Buffy the Vampire Slayer

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fnordboy
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Post by fnordboy » Jun 4th 2003, 1:52 am

candygirl wrote:See where I'm going with this? I thought that S4 could be Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles (it seems so unfair that he gets left out of these things!). For S5, they could add Tara. For S6, they could take off Tara and add Dawn and Anya, then they could add Spike to S7. I know it's ridiculous that I have given this any thought whatsoever!
Well if they are going by the R2 art (which they have been so far) Giles is somewhat pictured on the part 1 of the vhs tapes of Season 7:

http://www.blackstar.co.uk/video/item/7000000080303

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Post by lance » Jun 4th 2003, 9:32 am

candygirl wrote:Is that the scary movie with the clown?

True story - my senior year in high school, my friend and I were driving home from somewhere. Anyway, we were driving down Pacific Coast Highway - the particular section we were at is right next to the beach, nice and straight. There was a full moon shining on the water. And a guy dressed in a clown suit walking on the sidewalk at 1AM.

Luckily my friend was driving because I totally freaked out - we were both yelling, "Omigawd, did you see that? WTF?!"

We figured anyone out that late in a clown suit was probably trouble.
Yup,

That was the scary movie with clown. The book, as is often the case, was even scarier.

Finding a clown walking along the side of the road at 1 am is definately a freaky occurence. Granted he could just be one of those masses without a car.

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Lance Man

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cover art

Post by lance » Jun 4th 2003, 9:33 am

I agree,

Season four box set (region one) would have been better with more of the cast on the cover.

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Lance Man

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Post by Natasha (candygirl) » Jun 5th 2003, 4:56 am

A whole lotta semi-related Buffy info!
from eonline (4/16/03):

Break out the beer and bimbettes. Spike, the first man-geared TV network, has arrived.

Well, it actually didn't arrive--it kind of morphed into existence. Beginning June 16, Spike will be the latest moniker for The National Network (TNN), which changed its name two years ago from The Nashville Network.

But execs for TNN/Spike and its parent, Viacom's MTV Networks, think that this latest version of the network, which is making a hard push for an all-male viewership in response to such female-friendly fare as Lifetime, WE and Oxygen, will be a home run.

"Today's men have a wide variety of entertainment interests, including movies, music, finance, cars, women, sports, comedy and health," TNN's president Albie Hecht tells the Boston Globe. "They want it all, and they want it all in one place."

Shooting for an all-guy audience is actually not that much of a stretch for the network, which is available in 86 million homes. Almost 65 percent of its current viewers are 18- to 49-year-old men. It is already home to such dude-friendly fare as the new reality game Slamball, along with WWE Wrestling and reruns of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Under the auspices of Spike, new programs will include shows on fitness and relationships from Men's Health and Stuff magazines, as well as financial updates from CBS Marketwatch. New shows include the gadget special A Guy and His Stuff, Top 10 Things Every Guy Should Experience, which takes lucky viewers to big-time sporting events, 100 Most Irresistible Women and the reality series The Scene, which follows a group of guys trying to start a restaurant business.

Also on tap will be uncut versions of testosterone-favored movies like The Godfather and The Terminator and three animated series: Stripperella (voiced by Pamela Anderson); Gary the Rat, (voiced by Kelsey Grammer); and a grown-up version of Nickelodeon's 1990s hit Ren & Stimpy. Hecht says he hopes Spike will be made up of 100 percent original programming by 2005.

Right now, sports-themed networks like ESPN are the main vehicles for pulling in male viewers while women's networks dot the TV landscape, something Hecht wants to change.

"We'll be unapologetically male," he told reporters Tuesday. "My aspiration is to be the home base for men's programming."

The move will also give the network a true identity. While The Nashville Network appellation made sense, giving viewers a healthy dose of country, The National Network was pretty vague. And by keeping the TNN initials, many viewers were still expecting Garth Brooks-centric shows and instead got Star Trek reruns.

The announcement of Spike comes as the publishers of Maxim are planning their own male-targeted station, Maxim Entertainment Network, or MEN for short.

Though some skeptics question the wisdom of such a drastic name and programming switch for Spike, the corporate suits have been under pressure to make some sort of change. TNN's ratings have been on the decline for months, down 16 percent from the first quarter last year. The network has also dropped from the eighth-most popular basic cable station to 14th, according to Nielsen Media Research.

But Hecht is optimistic that Spike will turn things around: "Hopefully it will produce a spike in ratings."
from today's imdb.com news:

Hollywood auteur Spike Lee is suing an American media company over plans to name a cable channel Spike TV. The Malcolm X movie maker claims viewers would associate the channel with him, and has asked for an injunction against media giant Viacom's use of his name. He also claims one executive at the company - who want to rename their Tnn channel - told him the name was reference to him. In court papers filed on Tuesday Lee says, "The media description of this change of name, as well as comments made to me and my wife, confirmed what was obvious - that Spike TV referred to Spike Lee." Spike has called on Hollywood pals Edward Norton and Ossie Davis and former senator Bill Bradley to sign affidavits to say they had thought of Lee when they heard about Spike TV, and believed he had become affiliated with the network. Viacom claim the move is intended to attract more male viewers. They say they are confident the court will reject Lee's legal claim to "the popular word and name Spike." Viacom, which also owns broadcasters such as CBS, MTV, and VH1, has been directed by the judge to explain why it should not be barred from using the name.
Reaction to Spike TV:
No, no and no. That's our response to Spike TV. First, the name is just plain stupid. Like, "You're fired" stupid. Like, "I am a complete hack and I've come up with this name" stupid. The channel used to be -- let's get in the Wayback Machine -- the Nashville Network. Yep, good ol' TNN. Then MTV bought TNN and said, "Hmm, we've already got a country music channel. So let's turn TNN into the National Network."

No, they didn't fire that person. We think she's still there.

Anyway, with absolutely no direction to speak of and yet millions of built- in subscribers, MTV essentially hit the snooze button and went back to work on "Cribs" and stuff. Then, someone said, "Hey, this channel. Maybe we should put some content on there." And so they ran the "Godfather" trilogy a bunch of times. Like every week. Recently -- suspiciously timed to our "work stoppage" - - MTV renamed TNN as Spike TV, dedicated to men.

To which we say: Um, don't men have all the other channels?

As it turns out, no. And also "no" apparently was the response given to some low-level MTV Network type who said, Hey, shouldn't we assume that both sexes might watch a channel? From that, sprang (sprung?, sproing!) Spike TV. Might we suggest some programming? Like, an hour's worth of two guys just punching each other on the arm and farting.

-- "The Bachelor." Whatever. Bored with it. We are overcome by a wave of revulsion. Look for the reruns on Spike TV.

-- Back when Dean Valentine ran UPN, and, Lord, we do miss him, he almost green-lighted a show called "I Spike," about female volleyball players who were actually undercover agents. To our mind: genius. This was when UPN, which floundered around for an identity, decided to become a channel mostly devoted to young men. Yes, Spock, that's a trend you're witnessing. Anyway, "I Spike" had a built-in excuse for bathing suits. But, of course, after "The Man Show" had women jumping up and down on a trampoline as the credits rolled, thereby stealing the genius, there really was no need for "I Spike," and it never got made.

Valentine also wanted to make a show that was nonstop action outtakes of kung-fu fighting, culled from a B-movie library in Hong Kong. It would have been hosted by a lovely Asian woman, and the only commercials would have been beer commercials. Now, maybe it's just a red-blooded guy thing, but other than the fact that it should have been two Asian women hosting and they would have been lesbians, that was an idea that, let's be honest here, really cornered the market on genius, a word -- before this very idea -- that was tossed around willy-nilly.

Unfortunately, Valentine was eventually purged. UPN bought "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer" and gave up on boys.

There's a lesson in there somewhere for Spike TV.

It does not take a thump to the head to figure out that Spike TV is unnecessary and duplicative. Let's see, what do guys like to watch? Hmm. Sports? ESPN and Fox Sports, etc., etc., etc. Um, porn? Spice Channel. Cartoons? Cartoon Network. Music? MTV. Music with sexy, barely clothed women gyrating in hypnotic fashion? BET. Military stuff galore? History Channel. You get the point. Men have shows about chopping up buses and making them boats. They have the Golf Channel (as do women) and the new Tennis Channel (ditto). You name it, the content is out there. Not so mysterioso, the same holds true for women.

So, spike Spike TV. Let the cats have Oxygen. Neither of the sexes truly needs an entire TV channel dedicated to it, given the choices. But if you want your Spike TV, take your lad mags and your "Girls Gone Wild" videos and go for it, Hoss.
Do you think it will help Viacom if I send them an affidavit saying that I immediately thought of Spike the vampire, NOT Spike Lee, when I heard about Spike TV?

:wink:
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Post by Natasha (candygirl) » Jun 5th 2003, 4:57 am

Someone on another forum said that they were able to buy the Buffy S4 set at Walmart today, even though it isn't being released until next Tuesday!

:shock:
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Post by JPP13 » Jun 5th 2003, 7:49 am

First of all, we (guys) dont need Spike TV, we have ESPN. :)

Frankly, this just looks to me like the example 156,434,553 of the dumbing down of America.

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Post by mglenn » Jun 5th 2003, 9:41 am

candygirl wrote:Someone on another forum said that they were able to buy the Buffy S4 set at Walmart today, even though it isn't being released until next Tuesday!
Walmart is know for putting movies on the shelf when they get them. I've gotten movies ahead of times there (The matrix was one that I got this way).
"When I disagree with a rational man, I let reality be our final arbiter; if I am right, he will learn; if I am wrong, I will; one of us will win, but both will profit." - Ayn Rand

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Post by lance » Jun 5th 2003, 12:25 pm

candygirl wrote:Someone on another forum said that they were able to buy the Buffy S4 set at Walmart today, even though it isn't being released until next Tuesday!

:shock:
Wow,

Good for them, I am only slightly jealous.

Best,

Lance Man

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Post by Sascha » Jun 5th 2003, 1:57 pm

Well, I finally got to see the Buffy-finale yesterday (I watched almost the entire seventh season in one week - *that* was fun :-)) and IMHO, the 7th season was better than season 5 and season 6. I don't want to go into much detail here (and I haven't read the entire thread yet so I don't know what has been discussed here before), but I think it was an "okay" season. I really hoped they'd kill Buffy at the end, but instead they kill Anya (one of my favorite characters on the show) and Spike too (and now the writers have to come up with some weird story to bring Spike back from the dead to the ... ehm .. dead for "ANGEL") -- oh well, I guess I have to live with that.

But the rest was good, some nice CGI tricks and fight scenes in the Hellmouth, the very last scene was a little bit lame (no Sarah McLachlan song playing at the end - that can't be a Buffy finale ;-)) - and the final showdown was too short.

As for the entire season: Too few surprises. It was fun to watch, but the excitement of the earlier years was gone.

The best seasons of "Buffy" were in my opinion seasons two and three - mostly because I'm a Willow fan and she had the best scenes in those two seasons. I can't imagine the show without Alyson Hannigan :)


And today I received the season 3 box set (imported from the US - amazing how cheap it is over there, we have to pay twice as much in Germany) and the first thing I watched was the episode "Doppelgängerland" :-) I literally shove the DVD into my DVD player the minute I got home... oh, 1999, those were the days... :-) In direct comparision, season 7 of "Buffy" is almost a complete different show in all aspects - well, maybe except for Sarah Michelle Gellar, who didn't evolve a bit.

(BTW: it's really about time for a high-density DVD medium - i feel like a DJ changing all those DVDs constantly)

I'm still undecided whether to buy the season 4 box set -- as I heard, Fox didn't release a widescreen version in the US although the european PAL version is widescreen. According to postings in newsgroups, Joss isn't a big fan of the 16:9 format, composed all epsiodes for 4:3, but shot them in 16:9 (why is this all so difficult?). But I'm a fan of 16:9, so I'd have to buy the expensive PAL version... and all that for the lame "Initiative"-storyline? :-)

Damn, I have to cut back on these parentheses... :-)

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Post by Natasha (candygirl) » Jun 5th 2003, 2:17 pm

Sascha - there is info about the S4 widescreen vs. fullscreen issue on page 12 of this thread. I totally understand preferring widescreen, but having seen the side by side comparisons, I'm fine with BtVS in fullscreen.

I agree about the excitement being gone this season - it seemed like it plodded along and very little happened for weeks at a time, and even when something DID happen, they took a lot more time to deal with it than seemed necessary. Another Slayerette? Let's spend a whole episode on that. I don't mean to sound so...bitter, I guess...but Joss set the bar very high in previous seasons and this one didn't come close to his better ones.

:(

Of course, that doesn't mean I won't run out and buy every set as it is released on DVD because I MUST have them, even if some of them will only be for reference and not repeated obsessive viewing!

:wink:
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Post by fnordboy » Jun 5th 2003, 2:52 pm

I am a big fan of OAR, but if Joss did not want them in widescreen from the get go then that is the OAR. It is about the director/creator's vision.

People are also upset that Angel isn't released widescreen, but from what I have read it didn't start airing widescreen till S3. So again, fullscreen is the OAR. Case closed.

I am happy with fullscreen unless it was supposed to be widescreen.

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Post by JPP13 » Jun 5th 2003, 5:14 pm

Sab, I am really surprised that you prefered Season 7 to Season 5. To me, Season 5 is just a tad behind Season 2 as best ever.

With 5, I don't believe there were any loose ends to speak of. And Glory was just the perfect mix of sugar and spice, ie a personable evil. The whole back story made sense, and Dawn had some purpose. And the ending was just perfect. Whereas, to me, Season 7 was a crap-fest.

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Post by Natasha (candygirl) » Jun 5th 2003, 6:21 pm

And how could you not love the cheap, whorish, fashion victim ex-god of bad home perms with a skanky, lopsided ass that we call Glory?

:D
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Post by JPP13 » Jun 5th 2003, 6:35 pm

hmmm....I thought she was kinda hot.... :twisted:

decide for yourself... http://www.gloryisagod.com/clare.html

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Post by Sascha » Jun 6th 2003, 7:27 am

Thanks candygirl for pointing me to the postings with the widescreen comments.
fnordboy wrote:I am happy with fullscreen unless it was supposed to be widescreen.
I completely agree with you - but I'm going to have to a 16:9 tv soon, so there's a huge temptation to fill the entire screen with a picture :-)

JPP13 wrote:Sab, I am really surprised that you prefered Season 7 to Season 5. To me, Season 5 is just a tad behind Season 2 as best ever.
I wasn't a big fan of the "Glory" character and storyline. But yeah, it's probably wrong to dismiss entire seasons as "bad" or "good". I agree with you, season 5 had some very good "Dawn"-episodes and "The Body", which is IHMO the best Buffy episode. But I didn't like the season ending - mostly because I knew that the show would go on and so it was clear that Buffy was going to be resurrected. It would be different if it had been the series finale. And the season opener "Buffy vs Dracula" was also very disappointing IMHO. (But always on a high level - a bad "Buffy" episode is still *way* better than most of the s**t that's airing these days...). Season 7 had some very good episodes too IMHO - not as good as season 2 or 3 though. Especially the episodes written by Jane Espenson ("Conversations With Dead People", "First Date", "Storyteller") were pretty good and her writing will probably be one of the few reasons to watch the "Gilmore Girls" spin-off in 2004. I don't think that season 7 has more loose ends than the seasons before (e.g. I don't see the "loose ends" JPP13 mentioned on page 15 of this thread as loose ends - IMHO they were all adressed or "solved" in later episodes (like Ghost-Joyce' prophecy about Buffy not choosing Dawn - well, she didn't choose her, she tried to send her away. And she admitted that she'd sacrifice the lives of Dawn and the Scooby Gang if necessary to beat the First) ). But you're right, the entire series has lots of loose ends with forgotten demons and characters. Anyway, I liked the concept of going "full-circle" of the last season, back to the beginning.

But I guess I have to re-watch all seasons sometime to form a final opinion. A long time has passed since I watched season 4 or 5 and I tend to forget the good things and focus on bad things... :roll:

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