How in the world did he ever land showrunner position on Buffy? I’ve never understood how the creator of the show and one of the main writers was able to land such a big job. I guess WB didn’t have a long list of showrunners out there to run the thing, so they let the creator?
Anyway, the article somehow makes me like Joss even less.
I think it is accurate that he does well with vampire storylines since he was kind of an emotional vampire at times while making them.
Thanks for the link, I hadn’t read that. Yeah, he’s a creepy toad, and I don’t get the sense that even now he understands that, or has fully come to an acknowledgement of his own behavior. I do think there’s a kind of narcissist who builds a self-image of being a certain type of person (say a feminist) and acts on it - builds strong female characters , etc. - and yet can’t look at themselves, because its all in service of their self-regard. I suspect that’s Joss Whedon.
Someone more savvy or self-aware would have retrenched, admitted some or all of the claims (I’m going with the weight of the evidence & assuming they’re mostly true), and given it a few years to rest, and then maybe moved on.
I know writers don’t generally have a lot of clout in Hollywood (standard joke: The dumb starlet tried to get to the top by sleeping with the screenwriter. Sexist, I know, but you see the point.) But possibly they saw that a property this eccentric needed the kind of warped mind that knew how to deal with this particular brand, so they gave it to him. Maybe nobody else on the film’s production team was interested.
How much of a thing was “showrunner”, even, at that time? I associate that term with shows with grand, seasons-long overarching plotlines, which was still a new idea at the time of Buffy.
This just reads like another “knock down the hero” hatchet job. Use every thing that can be interpreted such to paint a picture of a sexist pig. Is it true? None of us can know.
I mean, when your sources are a “a television writer who moonlights as a psychic medium”, someone who “dropped her patriarchal last name”, and a woman who wrote a book about being a female pick up artist, I think their credibility is lacking. Or, this: "They were rolling around on the floor, making out. “They would bang into my chair,” she said. “How can you concentrate? It was gross.” " Frankly, I don’t believe that one bit. It doesn’t make sense anyone would do that.
But ultimately, it makes no difference. I was never a Joss fanboy, and I am not a Joss bandwagon hater. Whatever the truth is, I know I’m not in a position to know it.
The WB was a fairly minor network at the time and Buffy was kind of an oddball movie being turned into an oddball television show nobody really expected to be a hit. It doesn’t seem all that surprising that Whedon, who had made a name for himself as a writer, would be the showrunner of the television series based on the movie he had written.
I remember hearing rumblings when Charisma Carpenter left Angel that Whedon wasn’t pleased with her for having the temerity to get pregnant. But I don’t remember anything coming of it at the time either because Carpenter wasn’t too public about what happened or maybe the fanbase just wanted to ignore it. I also remember a story about Nicholas Brendon getting drunk at a convention seemingly terrified that Whedon might learn about his behavior.
It is interesting how fandom can turn against someone so quickly. I think it’s a good idea to avoid putting people like Whedon on a pedestal. Even if they are genuinely nice people it’s not a healthy practice.
It kind of put the relationship with Carpenter in a different light. I had always heard that he gave her a hard time for her pregnancy but the article puts his statement of “Are you trying to ruin the show?” in a different context. Prior to that statement Carpenter had cut her hair short while they were still filming an episode and at some point got a tattoo of a rosary on her wrist which both complicate the production. Combined with Carpenter’s anxiety issues making it difficult to memorize her lines I could see how Whendon might get a bit exasperated.
I’m not quite convinced Whedon is a sexist pig but he doesn’t sound like someone I’d want as a boss.
Of course he doesn’t, everyone of his shows has a naive male who says hurtful things to the beautiful girl that is somehow into him but doesn’t really mean any harm… those are all 100% self insert characters.
A Firefly writer remembered him belittling a colleague for writing a script that wasn’t up to par. Instead of giving her notes privately, he called a meeting with the entire writing staff. “It was basically 90 minutes of vicious mockery,” the writer said. “Joss pretended to have a slide projector, and he read her dialogue out loud and pretended he was giving a lecture on terrible writing as he went through the ‘slides’ and made funny voices — funny for him. The guys were looking down at their pages, and this woman was fighting tears the entire time. I’ve had my share of shitty showrunners, but the intent to hurt — that’s the thing that stands out for me now.”
I was a Joss fanboy. Loved Buffy, Angel, and Firefly. I didn’t like Dollhouse, I felt that either I didn’t understand it or he “lost” it for me or something. I was happy with his Avengers movies. Continuing to speak on his work, I’m torn on Joss v Snyder. I get Joss’ comments on how hard it was to make it light and funny given what had been filmed. Before this becomes a rant on Snyder, I will say I’m not fond of what Snyder did with the DC properties and would rather someone like Joss had kept going.
I guess I agree that Joss was too young, had too much power, and is certainly a narcissist.
The only thing I can add is that I have seen interviews by James Marsters (Spike) and he didn’t see that negative level. However. He’s a guy and so it probably landed differently with him and he was older than the rest of the cast. James said he was afraid of Joss because Joss was forced to keep Spike when he became popular and the idea had been to kill Spike off. James never saw the stuff that others say. During James’ interviews, when asked about SMG, he said she was a diva on the set, everyone bowed to her, and she knew it. Is that due to how Joss ran things? Is that Hollywood? I don’t know. I think something happened, Joss certainly admits to enough in that article, but he also doesn’t seem to have admitted fault.
I haven’t read the article yet, but this statement is bizarre to me. What better qualifications could one possibly have than being the creator and head writer? I mean, that’s literally the template that every new showrunner follows. Shonda Rhimes and Vince Gilligan to name two.
Somebody ought to tell Joss not to drink so much water during an interview so he doesn’t have to duck off to the potty every time an uncomfortable question rolls out. He strikes me as a weak little fuck who used every bit of power he got handed to be spiteful and shitty to people he didn’t like and now that he doesn’t have that power any more he’s a sad sack nopologetic weasel boy whining about how life is so unfair. If you wanna run with the big dogs, Joss, you gotta be ready and able to get bit as well as bite and own up to your shit when it all goes down instead of sobbing and bedwetting. Feh.
