Beau asked me: "What was Giles' first name?"

I answered, but thought: "is THAT the Buffy trivia you want to test me with first thing this morning? Bring IT!"

(Want to see the post totals again and laugh at me?)

(Yes)

Blastr says that Jeff Pruitt has released a bunch of behind the scenes stuff from Buffy - which you can find on his youtube page.

The Theology Of "Angel" In The City Of Demons

While I've spent decades studying and occasionally practicing religions that appealed to me, I don't much believe any of them. The theology of the television series "Angel" is different, in that you think you're only watching a spinoff of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," but then you realize it's an accurate reflection of reality. A religion usually starts off telling you it's true, and then goes about trying to convince you with this or that story or rule. Also, the realm of "Angel" differs significantly from modern Christianity or Judaism or Hinduism or Voodoo or the pagan-infused Catholicism of Ireland or Eastern Orthodoxy of the Balkans, because the realm of "Angel" is essentially Gnostic. Our world is a black iron prison ruled by cruel alien monsters, while a distant Powers That Be are separated from us by an immense gulf of space, time, understanding and several hundred thousand years of inbreeding with the demons who prowl our world.

Aisha Tyler interviews Seth Green for her Girl on Guy podcast.

Worth it for many things but not the least hearing him talk about doing "commercials with Sarah Geller in New York when we were kids and then later doing Buffy."

I'd known about him acting with AH in My Stepmother's An Alien, but not that he'd done commercials with SMG.

Also, interesting allusions to staying "at the Oakwood during pilot season as a teenager with all the guys cast in The Outsiders, and Leo and Tobey."

Also also, the previous podcast to this one is with Felicia Day.

This interview with James Masters is like a year old but I just came across and it made me laugh and laugh: [link]

About two years (laughing). I remember doing those first five episodes and, it must have been episode three, and Joss (Whedon) almost physically pushing me up against a wall and saying, "I don't care how popular you are; you are going to die, die, die." He made it very clear he did not want the show to be taken over by another romantic vampire. He was not enamored with vampires and that's putting it mildly.

(AHAHAHAHA. Oh man.)

To Joss, vampires were supposed to be ugly, evil, and quick to be killed. He got talked into one romantic vampire by his writing partner David Greenwalt and that was Angel. Of course Angel took off like a rocket and when I was cast Joss did not imagine me to be popular; Spike was supposed to be dirty and evil, punk rock, and then dead. Things started to turn out differently and I think Joss was passionate that I would not corrupt his theme, which was basically trying to find a metaphor for all of the problems you encounter during adolescence. Vampires stood in for those problems and I think I endangered that theme by being popular. He did not want people to like me at all.

At first I was supposed to die in 5 episodes and then the decided to keep me around for 10, but at the end of 10 that was it; I was gone and there was no plan to bring me back at all. It was only when they spun off Angel into a series and lost their Cordelia, which was the character who told Buffy she was stupid and about to die, that they needed someone to tell Buffy she was stupid and about to die, and they decided to bring me back. I failed miserably at that because I could never be around in the daytime to tell Buffy she was stupid and going to die because I was a vampire and going to catch on fire. There were two or three burning blanket episodes in season four, during which I thought I was going to be fired because it was very obvious to me I was not working out as Cordelia.

Ha ha ha wow, that's really interesting. I never thought of Spike as taking Cordelia's role.

I think Joss was passionate that I would not corrupt his theme, which was basically trying to find a metaphor for all of the problems you encounter during adolescence. Vampires stood in for those problems and I think I endangered that theme by being popular.

But it strikes me that one of the key challenges of adolescence is precisely that dangerous and scary and evil things are popular.

Ha ha ha wow, that's really interesting. I never thought of Spike as taking Cordelia's role.

Really? Until he started banging Buffy in Season 6 that was pretty clearly his role to me.

But it strikes me that one of the key challenges of adolescence is precisely that dangerous and scary and evil things are popular.

Things look shiny and then cause harm.