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Buffy Creator Joss Whedon Talks Climaxes, Criticism and Angel's Fate

Wanda: Sounds like you've been insanely busy with all your projects this season. [Buffy producer] Marti Noxon said you're like a pig in poo...
Joss: [Laughs.] Sounds like Marti. And yeah, I am like a pig in poo.

Has it been hard to be less involved with Buffy?
JW: I haven't been as hands-off as people like to think. This season, I was there, except when I was shooting the Firefly pilot. But yeah, everything I saw that I could have made better or had a different vision for, I go, "Aaaarrgh!" But then, I've always done that.

---I'm glad he acknowledges this. This shows that he wasn't always involved, but was creatively always there. I wonder if Seeing Red was shot when he was absent. It would explain, ahem, what happens.
-----

This season has been fantastic, as usual, but it has had a darker tone. To be honest, some of the episodes depressed the hell out of me.

JW: This is where we wanted to go...into the dark of the woods. But next year is going to be very different. We're going back to our original mission statement. Back to the positive view of the joy of female empowerment. This year was about adult life and relationships--and making really, really bad decisions. Next year will still be scary and different and strange, but it will be more of a positive outlook. People will stop abandoning Dawn. Willow won't be a junky anymore. Buffy won't be dead.

------Zippadee doo dah!

Your theme for this year was: "Oh, Grow Up." Do you have one for next year?
JW: Yes. It's: "Buffy Year One." It's let's get back to the joy of this very simple concept, that this silly woman no one takes seriously is actually the most powerful woman in the world.

---Cool!

How long do you see Buffy lasting? How far have you planned ahead?
JW: We basically plot every year as a natural ending point of the show. I loathe stories that end in the middle, so we wrap it up at the end of the year. Every year. So, next season, we've figured out the whole arc--who the bad guy is, what the general message is. Next year will be the end. And if there's another season, that will be the end, too.

What about Angel? Are you worried about it being picked up?
JW: No. The WB will pick it up again. I absolutely think so. We'll be staying on the WB for at least another year. Obviously, if the WB drops it, we could do more crossovers. But apart from that, it doesn't really matter.

Speaking of crossovers, any hope for Buffy and Angel diehards?
JW: hat I always say is: Guys, they're on two different networks. There's no way. Buffy and Angel physically could not exist. If they were on the same network, we would have done the Buffy-Spike thing anyway. But we probably would have had a crossover moment when they would go, "You're sleeping with whom?!" It became difficult in the third year to truly bring change to Buffy and Angel. People want to watch change. Growth. They want climax.

---Ah, pooey!---

And we've certainly gotten "climax" with Buffy and Spike. Let's talk about Angel, which has been so great this season. Can you talk about the motive for giving him a son?
JW: We wanted to put him in an emotional space. To give him something that is less about day-to-day living. He needed something to connect to emotionally. Plus, I just love the idea of this embarrassing effect of a one-night stand.

Why did you decide to make Connor grow up at lightning speed?
JW: What are you going to do? Have a baby running around? I don't think so. There were advantages. He got to have a baby. He got to have his child taken away. And then he got to have a full-grown son. That's the beauty of it being a fantasy show.

Buffy and Angel fans seem to be more critical than ever this season. Does that affect you?
JW: It always affects me. At the same time, I need to give them what they need, not what they want. They need to have their hearts broken. They need to see change. They hated Oz, and then they hated that he left. These things are inevitable. If people are freaking out, I'm good. If people are going, "Hmmm...well, that was fine," I'm fucked.

------------

I'm looking forward to next season!

--------------------
Trancer - Purple Fleet Admiral
Eternity is a really really really long time!

Sorry Joss.

enTranced

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One evil at a time, that's the best i can do. - John "Into the Lion's Den"

Damn, i gotta stop pointing guns at people! - John gets a moment of clarity. "Into the Lion's Den"

Please continue the petty bickering, i find it most intriguing! - Data "Haven"

Excuse me, Ms. Sunshine I thought you WANTED to be part of this crew!
On your good days....
This IS one of our good days! - John and Pip in Through the Looking Glass

Red, Blue, Green, i wonder what color is death?
Red is DEATH! Red is DEATH! - Maya and John, Space 1999

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DeLenn, you are very CUTE for a Minbari!
And you are cute in a very annoying way!
Everyone is cute, even ME.
But in PURPLE i am STUNNING!
-Londo

It certainly seemed to me a valid extension of the original concept of the series, which was juxtaposing the angst of teens with the power of the slayer. By the end of high school, they had it down, like most high school seniors think they do. (I certainly did.)

Then the ground underneath you shifts seismically. Either you go to college, and all the rules are different or you try to find a job and all the rules are REALLY different.

If these guys stay in their "high school" mentality, but add crow lines, that's useless fantasy material.

Ro

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A ship in a port is safe, but that's not what ships are for. Rear Adm Grace Murray Hopper

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A ship in a port is safe, but that's not what ships are for. Rear Adm Grace Murray Hopper

"I was there, except when..." Okay, can I just say "Buffy: The Animated Series", "Giles: The Series", "Firefly", "Development Deal"? Sigh.

sailing the slipstream,

Jill

"They hated Oz"? Um, on what planet? From
the second he first appeared, from the second he noticed Willow, he was wonderful! Who ever hated Oz? I never met them.

On the old WB Bronze message board, of which Joss was a regular poster. I saw the comments that certain fans had about Oz. Of course, they were mostly one or two line missives that said "I hate Oz! Later."

-Ogami

quote:

---

Originally posted by jillandr:

"I was there, except when..." Okay, can I just say "Buffy: The Animated Series", "Giles: The Series", "Firefly", "Development Deal"? Sigh.

sailing the slipstream,

Jill

---

The first two you mentioned never really developed completely. Giles, more, but that idea is still floating. Firefly is the only time, as Joss said, that he was gone. I think that you should trust the man instead of what you've heard. JMO, of course.

--------------------
Trancer - Purple Fleet Admiral
Eternity is a really really really long time!

Word, baby.

I mean, yeah, stretching those creative veins and all, but couldn't they have at least made it, I don't know, entertaining? The Angelus arc was depressing and painful but I enjoyed it.

And, yeah, who did hate Oz? Hell, I still miss Oz. Need my Oz back and Seth Green to stop appearing in things like "Greg the Bunny" (dude, what *were* you thinking?)

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chipper:
I think that you should trust the man instead of what you've heard. JMO, of course.

---

I don't trust anything I've 'heard'. I trust what I know from working in TV for a decade, plus (even more so) what I see on my screen every week. And I haven't seen Joss or his 'hands-on' influence in Buffy in a long time. I have seen a lot of Marti N's influence on the show and not for the better.

Not trying to rain on your parade, Chipper, I respect optimism, but mine only connects to what I see happening, not what I *wish* was happening.

But, not wanting to be too much of a pessimist, I'll remove myself from the conversation and let the optimists be optimistic.

sailing the slipstream,

Jill