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Authors: Candace Havens

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UPN went out of its way to court its new prize, reportedly giving Gellar $8000 worth of Gucci items as a welcoming present. Gellar and the cast rapidly adjusted to their new home. Gellar said, “I’m nervous. I’m excited. UPN has been wonderful. They’ve said really wonderful things to make everybody feel incredibly welcome, and I think that’s given us new excitement about the show. It’s like getting to start fresh. It’s like getting to show all of these new people the show we make, that we’re all so incredibly proud of.”
Joss Whedon also had kind words to say about UPN. “We really had some factors working in our favor,” Whedon said. “UPN really came out swinging. They really promised and delivered a great deal of support. They put passion in it. Our fan base is not huge, but it is hugely loyal. I knew they would follow us.”
 
Joss at
Buffy’s
old home, the WB.
Whedon expressed little concern that the move to UPN would cost Buffy its fan base. “I would like to think that most of my fan base is smart enough to use a remote.”
At a Television Critics Association Press tour last year, witnesses were surprised to see Kellner approach Whedon, shake his hand and walk away. Whedon viewed this as an attempt to put the past behind them, particularly since Angel was still airing on the WB. Whedon feels the overture was sincere, not merely for appearances.
“I think he wanted to say, ‘Let’s put this behind us.’ It’s not like he did it in front of a crowd or photographers or anything. He just came up and I think he wanted to say, ‘We’ve been doing business, there’s been acrimony, but it’s not personal. It’s business.’”
So is the love back? Not exactly. Joss is ready to move on, but can never quite forget the insult to his baby. “You know, I didn’t like the way the business was handled. I don’t like doing business because I tend to take things personally. I do agree that I still have a show on the WB and he’s still a part of the WB. I don’t work with him day-to-day If I did, then he and I would have to sit down and really iron things out. But in terms of what our relationship is—which is basically just peripheral to each other—I think we’re fine.
Once
Buffy
formally made the move, the rumors began to run rampant that the show would be much sexier to lure in UPN’s young male audience. There was also the belief that since UPN was paying so much more for it the show could afford a lot more special effects.
“There really isn’t that big of a change because we have higher license fees,” says Whedon. “Apart from the increases you accrue every year on a show, we are not looking at suddenly having a giant budget that we can do anything with. We’re making the show exactly the way we were before. You know, we may have a little more leeway—we have more leeway than we would have, had we been forced to stay at the WB, and had no money and we’d have to use hand puppets.”
So, after five years of kicking, punching and stabbing vampires, monsters and the undead into submission, Buffy plunged to her death through the gates of Hell. The program ended with a camera shot of Buffy’s tombstone, which read, “She saved the world. A lot.” As the image faded into the ending credits, a message appeared on the screen that said, “Five great years. We thank you.” Joss said that when he saw the message at the end of the show, “I was actually moved. Then I said, ‘Wait a minute.’
We have more leeway than we would have, had we been forced to stay at the WB, and had no money and we’d have to use hand puppets.—Joss
 
“The WB decided to pretend the series was ending,” he added, calling the way the network played the finale “cheesy” Paul McGuire, a WB spokesman, said it was “a shame” if any
Buffy
fan had been misled. But he said the message of gratitude was a “sincere expression of thanks for five terrific years.” Presumably, many
Buffy
viewers, even if confused at first, would be clued in by the fall, after the millions of dollars UPN spent to promote
Buffy’s
return. In the end, Joss said, it was nothing personal—just business. “They’re trying to protect their network and not help the other guy,” he said.
“But basically we’re right where we were, which is all that we were asking for. Fox is, you know, going to give us the increase we need, but not anything beyond that. And I think too much money spoils you; it lets you get lazy. If you can put spectacle on the air, you don’t have to worry so much about story.
I was actually moved. Then I said, ‘Wait a minute.’—Joss
 
“It’s important that people know that the WB never hindered us from doing the show the way we wanted to. We had some back and forth with them about certain scenes and certain ideas, but it was always collaboration. UPN basically stepped in and said, ‘Make the show the way you’ve been making it.’
“And I’m not interested in pushing boundaries or smut or gore or anything like that. I’m interested in doing what we’ve been doing, which is sometimes dark and sometimes disturbing and sometimes sexy and all of that stuff. But you know that’s not because I can get away with stuff. If you can just be sensational, then you don’t have to tell the story right.”
 
Spike
 
Unlike the Englishman he plays, James Marsters is 100 percent American. He was born in Greenville, California, and grew up in Modesto. From the early age of nine, Marsters knew he wanted to be an actor. His first role was as Eeyore in the fourth grade production of
Winnie the Pooh.
Marsters went on to study at the Juilliard School in New York. Early in his career he starred in
The Tempest
and
Red Noses
at the Goodman Theater in Chicago. Not long after moving to the Pacific Northwest he landed a gueststarring role on
Northern Exposure
, which was his on-screen debut.
 
 
James Marsters, looking very Spikish.
This small success led him to believe he could find bigger and better things if he moved to Los Angeles. Soon he got the opportunity to audition for the role of Spike.
For the classically trained Marsters the idea of being on a show called
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
seemed a lark. He admits that he was one of the uncool before discovering what
Buffy
was all about.
“I have to admit I was one of those idiots,” says Marsters. “When I got the word that they wanted me to audition for
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
, I was like ‘I don’t want to audition for
Buffy the
...’ I’d never seen it, right?
“My agent said, ‘Watch it and see. Don’t give me an answer until you watch the show.’ And I watched the show that night, and I got nervous because I wanted to be on that show so bad. It completely changed my mind. And it made me think about something, which is I think the name
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
almost dares you not to be cool enough to check it out. Almost like—and I’ve never said this to Joss, but I think almost like you don’t want uncool people watching your show.”
The audition went well. After several guest appearances Sarah Michelle Gellar thought it would be fun to have Marsters return as a full time player. She encouraged Joss to see what he could do about keeping Marsters on the series.
Meanwhile, Marsters was busy auditioning for other series including
Harsh Realm
, but the
Buffy
producers wooed him back. “I definitely am happy to be here,” says Marsters. “You don’t find characters like Spike every day. There’s a wealth of emotion he goes through on just about every episode and while it’s hard work, it’s also great fun. He’s a very immature man; he was made a vampire at a young age and never got past that. I don’t think he’ll really ever understand what love really is, though he’s certain he found it with Buffy.”
I’ve never said this to Joss, but I think almost like you don’t want uncool people watching your show.—James Marsters
 
Marsters loves the fact that the writers constantly keep him on his toes. Each season as Spike evolves Marsters is learning about his character right along with the rest of us.
“No two seasons are alike at all. The characters go through completely different experiences every season. So whatever happened last season, turn it on its head, and ... that’s what you get next. But really, if you ask any male actor what he wants to do and he’ll say bag chicks and kick butt, right? That’s what we are used to seeing from these male macho characters. That’s all guys want to do because they want the Bruce Willis kind of
Die Hard
, swinging from the rope with bullets thing. You know, what Marti and Joss come up with is infinitely more interesting than that. These are incredible stories that appeal to everyone from grandmas to kiddies.”
Joss takes credit for Spike’s distinctive look. “There’s a little Billy Idol, a little Kiefer Sutherland in
The Lost Boys
, and every guy in a black coat. I really thought the peroxide would define his face better, though James does curse my name for the burning scalp.”
But Marsters doesn’t mind; he knows the Billy Idol look contributes a great deal to his fan appeal and transformation into semi-Scooby. “The coat works and the hair works. If the coat had been shorter or the hair had been black, I would have been dead.”
 
Season six
 
Season six opens with Buffy’s resurrection by Willow. Buffy comes back changed, disconnected from the world as a result of being called back from heaven. Meanwhile, Willow, in a not very subtle alcoholic analogy, falls deeper and deeper into the dark side of her magic. A troika of nerds is introduced as bad guys, but it’s hard to take them seriously until they murder Katrina and, soon after, Tara. Willow reacts by heading into the dark side, killing Warren and ultimately deciding to destroy the world. In a very intense scene, she is stopped by Xander and his love for her, and the season ends with Willow in tears, embraced by Xander.
Joss was determined not to bring Buffy back without there being a price. In a brilliant move, we discover that Buffy was brought back from heaven, not hell. This is classic Joss because it’s both shocking and, on reflection, so right.
“Buffy had to deal with the consequences of dying, going to heaven and coming back,” Joss told the press while on a panel for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. “She had to learn how to live. When the house came down around Buffy as she slept with Spike that first time, it was a metaphor for her life. Her life was crashing down around her.”
The nerd troika brought an element of humor to the largely dark season. According to an Internet posting by Joss, the troika, with their endless debates on sci-fi trivia, are modeled after the writing staff:
“It’s SO PATHETIC how much the writing staff IS those guys, and I do include me. We’re constantly having nerdtriv arguments and realizing they must go in scripts.”
 
I killed Tara. Some of you may have been hurt by that.—Joss
 
In another posting, Joss addresses Tara’s death. Perhaps the most traumatic moment of the season was the death of Tara. Many fans objected and typically, Joss addressed this in an Internet posting:
“I killed Tara. Some of you may have been hurt by that. It [is] very unlikely it was more painful to you than it was to me. I couldn’t even discuss it in story meetings without getting upset, physically. Which is why I knew it was the right thing to do. Because stories, as I have so often said, are not about what we WANT. And I knew some people would be angry with me for destroying the only gay couple on the show, but the idea that I COULDN’T kill Tara because she was gay is as offensive to me as the idea that I DID kill her because she was gay Willow’s story was not about being gay It was about weakness, addiction, loss . . . the way life hits you in the gut right when you think you’re back on your feet. The course of true love never did run smooth, not on my show. (Only Dennis Franz has suffered more than my characters.) I love Amber and she knows it. Eventually this story will end for all of them. Hers ended sooner.
 
 
Danny Strong and Thomas Lenk, still looking pretty nerdy.
Or did it . . .
Yeah, it did.”
BOOK: Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy
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