Post by Katie on Jun 20, 2019 17:37:00 GMT -5
The Angel Cast Reunited and of Course They Talked About the Controversial Ending
Ready to feel old? Angel ended 15 years ago. The Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff that ran for five seasons premiered 20 years ago in October 1999 and to celebrate the enduring appeal of the brooding vampire, Entertainment Weekly got the demon-battling gang back together.
David Boreanaz, Charisma Carpenter, J. August Richards, James Marsters, Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof gathered with creators Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt to reminisce about the beginnings and endings of all things spiky-haired, crinkly-faced Angel.
"I think we started talking about the Grateful Dead," Boreanaz said about the first meeting about the spinoff. He thought he was getting fired. "Then he's like, ‘Yeah, we're thinking about spinning your character off.' And I'm like, ‘alright.'"
David Boreanaz, Charisma Carpenter, J. August Richards, James Marsters, Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof gathered with creators Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt to reminisce about the beginnings and endings of all things spiky-haired, crinkly-faced Angel.
"I think we started talking about the Grateful Dead," Boreanaz said about the first meeting about the spinoff. He thought he was getting fired. "Then he's like, ‘Yeah, we're thinking about spinning your character off.' And I'm like, ‘alright.'"
"I understand why people would want closure, but for me, that would be like adding a cliff note to the end. What I always wanted to say is trying to become worthy of the life that you have, is a life's work. The fight is for always," Whedon told EW.
"I'm so proud of what we all accomplished," Boreanaz said. "There's such strength in all of these characters; they struggle and they do find redemption somehow."
As is the case with almost every once-popular and lucrative property, there's chatter about bringing Buffy back to TV in some form. Boreanaz, who is now starring in CBS's SEAL Team, was open to a new generation exploring the themes and stories of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
"I think it's a great opportunity for a reboot like this to show where we are with society now, what you can do with technology. How you can explore those relationships with the same kinds of metaphors. I'm all for it. I think it's fantastic. Good for them. I hope that it becomes huge and successful, and does what it does," he said.
The Angel cast will also reunite at New York Comic Con in October. The reunion issue of Entertainment Weekly is on newsstands on Friday, June 21.
"I'm so proud of what we all accomplished," Boreanaz said. "There's such strength in all of these characters; they struggle and they do find redemption somehow."
As is the case with almost every once-popular and lucrative property, there's chatter about bringing Buffy back to TV in some form. Boreanaz, who is now starring in CBS's SEAL Team, was open to a new generation exploring the themes and stories of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
"I think it's a great opportunity for a reboot like this to show where we are with society now, what you can do with technology. How you can explore those relationships with the same kinds of metaphors. I'm all for it. I think it's fantastic. Good for them. I hope that it becomes huge and successful, and does what it does," he said.
The Angel cast will also reunite at New York Comic Con in October. The reunion issue of Entertainment Weekly is on newsstands on Friday, June 21.
Angel EP Reveals Season 1 Crisis That Triggered a Production Shutdown: 'The WB Completely Freaked Out'
The second episode of Angel sucked so badly that it forced The WB to drive a stake through the then-fledgling Buffy spinoff’s production schedule, according to the the series’ co-creator.
In a just-published Entertainment Weekly cover story commemorating Angel’s 20th anniversary, exec producer David Greenwalt — who birthed the offshoot with Buffy brainchild Joss Whedon — reveals that production was shut down early into Season 1 due to creative differences with the WB. At issue? The script for Angel‘s second episode.
“[WB execs] completely freaked out, and they were right because in our effort to go dark, we went a little too dark,” Greenwalt confides to EW of an alleged scene in which David Boreanaz’s title character watches a girl die and then proceeds to lick her blood up off the ground. “If you’re gonna go that dark, you have to earn it. So, we shut down for a few weeks, revamped some things and we were off and running.”
Angel nonetheless remained dark in tone, especially compared to Buffy. “We thought, ‘Let’s do a noir thing that’s about addiction and redemption, and we’ll put them in L.A.,’” Greenwalt recalls of the show’s inception. “The stories will be darker and, more important [and Angel] will be darker.”
The series went on to air for five seasons, before the plug was abruptly pulled in what would go down as one of history’s 17 dumbest cancellation decisions. Ratings for the Buffy spinoff had actually trended up in Season 5, so Whedon aimed to head off at the pass what had become a typical, anxiety-creating, mid-May renewal decision by leaning on The WB CEO Jordan Levin in February of 2004. But pressed for an early decision, Levin opted against a Season 6.
“I guarantee that, if we waited as we normally did, by the time May had come around they would have picked up Angel,” EP David Fury said in a September 2004 interview, echoing what WB chairman Garth Ancier said months prior: “The mistake that was made… was that we didn’t wait until May, we just made the decision early based upon their request.”
In a just-published Entertainment Weekly cover story commemorating Angel’s 20th anniversary, exec producer David Greenwalt — who birthed the offshoot with Buffy brainchild Joss Whedon — reveals that production was shut down early into Season 1 due to creative differences with the WB. At issue? The script for Angel‘s second episode.
“[WB execs] completely freaked out, and they were right because in our effort to go dark, we went a little too dark,” Greenwalt confides to EW of an alleged scene in which David Boreanaz’s title character watches a girl die and then proceeds to lick her blood up off the ground. “If you’re gonna go that dark, you have to earn it. So, we shut down for a few weeks, revamped some things and we were off and running.”
Angel nonetheless remained dark in tone, especially compared to Buffy. “We thought, ‘Let’s do a noir thing that’s about addiction and redemption, and we’ll put them in L.A.,’” Greenwalt recalls of the show’s inception. “The stories will be darker and, more important [and Angel] will be darker.”
The series went on to air for five seasons, before the plug was abruptly pulled in what would go down as one of history’s 17 dumbest cancellation decisions. Ratings for the Buffy spinoff had actually trended up in Season 5, so Whedon aimed to head off at the pass what had become a typical, anxiety-creating, mid-May renewal decision by leaning on The WB CEO Jordan Levin in February of 2004. But pressed for an early decision, Levin opted against a Season 6.
“I guarantee that, if we waited as we normally did, by the time May had come around they would have picked up Angel,” EP David Fury said in a September 2004 interview, echoing what WB chairman Garth Ancier said months prior: “The mistake that was made… was that we didn’t wait until May, we just made the decision early based upon their request.”
