October 21, 2021 – davidbruceblog #2

Critics

• TV critic Anne Billson wrote a critical analysis of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, an American cult TV series that she greatly admired because of its strong female, action-oriented role model. Despite her great love of the series, she did not like some characters. One was Dawn, Buffy’s younger sister (sort of) in seasons 5-7, whom Ms. Billman (and many Buffy fans) criticizes for being whiny. At the end of season 5, Buffy saves Dawn (and the world) by sacrificing her life. While watching the episode, Ms. Billman found herself screaming at the TV screen, “FOR GOD’S SAKE, LET THEM TAKE DAWN INSTEAD!” Ms. Billman’s extreme dislike of Dawn continued throughout seasons 6 and 7 of Buffy. When Ms. Billman lists a number of actions performed by Evil Willow at the end of season 6, one item (with Ms. Billman’s commentary) is this: “terrorize Dawn (yay!).” In the final episode of the final season of Buffy (season 7), Ms. Billman knew that an important character would be killed. In her book about the show, she writes, “But who will be sacrificed? Xander or Willow? Giles? Faith? Principal Wood? Or (please, please) Dawn?” To be fair, Michelle Trachtenberg, who played Dawn, also thought that the character was whiny. She once pleaded with Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy, to let the character be less whiny — and wear high heels (or at least pumps). After the series ended, a Rocky Horror-type audience-participation showing of the musical episode of Buffy — “Once More, With Feeling” — began happening in some major American cities. Whenever Dawn is whiny in the episode, the audience yells, “SHUT UP, DAWN!”

• Fred Allen was contemptuous of authority in general and his sponsors (who censored his scripts) in particular. One day, while Mr. Allen was warming up the audience for his radio show, a light was turned on in the booth where the sponsor of the show usually sat, but the light revealed that no one was in the booth. “Ladies and gentleman,” Mr. Allen told the audience, “that booth is a device to belittle the comedian by showing him that the sponsor doesn’t care enough for his program to attend it.” A pageboy went to the booth and turned off the light. Mr. Allen then announced, “Ah, a boy who has the guts to turn off a light without a memo from a vice-president will go right to the top of the organization.”

• Jerry Mander wrote a book in 1978 titled Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television. Of course, immediately many TV programs wanted to book Mr. Mander as a guest — which Mr. Mander refused to do. Once a TV producer called him and asked him to sum up his book in a few words. Mr. Mander replied that he could not do that; after all, it had taken him 100,000 words to write his book. The producer then asked Mr. Mander what were his main points. Mr. Mander replied, “One of the main points is that television can only deal with main points.”

• Humorist Frank Sullivan had a sister named Kate, who bought a TV in the days when TVs were rare. Very quickly, she called a TV repairman, who asked, “What seems to be wrong with it?” She replied, “Well, for one thing, a lot of the programs are lousy.”

Death

• At the end of season 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy dies, shocking the fans of the series. Actually, not just the fans were shocked. James Marsters, who played the role of Spike the vampire, pleaded with series creator Joss Whedon not to kill Buffy. He argued, “Joss, you can’t kill Buffy. The show is called Buffy the Vampire Slayer! You can’t do that, man — I need the job!” Mr. Whedon looked Mr. Marsters in the eyes and said, “Dude, it’s my show. I can do whatever I want.” (By the way, Mr. Whedon really can do whatever he wants — he brought Buffy back to life the following season. Actually, he had done that before — this was the second time that Buffy had died.)

• Pat Leno, Jay’s brother, served in Vietnam. Of course, any family with a member serving in Vietnam dreaded receiving telegrams because that was the means the Pentagon used to announce that a soldier or sailor had died. One day, the Leno family received a telegram. They looked at the telegram for 10 minutes, afraid to open it and see what it said. Finally, Jay’s father opened it and read, “YOU ARE INVITED TO WENTWORTH CHEVROLET TO VIEW THE EXCITING NEW CAPRICE CLASSIC!” Jay’s father bought many cars during the rest of his life — none of them was a Chevy.

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