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Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy

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It is interesting to read "Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy" at the same time I am working my way through the essays in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale." The tone of this tribute volume by Candace Havens to the creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Angel," and "Firefly," is informal rather than scholarly. More importantly, the goal of this volume is primarily to supply behind the scenes information for fans of these shows, although there is some critical insights offered in the chapter devoted to "Secrets of Success," which enumerates the seven elements that make "BtVS" a cult television series. Havens is working from various articles and websites about Whedon and his creations, and although it does not explicitly say so I assume she conducted interviews with various people quoted in this book. Since she shares with us impressions about her tours of the sets for Whedon's three television series I assume she took time to talk to some of these people; however, there are few references to specific interview (e.g., with Whedon's film professor, Jeanine Basinger) as to how much access she had to the cast and crew and I am rather curious as to how much of the material here is from primary sources (without going through all the secondary sources and doing a process of elimination).

"Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy" is called a biography, but the focus is clearly more on his career than his life. The first chapter looks at his life through college while the second covers his work early work in television writing episodes of "Roseanne" and as a "script doctor" on films like "The Quick and the Dead," "Speed," "Waterworld," and "Toy Story." More importantly, this is where we learn about the key formative experiences Whedon had with his two major screenplays, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Alien Resurrection." That sets the stage for "Buffy: Round Two" in the third chapter, where Whedon gets a second chance at bringing his vision of "BtVS" to life. The rest of the chapters are devoted to the secrets of the success of "BtVS," a review of the seven seasons of the show (okay, six and a half seasons when this book went to press), a look at "Angel," Whedon's foray into comics and other screenplay ideas, his new show "Firefly" (now on eternal hiatus), a look at "Joss the Mentor," and a summary chapter on "The Real Joss." Throughout the books there are sidebars focusing on various actors (e.g., Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Stewart Head), most pages have choice quotes emblazon in white on black, and there are scores of black & white photographs, mostly by Sue Schneider (yes, I am curious her prominent role in this effort as well).

All things considered, this book is a quick and enjoyable read. The main complaint, such as it is, would be that once Havens starts dispensing tidbits you want more of it; I was particularly interested to know more specifics about what lines from Whedon's script doctoring efforts were left in the films he worked on (I am always interested to hear what Whedon lines work there way into episodes of "BtVS" for which he was not the listed writer). The timing of the book might be considered problematic given the fate of "Firefly" and the impending end of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," but not if you consider it as part of an effort to promote Whedon's late but not particularly lamented new series. The main point is that in terms of its target audience, the legion of fans of Joss Whedon, this volume is on target and there are enough one-liners from the man himself to appease most of them. This book does not intend to be a scholarly effort, and of the various "pop" volumes devoted to the "BtVS" phenomenon this is one of the better efforts. Final Note: I was surprised that the title of a book honoring Joss Whedon would violate his disdain for abbreviating his cult television series other than as "BtVS." I just want to point out that I have done very well at avoiding making that particular mistook in my reviews of all things "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" related.

This is not a biography, it's not a "making of" and it's not about the facts of the television production industry.

This is a book like none other I've ever read.

Candace Haven has given us a glimpse of the man who created Buffy, of where inside him this concept came from -- but even more she's given us a glimpse of what it takes to be the sort of person who can succeed in breaking all the taboos in the television industry.

What taboos did he break? Well, Buffy is a strong story-arc show like Babylon 5 and Dallas -- but without the (perceived) broad audience appeal of those shows. Buffy is about a young girl who kicks [butt]-- like Nikkita -- but going for a major network. Buffy is a series about vampires -- but it has a teen protagonist. Parents don't want their kids watching "that kind of thing." (or so they believed) The list of taboos is almost endless.

The genius that Havens refers to is, I think, Whedon's deliberate, pre-meditated integration of 4 distinct genres, horror, action, comedy and drama, into a single cohesive and coherent story and then finding a way to sell this package to Hollywood despite violating all those taboos.

Candace Haven writes in Joss Whedon The Genius Behind Buffy: "This integration lies at the core of Buffy's appeal, but it made the show almost impossible to desribe in a way that movie and network executives understood. How do you sell a show that doesn't fall into a clear genre? For this reason, the movie version of Buffy was turned into a comedy, much to Joss's dismay. As a television show, Buffy was rejected by the major networks. Ultimately, the fledgling WB accepted Buffy as a cross-genre show. This acceptance was either a result of WB's vision or of its executives' inexperience. But the reality is that it's unlikely Buffy would have been allowed to proceed with its cross-genre approach on one of the more established networks."

But WB did let the show become established as a genre-mix, and that is quite literally changing the whole fiction industry from movies, to television -- even to books. Now mixed genre novels such as my own Sime~Gen novels which are based on the vampire archetype, or my vampire romances Those of My Blood and Dreamspy, or Jean Lorrah's hot selling Blood Will Tell, abound and are beginning to find an audience among the Buffy fans. Because of the effect this show has had on the entire fiction industry, this book has become a very "important" book for those who want to enter that industry.

You have to read this book if you want to know "who" Joss Whedon is that he could get this show on the air and keep it there until its audience found it. Much of that information about who he is lies within the subtext of Candace Haven's fannish point of view cast against her journalistic professionalism. Read between the lines. You have to read this book to learn where inside Whedon the Buffy material came from and why the scripts for this show are so very, VERY well written. For just how well written I think they are, see my article in Seven Seasons of Buffy: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Discuss Their Favorite Television Show edited by Glenn Yeffeth.

You won't find exactly this kind of information about a producer in any other kind of book. A biography could not include this exact point of view, a fan's point of view. A making-of could not include 3-D glimpses of other people who knew Whedon when he was young and in other contexts.

This book about Whedon&Buffy is a hybrid -- a kind of cross-genre biography/making-of/tribute-to book as Buffy itself is a cross-genre horror/action/comedy/drama. The very form of this book is awesomely appropriate to the subject matter. For that reason alone, reading this not-biography is a profound pleasure!

Read this one in an afternoon and it kept me entertained throughout. It has a lot of highly amusing Joss quotes. The guy is genuinely funny. It was nice to learn about his movie career because I didn't know too much about it. It has a lot of great Buffy information but it could have used more on Angel. It has a section on Firefly even though it was written before the show aired. The section on Joss' Fray comic convinced me that I need to go buy it now. My only major complaints are that the writer misspelled a character's name and the lack of Angel information. Despite those flaws, any fan of Joss Whedon will enjoy this book.

Anyone who has seen or noticed many of my reviews probably knows at least one thing: I love BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, ANGEL, and FIREFLY/SERENITY. I'm about as big a fan of the work of Joss Whedon as you are likely to find. And I'm awaiting the start of his new series DOLLHOUSE more than one can easily imagine.

Nonetheless, this book is basically a puff piece. It is not a critical study, a critical analysis, or anything other than a fan raving about someone they admire. That being said, it is not a bad book for that. I merely point it out that this book is not there to dish the dirt, if dirt there is to be dished. And there is some, if not much. For instance, the book passes over a few unpleasantries, such as the inelegant dismissal of Charisma Carpenter from ANGEL (accounts vary, but one very prevalent rumor is that she was written out of the show because of a spur of the moment leave of absence she took during a few late Season Three episodes, only to return for filming the next season pregnant, something she had not apprised them of, resulting in the need for significant rewriting). Nor does the author delve into the botched attempt to have Amber Benson return in Season Seven (again, two rumors persist, one that she would have been the person that Willow saw in the otherwise wonderful episode "Conversations with Dead People," and the other that she might have returned to the show as the result of a wish that Buffy would have been granted -- after struggling with whether to remove Angel's curse or bring her mother back to life, the word is that she would have brought Tara back). Now, these are rumors. Perhaps there is truth to them. Perhaps there is none. But this is not the book that would dare deal with them. Nor Glenn Quinn's drug use, that got his arc on ANGEL ended earlier than they originally intended.

Still, I did pick up a few things that I didn't already know. And there were many snippets from interviews with Whedon and those on his shows that were obviously done for the writing for this book. So, the book becomes a source for those wanting to know more about Whedon, and not merely a book quoting other sources.

Nonetheless, I didn't end the book with complete confidence in it. I was a bit bothered by its unwillingness to engage anything the least bit controversial. I was also suspicious about whether it got every part of the story correct. Much is made of one of Whedon's college professors. Yet I know from other sources that he also profited from taking classes with renowned historian Richard Slotkin. I've read that it was in one of Slotkin's courses that he encountered Joseph Campbell's THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES and someone with strong Wesleyan film studies connections told me that he took Slotkin's course on Western films. (Slotkin is the author of a classic three-volume work on the imaginative response to wilderness in U.S. history. The third volume of that work, GUNFIGHTER NATION deals with the rise of the Western in American culture.) My point is that I'm not sure that his book tells the whole story. I could be wrong. My sources could be wrong. Perhaps Richard Slotkin did not even teach Joss Whedon. Or if he did, perhaps he did not have any influence (I took classes with many famous scholars, virtually none of which had any actual influence on me.)

So, I can recommend this and can even consider it a pretty decent book, but one must be aware of its limitations.

This book is great. I've been a fan of Joss since the first time I saw Buffy. This book isn't all about Buffy though. It covers Buffy, Angel, Firefly and more. Funny as hell too.

I couldn't put the book down. I read it straight through in one afternoon. A lot of insight into Joss and all of the cast members of his show are interviewed. It's part biography and part, well, everything else.

Best book I've read in a while. Buy this book!

Don't be fooled by the intentionally deceptive marketing used to peddle this book as a biography - this is actually a handful of Whedon interviews, readily available on the Internet, retyped in roughly chronological order. A few quotes from the actors are thrown in for some faux-breadth. There are NO first-hand interviews behind this book, NO input from Whedon himself, and NO new information that even casual Buffy fans haven't heard before. The entire thing has the feel of something thrown together in a single day for a quick buck.

Please learn from my mistake and save yourself $16; to get all the useful information in this book, type +"Joss Whedon" +interview into Google and you can read the very same interviews Havens worked from first-hand, without having to waste money and time slogging through this distasteful mess.

This was so far beyond what I expected that I hardly know where to begin. There is enough detail about Joss' life to satisfy the curious, but not enough to bore the casual reader. The interviews are masterfully done. I'm amazed that Ms. Havens got to speak to so many people in and around Joss' life. Also, she managed to capture both Joss' genius and his wonderfully quirky sense of humor.

In short, this book did something that I thought could not be done. It increased my respect and admiration for Joss Whedon.

I highly recommend this book to the many fans of Joss Whedon. Highly informative and very well-written, this book offers wonderful insights into the mind of one of my all-time favorite writers.

Joss' fans all know Joss is a genius - this book gives us insight into where that genius came from and how it developed. It also clarifies some of the difficulties Mr. Whedon faced in his early career in Hollywood with some of his screenplays such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the movie) and Alien: Ressurrection. It gives us insight into Joss' early T.V. writing and script-doctoring career, as well as detailed description of his Buffy, Angel and Firefly television days.

I'd like to see this book updated, as it seems to have been published before BtVS season 7 aired, let alone the green-lighting of Serenity, the movie based on Firefly. Joss has many wonderful things in his future - let's see it here.

Candace Havens does a brilliant job of pulling back the curtain on one of the most creative minds in film and television. Her style is informative, clever and engaging. While Havens is clearly a fan of Whedon's work, she maintains journalistic integrity as she reveals behind-the-scenes facts and fresh tidbits for the most rabid fans. Treat yourself to a great read and buy this book!

This book is an interesting and concise overview of Joss Whedon and his work and life. As an avid Buffy fan, I enjoyed reading about Joss's inspirations and paths which led him to create the wonderful shows he had created. However, I found the writing style to be very basic and uninspired, reminding me of biographies I read in elementary school. This book merely tells the story, without taking the time to write with elegance or engaging prose.