dog every day, and
I don't know what he does, but he has all
those things you're describing. Can you believe that? So everyone

(37:16):
signed up for WAG so that you can be discovered
being I guess that works. And the minute he walked
in the room, I wrote down in my notes, this
is the guy. You didn't even hear him speak even here,
just like he hot and look I like David. He
was not good at the speaking for the entire first
season of the show. If you look at the first

(37:37):
couple of episodes, it's like, oh, class, this is so funny.
This is what Weeden said. He wasn't sold on him
in quote he wasn't exactly my type. Well first of all,
and secondly, yeah, he was not good at the acting.
He got there and he's obviously great now and he's
obviously It's like going back and watching old Brad Pitt

(37:59):
where you're like, we all start somewhere. I think, God,
you're pretty Yeah, we all didn't start somewhere. It is
funny because like I definitely went in made sure I
looked up like nineties David Boreanis and it is like
nineties hot, Like this is like peak, Like oh yeah,
because like when I heard that, I was like, a,
ain't all that, But then like looking I was like,

(38:19):
oh yeah back then this is this was it for everyone,
like that strong nose Ridge and Freddie kind of like
decent forehead Freddie Prince Jr. Um. Yeah. So then up
next we have Giles. We have Rupert Giles, um and
and Giles is obviously amazing. Um. He is an actor.

(38:39):
He's a veteran British actor. You can see him in
like a million episodes of Anything British on the BBC. Yeah,
but who was he in this series? So so Rupert
Giles is Buffies mentor who has to go undercover as
a librarian. Um, which sounds really weird. We don't know
what to he has and from England and passed a

(39:03):
background check. There you go. Um. Cordelia Chase. Cordelia Chase
is the She starts off as the stereotypical kind of
mean girl who was the lead of all of the
Terrible Popular Girls, but throughout this series and then later
throughout Angel, she becomes a very empathetic and charismatic figure
and we actually really really fall in love with Cordelia.

(39:25):
Oz Oz is played by Seth Green. He is there.
He has a band, they suck, and he falls in
love with Willow because he sees her in an Eskimo costume. Um,
which is actually kind of really cute because he always
loved her for an intelligence and everyone else made fun
of her. And then um he got bit by like
his nephew who turns out was a werewolf. And then

(39:46):
Oz became a werewolf and had a weird werewolf affair
and had to leave the show. God that was like
peak Seth Green time too well, he had to go
do you had to do without a ball? We had
an Ozz Empowers I think by the time that he
was cast in this, and they also had Can't Hardly Wait?
Was the teen movie that I knew it was like

(40:08):
the Yeah, it would essentially be the equivalent of everyone
on the CW doing a movie together. Uh. Spike. Spike
was originally a dude called William the Bloody, and he
also like he so he was called Willing the Bloody
because his poetry was bloody awful and he used to
be like super in love with women. And he found

(40:29):
like Angelus's gang in Cordelia and they like turned him
into a vampire and then all of a sudden he
was like I'm billy oidel mate Um in the seventies
and then I'm so good an accents um. And then
he winds up obviously going against Buffy and the gang,
and then he winds up falling in love with Buffy
and they had this weird, controversial relationship. It was, Yeah,

(40:54):
it was very spicy, Umilla. It was with Spike. So
Drusilla um. And I'm sorry I keep saying Cordelia when
I think I mean Drusilla um. So. Drusilla was again
like a sweet, innocent person who was found by Angelus
and he was like, I'm just gonna find the sweetest
person in town, and I'm a Turner, super evil and

(41:15):
then he did, and it gave her psychic powers. We
don't know why, we don't know why, and her and
Spike were together for forever and then um, she started banging.
I think it was like a chaos demon and they
broke up when she came back a few times after that,
Cordia was, you know, her whole job was to be
manic pixie vampire girl, manic pixie goth girl. And I

(41:40):
do think I've said Cordelia a couple of times from
Drucilia that's fine, that's fine. Uh yeah, so those are
the main I mean, there's so many characters and also
like cameos from other celebrities, and just too many to
get through. The helm off is uh something I you
hear so much, So I'm excited that we're talking about it.
And they mentioned the hell mouth so much in this

(42:02):
show and then it doesn't open til the end, right, Well,
the idea about the hell mouth, I just I will
actually do I am a piece of ship, he asked,
I just want wow. So I think about the hell mouth?
Is it only actually really opens is like a canyon
as a mouth one or two times? What it really

(42:23):
is is that the fabric but that separates our world
from demon world. There are a couple of areas on
the planet where it's the weakest, and so in those
areas where it's the weakest, you're more likely to see
you know, more demons, more vampires, more weird demonic stuff.
And Sunny Dale lives on a hell mouth. We also

(42:46):
know that there's a hell mouth in Cleveland, Ohio. I'm
trying to remember if I can think of anywhere else
they've joked about their being helm outs. But yeah, so
it's just the idea that you know, if you have,
it's like a fault line for evil if you put
it that you know and some convenient right, and some
places are on the fault line, and some places are
closer to where it could be dangerous. And so really

(43:10):
the last episode of the series is where it gets like,
oh crap, this is a physical thing, whereas I feel
like usually it's more of a because I ain't gotta budget. Um,
it's more of a like, oh, this is a week
opening for metaphorical Yeah, wow, well you explained everything in

(43:35):
the docks, so uh, but just for just for the
b heads, which is my nickname for Buffy heads. Uh.
The hell Mouth is first mentioned by name in The Harvest,
the second episode of Buffy, while Rupert Giles claims that
the original Spanish settlers of Sunnydale called the area PoCA
del in pierre No, which Giles then translates to hell

(43:59):
mouth in English, which sounds like it was Spanish written
by a white person. That's exactly what whenever through Google
Translate or whatever, because it's so funny, because like when
you hear like names of things in Spanish, it's never
like a like beat for beat English telling because it's
like mouth of of the inferno. Because that's how other

(44:21):
languages work. Every romantic language works that way. We're the
only ones that work the way that we work, where
like the this thing goes before, the subject goes before
or whatever. Usually it's like combined with a thing. Yeah, technically, okay,
this isn't the language, you know, It's okay, Well, we
are actually talking about language because we're gonna talk about
buffy speak, which was the name for what you were

(44:43):
talking about the way that John Weeden writes. Yeah, so
it's a lot of I mean, if you want to
talk about the easy way to talk about buffy speak,
take something, you know, verb, yourself a noun or now
and yourself a verb, add yourself and E two an
to the end of a word that isn't an e.
A sentence might be if you wanted to break up

(45:04):
with someone, say something like I feel breakup. Things like that.
That's kind of what buffy speak is. It's a mixture
of um I would say Valley Girl, which is what
it's been kind of credited with, but also kind of
some of that Dawson's Creaky to spark from my good
I do it all of the times creaky, I do

(45:26):
it all of the time. I would say due to
my influences that my speech pattern is probably a weird
combination of like nerd voice, which is a voice that
we have which you know, it's hard to talk about
in an episode, nerd voice, Buffy speak, black stuff, like
that's what I sound like. Yeah, I think everyone's like,

(45:47):
oh yeah, and everything I've heard up until this point
is confirmed. But yeah, no, it's so funny because you know,
buffy speak is interesting because yeah, I think a lot
of us use buffy speak, especially nerds, and I feel
like people in the l A space, and I wonder
if it's one of those things where like TV made

(46:07):
people think that this is how people in l A
talk in l A picked it up. I also think
that it's something that influenced pop culture so much an
influence are there writers so much that a lot of
shows speak and Buffy speak without realizing that they're doing
it or without calling attention to it. Because I found
it in shows like Insecure where they've they've had a

(46:28):
dialogue in a way where I'm like, oh, that's Buffy talk,
and the same way that when you talk about that
kind of West Wingie walk and talk style, and you
see it everywhere now, but it's so commonplace that it's
hard to go back and place it. I think it's
the same thing where it's just permeated pop culture so
much it's affected the way a generation of nerds talk. Yeah,

(46:51):
all right, well, let's keep keep the ball rolling and
talk about the comics. Now. The comics are crazy because
they're still on the stands last I checked, and they
might have ended at this they're still going, still going.
Um so I and I can't unfortunately remember what season
we're on, but they do with the angel and with Buffy,
it's like Buffy season eight, Buffy season nine, Buffy Season ten, Um,

(47:13):
same with angel Um. There was a great comic that
came out around the time of the seventh season which
actually for me, which would which would help if you
read it, because it explained some of the stuff in
the seventh season, which was called Frey and took place
hundreds of years in the future, And to me, that
is my favorite Buffy comic and I recommend it to

(47:34):
everyone because it it's really good and it's so different
than when you're used to But of course they do
the Buffy comics, and and they've done Spike comics and
spinoff comics, and many of the writers have been you know,
I think Money Knox and has written one. Amber Benson,
who plays Tara, has written quite a few, and then
other people have just also done them. And they're supposed

(47:56):
to be continuations of the plot, but doing things at
the plot couldn't do because of monetary restrictions, because of shooting.
So then sometimes it gets a little isn't that insane?
They when I was looking it up, they did have
like they didn't really have a but or else they
spent their budget on their cast because jos was talking
about how a lot of their stuff was shot in

(48:17):
a warehouse and a lot of their a lot of
their hallway like high school stuff was shot in the
same part music. It's kind of sad actually, like it
was just the same background like every time. Yeah, very
much like a Doctor Who, where it's like we know
that what makes the show work is the chemics stry
between the actors and yeah, and so what we're going

(48:37):
to focus on that because we can't focus on big
We're not Michael Bay, we don't have Michael Bay money.
We can't focus so they'll say if they're huge set
pieces for when it's really important, if a giant snake
is going to come and eat a bunch of people,
it's gonna be a season finale that could possibly be
a series finale, um, because they just don't have the
money for anything else. Yeah, and and it is fascinating

(48:59):
because yeah, they had a lot of costumes and masks
and makeup and stuff like that, but for the most part,
it seemed like a lot of people were tuning in
for the relationships and like it kind of turned very
soap operating. I think that Buffy is what's set the
stage for these new especially the d C EU that
you have UM or the the d C C w UM.

(49:24):
Buffy is the template for that. Get a but get
seven people, give them all drama and then have you know,
a season long arc with a monster of the season
and then episode Monster of the weeks, but really focus
on the relationships between the people because that's cheaper and
also brings people back nice. All right, Well, I thought

(49:48):
about this a bunch because and I'm trying to do
them knowing I won't have a budget. All right, so
we're gonna jump into some of our favorite episodes because
this series very long and we can't just do a
beat by beat, but this will be a great place
to start and things to check out or some like
moments if you're a Buffy fan and we're about to

(50:10):
do that after these messages dumb bum bum boom, Hey,
what's up? Iss your boy? If you wire away? Back
here with Danny Fernandez, AM my good friend Daniel Radford

(50:30):
and we're talking Buffy the Bamfires say please keep that
in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Articulate articulate, man, you know
you've worked. Articulate agility is a marvelous ability, the tongue,
to teeth, the lips. Articulate agility is a mark. I
don't think people realize that we record these like late

(50:51):
at night and all of us have been talking literally
all yeah, that's our job. So we come in here.
Except I'm sorry. I got really excited because today was
a day when I've I've been doing the right with
my hands. This is the first time I've actually talked
to people, which I think is why I'm so like,
oh my god, it's your favorite thing. Yeah, it's one
of your favorite things. But yeah, we're going to kick it.
Off with hush because, uh, look, I'll be the first

(51:12):
to say my my Buffy knowledge is very, very sparse.
I wasn't watching Buffy at this time. I think I
was busy watching what was that weird X Men show
that was on the WB that Mutant next like that.
I was trying to Yeah, I was too busy playing
Ruinescape to really get into this. But this episode I

(51:34):
did see and it almost got me to start watching
the show, but I had to get them RuneScape dollars
and it was hush uh. And I think what was
cool about it was it blew me away, um because
it was scary and interesting and just different. Uh. This
was the episode when they were going to be I U.

(51:57):
They were invaded by these like weird dudes who like
sucked out people's gentleman, the gentleman, and it was was
when what did this air? Was it? It felt like
it was a Halloween episode, but I'm not sure if
it was. Oh no, no, because they did a Halloween
They did a Halloween episode that year. This happened in

(52:17):
season four, their tenth episode, because they did a Halloween
episode that year, and that was another one that examined
how on you Yeah, the Gentleman. The Gentleman, which were
creepy villains essentially like came to Sunnydale and they stole
the residents voices so that no one could scream. Yeah,
that's what it was. And one of them was the
dude that plays Mac tonight and was also the fish

(52:39):
in the Fish movie where the girl loved to fish.
So what it was was it aired on December and
they did like almost Christmas e kind of thing with it,
or am I going crazy? I don't know if it
had a holiday well maybe because it was in the
same way that a lot of holiday and especially Christmas

(53:01):
movies go and the the it was really about the
idea of when and Josh said this, when you stop talking,
you start listening, and so the idea is about like
rebuilding bonds. And one of the special things about hushes
it's the first time. Um, I'm gonna go ahead and
say it. By this point Angel had spun off. We

(53:23):
were a couple of years from Firefly. They were bored
and they liked the idea of having a special episode
of season and Hush was the first one which was like, oh,
we have maybe some license now we can really focus
on something really special and so yeah and hush, there
is no speaking until the end of the episode and
so everyone everything had to be expressed through physicality. Okay,

(53:45):
let me just hear this real quick, just so I
can see if I'm crazy or not. This is the
promo for it that I saw live on the WB
and no, I'm crazy. There was no Christmas theme. I
don't know why. I thought it had to do with
the holiday, but I think it's as it was a
special episode, so it got a lot of special promo.
I can see that. Yeah. And Doub Jones, Doug Jones,

(54:06):
that's who went on to be the man with the fish.
But as Jamie would say, and he'd been he'd yeah,
he'd been through. He'd done a ton of stuff before that.
He is an amazing He was also Darth them all right,
am I crazy? No? No, your podcast done? And Doug

(54:27):
Jones is he's motion acting and that physical kind of
acting is something completely different and he's a master of it.
And again, can't stresses enough. He was mec tonight. Yes,
that's yeah. No, he was so good in it because
he was doing things in a hush with his hands
that would freak me out the way he would do. Man, Well,
he's just he's so tall and spindly, and he can

(54:50):
move I am assuming every joint in his body anyway
that he wants to. Oh lord, so I was like Sapien,
He's done a lot of stuff. Hush was nominated for
an Emmy, which is fascinating because there was only seventeen
minutes of actual dialogue in it, and in a forty
four minute episode. And you're right, Danielle that Joss basically

(55:13):
said that he wanted to challenge himself because he knew
that it would literally he said, I knew that I
would literally have to tell the story only visually, and
that would mean I couldn't fall back on tricks. I
wanted to do something harder. Yeah, like dialogue, which is
very much something that he's known for. Yeah. Moving on
to our other big one is The Body. I know

(55:33):
that you like this episode a lot. It's really popular. Yeah.
So The Body is an episode that takes place in
season five. UM. This is the episode where UM Buffy's mom,
Joyce passes away, and Joyce had actually said because she
started taking more of a smaller role once Buffy went
into college, as which is appropriate because she was living

(55:55):
in the dorms would be weird if her mom was
an episode every episode and she said, you know, I
want to take a step back, uh, and and just
said you can't leave yet because I'm gonna kill you.
And so Joyce had been battling with cancer the entire season.
She had just gone on a really great date. Buffy
had just had a really bad time. I believe the
episode that came before that was the one where, um,

(56:18):
there was a really crappy robot, but it was a
really creepy, weird episode. And so she came home and
there were these beauty, big, beautiful flowers and her mom
is dead on the sofa, and so there isn't you know?
This is another one where it's people dealing with this
in real time. It's not about slaying the demon. It's
about human emotion. And there's not a lot of music

(56:43):
used in this episode or a lot of like background
soundtrack at all. It's mostly about the actors, and it's
shot very differently. Yeah, it didn't he get an Emmy
at least a non for this episode. Probs. I think
that all of these are the ones that that Josh loves. Yes,
the next one was once More with feeling, which was

(57:04):
my friends like favorite episode. But I was like, nothing's
going top hush Man. And this is definitely when you
could tell, just to bounce back to what Danielle said,
they were bored, They're like, all right, let's do a
musical episode. And it started um a series of people
doing musical episodes after that, you started seeing that being
something that could be more common. So the idea with

(57:28):
and this is the opposite of hush, whereas with hush
it's like, well, what do we say when we can't
say anything? Whereas with a musical and it's always been
the thing about musicals is the reason the idea that
a song starts into musicals because your emotion is so
big the only way you can express it is by singing.
And so that's what this was. And this was during

(57:48):
a period where you know, Buffy's friends found out, you know,
that she had just went through a really hard time
that they didn't know that she had known about. Um
she starts really digging into one of her biggest vices
of the season, which was as Bang and Spike and
or at least making out with his face. And the
songs on this are really fun. They're really catchy. You

(58:08):
can find this probably depending on what size of your city,
there is probably a once a month hush sing along
karaoke thing. Joss has always said that he's really disappointed
feeling yeah, once more, feeling sorry. Yeah, there's usually a
once more with feelings sing along, and Joss has always
said that he's really disappointed that none of them became

(58:30):
pop crossover hits. And it's like, oh, sir, like I
loved many members of Glee Club, so yeah. And Sarah
Michelle Geller was offered recording contracts and she was like,
this is auto too. Don't say, Hey, that hasn't stopped

(58:50):
some other people. It hasn't. She could have done it.
You you're saying it doesn't stop other people. Have you
heard our man's what's what's what's his name? Rocket Raccoon
um Braley Cooper Braley Cooper. Did you hear that song
from Did you hear that? Someone played it for me

(59:10):
and I was like, girl, yeah, I had to be
like with this modern world, I just want to get
another look at you. I've been saying that to people
all like all month. Hey I didn't want to do Yeah,
I that to a dog and the dog was the

(59:30):
most appreciative sense makes sense. So the casts were friends
in real life. Obviously that's what happens when you're on
a show for I think even three days, let alone
five years. But apparently, uh, they would do Sunday Shakespeare
read God, y'all are so nerdy. We love you, but
you're so nerdy. No, and they continue to do it
through Angel and in fact, it inspired a change from

(59:54):
one character who went from being one kind of character
to another because those Shakespeare readings. And when he did
do what I I remember it off the top of
my head. He did end up doing a Shakespeare black
and white, Shakespearean whatever um. When he did that, it
was inspired by their Sunday night Shakespeare hangouts. That would
make it the second thing inspired because at the hangouts,

(01:00:14):
Joss would kind of sit down at the piano and
James Marsters had a guitar in his hand and they
would just do jam sessions. So Josh during a four
month hiatus, was like, I'm gonna write a collection of
songs that advanced the plot of the story and make
this an episode. So that's that's how it happened. And
every song in there is like a different genre almost

(01:00:35):
and every dance is They have everything from like Spike
doing a very soulful alternate rock song, um, I gotta
stop being shady. I love this show um to a
Fossey inspired song, and they had a you know some
of the writers who are very talented. I think it's

(01:00:56):
a like Petrie if I'm remembering this correctly, and and
I believe Marty knox in they both have periods where
they sing because they are also people who have voices
that that he would listen to sing. So it was
kind of it was Ryan Murphy was looking at this
and like, this could be a whole show. You're burning
you're burning your load on. Oh and you and you
wrote your own music and there's music everywhere. Have you

(01:01:20):
heard the radio? Just take those what are you doing?
But I like that spooky stuff and hush, that could
be its own show. Basically, I'm My new conspiracy theory
is that Ryan Murphy watched Buffy and got the idea
of all those other shows like oh man, the Spike guy,

(01:01:41):
he'd be looking good if he vogued a little bit.
Let me look up some ballrooms. Oh god, he did
kind of Okay, the last one that we have on.
I mean, we could talk about this obviously forever. Conversations
with Dead People. So Conversations with Dead People is during
the last UM, which the six season is probably the
most controversial. The seventh season six. Now they had hopped

(01:02:04):
over to up N because the fifth season was the
last season at w B, and honestly, w B was
going to drop them, not because of viewership, obviously this
was a really hot show. They were going to drop
them because of contracts and money, and like, you just
I respect the actors for being like that. Was like
that with friends, you know, with Friends, they were going
to make a million dollars and like, obviously they weren't

(01:02:27):
at Friends level, but still they were like, no, we
deserve this money. Where the your top rated show? And
they were like no, and so up N picked them up.
But yeah, sorry, so it was a sixth season. Now
they're at up N. Well, the sixth season was UM.
If I'm not mistaken, let me double check. But the
sixth season was UM. Was once more feeling, oh yeah, yeah,

(01:02:48):
the seventh season is now we they've been in the
up N UM. You're right, this is the Conversations with
Dead People is in the seventh season So I don't
remember when this came out, but Sarah Michelle Geller announced
that she was leaving Buffy in an episode of episode
we Are of Entertainment Weekly. Um episode in an issue
of Entertainment Weekly. Remember magazines that were physical And according

(01:03:11):
to many people, they did not know that she was
leaving until that happened. And so the season was going
as it was going to go, and suddenly it wound
up being what we've got to wrap this up? Um,
And Conversations with Dead People is another one. It starts differently.
It starts with a band um singing a thing which

(01:03:34):
is actually a really lovely song, and it's about three
different confort three different things happening. So Buffy is fighting
this vampire that it turns out she went to high
school with who then like became kind of a piece
of ship and studied tekwondo or whatever. And Um and
her sister Dawn, who didn't happen until earlier. We don't

(01:03:58):
have enough time to talk about don, but her sister Donald, yeah,
which is Michelle Trackenberg, Michelle track and Bird, who was
adorable and amazing and we love her. Harriet the Spy,
coming off of Harriet the spy. She was a key
in season five, they made everyone believe with Buffy's sister
because they knew she would protect her because Buffy loves people. Okay,
so then she was like having this thing where um

(01:04:22):
someone was what we find out is the first which
is a demon thing that had come across like they'd
already encountered in the second season, pretended to be their
mom Joyce, who was dead and was trying to like
freak her out and be like, Buffy hates you, She's
not going to protect you. And then we have um

(01:04:43):
So in the end of season six, when Willow becomes
addicted to magic in the thinnest drug metaphor that has
ever been her girlfriend of a few years. By this point, Tara,
who had literally been made a featured player in that
episod owed, was murdered and this made her go on

(01:05:04):
this huge rampage, and so in conversations with dead people,
they had someone who had passed away earlier in the
season a character come back and say, Tara wants to
talk to you, but she can't. And the reason why
Tara couldn't come back was because the actress said, you know,
I don't want this to be the last they see

(01:05:25):
of Tara, because there aren't that many gay relationships on
TV and now both her. I don't I've never heard
any different, but both her and Alison Hannigan, UM, neither
one of them have come out as being gay or queer. UM.
Both of them have been in straight relationships. But it
was very important for them that this was This was
like one of the first gay kisses, if not the

(01:05:46):
gay kiss on TV. They were a very important gay relationship.
It was kind of the beginning of kill your queers, um.
And so for her, she said, no, I don't want
her to come back. This relationship was too important for
her to come back for it to be this thing
where she's being played by the first YadA, YadA, YadA.

(01:06:07):
I'm not going to do it. And it didn't ruin
her relationship because I think everyone got it. And she
went on to then go on and write in Buffy
anthologies and other things for the comic books. I don't
think that. I don't know if there's any any animosity there,
but it was a way that she put her foot
down and said, no, this is an important relationship and
I'm not going to Sully. What that meant to people,
because she also wasn't working on the show at the time.

(01:06:29):
She didn't know that Willow was going to wind up
getting another girlfriend, and so she was like, I'm not
going to sully that by doing this because it was
too important. But yeah, that that did is kind of
known for at least starting that trope of barrier gaze,
which in people that don't know is a is a
common thing that still happens, uh way too basically describe

(01:06:51):
what it is, because I don't think we described. Sorry,
I said kill your queers, which is also like the
more harsh version that sometimes as queer folx. Basically when
you introduce a queer gay character into media and have
them have a relationship and then you basically fridge them
so that for due reasons, so they're not around and

(01:07:11):
you don't have to worry about any ichy same sex
relationships that might freak out the the the the Midwest
or whatever. But you still got to do it and
get the credit for having done it. Um even a
good movies like The Atomic Blonde did it, which it
was so jarring because it almost felt like like I

(01:07:32):
don't want to say it's scene for us, because I
like when people do show like queer relationships, but it
almost say it felt like it was for the male
gaze because you introduce uh this surprise lesbian relationship. They
have a sex scene and then she's dead and it
was like, all right, this this feels like this was

(01:07:54):
more just so y'all can get that one scene out right? Yeah?
But yeah, so you know, don't be afraid to build
lasting relationships. Also, don't be afraid to uh add more
than one queer character. I feel like the CW is
doing a good job. They are doing a very good job.
They're they're working hard to do to have queer representation

(01:08:17):
and people of color that have structured and fleshed out storylines. Agreed.
I would say right now they're probably doing the best
job of it. Weirdly enough, yeah, I agree. Uh So,
just to wrap this up, we uh we have a
reboot coming of the show, Dan, Are you excited about it? Um?
That took you a while to answer. It's just I

(01:08:41):
believe that heading the reboot, and I don't know a
lot about this because this is one of those things
where I'm like, there have been so many rumors of
reboots of the show. When I see it. Yeah, So
I have to apologize. So the I mean, all the
articles are calling a reboot, but the actual uh, the
showrunner who is Monico U Subrien who did it? She
worked on Agents of Shield with Josh Weede and she

(01:09:04):
also has the creator of Midnight Texas. She has said
that this is not a reboot, or at least I
guess yeah. It's more of a co continuation, which makes
sense because the way the lore is set up, where
there's a Slayer that's born in every generation and then
at a certain point in Buffy is like, sorry, spoilers,
maybe this is not the episode for you. But then
there's a certain point in which Buffy releases that any

(01:09:25):
woman of that generation that could be a Slayer becomes
a Slayer, and so that doesn't It's interesting of what
the ramifications of that can be. There can be all
of these women running around or young girls at this point.
You know, if we're following in the timeline women who
could be slayers, you could still have one Slayer being
born after you still did that. We don't know how

(01:09:46):
that messed up, how that works um And so this
series was always much like with Dr Who, the idea
of being able to carry this on with another character
who still keeps the Moore inside them has always been
baked in, so that's really interesting. Um. Again, there have

(01:10:07):
been so many talks about a reboot or anything of
this that I'm very much like, I will believe it
when I see it, but I will cautiously say that
this is the time for it. This is the time
for I mean, they just did Sabrina the Teenage, which
you know we have, um, we have like Wonder Woman,

(01:10:27):
Captain Marvel, we have like all of these. Yeah, this
is a titled female protagonist superheroes. So you and and
then the new Doctor, who is the new Doctor for
this is the time to have this, this show. So
it makes sense. It does completely make sense. Um. And
I you know, I think that the show run is
going to do a great job. I think that I

(01:10:50):
always worry with any reboot just because you always do.
So I feel like I'm going to get Like with Sabrina,
I was a little bit worried, and then I saw
the first previews and I was like, no, that's going
to be dope. And with the New Doctor, some of
the previews that BBC was putting out that had like
weird like pop music behind it and didn't feel like
the doctor. I was like, what are you doing? And

(01:11:11):
then I watched the first episode I was like, Oh,
she's the Doctor. And so I do feel like before
I start getting really on the hype train, it'll be
when they start releasing stuff. Also, you know, the TV
show just isn't the only one getting a reboot. Boom
Studios just announced that NYCC, which Danny was at holding
it down, that Buffy the Vampire is going to receive

(01:11:32):
an entirely separate comic book reboot, overseen by Josh Whedon.
So it's gonna be O G, triple O G. We'll see,
we'll see what happens. Um, that'll be exciting. I'm excited
mostly because Boom Studios does a great job with these properties. Um,
they are making sorry guys, for my money and for
my time, the only w w E comic ever that's

(01:11:54):
been worth anything. Sorry mcfoley. Um, the Boom Studios WWE
comics do a great job of fleshing out the stories
that are behind these storylines and making you really care
about these character interactions. And so if they can do
that with what you're given with w W which is
you know, you have characterizations that change from week to week,

(01:12:15):
YadA YadA. Sorry, also a huge wrestle head. I am
more than confident that they'll be able to take over
something with such a huge lure. Yeah, and speaking of
all that stuff you all are saying about this being
the time, it seems like they are definitely making sure
like it is going to take place in two thousand nineteen.
So the world as it is is going to affect

(01:12:35):
the characters. So that should be interesting to see. And
also that's a new way to get a new take.
You can even like revisit old stuff and see how
it would change versus being in the nineties versus do
you imagine that's having to deal with vampires on top
of everything we're dealing with time. Actually, it actually would
make sense. I'd be like, Okay, that's what we're saying

(01:12:56):
the planet because they needed to be vampire time all
the time. You know what, That's a fascinating thing because
on True Blood it was like it was it was
humans verse vampires, you know what I mean. It was
like the one even then they had racism and stuff too,
but I mean it was like the one thing that
you would think would finally reunite people from different parties
is like, oh, this thing that is trying to stuck

(01:13:17):
our blood like kind of like an alien movies. You know,
it's like, oh, now we're all on the same page.
We're not. But it's except it won't because I bet
the people who are trying to get power now we're
just gonna find ways to be vampire to an event.
Yeah that's good. I mean, yeah, it's true because you know,
you know, if we were expecting outside interference to unite America,
we've already proven that it wouldn't. So it's so true.

(01:13:41):
Some people might get mad because we're getting political. Um
now you want to know some Yeah, and a lot
of these directors like Jos actually follows me and a
bunch of other ones. And I just want to say
it is because because I feel like, of my political stuff,
I was just gonna do a sorry, not so our
type response. No, but I'm so tired of people telling

(01:14:02):
us like stick to comedy or stick to nerve. I'm like, no, actually,
I have a lot of respected directors and actors that
follow me because yeah, I write tweets about hooking up
with optimist prime, but also political stuff. Literal hooking up though,
because I mean, he could you know, I think it's
just like no, like it's because here's the thing is,

(01:14:25):
there is like a beauty to like to thinking that
one can just stand idly by, uh and just let
it go. But it's like, if you want me specifically
and Danny, you're gonna have to take all of us
and we're going to talk about the things that affect us.
And you know, if that's just too much for you,

(01:14:45):
then you know there, I promise you there are tons
of nerve properties that try and sidestep this stuff. We're
gonna do is we're gonna ask you to get out
there and vote, and you know, look, just care about
other people. I think that's the baseline parties aside care
about other people in mind your business. And I promise you, yeah, yeah,

(01:15:07):
I'll probably be cool with you. Can I vote and
still not care about some people? Yes, as long as
you vote? Uh? So yeah, a lot of um just
while we have you here and because it's close and
because I'm gonna just talk to you about it. Uh,
A lot of voter registration deadlines are coming up. Make
sure you get out there and vote. And you know,

(01:15:27):
like I said, let's just take care of each other.
You know, all all the other business aside, take care
of your fellow person, because that should be the least
of what you're doing. Uh, no matter how you want
to find a solution to these problems. Uh So, where
can people find you, Danielle Um? Well, you can just
find me at daniel Radford on Twitter, Danielle Underscore Radford

(01:15:48):
on Instagram. Um My podcast Tights and Fights, where we
talk about rsslin um on the Maxi Fun Network, goes
up every Thursday. You can also see me on Thursdays
at Screen Junkies and um hopefully everywhere. I'm just trying
to take over everything. I like do word typing with

(01:16:09):
my hands. Face. Now, don't you have a patreon to
I do have a Patreon, and my patreon is just
Danielle Radford. And my tears are small because I know
how much um me doing additional wrestle talk is worth
and it's probably not more than ten dollars. So um so,
my my two. But it's a lot of really good
chances to hang out with other folks to hang out

(01:16:30):
with me. Um we do like once a weekly hangout
since really nice. So yes, and actually Danielle is on
two episodes of fan Girling, the show that I host
at Nerdice. So one just dropped this next week, so sheet,
so catch out the first two episodes. They are amazing,
They're so funny, and we talk about more Nerds stuff. Yeah,
I'm gonna be doing um some field work with fan

(01:16:52):
Girling as well, so um in the next couple of months,
you can check me out doing some of that stuff too. Yeah,
and uh Anywren, Oh, I'm at ms Danny Fernandez. Um,
check out fan Girling. It's dope. It's it's women talking
to female creators, and it's it's cool and it's really
funny and chill, and I'm sure have other things to promote.

(01:17:13):
I had a really good time at New York Comic Con.
Thank you to everyone that came out to see me.
It was amazing. I got to show my that I'm
I get to play myself and Ralph breaks internet, which
is so cool. And I got to see my scene
live when I was hosting the panel in front of
a thousand people and that was really cool. And Disney
has been nothing but a dream to work with and

(01:17:34):
I love them and um, yeah that's my those are
my announcements. Nice nice, and you know me. You can
catch me at if you Wadway on Twitter and Instagram,
if D's on Twitch. Thanks for coming through Twitch. Dreams
are gonna get back to their regularity. It's been overwhelming
first few months as I started at BuzzFeed launching which
is now live BuzzFeed Multiplayer, the video game based BuzzFeed

(01:17:58):
Note where I'm dropping hits with Kelsey, Impeach, Kay and
Zach here nasty. However, you say that Russian last name,
so definitely check that out. Come to the stream and
if you're in the l A area, come to Laughter
House five all in October twenty five at eight pm
in uh Highland Park. It's in a bookstore, so that's

(01:18:19):
that's why you had a book reference for the title.
Thanks for listening, and as always, in the month of October,
stay spooky.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 29: Buffy the Vampire Slayer