This is a part 3 of 3 of the FAQ for alt.tv.buffy-v-slayer. (Last updated on 3/9/98) The preface, contents, and sections 1 and 2 are in part 1, sections 3 and 4 are in part 2, and sections 5 through 8 are in part 3. THIS IS YOUR SPOILER WARNING - Answers include plot information up to and including that revealed in the episode Killed by Death. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5) About the cast and crew: 5.1) Who plays ? This list covers most of the characters who've showed up more than once, or were pretty important the time they did show up. Buffy Summers - Sarah Michelle Gellar Xander Harris - Nicholas Brendon Willow Rosenberg - Alyson Hannigan Cordelia Chase - Charisma Carpenter Rupert Giles - Anthony Stewart Head Angel - David Boreanaz The Master - Mark Metcalf Luke - Brian Thompson Darla - Julie Benz Preaching vampire - Geoff Meed The Anointed One - Andrew J. Ferchland Spike - James Marsters Drusilla - Juliet Landau The Judge - Brian Thompson (again!) Principal Flutie - Ken Lerner Principal Snyder - Armin Shimerman Ms. Calendar - Robia LaMorte Joyce Summers - Kristine Sutherland Hank Summers - Dean Butler Ethan Rayne - Robin Sachs Jesse - Eric Balfour Oz - Seth Green Kendra - Bianca Lawson Billy Fordham - Jason Behr Natalie French - Musetta Vander Ted - John Ritter Janna's Uncle - Vincent Schiavelli 5.2) What else has been in? This is only a brief list of the more immediately recognizable appearances. The cast, and guest cast, have been in a ludicrous number of cool things. Sarah Michelle Gellar won an Emmy for playing Kendall Hart on All My Children. She also stars in "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "Scream 2." Nicholas Brendon appeared in "Children of the Corn III." Alyson Hannigan starred in "My Stepmother is an Alien." Strangely enough, Seth Green played her boyfriend in the same movie. Charisma Carpenter was in the series "Malibu Shores." Anthony Stewart Head is most famous for portraying one of the neighbors in those Taster's Choice commercials. He also played Oliver Sampson on VR.5. David Boreanaz was on an episode of "Married... with Children" as Kelly's boyfriend. Mark Metcalf is most famous for playing Niedermeyer, the ROTC commander in "Animal House." Brian Thompson stars as Shao Khan in "Mortal Kombat: Anihilation." He also plays the Alien Bounty Hunter on "The X-files," and was the punk who gets his heart ripped out in "The Terminator." He also had roles in "Werewolf," "Kindred: the Embraced," and "Fright Night 2." Find out more at the Brian Thompson Fan Site: http://www.brianthompson.com/. Juliet Landau is the daughter of Martin Landau (and appeared with him in "Ed Wood") and played Young Lilly in "The Grifters." Armin Shimerman plays Quark in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." Robia LaMorte was Pearl of Prince's New Power Generation, and a newscaster in the movie Spawn. Robin Sachs was Mr. Bowman in "The Lost World", and has several guest appearances on "Babylon 5". Eric Balfour used to be on "Kids Incorporated." Seth Green played Scott Evil in "Austin Powers." Kristine Sutherland played Matt Frewer's wife in "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids." Dean Butler played Almonzo Wilder [Laura's "aww...shucks" hubby] for several years on "Little House on the Prairie" (Thanks to AnnieM for this update) Musetta Vander plays Sindel in "MK: Anihilation." She recently appeared on "Babylon 5." John Ritter played Jack Tripper on "Three's Company," and also appeared in "Sling Blade," "Noises Off," and "It." Vincent Schiavelli, where to begin? Notably, he played the Subway Ghost in "Ghost," a motel porter with a conjoined twin on the X-files episode "Humbug," and recently an assassin in "Tomorrow Never Dies." 5.3) What else has Joss Whedon done? Joss Whedon wrote the original "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Toy Story," and more recently, "Alien: Resurrection." He also wrote for "Speed," "Waterworld," and "Twister," but was not credited. Smart move. 5.4) Is quitting Buffy? While a humble FAQ writer can't possibly guarantee the cast's career decisions, the various rumors of regular cast members leaving the show appear to be totally unfounded. They are flatly denied by BtVS personnel on the postingboard, and the regular cast's contracts all apparently run for 5 years. These rumors started floating around when TV guide published a piece speculating that SMG was considering leaving Buffy. Sarah denies this (thru Joss and others) and we believe her. (submitted by tob@world.std.com) However, these rumors did spur some of the funniest Traci Lords (see 5.8) jokes yet on the newsgroup - search DejaNews for Buffy and Traci Lords for a good sampling. 5.5) Wow! Who is SMG's stunt double? Sophia Crawford is SMG's fighting and stunt double. She played the Pink Power Ranger in both the movie and the series, as well in numerous Hong Kong martial arts films. You can find out more at http://www.mcs.net/~jcomroe/T2ARQ.htm. 5.6) Who is Jeff Pruitt? Jeff Pruitt is the stunt coordinator for BTVS. He's been kind enough to post several times to the newsgroup with tidbits on how stunts are done, and how much work goes into putting them together. 5.7) Are Seth Green and Bruce Seth Green related/the same person? No. Seth Green (Oz) and Bruce Seth Green (writer/director) met for the first time on the set of Buffy. One of those weird coincidences. 5.8) Is Principal Snyder played by Quark? Yes. Can we move on? 5.9) Hey, was played by Traci Lords? This is becoming an in joke of the group (our very first! awwwww...). It's been asked of several different characters, and in all cases, the answer is no. Traci Lords can currently be found in NBC's The Profiler. Perhaps the confusion stems from her role in the upcoming "Blade, the Vampire Slayer" movie. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6) About the vampires: 6.1) Hey! Vampires don't , can't , wouldn't ! (or, Welcome to the Buffyverse) Yeah, so this isn't Bram Stoker, or Anne Rice, or even The Lost Boys. When we're discussing the peculiarities of vampires, demons, and other creatures on the show, we talk about "The Buffyverse." 6.2) Oh. Well, what ARE vampires in the Buffyverse? In the episode Angel, Giles says: "A vampire isn't a person at all. It may have the movements, the memories, even the personality of the person it took over, but it's still a demon at the core. There is no halfway." Also see Giles' discussion about Jesse in The Harvest. A Buffyverse vampire is a soulless corpse, animated by a demon. They are dead, like Anne Rice vampires. They have no reflection (IG) and no breath (PG). Travis Casey has been kind enough to start work on a summary of vampire traits in the Buffyverse. It's still in the process of revision, but the current version is at http://phone-home.stanford.edu/~nehrlich/vampirefaq - most of the high points are covered in this section, but hopefully, that will be more complete eventually. 6.3) Well, then how could Angel have possibly been a good vampire? In the episode Angel, Angel says: "I fed on a girl your [Buffy's] age. Beautiful. Dumb as a post." She was a gypsy girl. "The elders conjured up the perfect punishment for me: they restored my soul." For the last 80 (100?) years, Angel hadn't killed a human. He had a conscience, and remorse for the truly horrendous things he had done for a century. From LTM, "A hundred years, just hanging out, feeling guilty. Really honed by brooding skills." Sucked to be him. All that has changed now (Innocence). Angel is now as bad as vampires get. He's back to his accustomed habit of picking out a female victim and killing all of her relatives/friends before finishing her off (cf. his discussion of Drusilla in LTM). 6.3a) Was Dru the gypsy girl in question? This keeps on coming up in the newsgroup, but, from what we know, this does not seem to be the case. Dru, Spike and Angel appear to have hung out together for a number of years as evil vamps. That couldn't have happened if Dru was the gypsy girl Angel was cursed for turning. 6.4) How do you slay a vampire? Buffyverse vampires commonly explode into a cloud of ashes and dust when they are slain. Remember the clutter of bodies in the movie? No more! Stake through the heart, direct sunlight, beheading, and fire all kill vampires very quickly (various episodes). They fear crosses and are burned by them (Nightmares, various). Holy water burns, but does not scar or kill them (The Harvest, WML pt.2). 6.5) How can Xander/Willow/Giles slay a vampire - I thought only the slayer could? Anybody can slay a vampire. As Buffy says in WTTH, "Stake through the heart, a little sunlight...it's like falling off a log!" And we've seen all of the Slayerettes (except Cordelia) slay a vampire at this point. Buffy is just extraordinarily qualified to do so, due to her supernatural strength and skills. Buffy's certainly the only one who can survive the attack of two or more vampires at once - all the cases where a Slayerette has killed a vamp (Xander in The Harvest, Willow/Giles in WML pt. 2, Giles/Jenny in Ted) has involved at least a 2 on 1 advantage on the vampire and was still a struggle. 6.6) How does one become a vampire? In WTTH, Buffy says: "To make you a vampire, they have to suck your blood, then you have to suck their blood. It's like a whole big sucking thing." Giles confirms that the last demon to walk the earth fed upon a human, and turned him into a vampire. This demonic force is transmitted to a person who has been drained by the vampire and then drinks their blood in return. See "The Hunger" for an interesting comparison. 6.7) What's a sire? Your sire is the vamp that made you a vamp. Joss has implied that your sire could refer to the vamp that made the vamp that made you a vamp as well. Darla made Angel a vampire, and is thus his sire (siress?). Angel made Drusilla a vampire, and thus is her sire. Angel is also Spike's sire we think (from SH, "You were my sire, man! You were my...Yoda!"), although it's possible Angel is the grandsire via Drusilla. Being a vampire's sire has nothing to do with being the person's father (and why would vampires care about that anyway?). 6.8) How does a vampire enter someone's house/the school? The vampire has to be invited in (cf. Darla in episode Angel, and Angel/Willow in LTM). The invitation can be revoked with a ceremony involving Latin chanting, and appropriate props (crosses/garlic) (Passion). Public places are considered an open invitation to all to enter (mortuary in NKABOTFD, school in School Hard, the Bronze). 6.8a) What about the vampire in Halloween? or Angel in Reptile Boy? The vampire in Halloween was a high school chaperone. In one of the trick-or-treating scenes, you can see him leading his group around. Thus, it's possible that he had been invited into Buffy's house previously for a study session or similar and that the invitation carried over. This is the current best guess by the newsgroup. As far as Angel in RB, either a fraternity house is considered a public place, or he was considered part of the group that was invited in when Xander was let in. 6.8b) What about Angel's quote in Passion about the school? When Jenny asks Angel what he's doing in the school in Passion, he replies with the Latin quote (apparently over the school doors), "Enter all ye who seek knowledge". As far as we can tell, he was just being facetious - the sign was not necessary for him to gain entrance. 6.9) If vampires don't have breath, how do they talk/smoke/whistle? Angel tells Xander in Prophecy Girl that he can't perform mouth-to-mouth on Buffy because he has no breath, igniting a great little feud on the newsgroup. The consensus seems to be that sure they can talk, or smoke (School Hard), or whistle (or not, c.f. Drusilla in WML pt.1), but they don't have the kind of breath that a living being does. Maybe they do all those things in a way that doesn't involve moving air, or maybe Angel simply meant that his breath couldn't bring someone back to life (it is coming from an old dead body, after all). 6.10) If vampires have no reflection, how can they be videotaped? In Halloween, Spike had a crony videotape a fight between Buffy and a vampire. Angel had no reflection in glass (IG), and mirrors certainly don't reflect vampire images (Bad Eggs), so either video cameras don't use mirrors inside (I guess vampires still REFRACT) or video is somehow more sensitive to vampire reflections. It has been implied that vampires cannot see their own reflections (Willow: "Angel, how do you shave?") 6.11) Do only Christian relics work on vampires? Do crosses and holy water work on vampires because they're religious objects or specifically because they're Christian? Would a Jewish symbol, for instance, work as well in the hands of Willow? According to one Joss quote, "I don't think vampires are affected by other religious symbols. It is not simple religiosity that offends them -- I think there is old, bad blood between vampires and Christianity. This is partly because I don't want to confuse the issue on the show." We've seen no evidence that anything but Christian relics work so far. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7) Other Frequently Asked Questions: 7.1) Did you know BTVS is filmed at the same high school as 90210? Yes. In fact, we did know. 7.2) Where can I find nude pictures of SMG? To our knowledge, no genuine such pictures exist. Several fakes are floating around with her head on other bodies - SMG's reaction according to a TV Guide interview: "I know it upsets some people, but what can you do?" she reasons. "I just hope they're giving me a good body". In fact, in that busy brain of hers, Gellar is already cutting-and-pasting herself to cyber-perfect proportions. "Pamela Anderson Lee" she whoops, "here I come!" 7.3) Dude, what is this about monkey pants? While flirting with Willow, Oz explained that monkeys are the only animal crackers that have pants, and it makes the others, for example, the hippo, very jealous. Oz: [French accent] I taunt you with my monkey pants. Wil: The monkey is French? Oz: ALL monkeys are French. In Buffy's dream (Surprise), Willow has a pantless monkey on her table at the Bronze, and says, "L'hippo a pique ses pantalons." This means, "The hippo stole his pants." Thanks to Cory for the translation! 7.4) What the heck is the PETW? The People for the Ethical Treatment of Werewolves (PETW) refers to a comment by Cain the werewolf hunter in Phases, where he complains about having to deal with Buffy and Giles protecting what turned out to be Oz. This was an amusing enough concept that people have suggested using it as the official name for a BTVS fan club; in fact, somebody already has put together a web page for that purpose: http://www.sentex.ca/~cory/PETW/. 7.5) What are/who wrote the Buffy books? No. 0 - "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" by Richie Tankersley Cusick This is a novelization of the movie I believe. No. 1 - "The Harvest" by Richie Tankersley Cusick The Harvest is a novelization of the first 2-hour episode. No. 2 - "Halloween Rain" by Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder No. 3 - "Coyote Moon" by John Vornholt No. 4 - "Night of the Living Re-run" by Arthur Byron Cover ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8) Finding more information: 8.1) Where is the Official BTVS website? The official BTVS web site is at http://www.buffyslayer.com. This includes short episode previews, long episode synopses, bios of the actors, and a chat board for the devoted fan. 8.2) What are good web sites to learn more about the show? Where can I find episode summaries/transcripts? Where can I find quote lists? Who did that song? Our favorite of the BTVS web sites is Domain of the Slain (http://www2.uic.edu/~ahufan1/btvs) which features extensive quote lists, episode summaries, lists of songs, lists of links to other Buffy sites, and more. Another great site is the Cultural Reference Guide to BTVS at http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Academy/7734/crgtoc.html. The Slayer's Fanfic archive (http://www.slayerfanfic.com) has full transcripts of most BTVS episodes 8.3) Where can I find out about upcoming shows? The official BTVS web site (see 8.1) has short previews. Also, WGN will often list upcoming episodes (www.wgntv.com, go to the National Programming Page, and put Buffy into the search buffer). 8.4) Can I get Buffy merchandise? No official stuff that we know of - we've checked a few WB stores. Apparently, http://www.buffystore.com is offering T-shirts now - this is related to the www.tvmerch.com site. There has been talk of "Property of Sunnydale Athletic Dept." T-shirts (with blood stains; you decide if you've been attacked by a vampire, or a Slayer with a "little-ittle X-acto knife") for people on the newsgroup. We'd be all psyched. A line of Buffy the Vampire Slayer young adult novels is currently being sold in finer drug stores everywhere. (see 7.4) 8.5) Is there a Buffy soundtrack? There is one in the works according to popular rumor. In the meantime, Domain of the Slain (see 8.2) has a list of most of the songs from the various episodes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This concludes the fourth draft of the alt.tv.buffy-v-slayer FAQ. Sources: the show, the official site, Domain of the Slain, and everyone on alt.tv.buffy-v-slayer. Enjoy, and watch your neck!