Unfortunately, the UPN lost a shit load of money on Buffy. Of course, it loses a shitload of money on all its shows…
While there were some great episodes during BtVS6+7, I stick to what I’ve said on this board before - they didn’t have a story. WB dumped them and UPN picked it up and everyone was happy to still have a job so they went along. But there was no story left in Buffy. Blaming Noxon doesn’t work for me either. Wheadon is ultimately responsible and if she did a poor job (something of which I’m not convinced), then Wheadon is to blame for putting her in charge.
From what I’ve seen on the DVD extras and heard on commentaries, everything is Wheadon’s vision. He brings forth the main storylines, twist, plot points ASF. The other writers provide supporting characters, weekly monsters and flesh out the storyline. But it’s Wheadon who says where they’re going. And frankly, BtVS didn’t go anywhere during the last two seasons - it was just threading water.
The best line of the night, IMO:
Fred- Look at those cute little hands!
Speaking of, could her skirt get much shorter without turning into a belt? Yum.
Great, great ep. Love the puppets.
Oh, and you can see, for one frame (I love TiVo) Ninas left nipple right before Angel calls on her at the end of the ep.
OK I got most of the episode from the 'net. It was the entire episode, but the last 15 mins were shuffled into the first 30 mins at random. But good enough!
Funny and scary - and with puppets no less! WB is insane. If only more shows on TV were this well-written.
I thought I saw a flash of nip! My VCR gets blurry when I slo-mo it that slow. Glad to see I’m not the only one who went back to check that out. The rest of that shot, of were-chick with a handful of boobage, was great too. It will make a great screensaver when I get a digital copy. 
Fred and Harmony and Were-chick definately need to join Charisma for her Playboy shoot!
From TVGuide.com:
Can someone please tell me what happened before the title sequence? Pretty please?
IIRC, the opening scene showed a little boy in pajamas, apparently staying home sick from school, watching Smile Time. His mother comes in and makes a few comments about how the doctor can’t figure out what’s wrong with him. She leaves the room, and the puppet on TV tells the boy to come up and touch the screen, because nobody gets to watch for free. The puppet makes that “Oh yeah” face, and the little boy falls to the floor. The mother comes back in and sees the boy with the same grimace/smile that the Joker’s victims had in the first Batman movie. Opening credits roll.
Don’t forget electro-shock thief girl! Ohhh, where are you, ESTG?!
I liked how some of the puppets really took pride in providing “quality edutainment” – and the look of shocked horror on their faces when the ring leader yelled “screw edutainment!”.
Yep, I saw the flash of nipple, too. Kinda daring, considering the flap over Janet Jackson’s boob during the Superbowl halftime show. Actually it went by so fast I"d be willing to bet that it just got missed in the editing process
I get this image of some WB exec having an Elaine reaction…
“Oh, my God, was that a nipple?”
I thought we’d settled on Spandexia. 
My favourite part was with Wes.
When he said; “If there’s a woman out there who you find truly attractive, who you think about, let’s say, most of the time; who presents even part of what you think makes the world worth fighting for; and who doesn’t view you as an entirely sexless shoulder to lean on…”
I added; “That’s when you TAP that b*tch’s sweet, sweet piece of a**!”
Hey, it was funny to me. Just picture Wes saying that. Really.
Holy shit. maybe it’s the lack of sleep talking, but I think that’s the funniest thing I’ve seen since the episode. I can just hear him saying it…
Thanks, pepper. I must admit that I’m a bit of a tv heckler. Sometimes the results are funnier than others.
I wanted to add that I’m glad Wes yelled at Angel for “hiding behind his gypsy curse”. FINALLY! Someone had to say it. I’m glad it was Wes who did.
And to the ppl who are predicting badness for Fred… I poray you are wrong. If they so much as give her a haircut I am going to rend my clothing and howl at the moon. I will go so ballistic it will make those Kitten b*tches look like paragons of sanity.
If DeVena doesn’t need the tape, is there any way I could get it from you? We had to go out of town on a family emergency last week, and missed it entirely. I would dearly love to see it. Thanks.
Just an FYI, Smile Time will be on TNT in their syndication run this Thursday, October 14th, at 5:00pm EST. Set those VCRs…