Angel is about a Vampire with a soul, that had fallen deeply inlove with a slayer Buffy. Long story short, the beautiful comes inbetween these two cross star lovers and capture our hearts, her name is faith. But that's not who we will discuss on this thread... Please post anything about Angel... for samples...
A centuries-old vampire cursed with a conscience, Angel has taken up residence in Los Angeles, the City of Angels. Between pervasive evil and countless temptations lurking beneath the city's glittery facade, L.A. has proven to be the ideal address for a fallen vampire looking to save a few lost souls and, in turn, perhaps redeem his own.
"Into each generation a Slayer is born. One girl in all the world, a Chosen One. One born with the strength and skill to fight the vampires, to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers."
For every vampire in the world, there is a Slayer. The Slayer Code: Destroy all vampires with the obligatory aid of super strength, fighting ability and an acute and intense gift of timing-think of it as being bitten by a radioactive spider minus the leotard. It’s not only vampires, however, that these warriors have chosen the responsibility to annihilate. They also have to time-out demons, monsters and just about every other kind of nasty that can come to mind. When a Slayer times a creature out, it doesn’t entail making them stand in a corner. Usually, the end result is a heinously bloody slaughter, sometimes accompanied by one of today’s hottest bands. With the aid of a Watcher-who trains and looks out for each Slayer-these superhuman do-gooders have been known mostly to lurk in the shadows alone, following their prey-the bloodsucking undead. As you can imagine, these heroes have an unhealthy expiration date…most don’t live to see past 20.
Welcome to Sunnydale...
Essentially ground zero for all things naughty, Sunnydale, California was built on top of an Indian Burial Ground…no, wait, Hellmouth: a portal to a rotted dimension that just about every slag wants to unlock and unleash hell on Earth.
Coincidentally, in 1997, Vampire Slayer Buffy Summers moved to Sunnydale with her mother Joyce to get her away from her previous school in LA after her parents divorced. You see, under the guidance of a Watcher named Merrick (who had an incredible likeness to a mulleted vamp in a film called Lost Boys), our heroine torched her school’s gymnasium during a slayfest against a bunch of overbites. Don’t worry; we haven't heard much about any repercussions from the incident or the movie therein. Let’s just forget it happened and move on.
With the aid of her loyal comrades, Willow, Giles, Xander, Anya, Tara, Spike and her sister Dawn, the Buffster has dispelled many worthy foes including; The Master, the Anointed One, Adam, Faith and Glory. As dedicated as she is, Buffy still tries to find the time to deal with the trivialness of college life. Unfortunately, her love life isn’t with frat boys and the like…it seems that even after dating the vamp Angel that she might become romantically involved with one William the Bloody.
One’s strength can only truly be judged by their conviction and dedication to their calling, their prophecy, their fate and their gift. Proving that she was indeed the truest of Slayers, Buffy Anne Summers gave her life to obstruct evil’s Glory for the Dawn of our world’s salvation. Although the Slayer lore warned that most Slayers don't live to see 20, Buffy was an exception...but not by much.
It's a grave new world. Prepare yourself for resurrection and retribution.
My favorite season of Buffy would be season two. I mean--Spike and Dru just rocked the house, and evil Angel was awesome. Plus, with an ending like that, it has to go down as the best written season of Buffy in my opinion. My favorite season of Angel would be season five, its last. I couldn't believe it was canceled, what with a season like number 5 It was awesome!
My favorite Big Bad is actually three. The trio of geeks. The Mayor is my second favorite, but the geeks were just unstoppable. "Hey, you guys wanna get together and take over Sunnydale?" "Okay"
My favorite main character is Oz. After he left my favorite character tied with Willow and Xander.
Alrighty, I loved the fifth or sixth seasons of Buffy the most (hard to pick, and most people don't agree). The fifth being because it's where Dawn appeared, and Glory, the God, was just spooky. It was a sad season in many ways. Sixth being that every episode in the season just amazed me, they were all new and interesting.
My favorite big bad was definitely the trio too. They were just so goofy with their Star Wars horns and painting death stars on the sides of vans... and just the way they tried to carry themselves like super villains, but ended up messing up every time... terrible
My favorite main character is Xander. He's just always been the funny one. I guess if I was thrown among them, I'd end up being Xander myself... just... not as funny I also thought Tara was great. Constantly uncomfortable, and just saying goofy things too often, nobody really understood her, but she was great. Also sung like an angel
And not to forget Anya... oh man she cracks me up.
Season two of Buffy was great... Angel going evil and all, and all the things he said to Buffy after... it was like the show lost a conciensce it may or may not have had in the first place.
How did you feel when you first found out Angel was a vampire?
Well I already knew when I watched that episode. I didn't join the buffyverse permanently until season three. But I just loved the idea that he was a vampire. Having a vampire be punished with a soul and then hurt his friends if he lost it. Fantastic idea
Yeah, it was great. I didn't know though. I started watching the show from the start, since I was a fan of the original movie (I was one of those "Sarah Michelle who?" people). Though the show ended up being much better
I fell out of touch around the fourth season, then came back at the sixth. And caught up on what I missed. Angel I haven't watched regularly yet, but when I get those damn DVDs from my mother-in-law .... I'm gonna get right into it!
How'd you feel when Willow went ape and killed Warren and went to destroy the world? I swear, I didn't see it coming. I knew she was using too much magic, but woooooooooooooooooow.
It was like the shock of my life I mean, that was Willow!! Willow! She's not supposed to be the enemy!
That whole sequence of episodes was amazing. Cousin hadn't seen hardly any Buffy before she came to our house. I fixed her We watched all of season one in a day Last month we were watching that whole evil Willow bit, though, and right when Tara gets shot and falls the fricken PHONE RINGS! I swear, I've never been so mad at a telemarketer in my life The rest of the episodes went uninterupted, but man! That was bad timing for a phone call
That's why you unplug the phone when watching Buffy
The whole season six finale was great. Went over about... 4 episodes, really. And Warren being skinned was just a shocker. When that episode ended I swear I yelled at the television "No!!! Don't!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
I heard Tara was going to come back, but she didn't want to (she doesn't seem to like Joss Wheddon very much). I read the story was going to be Buffy could have one life-altering wish, and she was trying to work out what to use it on... and in the end, she used it to bring Tara back.
I know most Buffy fans would love that idea. That would mean NO KENNEDY I kept up on about the first half of season seven by ready the episodes, and I swear that not one Buffy fan liked Kennedy. I know I sure didn't.
Yeah, she was really lame. It's not only because she was a big girl (I'm sure that attributed though, sad to say), but she was a pretty awful actor and just unattractive in general.
And, yeah, Kennedy was a pain in the butt. There was nothing WRONG with her, but she just wasn't Tara, and there was nothing interesting about her... and there just... was no spark there. Plus Tara was hotter. She had the moving hand thing going on.
Oh those animated pictures... yeah! Seen those before... But I heard they stopped planning of that show... I guess they wont do it. wish they would though.
Both Oz and Tara had something special about them. They were both kind and funny and just...I don't know, there was just something about them that clicked with Willow. Kennedy didn't have that something special in her. She was just annoying and loud and unfun
You mean they were planning an animated version of Buffy? I thought they just decided to doodle the scoobies in cartoon form Man, that would have been really cool if there was a cartoon Buffy show
gaboman said this in post #24 : But you know when Willow started with Tara, a lot of fans were pretty pissed (female fans, mostly).
Not me, though, I was all for it
I was angry because Oz was my favorite character and this new character chick was moving in to replace him. I was thinking, "Just who does this gal think she is?! Willow and Oz are meant for each other and this other chick is just moving in like she and Willow are supposed to be together. Uh-uh. I don't like it" Plus I really hated Tara's character after that super-sad episode where Oz came back and was gonna get back together with Willow but then found out that Willow had moved on with Tara. But by season five I really liked her character
Yeah, Tara didn't really come out til Season five. By season six, she was awesome. She's just goofy, but not in the same way Anya is. Her goofiness comes in her being too shy to say anything, but knowing she needs to fit in...
I don't even know if that is the reason, I may have just been typing words at random
I still can't get over the "Under Your Spell" song from Once More With Feeling. It's unbelievable. Good song writing, and her voice was fantastic.
Faith was just bad to the bone. The perfect counterpart to the Mayor. Aw man, I miss that duo
I was kinda disappointed when I heard she turned good and was helping out in season seven. I always thought she was the perfect villian for Buffy. But I did get to see that episode where she and the Slayerettes just bashed Buffy Sometimes Buffy just needs to be put in her place, and Faith did it perfectly
Yeah, the Buffy-bashing was well deserved. The seventh season was so preachy, and that's all Buffy did. It was a pain in the butt. Felt sorry for Xander... losing the eye and all.
Faith was great as the villain. Actually, I liked the episodes where she or Buffy would dream they were talking... that's where all the hints of Dawn's appearance came from, which is pretty remarkable considering it was still pretty early on.
And yeah, the soundtrack is good. Especially hearing the full version of the traffic ticket song
I loved the dances by the non-characters in the background Like the people flipping around with clothes in that song, or the janitors dancing with their brooms
Pippin said this in post #36 : Yeah, it's called Bones and is at the same time as another show I watch or I'd be checking him--er, I mean the show--out also.
I use my VCR to tape one show while I watch another.
So, Becker and Cousin, you both need to answer my posts that had a bunch of questions in them. What's your favorite season of Buffy and Angel? Favorite character? Favorite Big Bad? Favorite song(s) from Once More With Feeling?
After I finished listening to the soundtrack again, I decided that I needed to add Standing to my list of favorite. Giles has such a great voice
Remember that episode in (I think) season four when the scoobies were looking for Giles and found him singing and playing guitar in a coffee chop?
Oh yeah, Cordelia was great! I was angry that she wasn't in the last season of Angel. I mean, she'd been there since the first episode of the first season of Buffy, and she'd been with the show as long as any of the scoobies! I thought she should have stayed I read somewhere that she was surprised herself, so it's not like she asked to leave the show or anything.
Her name was Fred. I really liked Fred. Anyone else notice how she had lost her Texas accent by the time the show ended? Or maybe it was still there but just much reduced
gaboman said this in post #7 : Pippin and I are hoping to resurrect this thread. Actually, if it could be pulled out of the Archieve section, that'd be awesome
hrmm... favourite character>?? i like anya because she is so blunt. but drusilla was my favourite character. she's creepy.
fav episode>?? currently, it's.. hmmm... maybe the season finale of season two or season finale of season six.. or hushed.
favourite song>?? i like the mustard song. and i like under you spell. i also like i'll never tell. but i think i like the songs that the demon sings in the best. and of course: GRR ARRGH
Drusilla is creepy. It's just her voice, and her totally awful accent or rolled into one...
Anya was coolest when she first started in retail. "Thank you for your money, now please go!"
I seriously think the most over-played episode is the season three finale. I'm not sure why, but every time I get to see Buffy on TV, it seems that's the episode they're playing I get it, he's a giant worm; enough already!
Series star Sarah Michelle Gellar initially auditioned for the role of Cordelia Chase, and Charisma Carpenter, who plays Cordelia, auditioned for the role of Buffy.
Nathan Fillion (Caleb) originally auditioned for the role of Angel when the show was first being cast in late 1996.
Julie Benz tried out for the part of Buffy and ended up in the part of Darla.
Elizabeth Anne Allen, who had a semi-recurring role as the witch Amy Madison, originally auditioned for the role of Buffy.
Other actresses considered for the lead role as Buffy also included Katie Holmes and Selma Blair.
Bianca Lawson, who played Kendra the Vampire Slayer in season 2, originally auditioned for the role of Cordelia.
The characters of Spike, Oz, Faith, Wesley and Drusilla were all supposed to be killed off, but have ended up living long past their initial storylines. Also, the characters of Jenny and Joyce were supposed to be killed off sooner than they were.
Danny Strong (Jonathan) originally auditioned for the role of Xander.
Joss Whedon is known to plan his season storylines years in advance. Clues to Dawn's arrival can be found as early as the third season, but she doesn't actually show up until the fifth.
The Gorches in episode 2-12 "Bad Eggs" have the same first names, Lyle and Tector, as the Gorches from Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (1969). Giles refers to them slaughtering a Mexican village in 1886, similar to the event that ends the movie, but the movie is set in 1913.
In the season premiere for Season Six entitled "Bargaining - Part 1", when Giles is at the airport ready to catch his plane for England, Tara gives him (as a goodbye gift) a little plastic finger monster which she puts on her finger and says "Grrr... argh". This is the same monster and sound that is made at the end of each episode, just prior to the credits, by the production company mascot "Mutant Enemy".
Seth Green played Oz, the werewolf boyfriend of Alyson Hannigan. He also played her boyfriend in My Stepmother Is an Alien (1988).
Seth Green is the only cast member to have acted in both the TV series and the 1992 movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992). (Green was cut from the feature film, but still appeared on the videotape box.)
In the musical episode "Once More with Feeling", Buffy comments, "So... Dawn's in trouble... must be Tuesday." This, of course, refers to the timeslot in which UPN broadcasts the show.
Buffy's birthday was celebrated in the episode first aired on or near 19 January each year. In the first-year episode "I Robot, You Jane," Malcolm brings up Buffy's school records on his computer. In the first view, we see that Buffy was born on 24 October 1980, and that she is a sophomore. The second time we see Buffy's records, her birthday is 6 May 1979, and she is a senior. (She is also shown with two different GPAs, one of them excellent.) Joss Whedon finally decreed Buffy's birthday to be 19 January 1981. 19 January 1997 was the day the show premiered.
Joss Whedon supplies the voice of the Mutant Enemy mascot which says "Grrr ... Arrgh" heard at the end of almost every episode.
Series Creator Joss Whedon has said that the idea for Buffy came from all the horror movies he had seen featuring a helpless young blonde who would almost always be the first to die. He felt she needed a better image.
Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alyson Hannigan are the only cast members who have appeared in every episode of the series.
Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy), Nicholas Brendon (Xander), Alyson Hannigan (Willow), Anthony Head (Giles), and Kristine Sutherland (Joyce) are the only actors to have appeared in all seven seasons.
While speaking at the Wizard World Chicago Convention in August, 2004, Joss Whedon revealed that he had planned to bring the character of Tara back from the dead at the end of Season 7. The episode would have centered around Buffy being granted one "life-altering" wish. Buffy would have struggled the whole episode trying to decide what she wanted to do with the wish (including, possibly, restoring Angel's humanity). The episode would have ended with Buffy telling Willow that she'd just gotten a great new pair of shoes, and when Willow asked her if she used up her wish on new shoes, Buffy would have said, "No, silly!" and stepped aside to reveal Tara. This plan was abandoned when Amber Benson, who played Tara, was unavailable for filming.
In episode 2.8, "The Dark Age," there is a photo of a young Rupert Giles holding a bass guitar. The production crew faked the photo by superimposing his head onto a photo of Sid Vicious.
The character Jenny Calendar was originally to have been called Nicki. This was changed to Jenny to avoid confusion on the set, Nicholas Brendon being generally called Nicky by his co-stars. (However, in season 7, the character Nikki Wood was added and appears in several episodes.)
In the episode "Once More With Feeling", Two of the show's writers, David Fury and Marti Noxon, have small singing parts. David Fury can be seen singing "They Got the Mustard Out" outside the magic shop when Buffy checks to see if other people are singing. Marti Noxon sings about a parking ticket ("I think that hydrant wasn't there") while Giles, Xander, and Anya are walking on the street after Xander and Anya's duet.
"Mutant Enemy", Joss Whedon's production company, was the name he gave to his first typewriter when he was 15. The logo was created in 20 minutes when he was told he had to have one.
The episode "Earshot" in season 3 was about a student planning to kill himself on the school campus. It was scheduled to air a week after the Columbine shooting and was delayed until the next season. Due to the weapon he would have used, an assault rifle, and being in a clock tower, many people are under the misimpression that he was planning mass murder. This was also contributed to by the fact that Buffy WAS telepathically hearing thoughts of somebody planning to kill all the students, but it wasn't Jonathon.
Many of Andrew Wells's (Thomas Lenk) lines include references to the online fan community (the male slayer discussion, his inability to understand Dawn and Buffy's link).
The season three finale (Graduation Day Part II) was delayed for three months after a rash of school violence. The episode (which included a scene in which the graduating class defended themselves with medieval weapons) was pulled reportedly because producers feared that if an incident occurred during a graduation ceremony, a clip would run in "violence in media" clips. The death of recurring character Larry in this episode, hotly denied by fans, was not confirmed until season six.
The Summers' Sunnydale address is 1630 Revello Drive.
The pilot episode, "Welcome to the Hellmouth/The Harvest," ends with Buffy, Willow, and Xander joking about the possible ways Buffy could get kicked out of school, and Giles sighing, "The Earth is doomed." The last episode, "The Chosen," contains a scene near the end where the three kids plan a trip to the mall and Giles sighs, "The Earth is definitely doomed."
The names of buildings and places at fictional U.C. Sunnydale are actual locations and buildings at real-life U.C. Santa Cruz.
In the series finale, Giles says that there is a Hellmouth "in Cleveland". This is a reference to another throwaway line, in the/spot Season 3 episode "The Wish": in an alternate reality where Buffy never came to Sunnydale, Giles phones her watcher, and then says, "Yes, I know there is a lot of demonic activity in Cleveland.... There happens to be a Hellmouth in Sunnydale...."
The entire first season was filmed before the first episode went to air, giving them the opportunity to go back and re-shoot various scenes. The scene in the library where Buffy states "it's my first day..." was actually filmed on the last day of shooting after they decided her original performance was too forceful and aggressive. Another scene added to the pilot (to fill in time as it was shorter than expected) was the infamous "you have something in your eye" scene where The Master blinds a vampire who had failed him.
When we fleetingly see the pages of books, magazines or newspapers on screen, the actual text is often deliberate gibberish. In "Out of Mind, Out of Sight" (episode 1.11), the final scene is of Marcy reading a textbook chapter titled "Assassination and Infiltration" with a subtitle referring to targeting the leader of a cult as an example. However, the actual text begins with the date August 2, 19XX and this is followed by the lyrics of the Beatles song, "Happiness is a Warm Gun" only they are written as prose.
In the first season episode entitled "Out Of Mind, Out Of Sight" the text in Marcie's text book are the lyrics to The Beatles song "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" with the line "Happiness is a warm gun" changed to "Joy is a hot revolver".
The prologue ("In every generation there is a chosen one....") is not used consistently. Two of the first twelve episodes don't use it. During the second season, use of the prologue becomes even more spotty. Anthony Head intones it only during the second season.
There was a pilot directed by Joss Whedon and financed out of his own pocket to sell the show to the networks. The plot is fairly similar to "Welcome to the Hellmouth", though Angel, Jesse and the Master don't appear. Also, it's only half an hour long. The main differences from the show as aired are the sets and casting. While most of the principals are in place, Riff Regan plays Willow and Stephen Tobolowsky plays Principal Flutie. They were replaced by Alyson Hannigan and Ken Lerner, respectively in the actual show. The library that appears is not the set from the show, rather it is the actual library from Torrance High School where much of the Sunnydale High material was filmed.
In "Conversations With Dead People", Amber Benson was supposed to return as The First Evil impersonating Tara, but she didn't want to come back just as a villain, so Cassie Newton (Azura Skye) from a recent episode was put in her place.
Joss Whedon gave the character Riley the last name "Finn" after hearing executive producer Marti Noxon talking about taking her dog, Finn, to the vet.
Originally, Joss Whedon didn't want either of Buffy's parents to appear as characters on the show. Accepting that that could get complicated, he settled on just having her mother, Joyce, appear. Joyce ended up staying on the show for five seasons.
Originally, the third member of the sixth season's nerdly Trio was to be Tucker, who appeared in the third season as a student who wanted to kill everyone at the prom. Plans fell through with that, so the writers replaced him with Andrew, Tucker's younger brother.
Britney Spears was originally supposed to play April the Robot in the fifth season episode, "I Was Made to Love You", but scheduling conflicts caused her to back out. Rumors of Spears' return to the show ran rampant for the rest of the series' run.
Amber Benson was added to the opening credits of the show for one episode, "Seeing Red," in which she was killed and never seen again. Series creator Joss Whedon has said that he's always wanted to do this, and was planning on doing it in the series premiere with the character Jesse, to show that the show was full of surprises, but at the time he didn't have the money to make another set of credits.
The seventh season episode, "Storyteller", which focused on the character Andrew, was an experiment to see how the audience would respond to a show centered around Andrew, since the series was ending and they were trying to find a character upon whom they could build another spin-off show.
The series finale had two different major-character death scenes written, one in which Anya was killed, and the other in which Andrew was.
Kali Rocha, who showed up in the sixth season as vengeance demon Halfreck, first appeared in a flashback episode in the fifth season as Cecily, the woman who spurned William, causing him to become the vampire known as Spike. Having already cast Rocha as Halfreck, the writers knew the loyal fans would immediately recognize her, so as an inside joke between them, when Halfreck first saw Spike, she said, "William?"
In the third season finale, Faith appears to Buffy in a dream, and tells her she's "counting down from 7-3-0". Joss Whedon planted that as a clue as to what would happen two years later in the fifth season finale, in which Buffy was killed. 730 days equals two years.
In "The Body" (episode #5.16), in the scene where Xander (Nicholas Brendon) punched his hand through the wall, only a shot of Willow's left eye is shown. This is because actress Alyson Hannigan had experienced an allergic reaction to the dust from the plaster on the wall - a reaction that resulted in her right eye swelling badly. Because of this, she had to go to the hospital the next day to get her eye treated.
Spike, who was introduced in "School Hard" (episode #2.03), was originally intended to last for a few episodes into the Second Season. However, his character was immediately embraced and loved by Buffy fans, which resulted in Joss Whedon's decision to keep him in the series.
When the writers first came up with the character of Robin Wood, they weren't definite on whether it would be a man or a woman, so they picked a name that could apply to either gender.
The character of Dawn was originally intended to have the power to speak to the dead. She was also supposed to be able to move objects with her mind. These powers were later dropped.
In "Lies My Parents Told Me" Spike makes mention of his mother's personal physician - a Dr. Gull. This is Dr. William Gull, Physician-in-extraordinary to the royal family, and who some believe was Jack The Ripper. (see From Hell (2001))
The series is based not on the feature film Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992), but Joss Whedon's original screenplay, which had been heavily rewritten to be more comedic. The Buffy comic book series adapted the screenplay, bringing the events of the movie in line with the TV show's continuity.
In the 2-hour premier of Season 6, "Bargaining" Parts 1 and 2, we see Willow wearing a shirt with a number on it. We then see Xander come in wearing what looks like a football jersey with a number on it. Later when they gang is saying goodbye to Giles, Dawn is wearing a shirt with 07 on it. The crew got many letters asking what the numbers were supposed to mean, but there was no connection. Executive Producer Marti Noxon said that this was completely unintentional and was just a wardrobe coincidence.
The sequence with the Mutant Enemy mascot, the little monster that goes "Grr Argh" at the end of all episodes, was changed for a total of six episodes:
-in Becoming Part Two (2x22) it said, 'Oh, I need a hug."
-in Amends (3x10) it wore a Santa hat and bells were jingling
-in Graduation Day Part Two (3x22) it wore a graduation cap
-in Once More With Feeling (6x07) it sang its "Grr Argh"
-in Storyteller (7x16) it sang, "We are as gods"
-in Chosen (7x22) it looked out at the viewers instead of looking straight-forward
Ranked #3 in TV Guide's list of the "25 Top Cult Shows Ever!" (30 May 2004 issue).
In "Grave", there is a hardcover copy of a William Shatner novel in the pile of books on the floor of the Magic Box after Giles shoots Willow through the wall (DVD, chapter 7, 12:49).
In the episode "Hell's Bells" in Season 6 there is a scene where Buffy is playing Charades with the crowd at Xander and Anya's wedding. She puts her fingers up to her head like horns and you can hear someone in the background guess "Deathwok Clan!". This is a reference to Lorne from "Angel" (1999/I), who is a demon with horns and a member of the Dethwok clan.
In April 2002, TV Guide named Buffy, the Vampire Slayer as one of "The 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time".
In the episode Superstar Brad Kane provided the singing voice for Jonathon (played by Danny Strong). Kane had earlier appeared in the episode The Prom as Tucker (the guy who trains the demons to attack the students at the prom) whose brother Andrew went on to become one of the Trio with Jonathon.
At the end of "Lessons", the First appears to Spike in reverse order of the Big Bads from each season. Warren (Season 6), Glory (Season 5), Adam (Season 4), Mayor Wilkins (Season 3), Drusilla (Season 2), The Master (Season 1) and finally Buffy.
The episode "Once More, With Feeling" was voted #1 on TV Guide's viewer's poll for the 50 Top Musical Moments on Television from 1990-2002 in 2002.
Alyson Hannigan hated her singing voice and asked not to have a song, or any major singing lines of her own in the musical episode (Once More, With Feeling). In "Nightmares", we see that Willow herself is terrified of singing in public.
Joss Whedon says in his season six commentary that the two vampires, the demon, the street cleaners and Sweet's henchmen are all played by the same people.
In "Once More With Feeling," Willow sings "some kid is dreaming and we're all stuck inside his wacky Broadway nightmare." This is a reference to a Season One episode, "Nightmares", in which Sunnydale residents started to live their nightmares in the real world because a kid in a coma dreamed they did.
The guys who are sweeping streets and dancing are doing a similar dance to the chimney sweeps' dance in Mary Poppins (1964).
Xander and Anya fall down on the sofa laughing at the end of their song. This is an homage to the song "Good Morning" from Singin' in the Rain (1952) where Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor do the same thing.
During the dream sequence at the beginning of season one, episode four entitled, "Teachers Pet", we see Xander playing a guitar, the significance being that this happens to be a "Warlock" model guitar made by B.C. Rich guitars.
In the seventh season, the song that "The First" uses to trigger Spike to become evil again is well known to millions of Canadians - it was used as the theme song of the long running children's TV show, "The Friendly Giant" (1958).
In a number of scenes involving the club The Bronze, copies of books from The Destroyer series by Murphy, Warren and Sapir, Richard can be seen on book racks in the background.
In the Sunnydale cemetery, there is a frequently seen mausoleum with the family name Alpert. Alpert is the last name of one of the show's producers, Marc D. Alpert.
In the Sunnydale cemetery, there is a frequently seen mausoleum with the family name Alpert, which is last name of one of the show's producers, Marc D. Alpert.
The deaths of Joyce Summers (episode 5.16, "The Body") and Cassie Newton (episode 7.4, "Help") are the only ones in the show's huge body-count that were due to natural causes.
In the final season during the Dungeons and Dragons game between Andrew, Giles, and one of the potentials the creature "Trogdor the Burninator" is a reference to a character in an online comic/mini-game which can be found at www.homestarrunner.com
Anya was only meant to appear in the episode "The Wish" but was brought back for "Doppelgängland" where she was made more humorous. When the producers realized how funny Emma Caulfield was they simply kept bringing her back, until she was made a regular cast member (including appearing in the opening credits) at the start of season five.
In episode #7.8, "Sleeper", Aimee Mann guest stars as herself. When exiting the stage at the Bronze, during which her performance was interrupted by a vampire falling from the balcony, Aimee can be overheard saying, "Man, I hate playing vampire towns."
At the very beginning of "First Date" (7.14), when Giles and the Scoobies are walking in the graveyard, there's a gravestone clearly marked "Snyder". Principal Snyder used to be principal of Sunnydale High School until the Season 3 finale "Graduation Day Part 2," when he was eaten by a huge snake.
The Sunnydale High school newspaper has an obituary section. (season three, "Earshot").
On Bravo's "100 Greatest TV Characters", Buffy came in at number 13.
Before he was turned into a vampire, Spike's name was William. Angel's real name was Liam, which is the Irish pet name for William.
After the series ended, Eliza Dushku was offered her own spin-off series as the character Faith. But then she turned it down to do "Tru Calling" (2003).
In the episode "Epiphany", Lindsey McDonald is shown driving an old pick-up truck with an Oklahoma license plate. In real life actor Christian Kane who plays Lindsey drove to Hollywood, CA in an old pick-up truck from his home in Oklahoma. When the character of Lindsey left the show, he drove away in this same truck.
In the episode "Fredless", when talking about the Aliens series, a character says, "He's always had a thing for those 'Aliens' movies. Except for that last one they made - I think he dozed off." Series creator Joss Whedon wrote the script for Alien: Resurrection (1997), although it was heavily rewritten.
Christian Kane (Lindsey) originally auditioned for the role of Riley Finn on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1997). Show creator Joss Whedon liked Kane so much that he asked him to play the character of Lindsey instead.
The character "Gunn" was named after with the brothers James Gunn and Sean Gunn with whom Joss Whedon had worked previously.
It was originally intended for Angel's sidekick to be Whistler (Max Perlich) who appeared in two episodes of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1997). But when the actor couldn't commit to a series, the character of Doyle was created.
The girl with the electric powers, first appearing in episode 4.2 "Ground State", is named Gwen Raiden (Alexa Davalos). Raiden is a character in Mortal Kombat (1995) with the powers of electricity.
Sarah Michelle Gellar was offered the chance to reprise her role as "Buffy Summers" for two episodes of season five, which she couldn't do because she was filming Grudge, The (2004/I) at the time. Later on, Gellar informed creator Joss Whedon that she was open for the series finale, but he was against it and turned her down because he didn't want the last episode of the series to be about Buffy when the series, "Angel", had always tried to create its own identity apart from "The Buffy Spin-off".
Each episode has quick flashes of images between most scenes. In the episode "Epiphany", for instance, between the scene with Angel and Darla and the scene where Angel goes to save Kate, there is a quick flash of a crew member holding a slate marker.
In the Season 4 episode "Spin the Bottle," the gang's memory reverts back to before any of them met. Cordelia, seeing Angel for the first time, says "Hello, salty goodness." She said the same line the first time she saw him on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1997)
Andy Hallett holds the record for the actor who took the longest to become a regular. He guest starred in over 40 episodes during the second, third, and fourth seasons before finally being added to the main opening credits of the 14th episode in the fourth season.
The address for Angel Investigations at the old hotel is: 1481 Hyperion Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90026. Phone (213) 555-0162. Fax (213) 555-0163.
The songs that are sung to Lorne by Lindsey in "Dead End" and by one of his clients in "Sleep Tight" were both written by co-creator and executive producer David Greenwalt, as was the title theme to Cordy's sitcom in the fantasy sequences in the episode "Birthday". That song was sung by both Greenwalt and consulting producer Marti Noxon, who also appears in the sequence.
Three of the show's writers have appeared in cameo appearances in the show. Joss Whedon played Lorne's brother Numfar in "Through The Looking Glass" (he dances in the background), David Fury played a devil worshipper who is threatened by Angel in "Reprise", and a puppeteer in "Smile Time" and Marti Noxon plays Cordelia's friend in the faux-credit sequence to the sitcom Cordy in the episode "Birthday".
The WB's announcement that it was canceling the show came at a time when it was rated second only to "Smallville" (2001) among 18-to-34-year-olds. Earlier in the same month, WB's weekly ratings release revealed that "Angel" had earned "outstanding year-to-year gains" among demographic groups.
In the series finale, Charles Gunn uses a pair of retractable stakes, hidden in his sleaves, while fighting the senatorial candidate's cronies. These are exactly like the ones used by Angel in the series' first episode.
After being listed as a guest star on both this show and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1997) for the previous eight years, Mercedes McNab was finally added to the opening credits of "Angel" for the final six episodes.
In "The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco" there is a flashback where one of the brothers answers the phone. What he says in Spanish translates to: "What? The devil built a robot?" Numero Cinco mentioned the incident with the Devil's Robot to Angel earlier in the episode.
In the Season 4 episode "Spin the Bottle", Wesley mentions a test where a powerless slayer is locked in a house with a rabid vampire. This is a reference to the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1997) episode "Helpless" in Season 3.
In the episode "Waiting in the Wings", Joss Whedon had imagined a scene in the dressing room, where a mirror showing Cordelia and Angel standing behind her would be seen. Ross Berryman had to remind him that Angel was a vampire and could not have a reflection.
As of the series finale, David Boreanaz is the only actor to have appeared in every episode, David Boreanaz and Christian Kane are the only actors to appear in both the first and last episodes of the series and David Boreanaz, Charisma Carpenter, Alexis Denisof, Julie Benz and J. August Richards are the only actors to have appeared in every season.
Barry Manilow's "Mandy" makes a few appearances in the series. Angel sings the song in "Judgement" (2.1) and the end credits roll over that as well. In "Orpheus" (4.15), we see Angel play the song on a jukebox in one of his flashbacks. In "The Magic Bullet" (4.19), Angel and Connor sing the song, replacing "Mandy" with "Jasmine".
In the opening credit sequence of every episode, there is an image of a woman standing by the side of a street. This is not actually taken from any episode in the series but rather it's from the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1997) episode "Anne" (3.1), though the scene takes place in the show's setting of L.A.
Julia Lee, who played Joan/Chantarelle/Lily/Anne on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1997), reprised her role on Angel as Anne Steele, a woman who took in homeless teenagers.
In the season five episode "Harm's Way", the voice-over in the beginning tells that Wolfram & Hart has influence in every major corporation, including "Weyland-Yutani." Weyland-Yutani is the ominous "company" in the Alien films, including AVP: Alien Vs. Predator (2004). Joss Whedon wrote the first-draft script for Alien: Resurrection (1997).
In the episode "Blind Date" (Episode #1.21), the names of the investigating officers on the arrest record for Vanessa Brewer are those of crew members who worked on the series: Willard Batts - Set Designer, Sandra Struth - Set Decorator & David Burns - Assistant to Kelly A. Manners, Second Unit Director.
Liam/Angel was born in 1727 and turned to a Vampire in 1753. He's now 278.
Angel got his name because his baby sister invited him in, thinking he was an Angel that had returned to her. After he killed her, Darla named him Angelus, Latin for "Like an Angel".
The first person Angelus ever killed was the Graveyard Caretaker. The Caretaker saw the upturned soil and accused Angelus and Darla of being grave robbers. Then, Angelus drank him dry.
In the episode "Deep Down" (season four) Linwood (played by John Rubinstein) says, "Lilah, this is my corner of the sky. I decide when the sun rises and when it sets..." John Rubinstein was the original actor to play the title role in the Broadway musical "Pippin" whose signature song is "Corner of the Sky"
The character Doyle wasn't originally supposed to be an Irishman but was written as such when Glenn Quinn was cast as Doyle. The role of Doyle was Quinn's first role where he was able to use his own Irish accent.
By the end of the show's run, Angel had lost and regained his soul a total of four times each. The first time he lost his soul was when Darla made him a vampire in 1753. The first time he got his soul back was when the gypsy clan cursed him in 1848. The second time Angel lost his soul was when he and Buffy made love on her 17th birthday and he experienced a moment of pure bliss and total happiness (the condition of the curse was that Angel's soul would be restored but he would lose it if he ever experienced a moment of pure happiness). The second time he regained his soul was when Willow performed the spell to restore it. The third time was when Rebecca slipped him a happy pill so he would relax in the episode, "Eternity". That was only a temporary condition though and Angelus reverted back to Angel when the effects of the pill wore off. The final time he lost his soul was when a shaman took it. The final time he got his soul back was when, once again, Willow restored it.
In "Peace Out" (# 4.21), the local reporter, Tracey, states that she is from station KTLA and cuts to "Hal" in the studio. KTLA is the Los Angeles affiliate of The WB, the American television network which ran "Angel," and Hal Fishman has been their evening news anchor for decades.
In the beginning of the show's first season, whenever Cordelia would answer the phone at Angel Investigations, she would say, "We help the hopeless." That line was later changed to "We help the helpless."
In "The Price", Cordelia is on her hands and knees scrubbing out the pentacle on the floor and says, "We definitely have ring a round the lobby and it will not rub out." This is a paraphrase of a Tide Commercial from the 1970s.
For some reason I thought she had. You know, in someone's dream or fantasy or something But all I can think of is when she staked Angel in Buffy's nightmare, not the other way around. Plus weren't her's and Angel's hands skewered together in that season two episode with Kendra?
Omg, I just remembered that scene where Spike and Dru were fighting by that...what was it...a Chaos Demon? And he's just holding a beer looking akward with his slimy antlers
Spike: "Have you ever seen a Chaos Demon? They're all slime and antlers." Boy was he right!
that was a funny part. He's begging her to come back to him, and he's like 'you're running around with all kids of weirdos' (or something similar) and they show the slimy demon standing there
I don't remember any skewering of any hands, but its been a while.
Yesterday I was home at 5pm so I got to see the day's episode of Buffy. They showed the episode where Buffy's just came back from Hell (re: heaven), Giles returns to yell at Willow ('You arrogant amateur!') and the Trio gets the m'cookies demon to rob a bank ('now you promised me the head of the slayer!' 'err... yeh... we can do that...')
Yes, but remember Giles says "not quite" when Dawn says M'Cookies demon.
The Trio were awesome in this episode. I think this was an early episode that showed how much fun the season would be. Especially with the scene "So, you guys wanna team up and take of Sunnydale?" ".....okay".
It's also the episode where Buffy goes to visit Angel, so I guess there's a cross over episode on Angel, though I didn't catch that one.
No, Angel goes to meet her and we never find out what they said to each other.
I agree about the Trio. They were such a riot. What were they talking over when they agreed to team up? Please say they were playing D&D. That would just make that moment even greater
At the end of the episode, they've got the lair set up. "Flame Thrower active!" "Action Figures deployed!"
My favorite though was when Andrew painted the damn death star on the side of the van, then later on you find out he also added a horn that plays the Star Wars theme
!!!When I saw that part of the episode I just started howling with laughter. Oh man...it was priceless
And when Johnathon was arguing about the setup of the Death Star being wrong, and Andrew was like, "For your information, I'm using the design of the second Death Star from the Emperor Strikes Back"
Yeah, that gets my vote for Worst Plot Twist Ever. The tv was fuzzy so mom and I clung to the hope that we hadn't seen what really happened. Unfortunately we read up on that episode and we were right. Stupid The First!
On the other hand, if I had to pick only one of the Trio to survive, I probably would have chosen Andrew anyway. Johnathon was really really funny also, and together they were even better, but Andrew gave me side aches from laughing so hard. I mean, the man had a wheelchair fight in a hospital!! Every time I'm in a hospital I ask my parents if I can have a wheelchair fight (For some reason they always say no )
hehehe yeah, Andrew was my favorite out of them too. And I guess there just weren't anymore jokes they could make with Andrew and Jonathan fighting... it would've gotten old, I guess.
I'm wondering why they didn't stick Andrew in gaol for killing Jonathan though I mean, who would REALLY want him hanging around?
I forgot what happened to him by the end of the series.... Did he die at some point before the finale? I can't imagine him running into the hell-mouth to kill the ubervampires Can you remind me?
Well I couldn't watch the last episode. Blasted tv But I did read about what happened, and he was helping to fight, if I remember right, and something was coming at him that would have killed him. Maybe it was an ubervamp. He didn't die because Anya jumped in front of it. Poor Andrew felt real bad about Anya safricing herself to save him, and then he felt even sadder when he had to tell Xander.
You know, I was watching Angel the other day and wondering how Spike could hurt humans without a problem.
Then I realized his chip was removed in the seventh season. Totally forgot about that! They could have repaired it or removed it... Buffy's choice. So she removes it. That was the first sign she'd totally lost her mind
Woa! I never knew they had a problem with Spike's chip, and I certainly never heard it was removed! No wonder Spike suddenly got cool again when he came to Angel!
Ah, I see, I see. You were confused too. He started getting headaches and the chip was shocking him when he really didn't want it to, so Buffy called Riley, and got a pizzaria or a coffee shop or something instead. Then went on this big long rant asking whether they're really a coffee shop or is it really a big huge government conspiracy... kind of funny.
I only ever got a chance to see one episode when it was on, but that episode got me hooked. Firefly was a masterpiece few can come close to matching I can think of nothing to say about it that would truly do it justice. It was pure genius. Incredible. Beautifully made. Yet another gem by Joss Whedon. My brother's friend owns the whole series (14 episodes or something) and I borrowed them so I could see the whole thing. Idiots must work at Fox. That's the only reasoning I can think of to explain why they canceled it.
The movie of Firefly is called Serenity and comes to theaters on SEPTEMBER 30TH!! It's so CLOSE!! My family and I fully plan to see it right when it comes out
Pip, lemme say, bomb ass avatar. That, and in of itself, is worth gold membership alone.
About not seeing Buffy. I'll just say that Buff is the Stuff. At first I did not like the show. My uncle watched it, I clowned like he was a Timberlake fan. Then the episode with John Ritter came on... so, HECK was HOOKED. Watched from there on in. Cool ass show. Angel was hit and miss... more hit, but still was so-so. Whedon is dope, but about Firefly...
It was good, but tried to be too much, too soon. Too many plot point smashed into a very, very small ship. Needed to lay strong foundation then build on it. I would say that FOX, as per usual, pulled the plug far to soon, but the show tanked on its own. As for the movie, maybe on DVD, if at all.
I find Angel hit and miss too. It's good, but I swear if you don't watch the episodes in order it will take you about 5 episodes to get the flow of the story. I watched a season 4 episode, only one, a few years ago and I just sat through it thinking "huh? Who's good and who's bad then?". I've seen a lot of season 5, and it seemed a lot better than it was earlier in the series.
I want to see FireFly, but I guess I'll grab the DVDs and that'll be it. I saw an ad for it on TV here saying Coming Soon, but they took it off and I haven't heard anything since then... darn it.
I agree that some seasons of Angel were much better than others. Season five was sooo better than season four, and one was better than two. I generally liked Angel - I just hated the whole thing with Connor, though- , but it wasn't as good as Buffy.
That John Ritter episode of Buffy kind of creeped me out. But then again, John Ritter is good at creeping me out
Yeah, John Ritter's freaky... Especially with his *pretends to ring an invisible bell and dances around like a fairy*
The thing I don't get about Angel is how did he fall in love with Cordellia? I mean, Buffy was an airhead too, but not THAT bad.
They just played the Angel episode here where Spike goes all Vigilante on them, and saves all these people... then asks them if they want to get drunk and listen to the Sex Pistols Oh, yeah, and Angel kept having funky visions of his friends trying to kill him.
I don't think I saw that episode, but that definitely sounds like Spike
Cordelia changed a lot after she went to LA. If Angel fell in love with her when she was in high school I would say something had to be wrong, but it seems more real with the Cordelia in Angel.
Angel the series or a certain season? I loved the way that the first episode of season one began
And I miss Doyle Episode 9 of season one was one of the saddest Angels ever, in my opinion. I would say "Bring Back Doyle!!" (in some supernatural form or something, because that's all that they could really do), but the actor is dead now, so that wouldn't work
The episode they'll play this week on Tele has Cordelia wake up. From the advert, it looks like Spike bites here what's with that?
Oh, you know how we were saying earlier that when Buffy comes back to life and goes off to meet Angel, we never know what happens?
I was looking through my Buffy comics on the weekend, and there's one special one called "Reunion" in which Xander, Anya and Dawn guess what they did when they met. In the end, there's this big firey demon and that's that. You never actually KNOW what happens, but it was fun enough watching them speculate.
Oh, and there was one funny bit when Dawn was telling the story, Anya says "Dawn! Buffy's dress changed", Dawn: "yeah, I changed my mind" maybe you had to see it...
I think I remember which episode you are talking about with Cordy waking up. I shall not tell you anything about it because 1) I don't want to spoil anything and 2) I don't remember what happened
I'll check it out on Friday night, if I remember. I often forget its on, to be honest. Since I haven't watched the first four seasons in order (odd episodes here and there), I feel like I've got to catch up on those first.
Buffy's like that too. If you miss something early in the season, you may not get something that's happening or some of the jokes they're telling.
Oh, while I was going through my comics, I found the comic Joss Whedon did of the original buffy story (from the movie)... but with the Buffy from the TV series in it. It's basically the same story, but some changes... I'll have to read through it properly to find out what. She does actually burns the gym down at the end, which is mentioned a lot in the first couple of seasons of the TV show.
what a man....
Fuffy 
I'll post them here
It was awesome!
I also thought Tara was great. Constantly uncomfortable, and just saying goofy things too often, nobody really understood her, but she was great. Also sung like an angel 
I mean, that was Willow!! Willow! She's not supposed to be the enemy! 
Last month we were watching that whole evil Willow bit, though, and right when Tara gets shot and falls the fricken PHONE RINGS! I swear, I've never been so mad at a telemarketer in my life 
The rest of the episodes went uninterupted, but man! That was bad timing for a phone call
I loved the dances by the non-characters in the background
--out also.
Thank you, Whidden 
I get it, he's a giant worm; enough already!
Can you remind me?
Episode 9 of season one was one of the saddest Angels ever, in my opinion. I would say "Bring Back Doyle!!" (in some supernatural form or something, because that's all that they could really do), but the actor is dead now, so that wouldn't work 
maybe you had to see it...