Last Updated on February 5, 2025
Can we separate the artist from their work? That is a question that people have been asking for years. How can we ignore horrendous actions, alleged or otherwise from creators who’s work has changed so many lives for the better? Sadly this question with new looks behind curtain of beloved works that have revealed disturbing surprises. It sucks this is the case for a TV series that was part of the television renaissance era
I of course am talking about Joss Whedon and the Buffy The Vampire Slayer TV show. To deny how important this series was, is to deny that the sky is blue. It was one of the first shows that created a para-social relationship with fans. Many of which would alter their lives forever. Forming friendships, sparking a passion in film making, and even letting them accept who they truly are.
So lets talk about a how a girl with a stake shattered the tv landscape and see if we can keep our love alive for the slayer and avoid getting staked by the Wizard of Oz. In this episode of Gone But Not Forgotten.
![WTF Happened to Buffy the Vampire Slayer?](https://www.joblo.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/buffy_main_gbnf-1024x538.jpg)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer was created by Joss Whedon a writer who had been working on sitcoms for a few years. During this time, Whedon became inspired to write a film script about a vapid girl who would turn out to be a badass vampire hunter. Once he finished the script he sold it to Dolly Partons production company Sand Dollar. Yes, that Dolly Parton. The film was picked up by 20th Century Fox and due to an inept director, studio interference, and cast drama, the film was a disaster. It seemed destined to be forgotten.
Enter producer Gail Berman who had read the original script before the film was finished and thought that this would be a great TV series. So she approached Joss with the offer of adapting it, who jumped at the chance to make the TV show. Casting began and Sarah Michelle Gellar was cast as…Cordelia?! Yes, the famous mean girl and Xanders true love was to be portrayed by Sarah Michelle Gellar.
So who was in the running for Buffy? Well, quite a few people of note auditioned. Charisma Carpenter, Julie Benz, Mercedes McNab, and Elizabeth Anne Allen all auditioned for the role and would wind up playing other characters on the show. Selma Blair and Katie Holmes also read for Buffy. But the number one choice for the role was Natasha Lyonne who turned it down because she did not want to commit to a TV series at such a young age.
With no Buffy, Whedon and the other producers offered Gellar the chance to try out for the part. This made Gellar nervous because she was afraid that it could backfire and she would lose both roles. Eventually, she decided to do it but required multiple auditions that were hell on her nerves. But it all paid off because Buffy was finally born. Sarah tells this funny story about running into Kiefer Sutherland when she was cast. For the role of Xander, it was the complete opposite experience for Nicholas Brendon who got the job within 4 days of auditions. I would hate myself if I didn’t mention that Ryan Reynolds was also almost cast as Xander. Geez imagine that alternate universe. For Buffy’s best friend the shy and awkward, Willow Rosenberg, it was clear who would play her…. Riff Regan.
![WTF Happened to Buffy the Vampire Slayer?](https://www.joblo.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/buffy_the_vampire_slayer_gbnf_1-1024x576.jpg)
Ah, so let’s talk about a little-known fact about Buffy. There was an unaired pilot that was used to sell to the network, that was written and directed by Joss. Riff Regan was cast as Willow who had another take on the character that just didn’t work. If you see the pilot you can tell that she played Willow more reserved than shy and awkward. There are many theories as to why Regan played Willow this way and why she was even cast to begin with. Some say Joss met her when they both worked on Rosanne. Others have claimed that she was never supposed to go past the pilot and only did it as a favor to Joss. A big factor of her performance was that Willow was not fully developed at that point. So Regan was left to her own devices of how to play her. Regardless of what you believe if you watch the pilot she did not have any chemistry with Gellar or Brendon. So she was dropped once the WB picked up the series.
You can watch the unaired pilot on YouTube and it’s an interesting watch. Things that stand out are Xander who was more confident, Regan’s take on Willow, Darla melts when Willow puts a cross on her face, and Stephen Tobolowsky was Principal Flutie. Stephen was very funny. I think that’s the one thing I wish would have carried over from the unaired pilot. Sadly contract issues prevented him from joining the series.
By the time the show was picked up Willow was more clearly defined as a girl who was shy and unsure of herself. Many people read for the part and Melanie Lynskey would have gotten it if not for her agent who said that “TV is for has beens”. Alyson Hannigan said that she bombed the audition when she forgot her lines. But Whedon was charmed by Hannigans take on Willow because she was the only actress who could say the lines that she did remember with a sense of optimism.
The role of Cordelia was first offered to Bianca Lawson, who turned down the role due to contract issues. When asked about Cordelia’s change of race, Whedons former personal assistant George Snyder said:
“Originally, Joss was looking for a black actress for the role of Cordelia. But one of the stumbling blocks there was the way we knew Joss anticipated the relationships shifting and changing. There was some concern at the network at the time that interracial relationships would be problematic. At that point, the WB was a different kind of network. I know that came up and Joss said, ‘I can’t have restraints on how I mix and match the dynamics. That’s part of the fun of the show, that Willow is in love with Xander, Xander is in love with Buffy, Cordelia can’t stand any of them yet finds herself drawn to Xander.’ Joss decided it wasn’t worth fighting that fight at that particular time, but he didn’t want to be hindered in the dynamic of the shifting triangles.”
So, the role went to Charisma Carpenter. Who became a fan favorite with her comedic delivery. Some of my favorite jokes involved Cordelia, like the time she tried to sing on to the school talent show.
![WTF Happened to Buffy the Vampire Slayer?](https://www.joblo.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/buffy_the_vampire_slayer_gbnf_6-1024x538.jpg)
David Boreanaz auditioned for Buffy’s soulmate Angel. When he finished and left, Joss noticed that the women in the room were drooling. So he got the role. Considering he only had one speaking role before this, he was very lucky.
Anthony Stewart Head was well known in England as an accomplished actor but many folks in the US just knew him as the handsome British guy in the Taster’s Choice instant coffee commercials
Whedon said that he cast Head because he was the only one who was able to deliver Gile’s exposition scenes without coming off as mechanical.
Now that we have the cast out of the way let’s get into the show! The series began as a midseason replacement which is never a good sign for a new show. It’s trying to finish a test 10 minutes before the class ends. But the show became an instant hit and put the fledgling WB network on the map. Viewers were instantly drawn to the characters and the metaphors of the struggles all teens go through while growing up. Great examples are episodes like “Witch” and “Todd.” The first is about an overbearing parent, while the other focuses on dealing with a new stepdad.
Season 1 of Buffy broke conventions from the start. The pilot is the perfect example of this. In it, Buffy is introduced as a reluctant hero. The previous film did happen but it was the original script, not the finished film. Buffy has moved to a new town, Sunnydale, and learns that it’s built above a Hellmouth. A center of evil that is potent with mystical energy. This attracts demonic creatures that want to use it to rule the world. One of those is an ancient vampire called The Master who is trapped underground. His henchmen, Darla, played by Julie Benz, and Luke, played by Brian Thompson, are devoted to free him.
The rest of Buffy’s friends, later to be dubbed the Scoobies, are introduced. Willow, Xander, and Cordelia. In the pilot Buffy fails to save the groups friends Jesse from being turned into a vampire. This is not something that was seen back then. The hero always saved the damsel in distress. The pilot created stakes because the audience could not be certain that characters would survive.
A big aspect of Buffy’s attraction was “Buffy Speak,” a snarky, pop culture-savvy, and sometimes meta Joss Whedon sense of humor dialogue.
This had never been seen or rather heard before. Buffy would inspire future shows to try their own hand at creating unique takes on how characters communicated with each other. The term “Big Bad” would also be introduced to the public lexicon.
Another signature part of the show was the awesome Buffy theme song written by Nerf Header. They got the gig when a fan recommended them to Joss Whedon, that fan was Alyson Hannigan. It’s an iconic theme song and the band would even play at the local hang out, The Bronze. God, The Bronze, it reminded me of all those teenage memories of years gone by. Back when I went to my local juice bar/café/music venue/ night club that looked like a warehouse from the outside. What? Am I the only one who used to go to one of those?
![WTF Happened to Buffy the Vampire Slayer?](https://www.joblo.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/buffy_the_vampire_slayer_gbnf_4-1024x576.jpg)
In a move no one saw coming, Season 2 introduces the new big bad that was set up at the end of the previous season “The Anointed One,” who was quickly killed by two new characters. Who were they? Spike and Drusilla.
Played by James Marsters and Juliet Landau. The characters were based on the infamous punk rock couple, Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen. You could tell from their first appearance that these characters were special. James Marsters embodied Spike. Who was a reckless and predatory monster. He was punk rock to the core. Juliet Landau was able to infuse Drusilla in an insanity that could draw you in like a moth to a flame. Maybe it was their cockney accents but I just could not get enough of their dialogue. The casting project was vastly different for both actors. Joss was a fan of Juliet’s breakout role at the time which was the cinematic masterpiece…Theodor Rex.
HA! I’m just kidding it was of course Tim Burton’s Academy award-winning film Ed Wood. Joss said that Juliet was the actress he pictured in his mind when he came up with Drusilla. After having a conversation with him and producer David Greenwalt she was immediately offered the role. James was a different story. They had been looking for someone to play Spike for six months and the clock was running out to find someone. He was brought in at the last minute but when he played against Juliet there was an instant connection that both Joss and David could not deny. So Marsters was cast.
The characters became fan favorites and would wind up saving Spike from dying. You see the original plan was to kill him halfway through the season. But when the WB saw the fan reaction the plans changed and Spike would become a series regular. This would annoy Joss to the point that he became physical with Marsters.
James would later say that this was because Whedon always saw Vampires as a representation of something you should overcome. A metaphor for the struggles of growing up. Now that Spike was being pushed as the sexy bad boy it went against the core of the series. Joss felt that his show was being taken away from him. Eventually Marsters said Joss adapted to Spike to find a middle ground.
Angel would play a pivotal role in season 2. In one of the most shocking moments of the series. Angel lost his soul due to experiencing pure love with Buffy when they slept with each other. Now he was the sadistic and cruel Angelus the new big bad of season 2. This storyline was a metaphor about trusting the wrong person. That sometimes if you’re not careful you can make a mistake that you could spend your entire life dealing with the consequences your actions
Angelus would take glee in attacking Buffy not just physically but emotionally. In one of the most horrifying moments in the show’s history, Angelus kills Gile’s love interest on the show, Jenny Calendar. But not only does he kill her, he leaves her body for him to find. It was one of the most badass Giles moments when he beats the shit out of him. It made everyone see Bufy’s watcher in a new light.
Another character who became a fan favorite was Oz, played by Seth Green. He was Willow’s first love and the two actors had amazing chemistry. It’s no surprise since they had known each other for years having first worked on the quirky comedy “My Step-Mother is an Alien.” Oz was the definition of cool, he was quiet and took everything in stride. One of the best examples is when he first learns about the world Buffy lives in.
He would eventually be turned into a werewolf in probably the worst depiction of one that I have ever seen on screen. Although the way he found out he became one was hilarious.
![Buffy](https://www.joblo.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/buffy_the_vampire_slayer_gbnf_2-1024x577.jpg)
Season 3, would introduce another iconic character of the series, Faith, the rogue slayer. Faith was played by Eliza Dushku. Dushku was a veteran actress who had been working in the industry since she was 10 years old. Eliza got the role because her agent also represented Sarah. After reading the script, Dushku ran to a local Claire’s to buy dark makeup and jewelry to audition for the role and got it. Once again history repeated itself because Faith became so popular that her three-episode arc turned her into a recurring character on the series. Faith was a deeply flawed human being, she was a tough and reckless slayer who would eventually become the righthand man of season 3’s big bad, The Mayor. Who would sway her to his side by offering something the Scoobies never could, love and acceptance. I could go on and on about Faith and The Mayor’s father daughter relationship but, this episode is running long as it is.
At the end of season 3 the group would graduate high school and move on to college. Which led us into season 4. Okay, so this is where my opinions may upset a few Buffy fans. So I mean no offense when I say this but I think that season 4 was when the series Jumped the Shark. I don’t think the show was able to recover the magic the high school years had. Although this season would have one of the best, if not THE best, episodes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The episode was called “Hush” where one of the scariest monsters in the series was introduced “The Gentlemen”. Who were horrifying smiling demons who took the voices of everyone in Sunnydale and slowly killed them. The majority of the episode had no dialogue and it was now up to the actor’s body language to convey the story, comedy, and emotional relationships with each other. It was brilliant and Hush is still talked about to this day. You can always find it in any list of the best episodes of television articles or videos. Joss said he made “Hush” because he felt he had fallen into a predictable writing pattern after working on the show for so long and wanted to challenge himself.
This brings me to another unique aspect of the show, the scripts. The writing process on Buffy was a little different because of how hands-on Joss Whedon was. The stories would be heavily reviewed by Whedon to keep the show consistent. Many writers have said that when fans point at their favorite joke on an episode they wrote, it tends to always be a joke Joss wrote in before filming.
This is one of the things that Buffy had a huge impact on me. It changed my point of view about what went into making my favorite tv show. I learned about the unsung heroes of television, The writers. Like many people, I never thought about who wrote what episode of my favorite TV show at the time. But with Buffy, the fandom was not just focused on the actors and Joss but also the writers. Marti Noxon and Jane Espenson were two of the most popular ones on the series. Noxon wrote one of my favorite episodes “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” which revolved around Xander casting a love spell that backfires spectacularly. So now I gained a new admiration for the writing, stunt work, and even how horrible extras could be in a scene.
![Buffy](https://www.joblo.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/buffy_the_vampire_slayer_gbnf_3-1024x683.jpg)
But season 4 would also create one of the most influential couples in television history. It all began when Seth Green left the show abruptly in season 4. Because Seth left, Joss pulled the trigger on a plan he had from the start of the show. Revealing that one of the main characters was gay. The choice was between Xander and Willow. So now that Willows love interest was gone, he chose her and this decision would change people’s lives. In Hush, a young witch Tara Maclay (Amber Benson) met and fell in love with Willow. The couple were one of the first openly lesbian couples on mainstream television and their effect on the LGBTQ community is historic. Many young people cite the couple on how they accepted their sexuality. To this day both actresses get letters and have heart-touching encounters with fans whose lives were changed by Willow and Tara.
However, the show continued to fall in quality. The last three seasons would introduce many new twist and turns. Some were good and some were bad. Many people think that Dawn Summers was one of the biggest bad ones. Dawn was Buffy’s younger sister played by Michelle Trachtenberg. How Dawn was introduced and how she fit into the world of the Slayer is too complicated to go into. But suffice it to say a big chunk of fans hated Dawn and compared her to the classic “Cousin Oliver” cliché. I always felt bad for Michelle because Dawn was written badly. She was portrayed as whiny and immature. More often than not she was used as a McGuffin for monsters to attack Buffy. I don’t think Trachtenberg ever got the chance to evolve the character. Another memorable thing that would be introduced in the later seasons was the second most famous episode of the show. “Once More With Feeling” an episode where are demon makes everyone sing and dance. While it was not the first musical episode in a TV series, it was a hit that many shows would emulate, some with various level of success. Geez, why didn’t this happen with Cop Rock.
Oh yeah that’s why.
Then we had the Buffy and Spike relationship that entailed a scene that James Marsters would have to seek therapy for afterwards.
We had a new trope introduced to television, which lead to Willow turning to the dark side for 3 episodes.
By this point, Sarah was exhausted and stated that she would not return after season 7. Whedon said that he also felt that it was a fitting ending for the show. So in the end Buffy would activate potential slayers in the world and Sunnydale blew up. So that was the end of Buffy…. unless you count the comics that came a year or two later that is somewhat canon since Joss was involved. I was not a fan, but many people enjoy them.
Once the show ended things went south for Joss Whedon. For a while, Joss had a great career, creating TV shows with strong fan followings and directing two huge Marvel films. But things took a turn for the worst when he took over directing the Justice League film. The floodgates opened on July 1st, 2020 when Ray Fisher tweeted out.
“Joss Whedon’s on-set treatment of the cast and crew of Justice League was gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable.”
The floodgates opened and people got a look at the man behind the curtain and it was not pretty.
![Scooby gang](https://www.joblo.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/buffy_the_vampire_slayer_gbnf_7-1024x538.jpg)
Charisma Carpenter then revealed that Whedon was cruel and created a toxic work environment. She said he would mock her religious beliefs and the biggest accusation of his sadistic behavior was when she revealed that she was pregnant and he said quote “Are you going to keep it”. There was fat shamming. Accusations from stunt performers being blacklisted for speaking up about dangerous work conditions. Michelle Trachtenberg said that there was a rule on set that he could not be alone with her. Sarah stated that women were pitted against each other in an environment that she said was “Toxic male”. The most damming revelation was in an essay written by Whedon’s ex-wife Kai Cole for The Wrap.com. Where she wrote that Joss used his position as a feminist hero as a way to have affairs with friends, co-workers, actresses, and fans. The list goes on and on.
However, even with the stains of Whedon’s actions we can’t deny the impact the show had on TV. Buffy brought a lot of good in the world despite the crap it had around it. But could the show return even without Joss Whedon? Well, Sarah seems to think so, after working on the Dexter prequel Dexter Original Sin, she said there are ways it could possibly be done. So she’s open.
In my opinion, though, no, don’t bring it back. No new TV show, no movie, not even a cartoon. It’s not because of Joss Whedon but Buffy had its time and it’s over. I don’t even think there should be spin-offs like Fray, a Faith show, or the now long-dead Ripper miniseries. That universe had its time and I think it has said all it has said. So let’s let it rest in peace.
If you are interested in revisiting the hell mouth, at the time of this episode you can find all the seasons on Hulu and Tubi. So if you are walking around at night and see something moving in the shadows. Don’t worry, the slayer will always be around to save the day.
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