Joss Whedon (creator)
Marti Noxon (writer)
Alyson Hannigan (co-star)
Nicholas Brendon (co-star)
James Marsters (co-star)
Michelle Trachtenberg (co-star)
the Buffy Director of Photography
the Buffy Production Designer

I have much to discuss and a few spoilers will follow as I collect my thoughts.

The main season seven spoilers: The first scene of the first episode of season seven will open at the NEWLY RECONSTRUCTED SUNNYDALE HIGH SCHOOL! Well, that sure brings the show back around to season one as Joss has said in interviews was his intention! Also, Michelle has been bugging Joss to let her wear more grownup clothes, especially high heels and the color black. She says she's been wearing sneakers for two years and that's long enough. Joss has agreed to let her wear some black in her wardrobe. As to the heels, Alyson teased her that Michelle's already the tallest of the actresses on the show. Other season seven stuff -- Joss wants Giles back A LOT. He didn't say anything about whether or not Tony Head is available, he did allude to Tony working on a BBC show (not Ripper, which is still in the development stage). But he said that even though he knew from the beginning of season six that Giles would be gone for much of it, he also planned on him coming back at the very end of ep 21 (this was planned from the beginning of the season). Still, he said, when he saw the first dailies of the first shot of Giles' return, HE REALIZED HOW MUCH THE SHOW WAS MISSING FROM THE LACK OF GILES' PRESENCE! That was nice to hear! He really recognized how much Giles/Tony added to the show and said he wants him back and the show needs him back much much more next season.

I'd previously seen Joss, Alyson, Nicholas and James in person before, but for those of you who haven't had the pleasure... Joss is like a big kid. Impulsive, mischievious, charming, disarming, witty, brilliant, and very funny. Impossible to dislike. He looks like a cherub. After the panel, I went up and asked Joss to sign the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Script Book I'd brought along. As he signed it, I thanked him for the many years of wonderful television he'd given us and told him I looked forward to many more in the years to come.

Marti Noxon... well, those who know me, know I've held her personally responsible for a lot of the missteps on Buffy this [sixth] season. I went in prepared to give her annoyed looks all hour long. But, well, while I can't say I like her, well, I will say I aggressively dislike her less. She's very pregnant (funny story about which later), pretty mild in her manner, yet passionate and possessive about the show. Both she and Joss (mostly Joss though) acknowledged that the season got basically out of control (more about which later) -- I respect anyone willing to admit their mistakes and take responsibility for them. So while I entered the panel angry about the season, after hearing Joss talk about it, I left a bit more mellowed -- more later. After the panel, I did not speak with Marti.

As to the actors: Alyson looked stunning, hair about Evil Willow's length, maybe a tad longer, auburn colored and fashionably styled. She wore a very Willow-like peasant-style blouse. She is very sweet and playful, just a delight. Her boyfriend (the actor who plays Wesley on Angel) was there in the reserved seats watching the panel. After the panel, as Alyson signed my Buffy the Vampire Slayer Script Book, I told her that Willow rocked! Good Willow, Bad Willow and Alternate Willow -- Willow rocked! She laughed and seemed very pleased.

Nicholas... is Xander. You really can't say much more than that. He's a smart aleck with a very deep heart. I think his wife was there in the audience. Mostly he contributed funny Xander-like comments from the sidelines (such as emphasizing several times that 'Xander saved the world. Don't forget... Xander saved the world. And did I mention... Xander saved the world?' -- when asked by the panel's moderator to talk more about that, he said he'd be meeting with Sharon next week to discuss how to manage peace and meeting with Putin the following week -- this got a huge laugh as he talked about people not understanding the difference between the character and the actor). But in those moments he was serious, he expressed his gratitude to Joss for scenes like the yellow crayon speech in the season six finale -- he said when he first got the script it made him literally cry and how grateful he was as an actor to have that kind of quality material to work with. He also said the Tara death scene which he watched with his wife and Emma (presumably 'Anya' Emma?), that again they were all bawling, particularly at the moment where Tara/Amber says to Willow 'there's something on your shirt' and then to Willow/Alyson's reaction shot. (On that scene Alyson merely discussed the MANY MANY takes it took to get the blood spattered on her correctly, that it kept hitting her face or the wrong part of the blouse and how she had to keep giving the shirt back to the costumers to be rewashed and then put it back on wet to be splattered again with stage blood. By the time they finally got the shot, she didn't care about her emotional reaction -- she just wanted to know if they 'got the blood right'!) Back to Nicholas, though, there were too many people vying for his attention, so I didn't say anything other than 'thank you' as he signed my Buffy the Vampire Slayer Script Book.

James... wow, that is one beautiful man. He wore a black denim button down shirt with black jeans. His natural dark hair color was starting to peek through the blonde bleaching. At one point Michelle made a silly comment then apologized by saying 'sorry that was my blonde highlights in my hair talking' at which point everyone looked over at James and cracked up. Even as he laughed he protested that he wasn't going to bleach his hair during hiatus. Did I mention he is incredibly beautiful? His cheekbones should have a TV show of their own. It is disconcerting to hear him speak in his own rather flat American accent, rather than Spike's sexy Brit-speak. But he's still a very nice guy, who is incredibly appreciative of a steady job on a show he is clearly proud to be a part of. He spoke often during the panel about the quality of the series and what it tried to achieve. He said most actors past the fifth season of a show arrive at work bored. He then said that the Buffy cast arrived at work terrified (in a good way) never knowing what's going to happen to their characters. He said that on any other show you know generally what will happen -- you'll kiss the girl or lose the girl or whatever. On Buffy you could get turned into a snail! He also talked about how amazing it was that after several seasons the show never devolved into the 'monster of the year' series. That the show was always about people and their lives and problems, not about the demons, monsters, etc.

Oh, Joss on Spike in season seven: 'Spike will not become Angel. Angel is Angel. That's been done. Spike will become... something that he's never been before and something that James has never played before.' I thought that was intriguing. Joss also said he has season seven plotted out. Also re: Angel, when asked if there would be a crossover with Angel coming to Buffy, James loudly protested "NO! God, no! No!" I don't think it was any bad feelings towards Angel/Boreanaz but that (again, this is just my impression/interpretation) this would interrupt Spike's storyline with Buffy. Actually, when the moderator asked if Spike getting his soul would be 'an Angel thing so Spike can't have sex anymore', James loudly protested that, too! When asked about sex scenes, James mockingly complained 'Sarah's completely dressed -- I'm in a sock!' This got much catcalls and whistles from the females in the audience! So he said 'It was a BIG sock!' Nicholas jumped in and added, 'Nah, it was a little tennis sock, you know, with little balls at the end'. That got a huge response from the crowd to which James responded 'well, it was cold on those stages!' After the panel, I was tongue tied around James (did I mention he's beautiful?), so I mumbled 'could you sign this?' and 'thanks' as I passed him my Buffy the Vampire Slayer Script Book then kicked myself for being such a silly ActorGroupie.

Michelle is a doll. She's very pretty in person, composed and sweet, but still a teenager. She constantly reminded Joss about wanting to wear heels next season. And about how her character had been through a year that was about needing attention and that now she was over that and would stop whining, right? Even she was digging a bit at Joss and Marti on that. Joss agreed, next year for Dawn would not be a year of whining. Next year for Dawn would be a year of moping! Following by a year of sulking! This got great laughs from the audience, but I don't know how thrilled Michelle was at this. She said, wistfully, there'd hopefully be no more 'Kill Dawn' e-mails. This got a big 'aww' from the audience and reminded them that she, the actress, is still a kid, too, and that kind of 'fan' response has to be hard to take. After the panel, I told Michelle that I'd been a fan of hers since All My Children which surprised and pleased her (and she signed my Buffy the Vampire Slayer Script Book, too).

Let me backtrack a bit... Despite having tickets, the seating was first come, first served, so my friend and I arrived 2 1/2 hours early at which point there were already a dozen people in line. When we got inside, the first four rows were cordoned off as reserved seating for guests of the panelists. My friend and I wound up in the third row behind the reserved seats and had a great view. Before the panelists spoke, there was a small set of Buffy clips shown, with quite a bit from the musical episode which got great applause. So the moderator started the panel by asking about the musical episode.

Joss said he'd always wanted to do a musical, but hadn't know if it was possible, either for him to write it or for the cast to perform it. Apparently, the cast has frequent get-togethers at Joss' house. Sometimes they get together as an acting exercise and do play readings. The first time they did this, the cast was apparently a bit uncomfortable, so Joss said they all drank a bit to get comfortable. Then someone on the panel said 'and look what happened' and then for some reason everyone looked over at pregnant Marti and cracked up at the implication that her pregnancy was the result of the drunken party at Joss' house! Backtracking, Joss protested 'No, we weren't THAT drunk'! Which then implied he'd have to be THAT drunk to go for Marti which cracked everyone up again! (For the record, Joss is married, and not to Marti.) No, what DID happen at that party is that everyone wound up around a piano, singing. Joss indicated the intention of this was to get Tony to sing (as Tony was a musical theater actor), but he wound up being surprised at how well the rest of the cast could, sing, too. From this point on, Joss noted, somehow, everywhere James went, he had his guitar and would be constantly sitting around playing it and singing. Having realized that he had a cast who could actually pull off a musical episode, Joss said he got over his block of playing piano and writing music and did it.

He discussed planning the episode around the various actors' strengths and preferences. Alyson discussed threatening laryngitis to Joss, till he kept her singing to a minimum. She also said that when Joss first wrote the musical, he and his wife sang all the songs into a tape for each of the actors. But as his wife sang all of the women's parts, Alyson said this was very intimidating as the wife had a fabulous singing voice and Alyson recalled saying 'well, I can't sing it like that!' Michelle told Joss, that she wasn't too comfortable with her singing, but she loved to dance (which I think was very visible in the musical episode). So she asked for little singing, but some good dance numbers. Joss obliged her request and Michelle said he choreographed her dance sequence himself, showing her all the twirls and the jumps! Nicholas said he wasn't intimidated at all at the thought of doing a musical as he'd never done one before, so he had nothing to compare it to and could therefore only do 'better than nothing'. But apparently, he didn't have the strongest singing voice and had to quit after a two hour session, requiring a second recording session.

Joss said he wrote each number for the actor and their strengths and their character. He said he wrote a rock number for James, because 'well, it was James. And it was Spike. So it had to be rock.' He wrote a ballad for Amber because she's a ballad singer, and for Tony, too. He said he wrote a 30's-type number for Anya and Xander based on the art-deco style of their apartment set (for which he credited the production designer) and based on Anya's style of costumes the previous season. When asked whose musical talent was Joss most surprised by, he responded 'Emma's, because we'd never heard her sing before, around the piano or anything. She was amazing.'

The quieter ones on the panel were the production designer (who, when asked about his favorite set he'd designed, thought for a bit, then said maybe the vampire mansion in season 2 -- James protested and said, no, his and Dru's lair or the meat-packing factory for season 2) and the director of photography. Alyson in particular sang the praises of the DP, saying what a nice guy he is and that he's always in a good mood and how that helps set the mood for the cast and crew. Then James jumped in and joked that she would be well lit next season (the DP is in charge of making sure the actors are lit attractively, or unattractively). Throughout the panel, all the actors joked about LOVING the DP (which I did sense was real) and sucking up to him to get the good lighting and when they said something bad 'uh-oh, she's going to get the 'old lady filter!'' meaning she'd be unattractively filmed by the DP. Alyson talked about how the current female hair style was to have their hair covering their ears and surrounding their face, leaving little enough of the face seen, but asking the DP to light them well. Then he'd ask them to tuck their hair back so he could find their face and they'd protest it would ruin the style!

The cast all talked about how much they loved their entire crew and how they were worried Joss was taking them away to use them on his new science fiction series Firefly. This seemed semi-joking, but a very real concern to the actors -- apparently both Buffy and Angel are losing a lot of crew to Firefly, including this DP. At times during the panel, the actors would tease Joss, saying 'But you love US best right?' meaning out of all of his shows. And he'd nod and say absolutely, those other shows suck, they don't mean a thing, who wants to watch some dumb space show, anyway? He was very playful and loving with them. The one time he was serious, he said that the crewmembers who were moving from Buffy and Angel to Firefly were people who'd been in their jobs a while and wanted to move on to newer projects/challenges. Marti then jumped in and said, but Joss wouldn't leave Buffy unless he knew it was in good hands and that she felt that they had a very strong writing staff, any of whom could run their own shows. This seemed to confirm that while Joss may initiate the arc of the season, he does not run the show [Buffy] day to day and has not for some time, which I thought was evident with this [sixth] season. Still, it was reassuring to hear how much of season six and seven he did plan/has planned. At one point Michelle joked that Joss knew where all the characters would be 20 years from now. Joss just smiled at that. During the panel he did acknowledge the challenge of working on four shows simultaneously, but said he'd do his best to take care of them all. But this leads me into the next topic - a season out of control...

Early on, the moderator asked Joss 'what do you say to people's criticism that this season was too depressing, too dark?' Joss thought for a minute, then responded, "Oops?" Which I loved! Marti then jumped in to talk about how while they knew they wanted to have the evil Willow storyline, and they wanted the season to be about facing the real world without the safety net of parents and living at home, and they also wanted to show how some relationships (Buffy/Spike) can be unhealthy, they didn't quite realize that they were going to wind up doing it all together and how that would come across (namely dark and extremely depressing). At one point Joss joked 'Yeah, next season we're going to advertise it as: Watch Buffy this season! Not every character wants to die!'

As someone who was really upset with this [sixth] season for a lot of reasons (one being how graphic the show became for an 8pm series), I went in upset, but after Joss spoke, I want to think about it a bit. This is what he said the season was really about: while early seasons of the show (which many fans want to return to the feeling of) were about metaphor and love as romance and fantasy, this season was about the realities of love. And the reality is not romance. The reality is sex. The reality is two real people with real feelings that don't always mix. The reality is hard, painful, physical. This season was about the REALITY. Joss said they planned from the beginning of the season to kill Tara by shooting her with a gun. He points out they intentionally planted two lines (ep 4 and 15 I think he said) where Buffy says guns are bad (paraphrasing that). In earlier seasons, Angel and Buffy died in 'fantasy' ways. Their love was a fantasy and even though their separation and loss hurt, it hurt in a safe way, because it was a fantasy. This season, Joss wanted everything to hurt in a REAL way. So no easy safe magical death. A very real, very ugly death in a real world way. And the real ugly pain that caused (to the characters and the audience).

Joss pointed out that the beginnings of the Willow/Tara relationship was through metaphor: magic, casting spells. Then they decided to quit being coy and start getting real about their relationship, so they became girlfriends. Joss emphasized the decision to lose metaphor as much as possible this season, thus the decision to use human 'monsters' as the Big Bads this season. To make it real. Same with the Buffy/Spike relationship. It was physical, real (though, he pointed out, the first time they had sex, it was real in a metaphorical setting -- a house falling down around them, symbolizing the foundation their relationship was built on -- namely one that couldn't stand). Hearing that, I could see the season a little better for what it was, or at least what it was intended to be. It gave me food for thought at least.

Other moments of interest: At one point, I think Nicholas mentioned Clem and said 'don't we all like Clem' which got a roar of approval from the audience.

When Joss talked about the musical, he said 'and I've watched it more times than anyone... because I'm a narcissist!' At another point, James said something and Joss jumped in adding 'oh, I agree, but I just wanted to talk about me'. He's so funny!

One of the biggest laughs was when he was asked if we'd see the Doublemeat Palace again. The response was 'not likely'. Apparently, Joss said, while this season was the most graphic and dark ever with lots of sex scenes, the only episode to actually lose advertisers was Doublemeat Palace... because they were making fun of fast food! It was not so gently suggested that he not do that again!

A couple of more tidbits: When Nicholas thanked Joss for the yellow crayon speech, Joss was appreciative but pointed out that for every person who liked it, there was some guy on the Net going -- 'a yellow crayon? Who the hell cares about a yellow crayon! Dude, you suck!' This was funny, but also showed his awareness of fan reaction, which was cool.

The actors praised Joss and the writing staff several times during the panel, sometimes seriously, sometimes playfully in a kissing-up manner. Every time they said something good either to the writers or the DP, one of the others would say 'oh, s(he)'s getting the good storylines', 'well, there goes your character', 'you are going to get no lighting whatsoever, aren't you?', 'you are going to be the only person lit in the scene!' There was a lot of playful camaraderie amongst the actors (and with Joss). Alyson and Nicholas definitely had the Willow/Xander longtime friendship feeling to them. James seemed very big brother-like to Michelle at one time reaching over to almost ruffle her hair. One time Nicholas was just getting way too silly and Michelle grabbed her microphone and said 'we'd like to apologize, we forgot to give Nicholas his medication today' -- very embarassed little-sister-like, but playfully teasing, too.

Also adding that Michelle, while still definitely a teenager, is a very poised young lady. She's been an actress since she was very young and has that kind of 'older than her age' social quality that a lot of young actors get. She was professional (when she wasn't begging Joss for high heels) and appreciative of her job, her cast, the scripts, etc. When I told her after the panel that I'd always thought she was amazing on All My Children (true, she stood out to me even then as a star in the making), she thanked me and said, well, you know I had Sarah there with me, too, to work with. Just a classy young lady.

What else? Joss said that the geek trio [the Big Bads of season six] were the ones closest to the writers' true voices and that the conversations the trio had were pretty much exactly the conversations the writers were having during the story breaks and then would stop to say 'oh, we should get back to the story, now'.

Oh, and I knew there was a Spike story I forgot to mention: Very interesting -- the moderator asked Joss 'at the end of the finale, I thought Spike wanted to get the chip out, not get his soul back?' And Joss said "NO." !!! "That's what you were supposed to think, though." Holy moly! I never expected that! Joss is wicked!

And two other quick things on season seven: Joss re-emphasized what he's said in interviews about wanting to return to the original intent and feeling of the show. He acknowledged that season six went farther than even intended into the darkness/reality and that it was time to get back to what he said was the real theme of the series: THE JOY OF FEMALE EMPOWERMENT AND THE SHARING OF THAT POWER. This also tied in, he implied to the fact that Dawn is now the age Buffy was when season one started (and presumably also ties in the return of the Sunnydale High School where I would guess Dawn would start attending school). All in all, that panel was one heck of an amazing hour.

Did I mention how extremely cool it was that everyone stayed afterwards to sign autographs? Though I kicked myself for missing 'Wesley' who apparently was still sitting in the audience waiting for Alyson when I left!

Apparently some other reports of this event surfaced saying Joss's joke about season six not being too depressing, just too interesting and over the viewer's heads was stated seriously, implying Joss was defensive or arrogant or refused to admit problems with the darker storylines or implied viewers weren't smart enough for the show. I must respond that some people obviously didn't get when Joss was being self-deprecating and sarcastic: HE WAS KIDDING! Ohmygod, some people need to get a sense of humor! He was joking around, like "no, it wasn't too depressing... it was... too interesting! Yeah, that's it! Over their heads!" People seriously need to relax. I didn't see one moment of arrogance from Joss in that entire panel! I've worked as an assistant to writer-producers -- you need to have a certain amount of er, 'healthy ego' to sell a product that you believe in. But Joss has a very self-deprecating and playful way about him. I would never take those kinds of statements from him at face value! Particularly not when combined with his jokes about 'I'm a narcissist' and 'I want to talk about me'. And the bottom line re: the season being too dark was: he said "Oops!"

I understand that a link to my original post of this panel report was placed on the show's official boards. Upon learning that, I hasten to add that I apologize to any of TPTB of Buffy who may have seen my fannish ramblings herein and were in any way displeased with them! Any misimpressions, misinterpretations, are strictly mine and no offense towards anyone was meant.