One of the most beloved episodes, of one of the most beloved geek shows in history is “Once More With Feeling” – the musical episode from the sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
In this particular episode from 2001, a demon called Sweet takes Dawn to be his bride and traps all of Sunnydale into a deadly musical, which Joss Whedon used brilliantly to address relationship issues between all the characters, including the reveal that when the Scoobies resurrected Buffy, they didn’t save her from Hell, but instead ripped her from Heaven. At the time it was a pretty major deal, and this remains one of the better hours in the show’s entire run.
The release comes from the Mondo Record Label, who in a statement said:
We’ve been huge fans of “Buffy: The Vampire Slayer” for decades…. Our obsession with the musical episode “Once More With Feeling” inadvertently presented a solution to a long standing problem of how to best entry point for us to celebrate the brilliantly singular, yet expansive series. It took a few years to get it perfect, but we couldn’t be prouder with the artwork that Paul Mann put together—including some truly inspired additional design by Chris Bilheimer and Eric Montes, who came up with the idea of the “Slaybill” lyric booklet.
Buffy: The Vampire Slayer: Once More, With Feeling (Original Cast Recording):
01 Overture / Going Through the Motions
02 I’ve Got a Theory/Bunnies / If We’re Together
03 The Mustard
04 Under Your Spell
05 I’ll Never Tell
06 The Parking Ticket
07 Rest in Peace
08 Dawn’s Lament
09 Dawn’s Ballet
10 What You Feel
11 Standing
12 Under Your Spell / Standing – Reprise
13 Walk Through the Fire
14 Something to Sing About
15 What You Feel – Reprise
16 Where Do We Go From Here?
17 Coda
18 End Credits (Broom Dance / Grr Arrgh)
19 Main Title
The vinyl LP will be available March 20 at 12 p.m. Central via Mondo.
Images: 20th Century Fox Television, Mondo via Pitchfork
While promoting her upcoming CBS comedy with Robin Williams (which you can check out the trailer for among the 37 new TV trailers we’ve gathered) someone asked Sarah Michelle Gellar if she’d be on board for a Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie. That in and of itself isn’t newsworthy. Given the huge success the Veronica Mars Movie has found via Kickstarter, you have to imagine that everyone that has ever been part of a fan favorite TV show has been fielding questions about the possibility of a film adaptation.
The nice part is that Gellar didn’t give a total throw away answer. She could have easily laughed it off but instead she only half laughed it off:
[box_light]“If there ever was the right story, we would do it, but the thing with Buffy is that Buffy was a movie, and it ultimately didn’t work as a film, the story works better over time.”
At this point, the stake would be my walker and I would be hobbling in.”[/box_light]
So obviously not the green light Buffy fans would hope for, but it’s nice to know that Gellar and creator Joss Whedon have discussed it. Of course the biggest problem with a Buffy film would be getting the old cast back together. David Borneaz, for whatever reason, rarely talks about either Buffy or Angel. James Marsters believed he was too old in the first place to play Spike. Alyson Hannigan and Alexis Denisof are off being their busy adorable married selves. Unfortunately Anthony Head’s pilot for The CW (The Selection) wasn’t picked up so he’d possibly be available.
Will there ever be a Buffy movie? Unlikely. But no harm in dreaming right? To soothe ourselves, let’s take a look back at Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
To round out the network portion of our look at upcoming pilots, it’s the “little guys” themselves, Fox and The CW. I don’t suppose they really are the little guys anymore but even though they have highly rated shows and have outperformed some of the “Big 3” in recent years (looking at you NBC), they still have that “sitting at the kid’s table” air about them. Give them another five-ten years and if things keep going down the same path, we’ll laugh at the days we thought The CW was just home to teen angst.
As for their pilots, it’s a little strange. The CW doesn’t have that many at all, and almost every one looks interesting whereas Fox has quite a few and almost none of them appeal to me in the least bit. Could this be the year I become a CW (I think they need to drop the awkward ‘the’) fan beyond one show? Oooh, mystery!
Let’s get on to these pilots shall we?
[tabgroup][tab title=”Sleepy Hollow”]
Because of Star Trek, Fringe, and Alias, I can forgive Alex Kurtzman for Hawaii Five-0. He will go further in that forgiveness if his project with Phillip Iscove and Roberto Orci proves to be worth anything.
Orlando Jones is one of those guys that you see and you can’t quite place him but you know you’ve seen him everywhere. His biggest project was probably MadTV back in the late 90’s and he’s taken a tour around Hollywood since then. Now he’s signed on as a detective in this modern day version of the classic story. Joining him are Dexter actress Katia Winter and as Ichabod Crane, Tom Mison.
As we’ve seen with Grimm and Once Upon a Time, modern day versions of “children’s” stories are doing pretty well so hopefully the Headless Horseman can join the ranks this year on Fox.
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[tab title=”Human”]
Speaking of Star Trek, Bones (Karl Urban) has himself a new role in another J.J. Abrams project. This time however, it’s a Fox drama/buddy-cop show about members of the LAPD teaming up with androids. The premise seems a little old but if it gets picked up to series, I’ll withhold judgement for at least two or three episodes. It’s one of those things that could be really good, or incredibly lame.
However, one good reason to check it out if it does make it to series? Lili Taylor.
I really enjoyed her performance in HemlockGrove and look forward to her returning to my TV full time since Six Feet Under.
[/tab][tab title = “Untitled Mike Schur”]
I think we all know there was no way I was going to leave out Andy Samberg’s comedy pilot for Fox. So far it’s just known as “Untitled Mike Schur/Dan Goor Project” but with the name power that Samberg would bring in, one has to imagine this will easily make it to series and get a proper title along the way.
It isn’t just Samberg that makes this pilot look interesting. For me, the most intriguing name would be Chelsea Peretti. A comedian who has been a part of some of my favorite shows (Parks and Rec, Louie, Portlandia…) as well as a hugely popular podcast, it really was only a matter of time until Peretti showed up a bit more full time.
Add in Terry Crews, Joe Lo Truglio, and Andre Braugher as the Captain of the group of NYPD detectives and this sitcom looks to be rather appealing.
[/tab][tab title = “The Tomorrow People”]
“So there was this British series back in the 70’s and it was about this group of kids who had different superpowers and they fight evil.”
“Oh so like X-Men?”
I can’t imagine the people behind the The Tomorrow People pilot for CW haven’t had that exact conversation. That being said, I’d still watch it. Executive Producers on this one are all from shows that I have watched and really enjoyed including Greg Berlanti from Arrow and Phil Klemmer from Chuck.
Oh and speaking of Arrow, if you thought that dashing young man to the left there looked familiar, it’s because he bears a striking resemblance to his cousin, Arrow star, Stephen Amell. Robbie Amell is the lead role in The Tomorrow People and as usual with CW, is surrounded by plenty of other young and pretty people.
Forget young and pretty though, I’m looking most forward to Mark Pellegrino. Yes, that Mark Pellegrino.
[/tab][tab title = “Oxygen”]
[quote]About an epic romance between a human girl and an alien boy when he and eight others of his kind are integrated into a suburban high school 10 years after they landed on Earth and were consigned to an internment camp.[/quote]
That’s the logline. No, really, that’s it. How anyone could read that and immediately not want to see how on Earth that ends up, well I don’t know that anyone could. Seems a bit Kyle XY with a little historical injustice mixed in for good measure. That’s just enough weird for me to be intrigued. Plus it’s gotMatt Lanter, voice of Anakin Skywalker in The Clone Wars as well as Harry Osborne on Ultimate Spider-Man and that’s a good thing.
[/tab][tab title = “The Selection”]
It’s Anthony Head! Giles! Anthony Head!
Need I say more?
Oh, well in that case… Anthony Head is set to play King Clarkson, a man who is just trying to find his son a queen by holding a lottery. Because we all know – true love is found most often when your number is called.
Okay so it isn’t the greatest sounding premise if you aren’t a girl of the teenage variety, but come on, it’s Anthony Head! As a king just like in Merlin. You best believe, I will watch this.
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So there you have it, the pilots from Fox and The CW that I think look promising and you should keep an eye out for! Now that we’ve finished up the networks, next up we’ll take a tour around cable and see what’s in store.
As CBS will tell you themselves, quite often and with a bit of smugness, they are “America’s Most Watched Network”. I struggle to see how that is possible given that all their shows seem to be the same – either a predictable crime procedural or a predictable sitcom – but apparently people like predictability because CBS sits on top of ratings and has done so for years. They have a lot of pilots in production, a lot is typical CBS fare (I wonder if Chuck Lorre has naked pictures of Les Moonves somewhere, or he’s just made a deal with the devil that somehow the free world will love his crappy shows) but there are a few that look to be somewhat promising.
[tabgroup][tab title=”Backstrom”]
I’m choosing to believe that this one will be better than the typical crime procedural. I don’t know why I’m doing this, but I am. After NBC decided not to go forward with a Dwight centered spin-off of The Office, Rainn Wilson has found himself on CBS playing an “overweight, offensive, irascible detective as he tries, and fails, to change his self-destructive behavior.”
Based on a Swedish series of crime novels,THR has said that the show would take place in Portland which will be interesting to see if they make the city a character itself. Hart Hanson, creator of Bones, is behind this project which is promising. No matter how crappy Bones has become, it started off quite strong and was also based on a series of novels so he’s in familiar territory. Not only that but any show that has Dennis Haysbert is one I will watch.
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[tab title=”Super Clyde & Unnamed project”]
If you aren’t watching Raising Hope on Fox, well then you need to remedy that, immediately. Greg Garcia’s show about a man who finds himself a single dad raising his daughter while living with his parents is easily one of my favorites. Add in My Name is Earl and Yes, Dear and it’s safe to say I’m a Greg Garcia fan. So you can only imagine my excitement when I saw he was developing not one, but two pilots this year. They both have potential and some pretty big names attached.
The premise of the unnamed project looks to have similar plot points as Garcia’s Raising Hope given that it’s a grown man living with his parents. This time, however, it’s Margo Martindale (who is perhaps one of the greatest character actresses ever) moving in with her recently divorced son, Will Arnett while her husband, Beau Bridges, moves in with their daughter Mary Elizabeth Ellis who you probably know as the Waitress from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Add in Michael Rapaport and this is a great looking cast.
One has to imagine that Will Arnett is primed to have a commercially successful show. We all know that Arrested Development is a genius show, but his 2010 sitcom, Running Wilde, was also really good but sadly was canceled after one season. Up All Night had potential but has crashed and burned in spectacular fashion. Is this Will Arnett’s time? We’ll have to wait and see.
If Super Clyde doesn’t get picked up and CBS instead opts for another mindless crappy formulaic sitcom, I might cry. I have a feeling I’ll be joined by quite a few Anglophiles and Potterheads.
Ron Weasley is possibly coming to TV and I couldn’t be happier. Rupert Grint stars in the title role of Garcia’s Super Clyde playing the fast-food worker who decides to become a superhero. Everything in that sentence sounds awesome. If I needed more reason to want this show to make it to air, I’d find it in Stephen Fry. Yes, Stephen Fry. That Stephen Fry.
This show is a fangirl’s dream come true!
[/tab][tab title=”Second Sight”]
Speaking of My Name is Earl and all things Britain, Jason Lee is returning to network TV in a remake of the British crime drama, Second Sight. I’ll admit that I really didn’t think anything of this pilot until I saw the logline.
[quote]Based on the British crime drama, the gothic psychological thriller follows a detective who is suddenly afflicted with an autoimmune virus that causes him to hallucinate about subjects in his subconscious. He soon learns that catching killers depends as much on insight as eyesight.[/quote]
I have not seen any of the British version so I can’t attest to how successful this premise is, but it certainly sounds different and promising. Perhaps a bit of Medium mixed with Ghost Whisperer with a bit of Memphis Beat added in for good measure. Set in New Orleans, much like Backstrom I imagine the city will be a star as well.
Michael Cuesta is behind Second Sight and if his work on the re-imagining of the Israeli show Hatufim (Cuesta is an executive producer of Homeland) is any indication, the production value of Second Sight should be rather high. He’s also worked on this little show called Dexter that has a few fans so he’s no stranger to big shows.
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[tab title=”The Surgeon General”]
Lie to Me, Awake, Commander-in-Chief, Lord of the Rings, Ringer
That’s just some of the shows and movies people involved both in front of and behind the camera of The Surgeon General have on their resumes. Given how much I like each of those shows and movies, I imagine that my knowledge of the Surgeon General is going to go beyond this episode of West Wing.
We have to hand it to Jason Issacs who resisted the urge to burn NBC to the ground after his show Awake was canceled. I don’t think anyone would have blamed him as it was as close to a crime as you can get without actually committing a crime. Now he’s moved on over to CBS and is in the lead role as the top doctor in the country, the Surgeon General. His chief of staff is being played by one of my favorites, Kathryn Morris. She’s done a few things here or there but has mostly been unheard of since her show Cold Case went off the air in 2010.
Both Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings obviously) and Mike Colter (Ringer) are listed as doctors but their roles aren’t any more specified than that.
From Samuel Baum, who created Lie to Me, The Surgeon General looks to be like most other political shows but instead of the President, it’s the Surgeon General. Will this be enough to make it seem like a fresh and unique show? Well Rod Lurie is directing that pilot and he did a pretty nice job making a show about the President seem new when he was an executive producer of the canceled before it’s time, Commander in Chief, so chances are good.
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[tab title=”The Crazy Ones”]
BUFFY IS BACK!!!!!
Okay, well sort of. Sarah Michelle Gellar is back at least. After spending a year over at CW with Ringer (a show people should have stuck with as it got much better as it went on), Gellar is teaming up with a little known actor/comedian named Robin Williams for a workplace comedy about a father/daughter run ad agency.
If Gellar and Williams weren’t enough to pique your interest (seriously?) then some of the other cast will. Hamish Linklater (The New Adventures of Old Christine) will play the agency’s art director and James Wolk (Political Animals) has signed on as a copywriter.
Of course having big on-screen names is great, but having TV royalty behind the scenes is even greater. David E. Kelley might not have hit gold with Harry’s Law but one has to imagine that Crazy Ones will find an audience pretty quickly, even if they are people who are just looking to finally have something to fill that Just Shoot Me! void in their lives.
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So there we go! A somewhat varied group of prospects that hopefully will see the light of day. If for no other reason than perhaps we can see something else besides Big Bang Theory and NCIS promos on the network. That would be a refreshing change.
Last night, if you weren’t distracted by baseball or football, you might have heard something from the northeastern part of this great country that sounded a little bit like the shriek of a schoolgirl.
Actually, it was a shriek, from not schoolgirls, but rather fangirls. And fanboys. And just fans in general. Why would millions of fans squeal in communal delight? The answer is simple:
That’s right friends and neighbors, the fan favorite, Agent Phil Coulson has become the first confirmed member of Joss Whedon’s upcoming ABC pilot, S.H.I.E.L.D.
The reaction to Agent Coulson’s death in The Avengers was one of heartbreak. All around the world people huddled together in comfort for the loss of a character who was beloved from his first appearance in 2008’s Iron Man. He was probably most loved by the man who portrayed him, Clark Gregg. Gregg is a self-professed geek and lover of comics and of course, Agent Coulson. So you can only imagine how it felt to sit at the Marvel panel during the New York Comic-Con and watch an “In Memoriam” tribute video to the character. Reports are that Gregg was actually moved to tears. Can’t say that I blame him.
A video of Joss Whedon started playing, saying that they had always wanted Gregg as “part of the Marvel Universe… even after his death,” and as if sent by the angels himself, Kevin Feige entered, wearing a shirt that read “Coulson Lives” and announced that Gregg would indeed be reprising the role of Agent Coulson in S.H.I.E.L.D.
Why is this such big news? Well it’s always fun to hear about our favorite characters that we all believe have died, only for them to come back to life, or find out they never died in the first place. But I think with Coulson it’s a little bit more than that. I think it’s because he is one of us. He’s a fan. Watching him meet Captain America and having that awestruck look on his face, I don’t think there’s many people who, when meeting their heroes, wouldn’t have the same reaction. Then to watch him “die” trying to protect his hero and company, I mean come on, who wouldn’t want to go out like that?
On top of that, after the massive success of The Avengers with Joss Whedon at the helm, it is exciting just to hear any news about the new show. Geeks have experienced both the highs and the lows of Whedon television shows. On one hand you’ve got the success of Buffy the Vampire Slayerand Angel, on the other hand you’ve got the great losses of Dollhouse and of course, Firefly. So when news comes out like this, a major character in a wildly successful movie blockbuster is part of the cast of the TV show, we just hold our breaths and hope that it’s enough to convince the network to stick with it.
So there you have it- Agent Coulson lives to see another day. Are you excited as I am?
In the world of film and television, there’s a lot of BS going on in regards to female characters, and usually the term BS implies that you’re dealing with people you’d rather avoid if at all possible. Take one BS-er for example: Bella Swan. Many girls adore her story, torn between the affections of a shirtless stalker like dog boy and the glorious sparkly immortal who broods all day because he is just to deep for words – but those of us with more developed brains tend to hate her lack of gumption. There’s one BS-er though, who has consistently earned our attention and admiration, and that is one Ms. Buffy Summers. Resident of southern California, high school cheerleader, and slayer of vampires – among other things the go bump in the night. The character of Buffy was invented by God’s gift to Hollywood, Joss Whedon. She first appeared in a 1992 movie called Buffy the Vampire Slayer starring Kristy Swanson; it was a comedic action film that didn’t really do Buffy the dark justice that Whedon had originally intended for her.
“So there was this British series back in the 70’s and it was about this group of kids who had different superpowers and they fight evil.”
Grizzly Bomb 