One day in 1984 character actor
Stephen Tobolowsky (
Groundhog Day, the original, unaired pilot of
Buffy The Vampire Slayer) was walking down the street when
Jonathan Demme pulled up and asked if he wanted to see a movie he was finishing. Tobolowsky accepted: taking his girlfriend
Beth Henley, they went to the
Academy Linwood Dunn Theatre to watch the rough cut of the movie,
Stop Making Sense. The audience in the otherwise empty theatre consisted of
Tobolowsky, Henley, and Demme, along with members of
Talking Heads, including
David Byrne and
Tina Weymouth. Later,
Byrne passed
Tobolowsky on his
bike and asked if he wanted to work on a
new movie. Interest sparked again, and during the ensuing collaboration Tobolowsky shared his past experience of psychic phenomena. Inspired, Byrne went on to write
Radio Head. The song was heard by
Thom Yorke and became the name of his
band. All of this is a true story, based on
puzzling evidence.
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posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul
on Jul 17, 2011 -
46 comments
"The Watchers' Council of Great Britain prides itself on being the oldest known human organisation in existence. It has changed its name several times, been all but destroyed and then re-founded at least twice, and many of its older records are long lost and crumbled to dust; but it can still trace a continuous thread of existence back over eight thousand years. There are, of course, demon cults and secret societies which are older - in some cases, a billion years older - but as far as humans go, the Council holds the laurel.
This is their story."
[more inside]
posted by Zed
on Feb 25, 2011 -
51 comments
Pilot School. A nice collection of teevee show pilot scripts. Observe the embryonic state of many of the classics of the past few decades, including
Buffy,
The Wire,
Hill Street Blues,
Battlestar Galactica,
The Sopranos and
The West Wing.
[more inside]
posted by Bookhouse
on Nov 21, 2008 -
29 comments
In this graduate seminar we will investigate the world -- the "Jossverse" or "Whedonverse" -- of Joss Whedon (1964- ), third generation television writer (both his father and grandfather wrote for the medium), creator of three television series (
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly), script doctor for a variety of films (including
Speed, Toy Story, Alien Resurrection), and comic book author (
Fray, Astounding X-Men).
posted by BackwardsCity
on Jul 19, 2005 -
26 comments
Frontier Psychology - Does Frontier Psychology drive America in a direction that the rest of the world cannot comprehend? Roughly defined as "
the effort on the part of Americans to come to grips with untamed elements of nature and, by taming them, to reorganize their society" We see it everywhere, even in
Buffy. Europe appears to value stability over mobility and change, in opposition to America.
Prof. Richard Slotkin has written extensively about these concepts. An interiew with
audio clips is here. (Real)
Are America's recent domestic and international policy decisions attempts to tame "untamed elements" around it?
posted by Argyle
on Apr 30, 2003 -
23 comments
An example of innovative web design This was a site made for last tuesday's Buffy episode. I thought it was a really good example of what could be done with design...and there's not even any flash. Just the poems and pictures of a fictional girl who knows she's about to die.
posted by nyxxxx
on Oct 17, 2002 -
60 comments
Buffy the Terrorism Slayer (PDF link) The
Center For Strategic & International Studies, which appears to be, like, a bunch of grown-up
ex-senators and
accused war criminals and
former top spooks and
such, released this white paper late last September.
Any structured intellectual approach to describing this situation — and planning for it — is so uncertain that a valid structure can only be developed as an exercise in complexity or "chaos" theory. I, however, would like you to think about the biological threat in more mundane terms. I am going to suggest that you think about biological warfare in terms of a TV show called "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," that you think about the world of biological weapons in terms of the "Buffy Paradigm," and that you think about many of the problems in the proposed solutions as part of the "Buffy Syndrome."
I am one vindicated overgrown Buffy fan. (Via
Need To Know.)
posted by nicwolff
on Jul 5, 2002 -
14 comments
The Buffy season finale was possibly two of the best hours of TV I've ever watched. Did you miss it? If you taped it to watch later you may not want to read the article until you see it.
posted by Cyrano
on May 21, 2002 -
62 comments
Joss Whedon, only a few weeks ago, brought audiences what was arguably the best hour in television history with the musical episode. Then, last week, he brought us
a shameful don't-do-drugs piece of drivel. Has the best-written show on television finally gone bad, along with Willow?
I know there was a Buffy thread a couple of months ago, but so much has changed since then...
posted by bingo
on Dec 6, 2001 -
54 comments
buffy is dead no she's not! yes she is. well, she ain't healthy. and her site is gone. didn't UPN have the sense to get the url in deal? and who watched the show last night?
posted by christina
on Oct 3, 2001 -
39 comments
