I am – Hercules!!

Another Untold Tale of Ain’t It Cool News:

At the end of Coax’s much-discussed July 4 “Buffy” spoilers, we posted a few script pages from the two-hour UPN premiere, only to have the wholly unfun junior lawyers at 20th Century Fox immediately contact AICN Chief Harry Knowles and demand that these pages be removed at once. The offending pages were taken down at once, but I privately groused to Mr. Knowles that whole “Buffy” scripts are all over the Net, and the Fox weenies were just picking on us because Harry is so dang famous.

Now comes word that the junior lawyers have besieged a great “Buffy” site and forced it to delete its scripts as well.

They’re mean! And clearly doing this only to justify their own miserable junior lawyer jobs. Is the unauthorized publication of these pages really eating into Fox’s bottom line?

Reading the “Buffy” scripts, admittedly, isn’t as much fun as watching the “Buffy” shows, but these scripts do offer something unique: unproduced wit in the descriptive paragraphs. (It’s like finding extra jokes scribbled in the margins of a Hunter Thompson book or something.) Since the newly-deleted “Buffy” scripts (everything after 2.6) are not yet officially published, the world is currently being deprived of fun!

Here’s a reader to underscore our outrage:

Hi Herc,

Its not exactly a scoop or anything, but I felt you might want to know. A little note about the suits at Fox: they and their lawyers just closed down one of the most useful Buffy sites on the 'Net: www.mustreadtv.com/buffyscripts, which had all the scripts from Season 2 Ep. 7 to "The Gift". The earlier ones are available as a book from amazon, so the site wouldn't post them.

Anyway, the site posted the scripts, not just a transricpt of the dialoge, which gave great insight into the shows and the writers, e.g. "The Gift" had a scene where Xander points out the off-camera wrecking ball to Buffy and goes to it. This was not in the episode, of course, but I now know what Whedon did with the X-man and he seems less underused.

Another great example is "There's no Place Like Pltz Grb" where there is a small note instructing Lorne to "sing" with his back to the camera at the end of the episode and they will clear a song later.

Anyway, I know you're a busy deity, and as someone in the TV industry (I'm guessing...) you may agree with Fox, I don't know. I just thought you might want to know.

Finally, a few closing words from the site itself:

August 13, 2001 - This is a sad, sad day. I received the inevitable cease and desist letter from the Fox lawyers, so the Buffy Shooting Script Site is officially closed. I have really enjoyed sharing the shooting scripts with all of you over the past 2 1/2 years, and I hope that you continue to appreciate and support the talented writers who bring you Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. (And for those of you who don't know - Buffy will be back for a sixth and seventh season. The show is moving to UPN.)

To the Buffy and Angel writers: Thank you. Because of you I actually started paying attention to who writes a show. You made me aware of the most important aspect of any series - the writing. I look forward to seeing what you have in store for the Scooby Gang and Angel and his crew in the coming years. And I also look forward to any other projects you become involved in.

I'll continue to collect the scripts, but I will no longer have the joy of sharing them with others. Thanks to everyone who helped out with this site - and thanks to all the visitors who helped make it such a success. (I can't believe that closing down this site is making me cry! It feels like the end of an era!)

It's really been a pleasure to run this website, and I shall truly miss it.