I found this interview with Joss Wheadon in TV Guide online. While he doesn’t say it so clearly, my take on it is that CC was fired. ‘Why?’ is not clear, but there is some other interesting stuff in that interview: JW saying that it was really Cordy’s story he wanted to tell, not Buffy’s, over all these years.
He’s very clear about it not being for reasons of budget and bringing Spike into the mix. And I can believe that. But saying that he’s explored her story to the end and that there is nothing more to the arc doesn’t really make sense, does it? It’s not as if the longer arc of Angel’s redemption really is going anywhere. And his comments about negative reactions to the romance 'tween Angel and Cordy… it really doesn’t fit, either.
Maybe I’m overly suspicious, but there is some information missing here.
Looking at Charisma Carpenter’s resume, tells me that she’s not in the same position as SMG or Alyson Hannigan when it comes to getting movie projects, so I wouldn’t think she quit from her own free will.
Whatever. She wasn’t in the line up at the WB website, and this was just confirmation that next years Angel will be a stag party.
She agreed to be a DEMON to keep the visions to help people, she agreed to become a higher power, she grew more than any individual in the Buffy universe and her reward is to shag Connor, give birth the Anti Christ and be stuck in a coma??
I think it was a combination of things. In S3 they had to accomadate her because she needed time off. This year they literally reworked their entire story because of her pregnancy. That’s right, the brilliant storyarc everybody loved wasn’t planned at all, just something they had to do as they went along. Apparently hre pregnancy was a bit tough and she had to spend a lot of time in bed, which greatly hampered their plans for Cordy.
Which leads to the obvious point that she has a new son, and she’s only been married for less than a year. It wouldn’t surpries me at all if she wanted to quit and stay.
I think that there were a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes that none of us will ever be privy too, as well as personal lives interfering with professional lives. I doubt she was fired or else he wouldn’t say there is a possibility of her returning for a few eps.
Well sure. It’s natural that she wants time off. And regarding her pregnancy, so sure, ME worked their way around it and made a brilliant arc from it.
However (and not knowing what she get’s paid), I would be surprised if she couldn’t afford a nanny to be with the baby in the trailer on set. And as she doesn’t seem get a lot of offers to do other projects, and with job security being what it is in Hollyweird, I would be very surprised if she quit from her own will.
I have a nagging, and not very nice feeling, that she was asked to leave, since the baby, her pregnancy and all other things has pushed ME into not wanting her around. And I think her coming back for the odd episode is part of a severence package.
I feel a bit bad for Charisma Carpenter, since I feel that the scene where Cordy is shooting a commercial and told to show more cleavage is very close to her own story.
However - what amazed me about the interview was JW saying that her story, was the one he wanted to tell in the Buffy, the movie. Does that make any kind of sense?
Well, to be honest, Cordelia’s story ended with her “ascension” at the end of season 3. Charisma Carpener acted in season 4, but the character of Cordelia Chase didn’t - except for those up-in-the-sky shots in the first few eps. After that, we had amnesia-Cordelia, retro-teenage-Cordelia, Angel-fantasy-Cordelia, evil-Cordelia and coma-Cordelia… but not the actual chararcter itself.
Yeah, I think I got that. The original idea for Buffy was of a ditzy social queen who is forced into fighting vampires. In the movie, she was captain of the cheerleaders, on the prom commitee, super popular, etc. who has to outgrow all that stuff to Fight Evil[sup]TM[/sup] In the TV show, that was Cordelia. Buffy was the weird outcast girl that was always getting in trouble. She’d already given up on all that stuff when she burned down the gymnasium at her old school, before the audience ever met her.
Well what milage do we get from any character in the show. Angel is on his road to redemption. Kinda. Lorne’s character is going nowhere. Fred’s been resolved, more or less. It’s been hinted time and again that Wes has some issues re: his father, but no development there. Gunn’s been fleshed out a little bit, and the big cat hinted that things will happen to him next season.
But Ats has evolved to a show driven by plot and not character. And yes, Cordy has gone through the most dramatic changes of them all, but why throw her away.
I have really high hopes for S.5. This last season was on par with the best of BtVS, which means it’s on my top 10 of best television ever. But a tiny part of me is thinking they’re gonna be pandering too much to the fans. As much as I like Spike (and J. Marsters seems to be a genuinly nice guy), I don’t think he belongs on the show. If, as JW says in the interview, parts of the audience reacted badly to a romance with Angel and Cordy, I have a hard time believing the reactions were as strong, as they were about Connor’s mere existence.
And listening too much to target groups and fan reactions will make for a bland show. I hope my fears will not be true and that Spike will be an asset. And that there will be some female eye candy for me to watch.
I also think the character had gone as far as they could with her. And if adding Spike got us a full season renewal it was worth it, even if it cost us Cordy.
Besides we still have Fred. And maybe Lilah and Electro_Girl. And new characters still to be seen. So hardly a stag-fest, just a little heavy on the beefcake. . .
Ok, but I never liked Lilah. I think Willow (or rather AH) is the sex godess of the universe. Stephanie Romanov is a bit too lady like for my taste. And Fred’s too anorectic. Mutant Enemy has spoiled me with some very nice lookin women: Cordy, Buffy, Faith, Willow, Anya (And Faith is going to grow up to be great looking).
<< That’s right, the brilliant storyarc everybody loved wasn’t planned at all, just something they had to do as they went along. >>
Yeah, and it certainly seemed that way. I wouldn’t say it was a “brilliant storyarc everybody loved” – in fact, if I missed an episode, I didn’t even bother to tape it. I doubt that I’ll watch it much next year.
I dunno. The cynic in me is wondering if this means that ME is more interesting in giving the fans what they want rather than following the characters and storylines to their natural and organic conclusions.
If that’s the case, I’m against it.
Besides, am I supposed to believe that they’ve found a way to restore Spike after he’s been reduced to Hoover bait, but can’t make Cordy wake up?
De gustibus non disputandum est, I suppose. You don’t think that missing some episodes was what was wrong, seeing how everything was so nicely tied together?
This is why I could never be a writer for television. I would care too much about both the characters and the people and would never be able to do mean things like kill them off or write them out.
But I think “fired” is too harsh a word. It’s not like CC was escorted off the lot with a cardboard box full of her stuff or anything.
Um, it’s not about anyone giving the fans what they want. It’s about ME wanting to have a freaking show on the air, and the WB wanting to make money from it. Angel is a cool show, but the ratings aren’t that great, and the WB is betting that Spike/JM will bring over a lot of former BtVS viewers and boost the ratings. So, enter Spike. I understand that the show wouldn’t even have been renewed at all if JM had been brought on board. I don’t agree with those who say that VK and CC were both slashed from the show to pay JM’s salary, though. I think if that were the case, losing VK (Connor was a very unpopular character anyway, so no big loss there) and the money saved on sets by the move to the W&H building would be sufficient to cover that cost.
I didn’t watch AtS for the first three seasons, so I don’t know how Cordy was developed as a character, except for the vision/becoming part demon thing. But, really, it’s kind of hard to maintain a character-driven show when the main character started off as nothing more than a plot device on another show and is portrayed by an actor whose range consists of brood/gleefully evil, with no shades in between. The few times I’ve seen DB try to show emotional anguish, he has a facial expression that leads one to believe that his problems could be solved by adding more fiber to his diet.
That boy is in serious danger of being upstaged next season.
In the best of all world’s they do not cheapen Spike’s sacrifice as a true champion by bringing him over to Angel. Further, there are plenty of strong well acted male leads on the show already. Spike brings plenty of excess baggage to the show, and really wasn’t needed IMHO. Will Wes or Gunn have their screen time cut for him? Hopefully not.
That being said, after the season the show just had, I am inclined to give the writers a chance. Besides, I would rather have Angel with Spike, then no Angel at all. Look how much Wes and Gunn developed under the current writers. Hopefully they can do the same thing for Spike who had become rather stale, predictable and worse- boring, as the “vampire in peril, pining away for his true love.” A fresh approach to writing the character without the horrible writing and plots of the last 2 seasons on Buffy just might be what the doctor ordered. Wait and see I guess.
