HBO orders Joss Whedon ‘The Nevers’ to series

[Jayson1]

With Whedon I am curious about his age back when he was doing Buffy. Was he around the same age as the actors? He seems to me to be one of those people who never outwardly age for a great deal of time so I can't tell. That was when the claims of him cheating were happening, wasn't it?

Jason

 

[Kai "the spy"]

With Whedon I am curious about his age back when he was doing Buffy. Was he around the same age as the actors? He seems to me to be one of those people who never outwardly age for a great deal of time so I can't tell. That was when the claims of him cheating were happening, wasn't it?

Jason

He was already in his 30s. But as has been mentioned, there is no accusations of anything illegal against him, other than those from people on the internet based on speculation.

 

[Nerys Myk]

With Whedon I am curious about his age back when he was doing Buffy. Was he around the same age as the actors? He seems to me to be one of those people who never outwardly age for a great deal of time so I can't tell. That was when the claims of him cheating were happening, wasn't it?

Jason

I'm sure he had a decade or so on many of his actors.

 

[OCD Geek]

With Whedon I am curious about his age back when he was doing Buffy. Was he around the same age as the actors? He seems to me to be one of those people who never outwardly age for a great deal of time so I can't tell. That was when the claims of him cheating were happening, wasn't it?

Jason

He was 32 during Buffy's first season, 36 when he departed as showrunner and 38 when it wrapped. Buffy (during Seasons 1-5) was the Mutant Enemy series he spent the most time on set of. He spent a lot of time on the set of Tim Minear's Firefly too (Whedon showran the pilot and worked on the rest of the series as Minear's co-exec/second-in-command), but production for the 13 episodes proper only lasted about four months.

He spent most of his time on David Greenwalt and Jeffrey Bell's Angel in the writers room. He wasn't involved in Season 1 beyond the pilot and writing Buffy's dialogue at Tim Minear's request in an episode. He spent Season 2 showrunning his final season of Buffy (Season 5). He spent a nice chunk of Season 3 working on the Buffy musical during his post-Buffy "vacation" and spent the rest of the season working on the feature-length Firefly pilot. He spent the first half of Season 4 working on Firefly as Minear's co-exec. And he spent a nice chuck of Season 5 working on writing/shopping around Serenity, with filming commencing on June 3, 2004 (after script delays postponed it from the original October 2003 start date).

Sarah Michelle Gellar during Whedon's Buffy run: 19-23 (Noxon's run: 24-25)
Alyson Hannigan during Whedon's Buffy run: 22-26 (Noxon's run: 27-28)
Eliza Dushku during Season 3: 18-19
Charisma Carpenter during Seasons 1-3: 26-28
Emma Caulfield during Seasons 4-5: 26-27

Three of those five actresses have seemed reluctant to work with Whedon again. And Dushku really needed the Dollhouse gig after getting stuck being typecast in crappy horror movies for several years.

 

[Mudd]

.

He was 32 during Buffy's first season, 36 when he departed as showrunner and 38 when it wrapped. Buffy (during Seasons 1-5) was the Mutant Enemy series he spent the most time on set of. He spent a lot of time on the set of Tim Minear's Firefly too (Whedon showran the pilot and worked on the rest of the series as Minear's co-exec/second-in-command), but production for the 13 episodes proper only lasted about four months.

He spent most of his time on David Greenwalt and Jeffrey Bell's Angel in the writers room. He wasn't involved in Season 1 beyond the pilot and writing Buffy's dialogue at Tim Minear's request in an episode. He spent Season 2 showrunning his final season of Buffy (Season 5). He spent a nice chunk of Season 3 working on the Buffy musical during his post-Buffy "vacation" and spent the rest of the season working on the feature-length Firefly pilot. He spent the first half of Season 4 working on Firefly as Minear's co-exec. And he spent a nice chuck of Season 5 working on writing/shopping around Serenity, with filming commencing on June 3, 2004 (after script delays postponed it from the original October 2003 start date).

Sarah Michelle Gellar during Whedon's Buffy run: 19-23 (Noxon's run: 24-25)
Alyson Hannigan during Whedon's Buffy run: 22-26 (Noxon's run: 27-28)
Eliza Dushku during Season 3: 18-19
Charisma Carpenter during Seasons 1-3: 26-28
Emma Caulfield during Seasons 4-5: 26-27

Three of those five actresses have seemed reluctant to work with Whedon again. And Dushku really needed the Dollhouse gig after getting stuck being typecast in crappy horror movies for several years.

His minimal involvement in Angel somewhat explains my sense that it's the least interesting and memorable of his shows. I always blamed Boreanaz's limitations.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

So young enough to be creepy, not young enough to be illegal.

I like Angel, I think it's a good show, but I may never watch it again. I think the reason I can't quite motivate myself to watch it is that there was one more degree of ridiculousness than Buffy but not quite the same emotional realness Buffy had to balance it out. Like, Buffy had a lot of ridiculous storylines, but Buffy, Willow and Giles were always capable of having captivating emotional moments whenever the situation demanded it, and it balanced out the ridiculousness perfectly. Angel didn't really have anyone who could do that.

Also, some of the storylines had one more degree of ridiculousness than Buffy, but tried to be dark and serious about it, without actors who could tread the line between ridiculous and seriously emotional.

 

[Awesome Possum]

I assume that the powers these women have involve waif-fu.

 

[CorporalClegg]

I bet there's a running gag where the one guy in the cast -- your run-of-the-mill socially inept nerd -- randomly trips/falls/stumbles/whatever and lands awkwardly ontop of each of the women in succession.

I wish I could be excited about a new Whedon show.

Yup.

If this was on a channel that produced anything then violent borderline porn

 

[Awesome Possum]

If this was on a channel that produced anything then violent borderline porn, I'd be at least willing to try it out. As it is, between HBO being like it is and the problems Whedon has been having, I'll be giving this a complete pass unless it gets almost universally positive reviews.

They do produce Sesame Street now.

 

[Jayson1]

I think HBO does do porn or is that Cinemax? Still the edgy drama's hardly count. They have been pushing the envelope of quality tv when Netflix was still in diapers. Frankly ever great show on tv today we like, owe's part of it's success to what they did and also getting a little lucky that people really liked the "Soprano's."

Jason

 

[OCD Geek]

His minimal involvement in Angel somewhat explains my sense that it's the least interesting and memorable of his shows. I always blamed Boreanaz's limitations.

It's personally my favorite Mutant Enemy show, with Seasons 4-5 of Agents of SHIELD surprisingly giving it a run for its money. Not that I don't like Firefly and Seasons 2-5 of Buffy too. It's just that Firefly got shot in its face before the myth arc really got going, and even in its best seasons Buffy was hit-and-miss as well as far less ambitious than it gets credit for being. Season 3 was damn near perfect, though.

Angel and the last couple seasons of SHIELD, on the other hand, are ambitious as all fuck both narratively and thematically. Yeah, Boreanaz is a limited actor (something I would argue could also be said about Clark Gregg, despite his natural ability to exude warmth which works wonders for Agent Coulson), but if your series is ambitious enough thematically, constantly zigs when you think its going to zag narratively and has massive main and recurring casts filled with compelling characters played by much stronger actors a series can overcome a weak lead actor. See also: Deep Space Nine and Farscape.

I bet there's a running gag where the one guy in the cast -- your run-of-the-mill socially inept nerd -- randomly trips/falls/stumbles/whatever and lands awkwardly ontop of each of the women in succession.

No character could possibly be more insufferable than Xander "I feel a pre-birthday spanking coming on" Harris.

 

[Jayson1]

I also was a big fan of "Angel" and basically all of his shows. "Dollhouse" was the weakest and what I have noticed is it was basically a not as good version of "Westworld" we would get years later only you had mind-wiped humans instead of robots. I've heard some shocking things though, here. DS9 and Farscape had weak leads. Clark Gregg isn't a good actor. Xander was annoying.

Jason

 

[Mudd]

Angel could never figure out for more than ten minutes what it was supposed to be, and the writing was rarely really clever. It was probably the most conventional Mutant Enemy show. Boreanaz was wooden.

 

[Jayson1]

Angel could never figure out for more than ten minutes what it was supposed to be, and the writing was rarely really clever. It was probably the most conventional Mutant Enemy show. Boreanaz was wooden.

I know they changed format's 3 times. First it was a private eye type of show then more of a "Buffy" type of show for 3 years and in it's final season it was a show about Corporate power and Spike was added. I liked all 3 versions of the show. Boreanaz could be wooden but not that bad. It helps that being moody was part of the character. Plus it had a good ensemble. Like all the shows in the end is they were well written. They all had that typical Whedon style of going from serious to funny on a dime. Capable of being both bad ass but also thought proking and emotional.

Jason

 

[YLu]

Three of those five actresses have seemed reluctant to work with Whedon again.

Have they made comments along these lines or do you simply mean they've never worked with him again, because the latter's not really unusual for actors.

 

[Jayson1]

Have they made comments along these lines or do you simply mean they've never worked with him again, because the latter's not really unusual for actors.

Only thing I have ever heard is he and Chrisma Carpentar had issue's. Of course he had other issue's going on with "Angel" as well. The reason I understand he fired the actor who played Doyle was because he and Borenanez were doing some heavy partying and was worried about that effecting the show. Since your not going to fire the lead and the impression was the Doyle actor was a bad influence on him that is how that ended. I also know they tried to get Buffy back for a episode in season 5 but couldn't get something worked out. Of course this was back when Gellar was trying to be a movie star and was trying to get distance from the character.

Jason

 

[USS Firefly]

I thought Glenn Quinn was fired because he was a drug addict, not because he had possible a bad influence at David Boreanaz

 

[Jayson1]

I thought Glenn Quinn was fired because he was a drug addict, not because he had possible a bad influence at David Boreanaz

He was but I recall reading about the partying stuff also being a thing. It was awhile back so I can't recall were I read it.

Jason

 

[kirk55555]

They do produce Sesame Street now.

I was talking about scripted dramas, obviously. I'm well aware they make Last week Tonight and Sesame Street. They even do a documentary from time to time. That doesn't mean that they don't mostly make borderline porn.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

I could swear I saw an episode of GoT at some point without any nipples in it.