I spoke with my eldest daughter, Shana, last night, and she told me with great excitement, “I saw this TV show tonight with little Buffy! Buffy as a little girl.”
My mind immediately ran through the episodes of the series featuring Buffy as a youngster. I came up with a couple, but none of them had run recently on FX. Then I thought someone had green lit the animated series and I’d missed the announcement, but that wasn’t supposed to be about Buffy when she was “little.” “What show?” I asked.
“This show! With little blonde Buffy! And Giles the stuffy British guy, too.”
“What?!” I was completely bewildered, since Giles didn’t meet Buffy until she was in her teens.
“Yeah! It’s about Buffy when she was living with her Uncle Bill, and Giles was the butler…”
“Shana, you were watching FAMILY AFFAIR,” I sighed. “It’s a remake of a series from thirty years ago. And the butler is Mr. French, not Giles.”
“They called him Giles,” she replied.
I realized she was right: “Giles” was Mr. French’s first name. I assured her there was no relation to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” although now that I think on it…*two* series featuring characters named Buffy and Giles? Coincidence? Buried memory on Whedon’s part? Tribute? You decide.
Regarding this week’s actual episode of BTVS: The pace dragged something fierce and the subject matter was a retread of earlier stories. But the whole episode was worth it for the wordless sequence outside the principal’s office with Buffy, the rocket launcher, and Spike.
I mourn the fact they don’t do “Buffy” and “Angel” crossovers, because I would dearly love to see Conner show up in Sunnydale and start getting involved with Dawn. How hilarious would that be, with Buffy suddenly re-experiencing her and Angel’s romance, except she’s seeing it from the POV of the worried mother figure.
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Hmm..wow…I never noticed that – I love both (well, alright, all three) shows. Never even gave a first thought about the corrallation.
Must be a tip o’ the hat from Whedon. 🙂
Sadly, I read on-line that the animated Buffy series has been shelved – Fox couldn’t find a place for it in their schedule, according to Whedon.
Scary thought – if there is a BtVS and Family Affair connection – does that mean that the puppet guy from the talent show could have had an affair with Mrs. Beasley?
Up until recently, I would have figured that a Connor/Dawn pairing would have driven both Buffy and Angel up a wall. Now, it might be a relief for Angel…
I am reminded on the time (many years ago) that my 2 yr old nephew came to me and said he wanted to watch a show with Barney. I didn’t know what he was talking about. We ruled out Andy Griffith. I asked him if there was a dinosaur in the show. He said yes. So I thought he wanted to watch “The Flintstones”. That was my unfortunate introduction to “Barney” the purple dinosaur.
I didn’t like Buffy at all this week. I didn’t laugh. It was silly, but not funny.
But maybe I am still angry that I set my VCR wrong and didn’t tape the last episode of Angel.
I have to admit that I only laughed outloud once during the last BUFFY . . . that was when the screen split into the four quadrants and showed all the characters putting their plans in motion . . . for the life of me I don’t know why I thought it was so funny . . . maybe because it had such a CHARLIES ANGELS vibe to it . . .
by the way, has anybody checked out the TALES OF THE SLAYER comic book with some GREAT art by Gene Colan in it? VERY cool stuff . . .
d
>>by the way, has anybody checked out the TALES OF THE SLAYER comic book with some GREAT art by Gene Colan in it? VERY cool stuff . . .<<
Yeah, cool stuff, except for that it wasn’t even close to correct continuity (all the sadder since it was written by regular Buffy scribe Jane Espenson), and Buffy & Willow’s approach to dealing with the evil genie (or whatever) was to just inflict it on someone else.
I did like Colan’s art, though (Matsuda’s was so-so).
Too bad Buffy isn’t still on the WB, where the new Family Affair is on. Could just see a Buffy dream sequence where she’s eight years old, has Rupert as a butler, twin brother Xander, older sister Anya, and is still a slayer.
Yep, this episode didn’t really take off until all four femmes were smitten with R.J.. On the other hand, there were some serious internal continuity problems with that darn jacket. Namely, by the end of the episode, anyone without a Y chromosome seeing R.J. in it fell in love with him to a ridiculous degree. Um, so how come there weren’t several hundred Sunnydale High students and teachers trailing in his wake? And the effect sure sounded like it was less with his older brother (popular, but not with horde o’femmes trailing him).
Individually there were some good scenes, but as a whole it was poorly paced, as Peter wrote, and just didn’t hold together.
Oh, and just what the heck is D’Hoffryn up to? He could’ve killed Anya when she asked him to do it. But instead he killed innocent (to him, anyway) Halfrek and spared Anya. Then, a week or so later, he’s trying to kill Anya. Huh?
Along with the rocket launcher sequence another bit I liked was the in the background bit of Spike turning all the angel statuettes backwards on the display case while Xander was talking to the older brother.
What’s the code mean? Come on. Tell us. We know you’re sending secret messages to someone. That double PAD has to mean something. 🙂
Maybe D’hoffy wasn’t trying to kill Anya- maybe it was just a disgruntled receipent of Anya’s services in her past. Not all of them died. After all, her Troll ex showed up a couple centuries later.
Then again it might have been just another of that dang ol’ “It devours you from below” general hinkiness.
Also, I think the jacket sort of can be activated and deactivated. Buffy didn’t fall for him until he saw a way he could use her. So as the saying goes- he “turned on the charm,” eh?
eddie
I actually had a friend who challenged me to do a Dawn/Connor fanfic. I really like the idea, I just haven’t had the time to think of one.
And may I just say Connor’s Oedipal complex is giving me the hives?
I’m disappointed that “Him” didn’t have any Spike-Xander slash jokes. In fact, I’m disappointed in general at the lack of Xander-Spike interaction– I think centering the episode around them trying to get comfortable with the idea of lving together would have been interesting. But it wasn’t a bad episode overall … And to me, it’s Angel that’s been a bit lackluster this year (although Gwen the electrochick was rather cool).
I’m really enjoying Firefly, tho– I’ve been a fan of Fillion’s for years (yes, I’m ashamed to admit, since his run on the soap “One Life to Live”, just as I first watched Gellar on “All My Children”. I’m happily living “soap-free” these days … mostly …), and I think this role suits Fillion well.
~Wolfen
Read Sequential Tart’s “Buffy Bites” coulmn:
http://www.sequentialtart.com/cv_1102_2.shtml
This coming Tuesday’s (Nov. 12th) should be more to everyone’s liking if it’s handled properly. They get haunted by ghosts, which is supposed to include at least cameos by both Tara and Mrs. Summers!
Meanwhile, I think the quality debate for both Buffy and Angel can be attributed to the network split, Whedon concentrating most of his time to Firefly, and the as yet unanswered question of series renewal.
Actually, due to a contract dispute with Fox, Ms. Benson won’t be on, alas …
Well, we will know for sure if we find out that Buffy had a twin brother — who is no longer spoken of. Do you think they’ll pull this out of the angst bucket?