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Dec. 23rd, 2023 10:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Sigh, struggling with nasal sinus congestion, and scratchy throat - although comes and goes, so not sick. The doctor tells me I'm not allergic - because the blood just showed mugwort pollen - but that's BS, since I've been allergic to mold and dust forever.
I need to see the allergist. Probably in March. No one is available prior to that.
2. Listening to the Paley Fest Buffy Reunion from 2008 - and I don't remember bits from this at all...such as:
* Christopher Beck won an Emmy from the show for the music. And the mournful piece for Passion? Anthony Stewart Head actually did the vocalization for it.
Found it! Remembering Jenny, by Christopher Beck and vocalizations by Anthony Stewart Head.
* There's a few really insane remarks in there...that get across the awkwardness of the gathering.
Such as...Marsters mentions how the writers had a scarier job then they did, because they had to expose themselves, they just acted it.
Whedon says - he'll take that since he wrote them.
Then either Brendon or Greenwalt quip, well no, over half of them were written by someone else.
Ouch.
Then Gellar talks about wishing she had great role model, to which Brendan quips, "wasn't that Susan Lucci?" And Gellar just sits there with a pained smile on her face. While Marsters sinks back in his chair, head bowed, smiling and shaking his head.
Ouch.
Seth Green, Brendan and Greenwalt take turns ribbing everyone. It's insane.
When they ask what everyone is doing, Greenwalt states after a series of nervous breakdowns, he's retired from the biz, but will return when someone invites him.
Also, one gal gets up and states when she started watching it - she was a sophomore in high school and didn't realize the age difference between Angel and Buffy, but now that she's older and twenty-six, she's thinking whoa, that's a huge creepy age difference with Angel being 26 and Buffy only 16. And did they even think about the ramnifications of that? (Marsters sinks further into his chair, and shakes his head.)
Whedon states: Well actually he was closer to 200, so it was even worse. But she'd been doing slaying for a while and at that point he was the only sort of person she could fall for and likewise for him, and it was love, and we were kind of going for the whole Juliet at 13 of it all - and yeah, it was kind of wrong, and definitely illegal, but also love -
Marti: It didn't all that well either, did it?
Then, Emma Caulfield tells the story behind the Body - how a fan had asked what she was thinking when she gave her speech - and she told the fan, that actually she really had to go to the bathroom and was really hungry. They'd done multiple takes, because Whedon was going all Napoleon on the tears. She had one tear go down her face, then another, then not enough, then too much. And all she wanted to do was go to the bathroom, and eat something.
And the expression on that poor girl's face - was oh okay. And she thought, damn, I screwed up. I went all Anya with no filter!
Another weird bit? When Amber Bensen is asked why she didn't come back as Tara in the seventh season, she kind of dodges the question. States that she was having wild sex with Marlon Brando, and had to be by his bedside to nurse him back to health. Then states that she was busy directing Ghosts of Albion and not available. And then talks about how she was happy that Willow stayed a lesbian and didn't flip flop and got to stay true to herself. (That would not have gone down well now, since people are bisexual.)
It's clear that this was an awkward reunion. How they are even sitting is interesting - Whedon is at one end, followed by Gellar, Brendan, Marsters, Caulfield (who whispers in Marsters ear after someone asks who Whedon thinks Buffy should be with Spike or Angel), Marti, Trachenberg, Charisma, Green, Amber, then Greenwalt. So Amber, Trachenberg, and Charisma are very far from Whedon. All the people who had massive issues with Whedon are the fartherest from him. Also far from Brendon. And Brendon managed to stop Whedon and anyone from having to answer various questions. They really side-step a lot of questions they don't want to answer.
It was an odd reunion. And kind of painful in a way.
3. Variety's List of The Greatest Television Shows of All Time is basically just US television shows. Granted up to a certain point, the US really was the only one exporting or doing all that much with television, but after that point everyone else was too - and that point was about the 1960s/1970s. The UK produced a lot of cool television series in the 1960s.
I know, I watched them. Just because we didn't get the shows over in the US, didn't mean they weren't great.
So, read that list - with the following two things in mind: 1) it's subjective, and 2) it's by US television show critics who clearly haven't watched anything outside of the US.
ME: General Hospital is 88 on the Variety's List of the 100 Greatest Television Shows.
Mother: What? Why? Are they nuts?
Me: They were happy about it on Xitter and Facebook.
Mother: I don't get it.
Me: Television critics.
Buffy made #40.
Both are higher up the list than...Community, Abbot Elementary, the Cosby Show, St. Elsewhere, Hannibal, Homeland,The Good Fight, Top Chef (which is a reality series that I've never watched),Black Mirror, I May Destroy You, Will and Grace, Daria, and Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.
I don't know. I'd have put St. Elsewhere above General Hospital, but that's just me.
Sigh, Girls is on the list. But so is Happy Days, just below General Hospital.
Hee, Buffy beat out the Americans, Six Feet Under, Grey's Anatomy, Star Trek the Next Generation,The Dick Van Dyke Show...
Whomever wrote this list has an odd love of I Love Lucy and Mad Men. Seriously? I would not have listed them as 1 and 2. Maybe 60 and 70 or far lower. And yes, I've watched all of the episodes and seen them. And just no.
See? This is why it is hard to take television critics seriously.
I need to see the allergist. Probably in March. No one is available prior to that.
2. Listening to the Paley Fest Buffy Reunion from 2008 - and I don't remember bits from this at all...such as:
* Christopher Beck won an Emmy from the show for the music. And the mournful piece for Passion? Anthony Stewart Head actually did the vocalization for it.
Found it! Remembering Jenny, by Christopher Beck and vocalizations by Anthony Stewart Head.
* There's a few really insane remarks in there...that get across the awkwardness of the gathering.
Such as...Marsters mentions how the writers had a scarier job then they did, because they had to expose themselves, they just acted it.
Whedon says - he'll take that since he wrote them.
Then either Brendon or Greenwalt quip, well no, over half of them were written by someone else.
Ouch.
Then Gellar talks about wishing she had great role model, to which Brendan quips, "wasn't that Susan Lucci?" And Gellar just sits there with a pained smile on her face. While Marsters sinks back in his chair, head bowed, smiling and shaking his head.
Ouch.
Seth Green, Brendan and Greenwalt take turns ribbing everyone. It's insane.
When they ask what everyone is doing, Greenwalt states after a series of nervous breakdowns, he's retired from the biz, but will return when someone invites him.
Also, one gal gets up and states when she started watching it - she was a sophomore in high school and didn't realize the age difference between Angel and Buffy, but now that she's older and twenty-six, she's thinking whoa, that's a huge creepy age difference with Angel being 26 and Buffy only 16. And did they even think about the ramnifications of that? (Marsters sinks further into his chair, and shakes his head.)
Whedon states: Well actually he was closer to 200, so it was even worse. But she'd been doing slaying for a while and at that point he was the only sort of person she could fall for and likewise for him, and it was love, and we were kind of going for the whole Juliet at 13 of it all - and yeah, it was kind of wrong, and definitely illegal, but also love -
Marti: It didn't all that well either, did it?
Then, Emma Caulfield tells the story behind the Body - how a fan had asked what she was thinking when she gave her speech - and she told the fan, that actually she really had to go to the bathroom and was really hungry. They'd done multiple takes, because Whedon was going all Napoleon on the tears. She had one tear go down her face, then another, then not enough, then too much. And all she wanted to do was go to the bathroom, and eat something.
And the expression on that poor girl's face - was oh okay. And she thought, damn, I screwed up. I went all Anya with no filter!
Another weird bit? When Amber Bensen is asked why she didn't come back as Tara in the seventh season, she kind of dodges the question. States that she was having wild sex with Marlon Brando, and had to be by his bedside to nurse him back to health. Then states that she was busy directing Ghosts of Albion and not available. And then talks about how she was happy that Willow stayed a lesbian and didn't flip flop and got to stay true to herself. (That would not have gone down well now, since people are bisexual.)
It's clear that this was an awkward reunion. How they are even sitting is interesting - Whedon is at one end, followed by Gellar, Brendan, Marsters, Caulfield (who whispers in Marsters ear after someone asks who Whedon thinks Buffy should be with Spike or Angel), Marti, Trachenberg, Charisma, Green, Amber, then Greenwalt. So Amber, Trachenberg, and Charisma are very far from Whedon. All the people who had massive issues with Whedon are the fartherest from him. Also far from Brendon. And Brendon managed to stop Whedon and anyone from having to answer various questions. They really side-step a lot of questions they don't want to answer.
It was an odd reunion. And kind of painful in a way.
3. Variety's List of The Greatest Television Shows of All Time is basically just US television shows. Granted up to a certain point, the US really was the only one exporting or doing all that much with television, but after that point everyone else was too - and that point was about the 1960s/1970s. The UK produced a lot of cool television series in the 1960s.
I know, I watched them. Just because we didn't get the shows over in the US, didn't mean they weren't great.
So, read that list - with the following two things in mind: 1) it's subjective, and 2) it's by US television show critics who clearly haven't watched anything outside of the US.
ME: General Hospital is 88 on the Variety's List of the 100 Greatest Television Shows.
Mother: What? Why? Are they nuts?
Me: They were happy about it on Xitter and Facebook.
Mother: I don't get it.
Me: Television critics.
Buffy made #40.
Both are higher up the list than...Community, Abbot Elementary, the Cosby Show, St. Elsewhere, Hannibal, Homeland,The Good Fight, Top Chef (which is a reality series that I've never watched),Black Mirror, I May Destroy You, Will and Grace, Daria, and Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.
I don't know. I'd have put St. Elsewhere above General Hospital, but that's just me.
Sigh, Girls is on the list. But so is Happy Days, just below General Hospital.
Hee, Buffy beat out the Americans, Six Feet Under, Grey's Anatomy, Star Trek the Next Generation,The Dick Van Dyke Show...
Whomever wrote this list has an odd love of I Love Lucy and Mad Men. Seriously? I would not have listed them as 1 and 2. Maybe 60 and 70 or far lower. And yes, I've watched all of the episodes and seen them. And just no.
See? This is why it is hard to take television critics seriously.
no subject
Date: 2023-12-24 09:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-12-24 01:46 pm (UTC)Based on what I know about Brendon at that time, and watching him? I think he was most likely drunk, most likely had alcohol in his water bottle, and felt no inhibitions in the least. Gellar looked like she wanted to punch him. And Marsters at one taps his arm and leans over to whisper, Nick stop it. (And it's interesting that Gellar and Marsters are on either side of him, with Emma next to Marsters. Also Gellar and Marsters talk to each other around Brendon, and kind of try to ignore him at his annoyance.)
Seth Green started running interference and making jokes - mainly because of Nick.
The whole Marlon Brando thing was definitely a joke. A bad joke. But a well-rehearsed joke to that question. (She couldn't very well tell people - she did not want to work with Whedon again.)
When they ask about Buffy/Angel - who's the one Buffy will be with - Whedon bursts out laughing along with half the panel. And Brendon - quickly throws in after the comics, he's thinking Willow (this is in 2008 during S8, and when Whedon just finished Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog). And that whole conversation leads into Whedon quipping...in response to people questioning Buffy sleeping with Sansu (again 2008), "She's experimenting. Hello, didn't everybody go to college?"
And Gellar through clenched teeth and a tight smile states, "I'm sorry, no, we all didn't." And the moderator or someone else states - "well everbody who isn't on the panel."
Then at another point, when asked who or what they missed, Gellar states she missed the family atmosphere, then quickly corrects and says, the crew, that she can see most of the people here - pointing to the actors, but misses seeing the crew and going to karate games, while a lot of her co-stars are trying not to react. The others? Side-step the question or avoid answering it. Marsters says the writing. But most manage to avoid answering it, or do a quick quip.
Charisma when asked about going to Angel, mentions off-hand that Whedon took her for a walk - which always was a scary thing - and joked about firing her. And others chimed in that he did that a lot, to them as well.
It was horribly awkward. Also it's kind of obvious - who is not there - David Boreanze and Alyson Hannigan, and Anthony Stewart Head.
They did not want to be there. And if it weren't for James Marsters - probably wouldn't have gotten much at all. I find it interesting who hasn't worked with Whedon again - and it's pretty much everyone in the cast of Buffy. The only one's who worked with him again were Denisof, Acker, and folks from Firefly (who only did 13 episodes with him).
no subject
Date: 2023-12-24 02:14 pm (UTC)And yeah, that Variety list was awful. At the very least, people who make these lists should try to compare like-to-like: sit coms to sit coms; dramas to dramas; game shows to game shows; etc. Comparing, say, The Wire to Jeopardy makes no sense because they have nothing in common.
no subject
Date: 2023-12-24 09:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-12-24 11:44 pm (UTC)So yeah, the only ones who worked with Whedon in shows post Buffy or Angel were either not from Buffy, or hadn't been on Buffy for any length of time. And from Angel? It was only Denisof and Acker, no one else.
Vincent Kartheiser did not like his time on Angel. And wanted out. J August had a similar reaction.
Acker and J. August despised David B (I got that from the puppeteers who worked on Smile Time.)
Those sets were toxic, although from Marsters and Charisma - Angel was nowhere near as toxic or difficult to work on as Buffy, mainly because Joss wasn't really in charge of it, David had a bit more control than Gellar did, and it was just five days a week, and 12 hour days, not the 24/7 hell that was Buffy.
no subject
Date: 2023-12-24 11:50 pm (UTC)Agreed on Variety list. You can't compare reality television shows to dramas and to sitcoms. It's kind of comparing a Pineapple to a Sirloin Steak to a Milkshake. Uhm no.
And the Wire to I Love Lucy? The two aren't anything alike.
no subject
Date: 2023-12-24 03:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-12-24 11:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-12-25 09:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-12-25 02:31 pm (UTC)And understands where the fans are coming from - because he'd been one himself? And now, he has a lot more fun interacting with them - because he's no longer a sex symbol and doesn't have to fend them off or hide.