Customer Reviews

2008 PaleyFest: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Reunion

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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".

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

Well, obviously this DVD could have more special features, but it contains the most important thing - Buffy Reunion 2008, five years after the show ended its run on USA. I'm a Portuguese fan and I must say that it really makes me happy watching this DVD. The reunion even show sarah michelle gellar, which is somthing that we are not used to see in Buffy reuniona. So, What more do you want? Its a cast reunion, with the actors that played our favourite character, the genious behind all this Joss Whedon and the producers who also made this dream come true! Spectacular DVD. A must see and buy!

Vital to any fans of Buffy. A few missing cast members including Angel, Willow and Giles are missing but Spike and Seth Green are there and steal the show.

cool stuff, man, James masters is the awesome! :) good to see the cast back to together really cool :) Buffy rules! also where was willow?????

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.

A great DVD for true Buffy fans, especially because SMG is w/ the cast, which is rare. If you were thinking about it, buy it now.

After I placed the order for this video, I thought I might be nuts to spend money on it, but I'm actually not crazy! Seeing the PaleyFest Buffy reunion panel is well worth the money. There's such a warm feeling between the cast members and it was curious to see one cast member (who jumped from Buffy to Angel after season 2...hint, hint) seeming not really into the event or participating in the on-stage banter. The banter is, of course, quite clever. Seth Green really cracks me up. Also interesting that there is mention of Dr. Horrible, which was being filmed at the time this reunion happened...but there's no mention of Sarah Michelle's special appearance in that other Whedon project.

Highly recommended to my fellow Buffy fans!

What you have here is what happened on March 20, 2008 when eleven members of the cast and creative team of "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" attended Paleyfest, which is a yearly eventat the Paley Center for Media that connects fans with the casts and creators of their favorite series. The moderator for the proceedings is Matt Roush of "TV Guide," who is pretty much an idea choice, having been a big fan of the show from Day 1 and an equally big advocate for the series as well. On the one hand you get Joss Whedon talking about his show and also Sarah Michelle Gellar saying more about the character than you have actually heard coming from her lips, so that alone is worth the price of admission. I particularly like hearing what Marti Noxon has to say and Michelle Trachtenberg had some interesting things to say as somebody who was a fan of the show before she spent her formative teen years on it as a character. There is an introduction section separate from the actual panel discussion, because in between those two parts there was a screening of the Buffy music, "Once More, with Feeling." That episode is not included on the DVD, but I have to believe anybody who picks up this up is already in possession of the complete "BtVS" on DVD and therefore can certainly switch discs, screen the episode (presumably singing along), and then get back to the proceedings.

On the one hand anything with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in it pretty much qualifies as "must have" for fans of the show, but I have to admit I put this on my Amazon wish list in the weeks before my birthday because I was not sure I wanted to pay this much for what is, all things considered, this little. One of the problems is that there are too many people on stage so Emma Caulfield and Charisma Carpenter, for example, get asked one question each by Roush. Their answers are revealing and memorable, but who wants to stop at just one? So on the one hand you lament the gaps in the reunion, with Anthony Stewart Head, Alyson Hannigan, and David Boreanez not in attendance, but then that would have meant even small slices of pie for everybody. Then you have the competition for comic relief between Nicholas Brendon (who throws a wicked Susan Lucci comment Gellar's way) and Seth Green, who get plenty of laughs but scarcely have a serious word to say during the session. James Marsters is also willing to go for the joke, but also speaks to several of the topics as one of the few panelists who would add to the discussion.

Then there are the questions from the audience, which suffer from a general desire to praise the cast rather than question them, and from the grave misfortune of a first question that requires everyone to answer without having to reference "BtVS." There are several minutes of this panel that you would want everybody to get back. Of course, there is no way anything on this DVD is going to be enough to satisfy any "BtVS" fan, but still, you have to want a little less fat and a lot more meat. The only real DVD extras are some photos from the day and film of almost everybody being shot backstage by the paparazzi, which is interesting if you like watching dozens of cameras flashing repeatedly at high speed (it is amazing any of the photos end up with decent lighting). Final note: there is something of a "spoiler" here if you have not been reading the "Season 8" Whedon is overseeing with the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" comic book. My daughters are woefully behind in reading the issues I have been purchasing for them and were stunned to hear what Buffy has been up to. Of course, this should be an incentive for them to get up to speed.