UPN will resurrect ''Buffy'' without restraint in action, fantasy
By LARRY BONKO , The Virginian-Pilot
© July 23, 2001

Reportage: Liz

THEY KNOW. They all know. The cast of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' knows. The producers know. The suits at UPN know. At 20th Century Fox, the studio that produces the series, it wouldn't surprise me to learn that everyone from messengers to the CEO knows.

They all know how Buffy will be resurrected when the show in its sixth season moves to UPN on Oct. 9 with a two-hour premiere. They know but nobody's talking.

Let's hope our country's nuclear secrets are this safe. Joss Whedon, the show's creator and executive producer, said the words that all Buffymaniacs are waiting to hear: "I will bring Buffy back.'' "For now she's dead and rotting in her grave. Bringing her back will be painful, difficult and strange,'' he said. "We'll bring her back with integrity and legitimacy. It will not be a simple process. We'll not cheat the viewer. I'll deal with the disbelief that comes when you bring a character back to life.''

What Whedon has done here is similar to what Chris Carter, creator and executive producer of "The X-Files,'' has been doing for years. He is playing the viewer for a fool.

You faithfully watch "Buffy.'' You invest your emotions in the series. You believe that a small young woman with arms like toothpicks can vanquish the evil un-dead of the dark side.

Then, poof! Whedon kills her off not once, but twice. He restored the breath in her body. He'll have to do it again. There are no restraints in fantasy and no boundaries in science-fiction, but there are limits to the patience of the TV audience. Does Whedon worry about the Buffymaniacs quitting "Buffy'' because they've been jerked around by producers going for a sock-o finish during the last May sweeps? It happened to "Dallas.''

Said Whedon, "This isn't 'Dallas.' That was a lame show. There will be no it-was-all-a-dream shower scene in 'Buffy.' I've dealt before with bringing characters back after they've been dead. I know how to earn the belief of viewers who may have a problem with that.''

PUH-leeze bring Buffy back, said Sarah Michelle Gellar to her boss. She asked, "What if UPN viewers turn in to 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,' and there's no Buffy?''

Today she frets. Just a few weeks ago, after hearing that the UPN had wrestled away the "Buffy'' franchise from the WB, Gellar put on a pout. She was thinking about packing up her bag of stakes and leaving the Buffy role behind.

But now ... "On UPN we'll be getting a fresh start. I feel a sense of rebirth. The thought of moving from the WB, which was our home for five years, and where we were supported creatively, was scary. I am nervous about making the change. Nervous and excited.''

The script for the two-hour season premiere on UPN is finished and in the hands of cast and crew. That includes 16-year-old Michelle Trachtenberg, who as the key to the portal of the netherworld, brought the fatal confrontation between Glory and Buffy.

"I've seen the script, and I'll not say a thing more about it,'' said Trachtenberg, who plays Buffy's sister. Then she cracked the door open just a tad.

"We're all in the first episode,'' she said of herself, Buffy, Willow, Spike, Zander, Anya and Tara. "It's safe to say that, I think.'' Whedon dropped a few morsels of plot for reporters at the Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena. We've gathered here in the San Gabriel foothills to preview the fall season.

"Our plan is to shake up the relationship between Willow and Tara. You'll see more of the old computer nerd and hacker Willow from the old days. We'll weave in the mystical with the technical,'' said Whedon. Willow (Alyson Hannigan) and the equally witchy Tara (Amber Benson) have a lesbian relationship.

Whedon also announced that Buffy's watcher, guide, mentor and counselor, played by Anthony Stewart Head, is no longer a series regular. "Tony felt that it was time to step back and return to live with his family in England. He will be seen as a recurring character but not every week. We'll bring on new people. The show evolves. Anya (Emma Caulfield) will be running the magic shop.''

That's 1,120-year-old former demon Anya.

Whedon is planning a "Buffy'' spinoff for Head with filming to take place in England. For now, the six episodes will air only in the United Kingdom on the BBC.

"We'll do a quiet, adult, tough, sexy show that picks up the life of his character (Rupert Giles) after he returns home to be a free-lance ghost hunter. Giles had a dark past before joining the watchers' council. He was a bit of a naughty boy.''

Giles is now a bit of a fifth wheel. "Buffy and the others are all grown up. They don't need somebody telling them what to do. They'll have to figure things out on their own,'' said Whedon.

The Scoobies will get no help in bringing deadness to the demons. Whedon said of the "Buffy'' you'll see on UPN, "We'll make the show exactly as we made it before. I didn't ask for a larger budget because too much money spoils you. You get lazy, creatively speaking. You go for spectacle and don't worry as much about the story.''

Whedon is considering an animated version of "Buffy.'' Would Gellar, Hannigan and others in the "Buffy'' cast supply the voices for the cartoon?

"We haven't approached our actors about that at this stage because the deal hasn't been done,'' said Whedon.

Upcoming on UPN is a relatively normal life for Dawn (Trachtenberg) now that the key thing has been resolved for a heavy price. "If you can call living in Sunnydale, the Hellmouth of the universe, a normal life,'' said Whedon. It's a place where revolting creatures pop up with all manner of threats, saying such unsettling things as, "Somebody you love will die bloody. ...'' Normal life? How will that be possible for Dawn with both her mother and sister gone?

"We're all waiting anxiously to learn what the producers have in store for us. You never get what you expect,'' said Trachtenberg. Trachtenberg has been on camera as model and actress since she was 3. She so wanted to be part of the "Buffy'' cast.

"I'm a walking 'Buffy' encyclopedia. In the past, I'd watch the show and make up storylines with me in them. I'd beg my agent to get me on the show. I'd have done anything, even be an extra. It was unbelievable that I got what I wished for. Not only was I on the show, but I was the key to the survival of the universe. What pressure.''

Whedon and co-executive producer Marti Noxon may have killed off Buffy last May because they anticipated it was the show's last season. The Fox studio and the WB engaged in bitter negotiations about renewing the series before "Buffy'' eventually went to UPN for $2.3 million an episode.

"We basically design the show that every year might be our last,'' said Wheedon.

He won't be thinking like that in 2001. UPN has renewed "Buffy'' for this season and next. And after that?

"As long as there's life in me and my writers, there's life in the show. It's about our characters growing up. It's something that doesn't stop. We're entering the sixth season as excited and enthusiastic as we have ever been. The show could run for a way, way long time.''

Chimed in Hannigan, "We'll be kicking vampire butt when we're as old as the cast of 'Golden Girls.' ''