You’re looking at one grateful and relieved Hercules today, mere hours after concluding our big Buh-Bye Buffy Bash in Hollywood. I can safely say Tuesday will remain forever one the most terrifying and gratifying days of my sad little life. I’ve never, ever, ever felt the kind of love I felt last night, toward the site, toward the show, toward the fellow fans.
And I am bursting with the need to thank:
Jen and Asti we now officially designate the Buffy Bash’s most valuable players. With impossible speed and care and will and love – they selflessly crafted for the party the three music videos and the clip package we used to precede the finale broadcast, and their efforts elevated the evening’s entertainment quotient something like 2000 percent. I pity those who couldn’t experience the Buffy Nation’s reaction to their extravaganza, and I pity with the genuine pity Joss Whedon and the other “Buffy” writers, who elected to hold their own intimate viewing soiree across town. I’ll remember forever the screams and cheers and torrents of laughter that greeted Team Whedon’s work last night, and it kills me that the team itself was celebrating elsewhere. My emailbox is bulging today with missives from party-goers who were as astounded and delighted by Jen and Asti’s work as I, all begging for a website address and a chance to buy, borrow or steal their efforts. Find their videos and contact info at www.any-time-soon.com. And all hail Jen and Asti!!!!!!!
Amber Benson is not only a spectacularly gifted actress, vocalist, writer and director, she’s hands-down one of the most charming people I’ve ever met. Despite my appalling luck and organizational skills, she fearlessly chatted with rabid fans and signed autographs for something like an hour, then even climbed the stage with us to draw raffle numbers. She is as close as this planet has come to producing a perfect girl: brave, funny, incredibly sweet-natured and just insanely good-looking. It’s no secret how hot I’d always found her on “Buffy,” but Amber in person is just jaw-droppingly adorable. Amber, I love you, I will never ask for anything again, and I will relentlessly plug any project you ever work on as long I have a place to plug it. For example? All seven chapters of Amber’s nifty and very animated collaboration with writer Christopher Golden, “Ghosts of Albion,” are still up and running on BBC Online!
James Leary, who plays Clem, was a huge surprise. Sans makeup, he’s a handsome and engaging 29-year-old, and had the crowd in stitches as he took his turn drawing loads of raffle numbers. 12-year-old Demetra Raven, who began the evening as the littlest potential and ended it as the littlest slayer, also stayed late on a school night to help with the raffle, and could not have been cuter or more contagiously enthusiastic about the whole effort.
Autumn Nazarian and Bren White served as hardworking volunteer staffers prior to event day and on the day itself. They love Buffy at least as much as I do, and it showed in their considerable efforts. Deborah Baxtrom, Dave Biel, Lorri Gumms, Kim Ignatius, Eileen Robichaud Dennis and Karen Setnor made up the balance of our sorely-needed volunteer staff, and put in a very, very long day – helping to set up the many, many things that needed setting up, working the admissions table and selling the charity laminates. They were all wonderful to work with under often difficult circumstances, and I’m certain I didn’t point that out enough the very busy day of the event.
20th Century Fox (and especially Carol Cundiff), really came through for the event, contributing a trailer for Eliza Dushku’s “Wrong Turn,” (opening May 30) as well as boxes of “X2” and “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” posters and boxes of supercool “X2” chess sets to distribute.
20th Century Fox Home Video (and especially Fred Paik) kicked in a whole crate of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” Season Four DVD, which we’ll be mailing to the lucky raffle winners shortly after the package’s June 10 street date.
Sony’s Screen Gems (and especially Anastasia Lee) got us the trailer for the vampire-werewolf epic “Underworld” (opening Sept. 19), as well as a boatload of promotional T-shirts, mini-posters and mints for the film.
Absurdly generous “Buffy” fan Eddie Ibraham contributed thousands of dollars worth of passes to San Diego’s sprawling and always-amazing Comic Con International, to be held July 17-20.
Special thanks to my hundreds of rabid fellow “Buffy” fanatics, especially the ones who understood the importance of watching this finale together. Your enthusiasm and response to the proceedings were beyond my wildest expectations, and made the night one of the most memorable and special I've ever experienced.
There would, of course, be no “Buffy Bash” without series mastermind Joss Whedon, who came through again by writing and directing yet another five-star season finale. Again, I only wish he could have heard the swelling cheer as Buffy, Giles, Xander and Willow found themselves alone at the center of Sunnydale High, or the screams of joy as Buffy handed Spike the Wolfram & Hart amulet. (Let’s all lobby the Museum of Television and Radio to organize a “Tribute to Joss Whedon” night for next March’s Paley Festival, and then show up very drunk and give Mr. Whedon a taste of what we experienced last night!)
There would absolutely be no Buffy Bash without Drew “Moriarty” McWeeny, the man who first suggested to Harry Knowles that Herc might be someone who could contribute to the TV side of Ain’t It Cool. Much more recently, Drew, his gorgeous s.o, Mariela Gonzales, and one of the bash’s many Rachels, were invaluable in helping to entertain the crowd and coordinate the complicated distribution of the raffle swag as the evening concluded.
Finally, there would absolutely be no Buffy Bash without Harry Knowles. Before I began contributing to Ain’t It Cool, I hosted a season-three finale buffy bash and managed to pull together six fans at my apartment. For this finale, using Ain’t It Cool as a catalyst, the season-seven finale party gathered more than 600 of the faithful. The pitiless irony? Harry is far too busy to watch television, and - despite my five-year lobbying effort – has never seen a “Buffy” episode in its entirely.
But on Sunday, Harry fired off a wholly unexpected and extraordinarily encouraging missive offering this:
While I have not watched a SINGLE [“Buffy”] episode ever, I have read much of your coverage of it, and even many of the talkbacks. Often times I feel like a foreigner in alien territory (aka much like I felt in Beijing), but I've always marveled at the passion that you and the nation of Buffy fans have exhibited towards the show. The other day I was in my
living room and I was flipping channels and I saw that girl from
AMERICAN PIE, the flute girl... band camp girl and I stopped for a bit,
watched, giggled... then realized I was watching BUFFY and then changed
the channel. Honestly it isn't a snobbery, it’s that I feel it is a
connected show with ties that begin far before the show I'd be
watching.
I plan on getting the BUFFY DVD sets at some point and just discovering them and I have no doubt that when I'm through, I'll look at this coming
Tuesday as the missed opportunity it was, missed not because I'm not
going to be there, but because I didn't join the Buffy nation at the
beginning. Because at this moment, I truly feel like I'm missing
something special that you brought to my site and that the fans of that
show have brought to my site.
The good news for Harry? Sarah Michelle Gellar may be done with “Buffy” (at least for the moment) but the rest of the world certainly is not. It’s telling that the world-beating “Grand Slam” conventions have mutated from “Star Trek”-“Star Wars” assemblies into “Star Wars”-“Star Trek”-“Buffy The Vampire Slayer” confabs. As with those other enduring franchises, the cult of “Buffy,” I think, will only balloon in the coming years as people like Harry come upon it belatedly. Harry will get through the DVDs, we’ll eventually get our Whedon-directed Buffiverse movie, and you, me and Harry will all get to experience another Buffy Bash-like experience together (maybe even at the Alamo Drafthouse!).
So think happy thoughts, and imagine what the world of “Angel” is going to look like next autumn with the Scooby Gang homeless and thousands of rogue slayers running about and "Buffy" ace Drew Goddard scripting.
Oh, and continue to fear us. For we remain the Buffy Nation.
