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Part III: The Tv Show Grind and Writer Burn Out...
WARNING: When I posted this portion on the Angel Soul's Spoiler Board in 2003, I got blasted for a footnote regarding the "rape trope" in tv media, which I've since edited. To make it clearer. But if you have a trigger regarding sexual violence or rape, don't read. Plus, please note that my opinions have changed since I wrote this. I'm reposting for the interview links and quotes that several new people on my flist were hunting. There's a quote by Whedon in the footnotes regarding Seeing Red and the B/S relationship - which is interesting. Along with quotes from numerous people posting about the attempted rape at the time in reviews and posting boards. If this stuff makes your blood pressure sky-rocket, please avoid.
[> Part III:The TV Show Grind and Writer Burn-Out (The Very Special Episode) -- s'kat (most lengthy footnotes here!), 10:07:14 08/23/03 Sat
Part III: The TV Show Grind and Writer Burn-Out
Seven years is an incredibly long time for a drama to be on TV. Few television shows last that long and retain their worth. TV is a grind. Long hours. Lots of pressure. Not that much recognition in the industry. You have approximately 8-10 days to kick out a 43 minute episode. (30) To give you an idea what that means, it can take a day to shoot a 30 second commercial. You have what amounts to anywhere from 8 days to maybe 15 hours to write the episode. (31)The actors get the script pretty close to the time they have to perform it and they do enough takes to get the lines right. It's not like plays and film - where you you get the script way ahead of time. The actor often doesn't know what the script is until s/he arrives on the set. And you don't have the time to re-do the episode if it's horrible. Time is money. (32)
Like all TV shows - Btvs fell into some common pitfalls partly due to the grind and partly due to the challenges of writing innovative episodes over a seven-year period. (33) Writers can get tired of the same stories and characters after a while, they want to do something new. (34) Add to this actor burn-out or restlessness, partly due to normal work-place tensions, and the fact that most people in the film/theater business are nomadic by nature and don't like doing one thing for too long. (35) They're used to movies or plays - six months doing this, six months doing that. So due to these pressures, after about four or five years, even the best TV shows and television writers fall into the following traps:
The Very Special Episode
This is when TV writers decide to tackle big issues and be brave. What happens is they flip the show out of its genre/reality than flip it back the very next episode. As a result the audience loses its trust in the writers. Examples: situation comedies who decide to do the drug or domestic abuse or eating disorder or rape storyline. Btvs did it with Seeing Red and to an extent with Wrecked . They skirted the problem barely with Earshot and The Body by staying true to their characters and universe. Seeing Red? Well let's just say the infamous bathroom/attempted rape scene was like watching an episode of Law and Order meets Beverly Hills 90210 not an episode of metaphorically layered Btvs. It was even filmed in the same gritty white on black, naturalistic style as Law and Order, with tight camera angles and close-ups, while the surrounding material was filmed more in the style of BTVS. The contrast jarred the audience - emphasizing the violence of the scene and the victimization of the heroine more than may have been intended. The audience was in effect no longer watching a vampire and a vampire slayer - they were watching the girl-next door and her ex-boyfriend. Other examples of the very special episode in BTVS include: Warren's shooting of Buffy and Tara in Seeing Red and Willow's visit to a molesting drug dealer and subsequent magic addiction arc in Wrecked. They stripped away the metaphors. Then put them back again. Just like those situation comedies do - dramatic one episode - then snap - comedy the next...the writers trust that the audience followed and didn't just decide to jump ship.
The problem with The Message episode or Special Episode - is the writers think they are being new and innovative and shocking - truth is? The audience have seen it all before. I If you've ever in your life watched a prime time or daytime soap opera, an after-school special, Lifetime Original Movie, Beverly Hills 90210, Boston Public or an episode of Seventh Heaven, etc: you probably have seen the heroine almost get raped/or get raped by her date or boyfriend, usually someone the audience likes and a relationship that the writers need to break up for some reason but can't figure out how. (36) To Whedon's credit, he attempted to subvert the attempted rape/rape cliché by concentrating on the perpetuator of the crime as opposed to the victim. Whedon felt that too often our society demonizes rapists and/or attempted rapists by their acts, instead of treating them like human beings who made a horrible mistake and aren't completely defined by their crime. They can be redeemed. (37) So he tried to tackle through Spike the issue of rape from the perpetuator's point of view. The problem with doing this is two-fold: 1.) In our society most rapists get-off, rape is a very hard crime to prove and up until the last couple of years, one that wasn't acknowledged. 2. The day-time soap operas and movies of the week already beat him to it. (38)
A recent review from film force suggests that viewers are not able to appreciate this story and it may even be offensive to some. Note the reviewer fails to recognize the fact that we're not discussing a human character or "man" but a soulless vampire with no conscience, who because of the attempted rape, hunts a soul to become a better man - one who would never force himself on a woman. A soulless vamp who after winning his soul redeems himself by sacrificing his life for the world.
"For all of the protestations of "girl power", it was Spike, the man who attempted to rape Buffy last season, who winds up ultimately saving the day. In a true General Hospital moment, Buffy even professes her love for the vampire who tried to kill her more than once. If last season's tryst was supposed to be about women who find themselves in bad relationships, what the hell was that supposed to be?" From the film force review of Chosen, "Buffy Gets Dusted; 24 Keeps on Ticking" at http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/408/408596p1.html?fromint=1
The reviewer refuses to see Spike's attempted rape as the crime of a soulless vampire and suggests that the idea Spike sought a soul afterwards and could be forgiven is offensive. Odd considering people generally accept the idea that the most vicious vampire in the history of the show, someone who raped and murdered a chaste girl entering a convent, could be redeemed, that this is not offensive. If you accept Angel's journey for redemption at all, than you should be able to accept Spike's, but several people can't. Why? The television rape cliché started by General Hospital in the 1970s. People viewed a violent attempted rape on their television screen against the heroine. So violent that the UK censored the scene for viewers because it aired prior to 9 pm. Some viewers just can't get past it. No matter what the writers do. If our society had a history of punishing and rehabilitating rapists, it may work. But instead, we have a history of vilifying the victim. Odd, considering viewers had no problem forgiving Xander's attempted rape on Buffy in The Pack, Faith's attempted rape of Xander in Consequences, Angelus' rapes of Drusilla, Holtz's wife and daughter, the gypsy girl, torture of Giles, and murder of Jenny - of course a lot of people have dealt with Angelus' crimes by deciding Angel isn't Angelus at all. (39) Why? The reason is the naturalistic manner that the attempted rape scene in Seeing Red was filmed. (40) The writers dropped the metaphors. By dropping the metaphors so, Buffy became a victim and Spike an attempted rapist in Seeing Red - for those five brief minutes, both characters fell out of the fragile mythology the series had spent six years developing. If the scene had been filmed in the same style as the Faith/Xander sequence in Consequences or Xander/Buffy sequence in The Pack or even Angelus/the gypsy girl in Darla - or Angel/Darla in Reprise, several viewers may have reacted differently to the stimuli. (*Note I did not say all viewers reacted this way, quite a few understood where ME was going and accepted it.)
Unfortunately, there are no new interpretations when it comes to the "rape" issue, attempted or otherwise. It's been over-done. Add to this the fact that Buffy The Vampire Slayer is a gothic horror serial that for the last seven years has used vampires as a metaphor for sexual taboos ranging from incest to S & M sex to sexual assault. Just about every vampire on the show has in some way shape or form committed a sexual assault. Angel certainly did on his show, and not always within the context of the metaphor, although it was rare. To strip away the metaphor in a gothic horror show risks exposing other realities, such as the fact that the heroine solves her problems by slaying things with a sharp stick or her fists. Also what is ME saying about rapists in general - when all the male characters who attempt it are in fact soulless or infected with a demon at the time of the act? If they left the metaphor intact, the vampire bite, then we would have no need to ask these questions. By doing the "very special episode" and dropping the metaphorical veil, ME may have risked the fragile framework of their own universe.
The other issues ME tackled in Season 6's version of the special episode was drug abuse and the shooting of a loved one. If you have watched any television in your lifetime, you have seen this story line, in which the main character or a regular struggles with drug abuse, addiction, grief, or insanity, hits rock bottom, slowly comes back after betraying all the other characters or losing something or someone close to them. Cheers did it with Sam Malone twice - alcohol and sex-addiction, MASH did it with Hawkeye going insane, and Family Ties did it with Alex P. Keaton and grief. (41) You have also probably seen someone get shot on a tv show. Soap operas love this plot device. Usually it happens at a huge event or a very intimate moment, the villain everyone has ignored or not taken seriously shoots two of the leads, one lives and one dies. The one who dies is usually a wonderful character that everyone adores and the most mature one in the cast. Dallas is one of the few programs that subverted this idea and shot the villain - but then the glory of Dallas was the villain was the star of the show, JR Ewing and that shooting got the highest ratings ever. Dynasty shot two characters. Beverly 90210 did it their last season. Actually they did it more than once. Melrose Place? All the time. The rape, the drug addict, the heroes getting shot are plot devices that have been used so often in TV they have almost become clichés. West Wing did the whole gunshot thing their very first season and then again in 2002. I look forward to seeing the TV dramas that don't do it. Was hoping since BTVS is a fantasy show, it wouldn't - but it hit the six year time span and sure enough out came the television clichés.
Meta-narration, Reunions, Flashback Episode and Clips - a TV specialty.
The day I see a tv show that does not feel compelled to bring back old characters or do clips of past episodes or even refer to them in its last season, is the day Television stops being a guilty pleasure.
a. The Meta-narration/clips Episode
Sooner or later all TV shows will fall into this trap. Star Trek The Next Generation did by referencing its predecessor and doing meta-narration on past episodes in its series finale. Instead of building on what it had - it felt the need to become nostalgic. Same with MASH. Cheers also did it. And Friends? All the blasted time. It's a wonderfully cheap way to kill time, I suspect. But it is never as entertaining as it's meant to be.
BTVS did it a lot in S7. Not only did we get the 15 minute previously on Buffy section, which now included bits from almost all the previously aired episodes, but we got old regenerated clips in the middle of episodes - most notably the Faith sequences in Dirty Girls.
And just in case we didn't notice? They would meta-narrate on past episodes - using obvious mentions of the first - fifth season episodes in the narrative, something that happens a lot with Television. Movies? Not so much since they are self-contained. If part of a serial? A little just to catch you up. Although I noticed to my delight that Peter Jackson avoided doing this in Two Towers, Part II of LoR, he apparently thought it silly and demeaning to the audience to show what happened previously in the first movie. George Lucas set the precedent with Empire Strikes Back - similarly not showing what came before or dwelling on it too much. Odd that tv writers who know we watch their shows in syndication, feel the need to refer to past episodes constantly. Books also don't really do this. JK Rowling did it a little in Harry Potter, but pretty quickly. Most? Don't. And Shakespeare? He avoids doing it too heavily in Henry the V, the sequel to Henry the IV. Yet, most, possibly all TV shows do. Dawson's Creek certainly did. BTVS did. And I suspect next year - Angel the Series will. It seems to be part and parcel of the form. If you dislike this, I suggest you focus your time on movies and books. TV will never change.
b. Flashback Episode
In a recent New York Times article, television critic Emily Nussbaum raves about the flashback. "The flashback episode: it's a television specialty worth looking back on. Perfectly suited to TV's episodic nature, flashbacks bend the rules of television time, creating an instant set of memories and allowing viewers a prison break from TV's seemingly eternal present tense." (42) She ranks them from the previously mentioned low on the totem pole: "dumb clip-show aka filler" to the more profound "flashback episode", which is usually best done by taking the audience inside the characters heads with little more preamble than a line or scene transition. The better episodes - use the flashback to reveal something new about the characters, explain a plot point, or a long unanswered question such as how does Monica on Friends afford that great apartment? Or how did Angel and Spike become vampires?
ME may have overused this device in Season 7, Btvs. In prior years the flashback was used sparingly to explain Angel's background in Season 2 finale Becoming. More importantly, it lent itself to whatever plot was unraveling at the time. It was not just an excuse for the writers to experiment. It did not stop the action - rather flowed from it - establishing for the audience Angel's motivation in Becoming and the irony of his actions. Fool for Love in Season 5 Btvs is another example of the flashback working brilliantly - in this episode key information about Spike's past is revealed which in turn shed's light on what Buffy is up against and the central mythology of the series. Plus none of these episodes rely on previously aired scenes, instead they provide brand new ones which build on the characters. We get both Buffy's motivations and Spike's in the episode. Compare this to Storyteller, Dirty Girls, and Him all of which use previously aired scenes as flashbacks with comic twists akin to a blooper episode. Him flashes back to Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered - succeeding only in reminding the audience of how much better that episode was regarding a similar theme. Dirty Girls flashes back to Bad Girls and Consequences, also far better episodes than how the writers twist them in the flashbacks. Storyteller uses clips from Season 6 throughout the episode. ME attempts to do it's own twist on this form by making the clips comical in retrospect or changing them slightly, but all this does is make me miss the original version. Storyteller does introduce other sequences, several scenes of Andrew talking to Warren behind Jonathan's back, but these don't really lead us anywhere plot-wise or character-wise. Also they tend to be on the repetitive side - since we've already seen these scenes in Conversations with Dead People and Never Leave Me. They do not add to the story. We know why Jonathan and Andrew go to Sunnydale in Conversations With Dead People - Andrew's remembered conversation with Jonathan in Mexico merely repeats that information. The knife that Andrew brings back with him from Mexico and used to kill Jonathan, which is supposed to be the point of the flashback, is never really explained or used in the episode. It appears to be a device or excuse for the writer to do the flashback between Andrew and Jonathan. Instead of using these scenes to explain who Andrew is or his family background or why he ended up with Warren and Jonathan in the first place, the flashbacks appear to provide little more than comic relief. The scenes provide no true depth, do not really tell us anything new, and just feel like more filler, creative, maybe even comical filler, but filler all the same. (43) Contrast this with Lies My Parents Told Me, which through a series of flashbacks caused by a memory device magically inserted in Spike's brain, reveals the source of Spike's psychological trigger and the source of Wood's vendetta against Spike. The flashback sequences do provide depth to the characters and move the plot along. While not as strong and entangled in the plot/mythology as Fool for Love and Becoming's flashbacks, they do serve a clear purpose outside of filler or comical clips. When done well - the flashback sequence is a remarkable device specific to the television medium; it advances both character and plot seamlessly with wit and little artifice. Done badly? It's little more than filler.
c. Character Reunions
These are used principally to obtain ratings. I honestly think that the network brass insists that the writers insert some long-missed character in an episode, specifically one towards the very end of a series run, just to get those ratings, regardless of whether this long- missed character actually fits in the story.
Cheers did it with Diane Chambers in the Cheers Season Finale.
Happy Days with Ron Howard.
Btvs with Angel and Faith.
Star Trek the Next Generation with characters from the first series
Voyager with characters from the other series if available
Xena did it with Hercules
Hercules did it with Xena
Spin City did it with Michael J. Fox in the last season, his character had left two years before.
Sometimes it works beautifully. But usually it feels contrived and the character that comes back or crosses over feels stiff and uncomfortable as if he/she is aware of the contrivance. I have yet to see a television writer or network exec avoid this obvious and admittedly successful ploy for ratings. It has become an expected piece of the television formulaic style. Oh and if the long missed character had been in a romantic relationship with the lead? They immediately fall into bed with them, have sex, or share a passionate kiss as if they never left and the two have been humping like rabbits for the last five years. Diane and Sam immediately went after each other and tried to get married, after barely saying a word to each other for two-three seasons. It's like: 'ohhh look here comes h/ir one true love! Let's all swoon.' Please. Obvious ratings grabber and rarely done well. That said, occasionally writers pull this off. I actually liked the Sam and Diane reunion - it did a wonderful job of reiterating why these two should not be together. Of course Diane was allowed to interact with everyone, was made a central part of the episode and was not just a device, but a strategic part of a plot arc centering on Sam's sex addiction. Also she and Sam did not immediately kiss, they worked up to it. It was earned. No one else has come close to pulling this off as well or demonstrating it as more than just a ratings stunt. ME came close with Faith on Angel The Series and BTVS, but fell short of the mark with Angel's long-awaited cross-over to Buffy, where the character came across as slightly stiff and adolescent in marked contrast to the maturity he'd shown in his own series the week before. Also he only interacted with Buffy, no one else. Outside of the amulet - a plot device that could have reached Sunnydale by other means, Angel's appearance did little to add to the character's growth or the plot. He may have helped Buffy reach a sort of epiphany, but that epiphany would have just as easily been reached in a scene with Xander, Willow or Spike. Angel was not necessary. Except to make ratings climb and tease B/A fans who were oddly split regarding it. The ratings also did not climb. Barely hit 2.9 nationally. (44) Faith by comparison was redeemed by her appearance and interacted with all of the major characters. ME might have been better off letting Angel stay on his series and only bringing Faith and the amulet over.
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30 The Sound of The Fury, David Fuy Interview, City of Angel: "I've discovered how long it takes to write a script without killing myself, which is eight days. That's why when I get these stories that break four days into prep, I usually have to go 'Hey Steve [DeKnight], Wanna write this with me?'"; Interview with Anthony Stewart Head on IGN: Discusses filming that took 22 hours. See also James Marsters Q& A at Chicago Convention transcribed by atzone, regarding the television show grind: "You know we worked twelve to twenty hours, five days a week. We begin on 4 am on Monday morning and we get out about 5am Saturday morning, which we call Friday night. You know it's really fun but at the same time there is this quality of exhaustion that is behind everything. My memory of doing the show is a little hazy, frankly. Most of the time I feel like I'm stumbling around and as soon as we get the lines right, we move on and I'm always amazed by how good it looks. I read the scripts and I get these grand ideas on all this stuff I want to do and then the crush of television happens and it's just about trying to get these scenes filmed in the time we have." http://www.atnzone.com/tvzone/features/buffycon_1.shtml
31 Documentary on Filming of The Sheild (Trio Network); The Sound of The Fury
32Although at Moonlight Rising Adam Busch told convention goers that he'd been brought back to re-do a line for a scene once. See also, James Marsters Interview, pp.20-21, The Official Buffy Magazine #8, June/July 2003: "If you do movies or plays, you choose what kind of projects you would be willing to do." But on a "television series [....] actors are bound to perform the scripts as they come in." See also the James Marsters Q& A on atzone.
33See Joss Whedon Interview on salon.com and actionadventure.com where he discusses why this was his last year of BTVS: "TV is such a grind." Marti Noxon in The Official Buffy Magazine #9: states that if they were to do a season 8 it would probably about doing laundry.
34After BTVS ended it was reported on AICN that the writers went on to other shows. Only three of the BTVS writers joined BTVS' spin-series Angel, and one of those three writers just joined BTVS in Season 7. Jane Espenson went to Gilmore Girls, Doug Petrie to Tru Calling, Rebecca Rand Kirshner to Tarzan, Drew Greenberg to Smallville, and Marti Noxon to Still Life. At least five left before BTVS finished filming in Season 7. In numerous interviews - Whedon and Noxon state they were ready to move on, Gellar's decision to quit came more as a relief than a surprise. Official Buffy Magazine #8; AICN interview, IGN Interview with Joss Whedon amongst others.
35 Emma Caulfield, Sara Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hannigan, and Michelle Trachtenberg all commented in exit interviews that they were ready to move on to movies. Emma Caulfield reported that five years was a long time to be in any one place - in her Interview in The Official Buffy Magazine #7 and in TV Zone.
36Here is a partial list of the television shows who did the special episodes on "rape" and how they explored the issue: According to promotional ads - Boston Public will do the "rape story line" in it's season premiere. The episode raises the age old question is it rape or just violent sex? The witness claims it was rape. The victim claims violent sex. It's a new twist torn from the headlines. This week according to TV Guide there's a made for TV movie on the Andrew Luster case about the Max Factor heir who was serial rapist. Currently on Television (July -September 2003) - All My Children and As the World Turns have rape storylines. It's been a soap opera standby for over 30 years. 24 in their very first season had the wife of the lead character get raped. Beverly Hills 90210 (Kelly was the victim of a date rape towards end of series by her boyfriend)Angel The Series (see the flashback episodes Dear Boy, Darla, and Reprise where Angel is shown raping or intending to rape different women - one Drusilla - Dear Boy, two - the gypsy girl Darla, and three Darla in Reprise. He is also mentioned raping and murdering Holtz's wife - but it's not a very special episode, nor emphasized, more implied), Melrose Place, Dallas, Dynasty, Law & Order, All in the Family (in this situation comedy they featured and were proud of dealing with "elderly" rape ( elderly depending on your pov, the critics stated it is an example of one, but Edith was in reality only 50, also much like Buffy, she was NOT raped, only assaulted, but viewers saw rape for some reason), Edith Bunker was sexually attacked not actually raped by an intruder), St. Elsewhere (major/lead character was serial rapist), China Beach, NyPd Blue, and Hill Street Blues (Joyce Davenport was the victim of an assault). BTVS has done five attempted rape scenes/sexual assault's in it's history: 1) Xander attempted to rape Buffy in The Pack - she hit over the head with a desk, 2) Buffy's date attempted to rape her in Go Fish - she punched him in the nose, 3)Faith attempted to rape Xander in Consequences, Angel yanked her off him and knocked her unconscious, 4) Spike attempted to bite Willow in The Initiative in what could be described as a metaphor for date rape. 5) Seeing Red - the infamous sexual assault in the bathroom. Apparently there are no new ideas in TV since they keep relying on what has now become a cliché - how do we put the heroine into jeopardy or show her boyfriend is dangerous? Regardless of the fact he's a vampire? I know let's do a sexual assault. (And they wonder why Seeing Red had such low ratings. See www.futonmediacritic.com.)
The whole marital rape or boyfriend/girlfriend violent relationship drama has been part of daytime soap operas for ages, with mixed results and much like boddice ripper romance novels can at times come across in a derogatory way. The writers do it over a 20 year time period and to a degree have the flexibility of writing the characters out over the long haul - so what you get is a multi-faceted point of view, that does not always make sense. In the 1970s, General Hospital did a story that changed how television romances were done and took risks no one had done previously...it created an anti-hero who raped the married heroine (married to someone else) at the disco in a fit of drunken pain and fear - she ends up hospitalized, then later finds him half dead and on the run - she decides to help him and runs off with him, where they engage in many adventures, never kiss or touch for about a year, and finally consummate their relationship, and get married in an episode that is amongst the most watched tv episodes ever aired worldwide, this is the episode that Elizabeth Taylor guest-starred in. Years later, after getting kidnapped by the Cassadines, raped and impregnanted by their son, escaping, reuniting with Luke, divorcing Luke, Laura eventually has a breakdown ends up catatonic for years in a mental institution, Luke's children don't like him partly because they found out what he did to their mother ages ago, and Luke is married to someone else. (I was never a fan of this romance by the way, but you'd have to have been born under a rock not to have known about it in the 1970s and 80s - it was the most watched tv show on.) The other soaps that have done it are One Life to Live, where Todd Manning gang raped Marty Saybrook, then later, sort of got redeemed and married Blair, he's also been in and out of romantic relationships with Marty believe it or not. Now Marti's son has married Todd's daughter and they have a kid. The other drama that did it was The Guiding Light, when the villainous Roger Thorpe raped his wife Holly, out of jealousy and rage. Holly was married to bad-boy Roger, but wanted good boy Ed. Out of rage and jealousy - Roger raped her. She turned him in. He escaped and kidnapped her. Ed saved her and Roger appeared to fall off a cliff. Only to return in true soap fashion fifteen years later. Holly also returns and they are forced to deal with what happened all those years ago. The two characters had a rich and complex relationship that spanned over 20 years and because of that time-span, the soap was able to deal with the issue from multiple pov's. We get Eds, Holly's, Rogers, Roger's new girlfriend's, Roger and Holly's daughter's pov, and assorted bystanders. We also get the pov of the characters 20 years after the incident happened. It also had Holly and Roger back and forth in romantic relationships with each other. [ETA: In retrospect - now having rewatched Buffy S7 Beneath You and Selfless - I think Whedon handled this trope far better than any of the tv shows above ever did.]
37 Comic Con Q&A with Joss Whedon and ATS writers in San Diego, June 2003, (courtesy of www.cityofangel.com who posted a transcript): "It's something that we had been debating for years and we figured our ambivalence was exactly what we wanted to project and we used that on the show. We knew that we couldn't come back from an attempted rape to a romantic sexual relationship. But what we did want to say was that we could come back to a place of trust between these people. That man could redeem himself. And in time what went on with Spike and Buffy was very textured and complicated you couldn't just say, 'Well now he's the villain again.' I think that does a disservice to the complexity of what went on and we went back and forth endlessly. Should they get together once, should they never get together, should she serve her emotional need, should she feel guilty bout that emotional need? Hopefully some of that spilled out into the show because it is probably the most complex question that is asked in the entire run of the show."
38 See note 36, also: General Hospital - in 1996-99 the show revisited Laura's rape by Luke through Luke and Lucky's eyes. It came close to destroying their relationship and tormented Luke. In this version - we were forced to relive the crime through Luke's eyes, Laura's husband at the time- Scotty's eyes, and through Laura's. It was an attempt to show a complex topic from a new angle. One Life to Live - the rape of Marty by Todd Manning, was explored through Todd's eyes and Marty Seabrook's. Todd eventually redeems himself by selflessly taking a bullet for Marty and in the process giving up his happy life with child and wife Blair, who had nothing to do with his past crime. Even after his redemption - he is forced to wear Marti's scar on his cheek as a reminder. Guiding Light, 1989-1997 dealt with Roger's remorse over the rape of Holly that occurred fifteen years ago. Rape and attempted rape storylines are soap opera stand-bys. Jack Devereux of the romantic Jack and Jenn duo on Days of Our Lives, also was a rapist, he raped his first wife way back when he was first introduced. He was also redeemed eventually.
39 See Darla, Dear Boy, Ats S2 Becoming Part II S2Btvs, Passion S2 Btvs, and Offspring-Lullaby S3 Ats which detail several of Angelus/Angel's misdeeds. [ETC: Recently during the Cultural Humanist Q&A - Joss Whedon was asked if Angelus and Angel were two separate people and if so, how do you do redemption with that. Whedon stated that they were and they weren't. The mythology set it up as two different moral structures, but the metaphor was alcoholism and how we are responsible for the deeds we do under the influence of a drug. So it is both. He also stated separately that Spike was a more mature version of Angel's arc. Also worth noting these acts are mostly shown by metaphor, although it is stated fairly directly and clearly that he did rape Dru and other. What is odd about fan discussions at the time is apparently fans did not mind the brutal violence of the vampire bite- a clear metaphor of rape, yet did mind seeing an actual one. This lends credence to a message in the series that we see what we want to see. In S6, the writers decided to drop the comfortable metaphors in order to emphasize the theme of "growing up" and ripped open the viel.]
40Finn MaCool's media savvy post on www.atpobtvs.com discussion board in May 2003; See also KdS' post in response to Claudia's thread Btvs Impressions, 8/7/03, on www.atpobtvs.com discussion board: "The Seeing Red rape scene. Recent discussions here have convinced me that the brutal naturalism of that scene was a truly disastrous decision if the way Spike and Spuffy were to be developed in S7 was already planned." See also Entertainment Geekly's review: "Sarah: Speaking of disastrous, my most hated plot device this season actually has to do with Spike, and Dan, I believe this relates directly to your lazy writing comment. There were a few elements that were obvious, "let's get from point a to point b" type of things, but none so much so as that wretched Spike/Buffy attempted rape scene. OK, first of all, what was that? Has Meredith Baxter-Birney suddenly replaced SMG in the credits? This was probably the biggest TV movie moment ever to grace Buffy. Even worse, it didn't make any sense. You could see the little wheels turning in the exposed writerly brain: OK, we need to get rid of Spike for a couple of episodes. OK, you know what? We really need to remind people that he's bad. He's a vampire! Forget the fact that he hasn't done anything much badder than walking around with an exposed torso for a coupla years. To me, that was just a dumb, gratuitous plot device. So obvious. Really hated it. Dan: Yeah, the attempted rape struck me as cheap, unmotivated melodrama. I almost can't comment on Spike's development because I can't accept that that actually happened. And I'm really not looking forward to another brooding guilt-racked vampire wandering the Buffy universe." http://www.entertainmentgeekly.com/web/general/sep2002/buffy_roundtable
41 Sam Malone - had an alcohol problem in Season 2 Cheers - where he fell off the wagon, in Season 10 he was attending sex addicts group - both were done more for laughs than pathos. Mash - had Hawkeye Pierce go through post-traumatic stress syndrome & Father Macaughy lose his hearing in the final episode. Family Ties had Alex P. Keaton go nuts over grief and have to see a psychiatrist. Growing Pains dealt with eating disorders. Blossom - drugs.
42 Emily Nussbaum, "Thanks for the Instant Memories", New York Times Arts Section, August 10th, 2003.
43 As Emily Nussbaum states, regarding the use of flashbacks by reality dating shows and sitcoms : "Prevalent in 80's sitcoms, clip shows paste older scenes together with a corny trigger [...] a narrative technique so transparently dorky that contemporary shows can perform it only with a wink. As if reality dating shows haven't done enough damage, they've generated their own clip format: the penultimate-episode rip-off, in which the audience is force fed reshuffled memories from the week before, a display necessary only for a viewer with severely compromised short-term memory." See note 35 for cite.
44 See www.futonmediacritic.com which calculates the Neilsen ratings for the shows.
45
[> Part III:The TV Show Grind and Writer Burn-Out (The Very Special Episode) -- s'kat (most lengthy footnotes here!), 10:07:14 08/23/03 Sat
Part III: The TV Show Grind and Writer Burn-Out
Seven years is an incredibly long time for a drama to be on TV. Few television shows last that long and retain their worth. TV is a grind. Long hours. Lots of pressure. Not that much recognition in the industry. You have approximately 8-10 days to kick out a 43 minute episode. (30) To give you an idea what that means, it can take a day to shoot a 30 second commercial. You have what amounts to anywhere from 8 days to maybe 15 hours to write the episode. (31)The actors get the script pretty close to the time they have to perform it and they do enough takes to get the lines right. It's not like plays and film - where you you get the script way ahead of time. The actor often doesn't know what the script is until s/he arrives on the set. And you don't have the time to re-do the episode if it's horrible. Time is money. (32)
Like all TV shows - Btvs fell into some common pitfalls partly due to the grind and partly due to the challenges of writing innovative episodes over a seven-year period. (33) Writers can get tired of the same stories and characters after a while, they want to do something new. (34) Add to this actor burn-out or restlessness, partly due to normal work-place tensions, and the fact that most people in the film/theater business are nomadic by nature and don't like doing one thing for too long. (35) They're used to movies or plays - six months doing this, six months doing that. So due to these pressures, after about four or five years, even the best TV shows and television writers fall into the following traps:
The Very Special Episode
This is when TV writers decide to tackle big issues and be brave. What happens is they flip the show out of its genre/reality than flip it back the very next episode. As a result the audience loses its trust in the writers. Examples: situation comedies who decide to do the drug or domestic abuse or eating disorder or rape storyline. Btvs did it with Seeing Red and to an extent with Wrecked . They skirted the problem barely with Earshot and The Body by staying true to their characters and universe. Seeing Red? Well let's just say the infamous bathroom/attempted rape scene was like watching an episode of Law and Order meets Beverly Hills 90210 not an episode of metaphorically layered Btvs. It was even filmed in the same gritty white on black, naturalistic style as Law and Order, with tight camera angles and close-ups, while the surrounding material was filmed more in the style of BTVS. The contrast jarred the audience - emphasizing the violence of the scene and the victimization of the heroine more than may have been intended. The audience was in effect no longer watching a vampire and a vampire slayer - they were watching the girl-next door and her ex-boyfriend. Other examples of the very special episode in BTVS include: Warren's shooting of Buffy and Tara in Seeing Red and Willow's visit to a molesting drug dealer and subsequent magic addiction arc in Wrecked. They stripped away the metaphors. Then put them back again. Just like those situation comedies do - dramatic one episode - then snap - comedy the next...the writers trust that the audience followed and didn't just decide to jump ship.
The problem with The Message episode or Special Episode - is the writers think they are being new and innovative and shocking - truth is? The audience have seen it all before. I If you've ever in your life watched a prime time or daytime soap opera, an after-school special, Lifetime Original Movie, Beverly Hills 90210, Boston Public or an episode of Seventh Heaven, etc: you probably have seen the heroine almost get raped/or get raped by her date or boyfriend, usually someone the audience likes and a relationship that the writers need to break up for some reason but can't figure out how. (36) To Whedon's credit, he attempted to subvert the attempted rape/rape cliché by concentrating on the perpetuator of the crime as opposed to the victim. Whedon felt that too often our society demonizes rapists and/or attempted rapists by their acts, instead of treating them like human beings who made a horrible mistake and aren't completely defined by their crime. They can be redeemed. (37) So he tried to tackle through Spike the issue of rape from the perpetuator's point of view. The problem with doing this is two-fold: 1.) In our society most rapists get-off, rape is a very hard crime to prove and up until the last couple of years, one that wasn't acknowledged. 2. The day-time soap operas and movies of the week already beat him to it. (38)
A recent review from film force suggests that viewers are not able to appreciate this story and it may even be offensive to some. Note the reviewer fails to recognize the fact that we're not discussing a human character or "man" but a soulless vampire with no conscience, who because of the attempted rape, hunts a soul to become a better man - one who would never force himself on a woman. A soulless vamp who after winning his soul redeems himself by sacrificing his life for the world.
"For all of the protestations of "girl power", it was Spike, the man who attempted to rape Buffy last season, who winds up ultimately saving the day. In a true General Hospital moment, Buffy even professes her love for the vampire who tried to kill her more than once. If last season's tryst was supposed to be about women who find themselves in bad relationships, what the hell was that supposed to be?" From the film force review of Chosen, "Buffy Gets Dusted; 24 Keeps on Ticking" at http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/408/408596p1.html?fromint=1
The reviewer refuses to see Spike's attempted rape as the crime of a soulless vampire and suggests that the idea Spike sought a soul afterwards and could be forgiven is offensive. Odd considering people generally accept the idea that the most vicious vampire in the history of the show, someone who raped and murdered a chaste girl entering a convent, could be redeemed, that this is not offensive. If you accept Angel's journey for redemption at all, than you should be able to accept Spike's, but several people can't. Why? The television rape cliché started by General Hospital in the 1970s. People viewed a violent attempted rape on their television screen against the heroine. So violent that the UK censored the scene for viewers because it aired prior to 9 pm. Some viewers just can't get past it. No matter what the writers do. If our society had a history of punishing and rehabilitating rapists, it may work. But instead, we have a history of vilifying the victim. Odd, considering viewers had no problem forgiving Xander's attempted rape on Buffy in The Pack, Faith's attempted rape of Xander in Consequences, Angelus' rapes of Drusilla, Holtz's wife and daughter, the gypsy girl, torture of Giles, and murder of Jenny - of course a lot of people have dealt with Angelus' crimes by deciding Angel isn't Angelus at all. (39) Why? The reason is the naturalistic manner that the attempted rape scene in Seeing Red was filmed. (40) The writers dropped the metaphors. By dropping the metaphors so, Buffy became a victim and Spike an attempted rapist in Seeing Red - for those five brief minutes, both characters fell out of the fragile mythology the series had spent six years developing. If the scene had been filmed in the same style as the Faith/Xander sequence in Consequences or Xander/Buffy sequence in The Pack or even Angelus/the gypsy girl in Darla - or Angel/Darla in Reprise, several viewers may have reacted differently to the stimuli. (*Note I did not say all viewers reacted this way, quite a few understood where ME was going and accepted it.)
Unfortunately, there are no new interpretations when it comes to the "rape" issue, attempted or otherwise. It's been over-done. Add to this the fact that Buffy The Vampire Slayer is a gothic horror serial that for the last seven years has used vampires as a metaphor for sexual taboos ranging from incest to S & M sex to sexual assault. Just about every vampire on the show has in some way shape or form committed a sexual assault. Angel certainly did on his show, and not always within the context of the metaphor, although it was rare. To strip away the metaphor in a gothic horror show risks exposing other realities, such as the fact that the heroine solves her problems by slaying things with a sharp stick or her fists. Also what is ME saying about rapists in general - when all the male characters who attempt it are in fact soulless or infected with a demon at the time of the act? If they left the metaphor intact, the vampire bite, then we would have no need to ask these questions. By doing the "very special episode" and dropping the metaphorical veil, ME may have risked the fragile framework of their own universe.
The other issues ME tackled in Season 6's version of the special episode was drug abuse and the shooting of a loved one. If you have watched any television in your lifetime, you have seen this story line, in which the main character or a regular struggles with drug abuse, addiction, grief, or insanity, hits rock bottom, slowly comes back after betraying all the other characters or losing something or someone close to them. Cheers did it with Sam Malone twice - alcohol and sex-addiction, MASH did it with Hawkeye going insane, and Family Ties did it with Alex P. Keaton and grief. (41) You have also probably seen someone get shot on a tv show. Soap operas love this plot device. Usually it happens at a huge event or a very intimate moment, the villain everyone has ignored or not taken seriously shoots two of the leads, one lives and one dies. The one who dies is usually a wonderful character that everyone adores and the most mature one in the cast. Dallas is one of the few programs that subverted this idea and shot the villain - but then the glory of Dallas was the villain was the star of the show, JR Ewing and that shooting got the highest ratings ever. Dynasty shot two characters. Beverly 90210 did it their last season. Actually they did it more than once. Melrose Place? All the time. The rape, the drug addict, the heroes getting shot are plot devices that have been used so often in TV they have almost become clichés. West Wing did the whole gunshot thing their very first season and then again in 2002. I look forward to seeing the TV dramas that don't do it. Was hoping since BTVS is a fantasy show, it wouldn't - but it hit the six year time span and sure enough out came the television clichés.
Meta-narration, Reunions, Flashback Episode and Clips - a TV specialty.
The day I see a tv show that does not feel compelled to bring back old characters or do clips of past episodes or even refer to them in its last season, is the day Television stops being a guilty pleasure.
a. The Meta-narration/clips Episode
Sooner or later all TV shows will fall into this trap. Star Trek The Next Generation did by referencing its predecessor and doing meta-narration on past episodes in its series finale. Instead of building on what it had - it felt the need to become nostalgic. Same with MASH. Cheers also did it. And Friends? All the blasted time. It's a wonderfully cheap way to kill time, I suspect. But it is never as entertaining as it's meant to be.
BTVS did it a lot in S7. Not only did we get the 15 minute previously on Buffy section, which now included bits from almost all the previously aired episodes, but we got old regenerated clips in the middle of episodes - most notably the Faith sequences in Dirty Girls.
And just in case we didn't notice? They would meta-narrate on past episodes - using obvious mentions of the first - fifth season episodes in the narrative, something that happens a lot with Television. Movies? Not so much since they are self-contained. If part of a serial? A little just to catch you up. Although I noticed to my delight that Peter Jackson avoided doing this in Two Towers, Part II of LoR, he apparently thought it silly and demeaning to the audience to show what happened previously in the first movie. George Lucas set the precedent with Empire Strikes Back - similarly not showing what came before or dwelling on it too much. Odd that tv writers who know we watch their shows in syndication, feel the need to refer to past episodes constantly. Books also don't really do this. JK Rowling did it a little in Harry Potter, but pretty quickly. Most? Don't. And Shakespeare? He avoids doing it too heavily in Henry the V, the sequel to Henry the IV. Yet, most, possibly all TV shows do. Dawson's Creek certainly did. BTVS did. And I suspect next year - Angel the Series will. It seems to be part and parcel of the form. If you dislike this, I suggest you focus your time on movies and books. TV will never change.
b. Flashback Episode
In a recent New York Times article, television critic Emily Nussbaum raves about the flashback. "The flashback episode: it's a television specialty worth looking back on. Perfectly suited to TV's episodic nature, flashbacks bend the rules of television time, creating an instant set of memories and allowing viewers a prison break from TV's seemingly eternal present tense." (42) She ranks them from the previously mentioned low on the totem pole: "dumb clip-show aka filler" to the more profound "flashback episode", which is usually best done by taking the audience inside the characters heads with little more preamble than a line or scene transition. The better episodes - use the flashback to reveal something new about the characters, explain a plot point, or a long unanswered question such as how does Monica on Friends afford that great apartment? Or how did Angel and Spike become vampires?
ME may have overused this device in Season 7, Btvs. In prior years the flashback was used sparingly to explain Angel's background in Season 2 finale Becoming. More importantly, it lent itself to whatever plot was unraveling at the time. It was not just an excuse for the writers to experiment. It did not stop the action - rather flowed from it - establishing for the audience Angel's motivation in Becoming and the irony of his actions. Fool for Love in Season 5 Btvs is another example of the flashback working brilliantly - in this episode key information about Spike's past is revealed which in turn shed's light on what Buffy is up against and the central mythology of the series. Plus none of these episodes rely on previously aired scenes, instead they provide brand new ones which build on the characters. We get both Buffy's motivations and Spike's in the episode. Compare this to Storyteller, Dirty Girls, and Him all of which use previously aired scenes as flashbacks with comic twists akin to a blooper episode. Him flashes back to Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered - succeeding only in reminding the audience of how much better that episode was regarding a similar theme. Dirty Girls flashes back to Bad Girls and Consequences, also far better episodes than how the writers twist them in the flashbacks. Storyteller uses clips from Season 6 throughout the episode. ME attempts to do it's own twist on this form by making the clips comical in retrospect or changing them slightly, but all this does is make me miss the original version. Storyteller does introduce other sequences, several scenes of Andrew talking to Warren behind Jonathan's back, but these don't really lead us anywhere plot-wise or character-wise. Also they tend to be on the repetitive side - since we've already seen these scenes in Conversations with Dead People and Never Leave Me. They do not add to the story. We know why Jonathan and Andrew go to Sunnydale in Conversations With Dead People - Andrew's remembered conversation with Jonathan in Mexico merely repeats that information. The knife that Andrew brings back with him from Mexico and used to kill Jonathan, which is supposed to be the point of the flashback, is never really explained or used in the episode. It appears to be a device or excuse for the writer to do the flashback between Andrew and Jonathan. Instead of using these scenes to explain who Andrew is or his family background or why he ended up with Warren and Jonathan in the first place, the flashbacks appear to provide little more than comic relief. The scenes provide no true depth, do not really tell us anything new, and just feel like more filler, creative, maybe even comical filler, but filler all the same. (43) Contrast this with Lies My Parents Told Me, which through a series of flashbacks caused by a memory device magically inserted in Spike's brain, reveals the source of Spike's psychological trigger and the source of Wood's vendetta against Spike. The flashback sequences do provide depth to the characters and move the plot along. While not as strong and entangled in the plot/mythology as Fool for Love and Becoming's flashbacks, they do serve a clear purpose outside of filler or comical clips. When done well - the flashback sequence is a remarkable device specific to the television medium; it advances both character and plot seamlessly with wit and little artifice. Done badly? It's little more than filler.
c. Character Reunions
These are used principally to obtain ratings. I honestly think that the network brass insists that the writers insert some long-missed character in an episode, specifically one towards the very end of a series run, just to get those ratings, regardless of whether this long- missed character actually fits in the story.
Cheers did it with Diane Chambers in the Cheers Season Finale.
Happy Days with Ron Howard.
Btvs with Angel and Faith.
Star Trek the Next Generation with characters from the first series
Voyager with characters from the other series if available
Xena did it with Hercules
Hercules did it with Xena
Spin City did it with Michael J. Fox in the last season, his character had left two years before.
Sometimes it works beautifully. But usually it feels contrived and the character that comes back or crosses over feels stiff and uncomfortable as if he/she is aware of the contrivance. I have yet to see a television writer or network exec avoid this obvious and admittedly successful ploy for ratings. It has become an expected piece of the television formulaic style. Oh and if the long missed character had been in a romantic relationship with the lead? They immediately fall into bed with them, have sex, or share a passionate kiss as if they never left and the two have been humping like rabbits for the last five years. Diane and Sam immediately went after each other and tried to get married, after barely saying a word to each other for two-three seasons. It's like: 'ohhh look here comes h/ir one true love! Let's all swoon.' Please. Obvious ratings grabber and rarely done well. That said, occasionally writers pull this off. I actually liked the Sam and Diane reunion - it did a wonderful job of reiterating why these two should not be together. Of course Diane was allowed to interact with everyone, was made a central part of the episode and was not just a device, but a strategic part of a plot arc centering on Sam's sex addiction. Also she and Sam did not immediately kiss, they worked up to it. It was earned. No one else has come close to pulling this off as well or demonstrating it as more than just a ratings stunt. ME came close with Faith on Angel The Series and BTVS, but fell short of the mark with Angel's long-awaited cross-over to Buffy, where the character came across as slightly stiff and adolescent in marked contrast to the maturity he'd shown in his own series the week before. Also he only interacted with Buffy, no one else. Outside of the amulet - a plot device that could have reached Sunnydale by other means, Angel's appearance did little to add to the character's growth or the plot. He may have helped Buffy reach a sort of epiphany, but that epiphany would have just as easily been reached in a scene with Xander, Willow or Spike. Angel was not necessary. Except to make ratings climb and tease B/A fans who were oddly split regarding it. The ratings also did not climb. Barely hit 2.9 nationally. (44) Faith by comparison was redeemed by her appearance and interacted with all of the major characters. ME might have been better off letting Angel stay on his series and only bringing Faith and the amulet over.
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30 The Sound of The Fury, David Fuy Interview, City of Angel: "I've discovered how long it takes to write a script without killing myself, which is eight days. That's why when I get these stories that break four days into prep, I usually have to go 'Hey Steve [DeKnight], Wanna write this with me?'"; Interview with Anthony Stewart Head on IGN: Discusses filming that took 22 hours. See also James Marsters Q& A at Chicago Convention transcribed by atzone, regarding the television show grind: "You know we worked twelve to twenty hours, five days a week. We begin on 4 am on Monday morning and we get out about 5am Saturday morning, which we call Friday night. You know it's really fun but at the same time there is this quality of exhaustion that is behind everything. My memory of doing the show is a little hazy, frankly. Most of the time I feel like I'm stumbling around and as soon as we get the lines right, we move on and I'm always amazed by how good it looks. I read the scripts and I get these grand ideas on all this stuff I want to do and then the crush of television happens and it's just about trying to get these scenes filmed in the time we have." http://www.atnzone.com/tvzone/features/buffycon_1.shtml
31 Documentary on Filming of The Sheild (Trio Network); The Sound of The Fury
32Although at Moonlight Rising Adam Busch told convention goers that he'd been brought back to re-do a line for a scene once. See also, James Marsters Interview, pp.20-21, The Official Buffy Magazine #8, June/July 2003: "If you do movies or plays, you choose what kind of projects you would be willing to do." But on a "television series [....] actors are bound to perform the scripts as they come in." See also the James Marsters Q& A on atzone.
33See Joss Whedon Interview on salon.com and actionadventure.com where he discusses why this was his last year of BTVS: "TV is such a grind." Marti Noxon in The Official Buffy Magazine #9: states that if they were to do a season 8 it would probably about doing laundry.
34After BTVS ended it was reported on AICN that the writers went on to other shows. Only three of the BTVS writers joined BTVS' spin-series Angel, and one of those three writers just joined BTVS in Season 7. Jane Espenson went to Gilmore Girls, Doug Petrie to Tru Calling, Rebecca Rand Kirshner to Tarzan, Drew Greenberg to Smallville, and Marti Noxon to Still Life. At least five left before BTVS finished filming in Season 7. In numerous interviews - Whedon and Noxon state they were ready to move on, Gellar's decision to quit came more as a relief than a surprise. Official Buffy Magazine #8; AICN interview, IGN Interview with Joss Whedon amongst others.
35 Emma Caulfield, Sara Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hannigan, and Michelle Trachtenberg all commented in exit interviews that they were ready to move on to movies. Emma Caulfield reported that five years was a long time to be in any one place - in her Interview in The Official Buffy Magazine #7 and in TV Zone.
36Here is a partial list of the television shows who did the special episodes on "rape" and how they explored the issue: According to promotional ads - Boston Public will do the "rape story line" in it's season premiere. The episode raises the age old question is it rape or just violent sex? The witness claims it was rape. The victim claims violent sex. It's a new twist torn from the headlines. This week according to TV Guide there's a made for TV movie on the Andrew Luster case about the Max Factor heir who was serial rapist. Currently on Television (July -September 2003) - All My Children and As the World Turns have rape storylines. It's been a soap opera standby for over 30 years. 24 in their very first season had the wife of the lead character get raped. Beverly Hills 90210 (Kelly was the victim of a date rape towards end of series by her boyfriend)Angel The Series (see the flashback episodes Dear Boy, Darla, and Reprise where Angel is shown raping or intending to rape different women - one Drusilla - Dear Boy, two - the gypsy girl Darla, and three Darla in Reprise. He is also mentioned raping and murdering Holtz's wife - but it's not a very special episode, nor emphasized, more implied), Melrose Place, Dallas, Dynasty, Law & Order, All in the Family (in this situation comedy they featured and were proud of dealing with "elderly" rape ( elderly depending on your pov, the critics stated it is an example of one, but Edith was in reality only 50, also much like Buffy, she was NOT raped, only assaulted, but viewers saw rape for some reason), Edith Bunker was sexually attacked not actually raped by an intruder), St. Elsewhere (major/lead character was serial rapist), China Beach, NyPd Blue, and Hill Street Blues (Joyce Davenport was the victim of an assault). BTVS has done five attempted rape scenes/sexual assault's in it's history: 1) Xander attempted to rape Buffy in The Pack - she hit over the head with a desk, 2) Buffy's date attempted to rape her in Go Fish - she punched him in the nose, 3)Faith attempted to rape Xander in Consequences, Angel yanked her off him and knocked her unconscious, 4) Spike attempted to bite Willow in The Initiative in what could be described as a metaphor for date rape. 5) Seeing Red - the infamous sexual assault in the bathroom. Apparently there are no new ideas in TV since they keep relying on what has now become a cliché - how do we put the heroine into jeopardy or show her boyfriend is dangerous? Regardless of the fact he's a vampire? I know let's do a sexual assault. (And they wonder why Seeing Red had such low ratings. See www.futonmediacritic.com.)
The whole marital rape or boyfriend/girlfriend violent relationship drama has been part of daytime soap operas for ages, with mixed results and much like boddice ripper romance novels can at times come across in a derogatory way. The writers do it over a 20 year time period and to a degree have the flexibility of writing the characters out over the long haul - so what you get is a multi-faceted point of view, that does not always make sense. In the 1970s, General Hospital did a story that changed how television romances were done and took risks no one had done previously...it created an anti-hero who raped the married heroine (married to someone else) at the disco in a fit of drunken pain and fear - she ends up hospitalized, then later finds him half dead and on the run - she decides to help him and runs off with him, where they engage in many adventures, never kiss or touch for about a year, and finally consummate their relationship, and get married in an episode that is amongst the most watched tv episodes ever aired worldwide, this is the episode that Elizabeth Taylor guest-starred in. Years later, after getting kidnapped by the Cassadines, raped and impregnanted by their son, escaping, reuniting with Luke, divorcing Luke, Laura eventually has a breakdown ends up catatonic for years in a mental institution, Luke's children don't like him partly because they found out what he did to their mother ages ago, and Luke is married to someone else. (I was never a fan of this romance by the way, but you'd have to have been born under a rock not to have known about it in the 1970s and 80s - it was the most watched tv show on.) The other soaps that have done it are One Life to Live, where Todd Manning gang raped Marty Saybrook, then later, sort of got redeemed and married Blair, he's also been in and out of romantic relationships with Marty believe it or not. Now Marti's son has married Todd's daughter and they have a kid. The other drama that did it was The Guiding Light, when the villainous Roger Thorpe raped his wife Holly, out of jealousy and rage. Holly was married to bad-boy Roger, but wanted good boy Ed. Out of rage and jealousy - Roger raped her. She turned him in. He escaped and kidnapped her. Ed saved her and Roger appeared to fall off a cliff. Only to return in true soap fashion fifteen years later. Holly also returns and they are forced to deal with what happened all those years ago. The two characters had a rich and complex relationship that spanned over 20 years and because of that time-span, the soap was able to deal with the issue from multiple pov's. We get Eds, Holly's, Rogers, Roger's new girlfriend's, Roger and Holly's daughter's pov, and assorted bystanders. We also get the pov of the characters 20 years after the incident happened. It also had Holly and Roger back and forth in romantic relationships with each other. [ETA: In retrospect - now having rewatched Buffy S7 Beneath You and Selfless - I think Whedon handled this trope far better than any of the tv shows above ever did.]
37 Comic Con Q&A with Joss Whedon and ATS writers in San Diego, June 2003, (courtesy of www.cityofangel.com who posted a transcript): "It's something that we had been debating for years and we figured our ambivalence was exactly what we wanted to project and we used that on the show. We knew that we couldn't come back from an attempted rape to a romantic sexual relationship. But what we did want to say was that we could come back to a place of trust between these people. That man could redeem himself. And in time what went on with Spike and Buffy was very textured and complicated you couldn't just say, 'Well now he's the villain again.' I think that does a disservice to the complexity of what went on and we went back and forth endlessly. Should they get together once, should they never get together, should she serve her emotional need, should she feel guilty bout that emotional need? Hopefully some of that spilled out into the show because it is probably the most complex question that is asked in the entire run of the show."
38 See note 36, also: General Hospital - in 1996-99 the show revisited Laura's rape by Luke through Luke and Lucky's eyes. It came close to destroying their relationship and tormented Luke. In this version - we were forced to relive the crime through Luke's eyes, Laura's husband at the time- Scotty's eyes, and through Laura's. It was an attempt to show a complex topic from a new angle. One Life to Live - the rape of Marty by Todd Manning, was explored through Todd's eyes and Marty Seabrook's. Todd eventually redeems himself by selflessly taking a bullet for Marty and in the process giving up his happy life with child and wife Blair, who had nothing to do with his past crime. Even after his redemption - he is forced to wear Marti's scar on his cheek as a reminder. Guiding Light, 1989-1997 dealt with Roger's remorse over the rape of Holly that occurred fifteen years ago. Rape and attempted rape storylines are soap opera stand-bys. Jack Devereux of the romantic Jack and Jenn duo on Days of Our Lives, also was a rapist, he raped his first wife way back when he was first introduced. He was also redeemed eventually.
39 See Darla, Dear Boy, Ats S2 Becoming Part II S2Btvs, Passion S2 Btvs, and Offspring-Lullaby S3 Ats which detail several of Angelus/Angel's misdeeds. [ETC: Recently during the Cultural Humanist Q&A - Joss Whedon was asked if Angelus and Angel were two separate people and if so, how do you do redemption with that. Whedon stated that they were and they weren't. The mythology set it up as two different moral structures, but the metaphor was alcoholism and how we are responsible for the deeds we do under the influence of a drug. So it is both. He also stated separately that Spike was a more mature version of Angel's arc. Also worth noting these acts are mostly shown by metaphor, although it is stated fairly directly and clearly that he did rape Dru and other. What is odd about fan discussions at the time is apparently fans did not mind the brutal violence of the vampire bite- a clear metaphor of rape, yet did mind seeing an actual one. This lends credence to a message in the series that we see what we want to see. In S6, the writers decided to drop the comfortable metaphors in order to emphasize the theme of "growing up" and ripped open the viel.]
40Finn MaCool's media savvy post on www.atpobtvs.com discussion board in May 2003; See also KdS' post in response to Claudia's thread Btvs Impressions, 8/7/03, on www.atpobtvs.com discussion board: "The Seeing Red rape scene. Recent discussions here have convinced me that the brutal naturalism of that scene was a truly disastrous decision if the way Spike and Spuffy were to be developed in S7 was already planned." See also Entertainment Geekly's review: "Sarah: Speaking of disastrous, my most hated plot device this season actually has to do with Spike, and Dan, I believe this relates directly to your lazy writing comment. There were a few elements that were obvious, "let's get from point a to point b" type of things, but none so much so as that wretched Spike/Buffy attempted rape scene. OK, first of all, what was that? Has Meredith Baxter-Birney suddenly replaced SMG in the credits? This was probably the biggest TV movie moment ever to grace Buffy. Even worse, it didn't make any sense. You could see the little wheels turning in the exposed writerly brain: OK, we need to get rid of Spike for a couple of episodes. OK, you know what? We really need to remind people that he's bad. He's a vampire! Forget the fact that he hasn't done anything much badder than walking around with an exposed torso for a coupla years. To me, that was just a dumb, gratuitous plot device. So obvious. Really hated it. Dan: Yeah, the attempted rape struck me as cheap, unmotivated melodrama. I almost can't comment on Spike's development because I can't accept that that actually happened. And I'm really not looking forward to another brooding guilt-racked vampire wandering the Buffy universe." http://www.entertainmentgeekly.com/web/general/sep2002/buffy_roundtable
41 Sam Malone - had an alcohol problem in Season 2 Cheers - where he fell off the wagon, in Season 10 he was attending sex addicts group - both were done more for laughs than pathos. Mash - had Hawkeye Pierce go through post-traumatic stress syndrome & Father Macaughy lose his hearing in the final episode. Family Ties had Alex P. Keaton go nuts over grief and have to see a psychiatrist. Growing Pains dealt with eating disorders. Blossom - drugs.
42 Emily Nussbaum, "Thanks for the Instant Memories", New York Times Arts Section, August 10th, 2003.
43 As Emily Nussbaum states, regarding the use of flashbacks by reality dating shows and sitcoms : "Prevalent in 80's sitcoms, clip shows paste older scenes together with a corny trigger [...] a narrative technique so transparently dorky that contemporary shows can perform it only with a wink. As if reality dating shows haven't done enough damage, they've generated their own clip format: the penultimate-episode rip-off, in which the audience is force fed reshuffled memories from the week before, a display necessary only for a viewer with severely compromised short-term memory." See note 35 for cite.
44 See www.futonmediacritic.com which calculates the Neilsen ratings for the shows.
45