No Joss, no Buffy

[Callie Del Noire]

The folks at Warner Brothers have decided the upcoming Buffy reboot should be done with no input/help from Joss Whedon or the rest of the folks that made the TV show so popular (despite execs efforts to the contrary) and there is an internet petition going around.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/no-whedon-no-buffy---boycotting-wbs-buffy-movie/

I'm not sure that it will have any effect, the Firefly petition didn't, but it should show that the 'nerd herds' (of which I am one) do represent a block of good movie goers.

That and, shudder, I don't want Buffy Vamps to go 'sparkly'.

[Oniya]

You mean, you don't want to see Buffy stake Edward Cullen?  I'd find that very therapeutic.

[Salamander]

I signed the petition. I used to love watching Buffy every week. Without Wheldon's input, it'll probably be a pile of pseudo-Twilight crap.

[mystictiger]

I used to like Wheedon. Then I saw ... he has a neckbeard. Urgh.

[WyldRanger]

I think I'll just remain content with my DVD's of Angel...  :-\

You mean, you don't want to see Buffy stake Edward Cullen?  I'd find that very therapeutic.

Though this would be nice.  :P

[Inkidu]

Would love nothing more than to see it never happen. On general anti-vampire sentiment.

[Callie Del Noire]

No..she'd be falling for 'sparkly, moody' vampires.. or worse.

[Salamander]

No..she'd be falling for 'sparkly, moody' vampires.. or worse.

Please...please don't say it. Such a painful thought. I love Buffy and loathe Twilight in equal measure.

[Oniya]

No..she'd be falling for 'sparkly, moody' vampires.. or worse.

You think Angel and Spike would let that happen?  They'd stake 'em themselves.

[mystictiger]

Angel is the prototypic emo waste-of-space vampire! Yuck!

On the bright side, he's not a loser-paedophile who hangs out in highschool.

Now, a Blade-Twilight crossover would be priceless!

[Oniya]

He got better when he started hanging out with Bones.

[MasterMischief]

Angel is the prototypic emo waste-of-space vampire! Yuck!

I always thought he was a Heathcliff wannabe without the cool.

[Soran]

Now, a Blade-Twilight crossover would be priceless!

*laughs*
The only twilight movie I would EVER watch!!

[Callie Del Noire]

Angel is the prototypic emo waste-of-space vampire! Yuck!

On the bright side, he's not a loser-paedophile who hangs out in highschool.

Now, a Blade-Twilight crossover would be priceless!

You know.. the Ultimate Blade had a dream about that encounter. It ended BADLY for 'Shiny boy'.

[rick957]

Interesting, I didn't know there was a Buffy reboot in the works.

I know Whedon's a super-talented guy and gave birth to Buffy (eeeeuuw, mental image), but there were some god-awful episodes (and even awful seasons) of his shows, IMO, and the same people were responsible for the good and the bad stretches (or so I assumed).  So, I've always wondered which person or persons deserve credit for the good parts of those shows. 

What if Whedon's contributions were all crappy ones?  There's no way to tell who did what, right?





P.S.  What's a "neckbeard"?

[Oniya]

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3100606464/nm0923736

I think it's shown at that link.  Where you've shaved off most of the beard above the jawline, but leave the stuff underneath.

[rick957]

Ohhhh ... I thought that was just a "beard."

I have a neckbeard right now, it turns out ... but I'm callin' mine a beard, dammit.   :P

[Oniya]

I could be wrong, of course.  That was the only picture I could find of him with a beard, so I took a guess.

[rick957]

After four minutes of exhaustive research, I've concluded that neither I nor Joss Whedon have a true neckbeard, by any of the available definitions (most of which contradict each other, btw).

http://holidayneckbeard.com/
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/neckbeard-beginners-guide.php
http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Neckbeard
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=neckbeard
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=neckbeard&page=2

I might grow one, though, just for kicks.  :)

Sorry for the thread hijack!

[Jag]

He got better when he started hanging out with Bones.

Damn right. *nods*

[Callie Del Noire]

Interesting, I didn't know there was a Buffy reboot in the works.

I know Whedon's a super-talented guy and gave birth to Buffy (eeeeuuw, mental image), but there were some god-awful episodes (and even awful seasons) of his shows, IMO, and the same people were responsible for the good and the bad stretches (or so I assumed).  So, I've always wondered which person or persons deserve credit for the good parts of those shows. 

What if Whedon's contributions were all crappy ones? 

Consider this.  They want to do like they did with the original movie and take the idea and do their take on it.  What I have read is the took his proposal, went 'mmmthanksbye.'. And made their own movie.

And they are doing it again, despite the fact it would make more money working off of Joss and company doing it.

Given the fact that he still owes then, what... Another show by contract, wouldn't it be good to work WITH him?

[WyldRanger]

Consider this.  They want to do like they did with the original movie and take the idea and do their take on it.  What I have read is the took his proposal, went 'mmmthanksbye.'. And made their own movie.

And they are doing it again, despite the fact it would make more money working off of Joss and company doing it.

Given the fact that he still owes then, what... Another show by contract, wouldn't it be good to work WITH him?

Yes, that would make sense...but we ARE talking about TV executives here after all.  :P

[Callie Del Noire]

Yes, that would make sense...but we ARE talking about TV executives here after all.  :P

Yeah they did all sorts of stupid things with Joss (and others). I mean look at what they did with Firefly and Futurama (Despite the creative talent behind both) when it first came out. (Juggled time slots, changed the pilot and other things.)

Execs surprise me. They are in control of creative talent and rely upon it, but then they play silly games with them.

[WyldRanger]

One of my favorite series of all time (on the promise of the pilot episode alone) was cut short after one three episodes, so yes TV executives are not my favorite people.

[rick957]

Consider this.  They want to do like they did with the original movie and take the idea and do their take on it.  What I have read is the took his proposal, went 'mmmthanksbye.'. And made their own movie.

And they are doing it again, despite the fact it would make more money working off of Joss and company doing it.

Given the fact that he still owes then, what... Another show by contract, wouldn't it be good to work WITH him?

This all makes sense, and I don't really disagree.  But I think it's worth mentioning that because of the way TV shows are put together, with many people sharing responsibility for basic decisions, it's impossible to say for certain how many of Whedon's successes were due to his own work, and how many resulted from other people's input, perhaps even input from the dreaded executives. 

You could say the same thing about George Lucas and the six Star Wars films.  Like Whedon's TV shows, those movies vary so widely in terms of overall quality that it makes it hard to believe the same person was responsible for all of them.  And if in fact there were many guiding hands behind those projects, who knows what Whedon or Lucas actually did?  For all we know, they might have been directly responsible for the worst stuff in both franchises, and in my opinion, there's so much bad material in both franchises that neither Lucas nor Whedon should be exempt from criticism. 

Their celebrity status puts them above reproach in the minds of many fans, and maybe those fans are right; I'd like to believe that too.  It's much easier to scapegoat the anonymous executives for all the mistakes, but the true picture is probably far more complicated.  I would not be surprised at all, for example, if one or two of Whedon's usual collaborators (co-producers, co-writers, etc.) are actually responsible for much of the best work that he's gotten credit for.

It isn't inconceivable that there could be a faceless collaborator or two -- perhaps even executives -- behind all of Whedon's best work, except maybe the stuff he has sole credit for ... but most of that stuff is writing, and Hollywood's union rules make writing credits completely untrustworthy.