Case Study No. 1846: Rupert Giles (Buffy the Animated Series)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Animated Series
3:35
A short Promo episode of what would have been the Animated Series of Buffy.

Voice Cast:
Giselle Loren as 'Buffy Summers'
Alyson Hannigan as 'Willow Rosenberg'
Nicholas Brendon as 'Xander Harris'
Anthony Stewart Head as 'Rupert Giles'
Charisma Carpenter as 'Cordelia Chase'
Michelle Trachtenberg as 'Dawn Summers'
Kristine Sutherland as 'Joyce Summers'
Armin Shimerman as 'Principal Snyder'
David Boreanaz as 'Angel'


Facts:
* Sarah Michelle Gellar was not interested in returning to the role, since she was busy, she had not seen a script, and she was afraid of jumping the shark.
* Giselle Loren had already voiced 'Buffy Summers' for the Buffy video games, Buffy (Xbox) and Chaos Bleeds.
Tags: buffy the vampire slayer animated series promo video joss whedon
Added: 6 years ago
From: TheSnerd
Views: 1,149,937

From wikipedia.org:

Buffy the Animated Series is an animated television series concept based on Buffy the Vampire Slayer created by Joss Whedon. Initially greenlit by 20th Century Fox in 2002, it went ultimately unproduced and unaired when no network was willing to buy the series. The series would have taken place in the middle of Buffy season 1, as writer Jeph Loeb described the continuity as "Episode 7.5".

Production details
Development began on the show in 2001. Joss Whedon and Jeph Loeb were to be executive producers for the show, and most of the cast from Buffy would return to voice their characters. The series soon ran into problems. 20th Century Fox were going to produce the show, and it was initially planned that the show would air on Fox Kids, possibly as early as February 2002. When Fox Kids ceased operations, Fox shopped it to other networks. When no network was willing to purchase the series, production halted.

Two years later, in 2004, Fox once again showed an interest in developing and selling the show to another network. Various key actors, including Anthony Stewart Head, did voice work, and artwork was produced to make a four-minute presentation. That pilot was used to try to sell the series to a network. Once again no network was willing to take the risk of purchasing the show. Loeb explained that networks find the show difficult since it would be too adult to air with children's television, but not suitable to many people in a prime-time slot.

In a Q&A with The Hollywood Reporter on May 16, 2003, Whedon explained:

"We just couldn't find a home for (it). We had a great animation director, great visuals, six or seven hilarious scripts from our own staff—and nobody wanted it. I was completely baffled. I felt like I was sitting there with bags of money and nobody would take them from me. It was a question of people either not wanting it or not being able to put up the money because it was not a cheap show. One thing I was very hard-line about was, I didn't want people to see it if it looked like crap. I wanted it to be on a level with Animaniacs or Batman: The Animated Series. And that's a little pricier. But I just don't think it's worth doing unless it's beautiful to look at as well as fun."

Leak
On August 1, 2008, the four minute unaired presentation was leaked online via YouTube.

---

From tv.com:

Vampire: Run.

(she runs away, then gets cornered in an alley)

Vampire: There are things in the dark. Dark things. (vamps out) No place left to run.

Buffy: (turning with a smile) Works for me.

(Buffy kicks the vampire, then flips up to a second story fire escape)

Buffy: Come on, you're a little impressed, admit it.

Vampire: (growls)

Buffy: Oh, that's intimidating. You sound like a poodle.

(she jumps down and kicks him again)

Vampire: (growls)

(she grabs a stake from her backpack and stabs him before he can attack)

Buffy: You vamps are gonna have to learn. Mess with Buffy Summers, you're messing with the Slayer.

(she tries to twirl the stake in her hand but it ends up hitting her in the head)

Buffy: Yah!

(Buff and the rest of the gang enter the Sunnydale High School library)

Willow: Giles sounded all scowly, Buffy. Do you know what's up?

Buffy: Willow, short of the apocalypse, nothing is gonna keep us from that party tonight.

(Giles sees them and takes off his glasses)

Giles: Ah, Buffy. Good. We're having an apocalypse.

(Buffy raises an eyebrow)

Giles: Hmm, the Followers of Morgala are fairly unique, even for vampires. Unlike most of the blood-sucking variety, these worship an actual being called Morgala. Morgala's exact nature eludes us, but we have narrowed it down to (he looks up from the book) not listening to a word I'm saying.

Xander: I've heard they're actually going to have a live band.

Buffy: How sucky does a band have to be to play a house party in Sunnydale? Is there a cut-off point?

Xander: Who cares? I'm putting on my dancin' shoes! And my standing-in-the-corner, not-talking-to-anyone t-shirt.

Willow: Xander, we could walk over together.

Xander: And pick up Buffy along the way.

Buffy: We should all just meet there.

Willow/Xander: (disappointed) Great.

Willow: Of course, Cordelia already made me insecure about what to wear.

Buffy: You should wear that red skirt.

Giles: Ooh, but gosh! What'll happen if you and Cordelia are wearing the same color? It'll be... y'know... a thing!

Xander: I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that you're making fun of us, Giles.

Giles: We have reason to believe that the followers of Morgala are going to perform a ritual this evening which will raise an evil more terrible than you can imagine.

Buffy: It's okay, Giles, don't go all coronary on us. We'll find the followers of Morgan Freeman...

Giles: Morgala.

Buffy: We'll locate their nest and I'll dust them like I did that big vamp last night.

Giles: Last night?

Willow: (panicking) Buffy, a vampire attacked you last night? Are you okay? Did it bite you? Did it infect you? Are you a vampire? (quietly) Am I panicking out loud?

Buffy: It was no contest. It was more like "open vamp, insert stake". You know me, the bigger they are, the harder they...

(a giant black dragon crashes through the library's skylight, swallows Buffy, and flies off into the night)

Xander: The harder they what?

Buffy: (prying open dragon's jaws) Bleah! Y'know, Puff? I really want to go to this party tonight. And one time it would be nice to get there without dragon spit all over me. And since you're making that close to impossible, I kinda think it's time to make you way closer to impossible.