2008 PaleyFest: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Reunion

In March 2008, to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the first broadcast of the 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' television show, a Cast Reunion Panel Discussion was held at the Paleyfest Festival. With the majority of the main cast members, Joss Whedon and some of the creative team in attendance, a lively and informative discussion of the show, the memories and the legacy of Buffy were discussed at length. The buzz, both before and after the event, was intense and over the last few months snippets of the discussion have appeared on the internet posted by fans who were in the audience. Now the entire Cast Panel Discussion on has been released on DVD.An era came to a close with the broadcast of Chosen, the final episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Fans (myself included) experienced emotions ranging from feelings of completion and of things coming full circle through to a sense of grief at the loss of a dear friend. Those same fans have devotedly kept the show in the media consciousness ever since, which resulted in Buffy being given an Emmy award in 2008 for Most Memorable Moment in a TV Drama (for the Season 5 finale episode The Gift) - quite an achievement for a television series which had ended a full five years earlier. Since then it has seemed unlikely that the cast and the show's makers would get together in a group again, but in March 2008 it finally happened - at Paleyfest. Following a screening of Once More With Feeling, the majority of the main cast members (apart from Alison Hannigan and David Boreanaz), along with Joss Whedon, Marti Noxon and David Greenwalt, participated in a panel discussion of the show, hosted by Matt Roush (TV Guide's television critic who has championed the cause of Buffy since the very first episode). The overall feeling that the DVD of the discussion gives is that the cast really miss working together, and working on the show, and it is clear that in watching the panel discussion viewers are actually witnessing friends catching up on old times. Among the subjects covered are the darkness of Season 6 and the difficulties which that brought to both cast and crew (Sarah Michelle Gellar notes that at one point she felt that she had "lost the hero" with regard to where the storylines were taking the character of Buffy), how Christophe Beck's music actually caused certain storylines to be built (and how he lost the 'r' from the end of his name), Joyce Summers' death and Sarah Michelle Gellar's ability to play almost an entire script without a break and hit every line flawlessly - leading Joss & Co. to dub her Jimmy Stewart (Sarah's reaction to hearing this is very sweet, warm and funny - it's worth getting hold of this DVD just for that moment). Note is also made of Sarah's work with the charity Care and her forthcoming film Veronika Decides To Die. The only criticism of the Panel Discussion is that the audience, when given the chance to ask the panel questions, really make next to no effort to pose anything thought-provoking and we're left with audience questions that anyone could find the answer to in 5 minutes on the internet (what is on your iPod etc). Thankfully the audience questions take up only a few minutes and don't detract from the overall event.Lasting more than an hour, and with insightful information throughout, this DVD really is "something to sing about".

OK if you are a complete Buffy nut this is a great and funny thing.You see most of the cast (except for D Boreanaz and A Hannigan) reconvene together with the creator J Whedon for a panel discussion following a projection of one episode. the episode apparently was the oen called "with feeling" or something like that which was the musical episode, that I did not find that great but anyway the whole cast seemed to get a blast from being allowed to sing, so who am I to complain. Anyway it is interesting to see such a fantastic cast reconvene now 7? or so years after going off the air. I rememeber when Entertainment Weekly announced Buffy Quits or something like that. This show as they say many times did change the way television shows were done and even if during some seaons it went over the board and became a typical newd attraction (there were vampires and pretty girls after all) the show had its moments of greatness and you see why here. While Joss Whedon seems extremely tired, which is surprising, the rest of the cast is in great form and provides lots of interesting information during the panel discussion. you really sense thgis was a family reunion they all wellcomed adn you sense that more could be possible in the future. On the other hand if you are not aBuffy nut, this is to be avoided because it is a panel discussion by the cast about how great the series was and is. So it is directed to a VERY specialized audience. But...I loved it.

If your a die hard fan of the series, you need to pick this up. It's great to see everyone together again including Sarah Michelle Gellar who is missing for most of the dvd seasons extras. I only gave 4 stars since it would have been nice to see Anthony Head, Alyson Hanigan and maybe David Boreanaz as well. I imagine they are all busy after all Anthony lives in England and Alyson and David both have thriving series of their own now. It was great to see everyone else back together again and there were some very interesting conversations. Some of the fan questions were a little out there but for the most part I thought they were interesting. One of my favorite parts was the interaction between Amber Benson (Tara) and Seth Green (Oz) who were only on the show together for one episode but had both been significant others to Alyson Hangigan's character Willow. Made for some very witty moments. Great stuff.Hope this helps.

I was ecstatic when I saw this. A cast reunion that actually featured Sarah Michelle Gellar who almost never appeared in panels about the show, plus a large majority of the cast. While we get much of the cast, including Joss and Marti, the large ensemble actually works against itself since one of the questions presented to them was a long "What is on your ipod and what's your fave movie?" That's not a fault of the panel, but c'mon. That question took forever. Yes, I'm nitpicking but this was actually ind of boring. Perhaps the chemistry of the audience and the panel was bad, since it really seemed to "drag".I know this wasn't a convention audience but, without Seth Green making jokes this would have been quite a boring disc which is surprising because I've seen these people in "fun" panels. Heck, the special DVD that was included with the Buffy complete boxset with Joss and a few of them was entertaining. I'm a collector and got it for completist sake but, it really is a weak session. I love Buffy, so this was a disappointing pick for me.

I loved the Paley Fest with the Buffy cast. If you are a Buffy fan and if you are a Sarah Michelle Gellar fan especially then you should get this. Sarah Michelle Gellar wasn't always on every panel discussion so this is a treat to get her view on being on the show and her behind the scenes observations. She's really funny and tells great stories. It's short on Charisma Carpenter and Emma Caulfield comments, but they are there and they do say a few things. Seth Green was HILARIOUS as was Nicholas Brendon. Allison Hannigan wasn't there, but she could have been busy. All in all a great DVD