News - October 1999

Even Joss Whedon is talking about the departure of Doyle (David Quinn) on Angel. While talking to Eon Magazine, Whedon was asked about the plethora of rumors regarding Doyle prompting the response, "Well, our big surprise has been ruined. We had a thing going where we were gonna take away [Angel's] mentor figure -- shake up his life a little bit. Then, of course, it got out as it always does. But, yes, this was our idea from the beginning."
Regarding recent word of good ratings and an additional nine episode order for the new series, Whedon revealed what was ahead commenting, "I am very pleased that Angel is doing well. It's very gratifying. We just got picked up for the back nine, so we'll be finishing up the season. We have a crossover coming up in sweeps that is going to be kind of tremendous. Although the two shows will remain separate, [Angel] will appear on Buffy and [Buffy] will appear on Angel. It's pretty gut-wrenching stuff."

Angel The WB barely waited until nightfall to commit to a full season of this ''Buffy'' spin-off. ''Angel'''s audience has increased 8 percent over its ''Buffy'' lead-in, and its ratings are 43 percent higher than last year's owner of the time slot, ''Felicity.'' Now those are numbers that don't suck.

Angel, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off, is doing so well that The WB TV network has ordered up an additional 9 episodes bringing it to a full season of 22. According to Variety, the freshman series is actually pulling slightly better ratings than its lead-in, Buffy, with over 6 million viewers each week.

Dear all,

I apologise if some of you are receiving this email for the second time.

I am writing to inform you all of Glenn Quinn's departure from the show "Angel." I have only just learnt about this myself, and wanted you all to know too. In order that you all understand Glenn's position clearly, we have issued the following statement:

"In a recently delivered final draft of the script of episode 9, Glenn Quinn's character, Doyle, dies. The plot line has apparently been planned since early in the development of the storylines for the season and has been kept under wraps. We don't know what happens after episode 9, but Glenn has been aware of this development since the beginning of the season and is looking at scripts for his next film."

I hope this is clear, and I apologise for any confusion. Glenn wants to thank you all for the support that you have given him, and hopes that you continue to enjoy the show.

If you have any important further questions, please feel free to email me and I will answer them as soon as I can.

Regards,
James Selman
Rogers & Cowan

Dear all,

I'm sorry I have not been in touch with you all for such a long period of time, but I have been very busy.

I would like to extend Glenn's thanks to you all for all your support on the new show. I hope you are all enjoying it.

As you may have heard, there is a rumor circulating about Glenn Quinn leaving "Angel." I would like to set the record straight now. It is totally UNTRUE that Glenn is leaving the show after 8 episodes. He is still hard at work down at the studio, bringing the character Doyle to life for all of his fans.

Of course I cannot give away any plot lines in future episodes, but this is a sci-fi / fantasy programme and so nothing is as it seems.

I hope this answers any questions that you had about Glenn's role in the show.

Regards,
James Selman
Rogers & Cowan

Hey, Wanda! Any news on what might happen between Cordelia and Doyle on Angel? Big news--glad you asked. I've heard Doyle is done on Angel. He gets the boot by the end of November.

Wanda, please tell us what's up with Doyle leaving, or we'll all explode! It wasn't planned. They simply chose to have Glenn Quinn leave the show.

Anything else on Angel? Sure. Cordy flees her roach pad and heads over to Angel's couch. When she finally finds a new apartment, she gets the added bonus of a haunted former tenant.

The WB kicked off the night (Tuesday) with "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer" at 8 p.m. averaging a 6.4/10 (5.8/9). "Buffy" spin-off, "Angel," dropped a notch to a 5.6/9 (6.2/9) at 9 p.m.

The WB aired the season premiere of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" at 8 p.m. pulling a 5.8/9. "Buffy" spinoff, "Angel," increased to a 6.2/9 at 9 p.m.

Details of a storyline that will cross over between episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off series, Angel, have come to light.

On October 19, the new Buffy episode will be titled "The Harsh Light of the Day" and will center around the return of Spike to Sunnydale in search of an ancient relic that would allow him to be impervious to all harm including Buffy's stakes or sunlight.

The storyline continues in that same evening's Angel titled "In the Dark." This is the previously reported episode wherein Seth Green guests on the show and will have his character, Oz, coming to L.A. Oz is bringing the relic to Angel, though he is also being followed by Spike who is willing to battle to the death with Angel to get it.

As you already know, James Marsters is returning to the role of Spike for another season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as well as the new Angel series. Marsters is also vaguely conveying what the plans are for his vampire character in the season ahead. While talking to Universal's Horror Online, Marsters revealed, "Spike comes back to Sunnydale, and is more vicious than he has ever been before! They are putting me in a lot more, and any worries I may had had that they were going to bland the character of Spike have been put to rest. I will say that I get to make life so very hard for Angel, and that I get to cause him enormous physical pain. As much as I love David, the thought of causing pain to the character of Angel makes me very happy! Suffice it to say that Spike will be around quite a bit on Buffy, as well as few times on Angel!"

Perhaps redemption can be found in L.A. - but for Angel, it won't come cheap.

Most of us will live until the age of 75, and by the time we're dead and gone, we'll have probably apologized for hundreds of rude comments, acts of selfishness, and moments of greed. Most of us will find that apologies suffice to make us feel better about ourselves. But then again, most of us aren't Angel - most of us haven't sucked the blood from the necks of countless innocent people over a period of 200 years.

This fall, Buffy creator Joss Whedon takes us to the depths of the city where the lonely and tortured Angel will spend his nights saving lost souls - and perhaps, in the process, saving his own. The new WB series Angel will feature David Boreanaz reprising his role as the title character, and will take on a somewhat moodier look and feel than its predecessor, though Whedon promises that the darker tone will not replace the wit that Buffy fans have come to expect.

"It will have the same kind of heart [as Buffy]," says Whedon. "It will be the same kind of 'all over the place, transcending genre' kind of thing. But at the same time, it will distinguish itself. The kinds of worlds that Angel is going to be travelling in are different than Buffy's."

Whedon and Producer David Greenwalt say that their show will follow in the path of Buffy by exploring the humanity and emotions of outcasts. Angel has always lived a life of agonizing solitude, but without Buffy in his new surroundings, he will be forced to face his torments without the benefit of another misfit's company. The purpose of sending Angel on a mission to L.A. is to give him an opportunity to redeem himself for a life filled with hate and murder.

"Redemption is difficult and it takes a long time and there isn't always a goal in sight," says Whedon. "If you make it easy, if you find the golden key, that's kind of a false hope. The thing about a hero is that even when it doesn't look like there's light at the end of the tunnel, he's going to keep digging, just because that's who he is."

In last season's finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, we saw Angel drift off into the fog, vowing not to say goodbye to his one and only love. For many viewers, the idea that Angel and Buffy will no longer be an item (or live in the same city, for that matter) is too much to bear. How can they possibly offer themselves to anyone but each other, in the wake of what they've been through together? Well, suck it in, 'cuz it's going to happen. "We will be introducing a character pretty early on, a very strong woman who's going to get seriously into Angel's life," Whedon reveals. "But we are actually keeping our options open and letting the show find itself and feeling it out. We can't just assume that people are going to love whoever we throw on the screen. If something new is going to happen, then [we'll] make it mean something and mean something different than what went on with Buffy and Angel. [Theirs] was a great romance and we take that seriously."

If you're really depressed about Angel and Buffy splitting up, think about a time in your life when you've had to sacrifice something wonderful in order to rescue yourself. Focusing your heart on another person can shift the focus away from you, thereby barring you from resolving any inner conflicts you may have. And take heart because Buffy will make an appearance on a November episode of Angel. Whedon and Greenwalt are also planning special appearances by Seth Green as Oz and James Marsters as Spike.

Angel begins his journey on Tuesday, October 5, following Buffy the Vampire Slayer on The WB.

Everybody knew the romance between soulful 244-year-old vampire Angel and demon-slaying teenager Buffy couldn't last. And not just because they had to overcome roughly the same age gap as Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Cursed by gypsies who restored his human conscience more than 100 years ago, Angel (David Boreanaz) has a serious problem with intimacy. If he and Buffy The Vampire Slayer (Sarah Michelle Gellar) get too physical, he'll lose his soul and revert to his formerly wicked ways as an evil, bloodsucking creature of the night.

But Boreanaz, whose campy new spinoff series Angel premieres on WGN Ch. 68 at 9 p.m. tonight (and on Space Ch. 39 at 9 p.m. Thursday), says that old gypsy curse shouldn't prevent his brooding vamp from having the occasional fling after he leaves Sunnydale, Calif., and sets up shop in the City of Angels.

"I think I have to really be in love with the other person. True happiness is true love, so I think if I just had sex with a person I wasn't in love with, I think I'd still be all right. My soul wouldn't be lifted," Boreanaz says.

That's lucky, since series creator Joss Whedon says he plans to give Angel and Buffy potential new love interests this fall, without taking Angel off his primary diet of hospital blood plasma.

"He's a good vampire, he's a good guy," Whedon says. "He doesn't bite people any more. But that fact that he's a vampire informs the show enormously thematically, because it's about that isolation. He's trying to redeem himself, he's trying to reclaim his humanity."

To that end, Angel takes up a new mission in immortal life, saving troubled souls with help from two unlikely partners: Buffy's caustic teen queen Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), who's now a struggling actress in L.A., and spunky sidekick Doyle (Glenn Quinn), whose supernatural visions steer him to people who need to be touched by Angel.

Quinn, who played Becky's husband on Roseanne, reverts to his natural Irish accent to play Doyle, whom he describes as "a gambler, hustler, Irish half-demon, half-human," with a comedic bent.

Angel will be more of an adult show than Buffy, which opens its new season on WGN Ch. 68 at 8 p.m. (and on CKY Ch. 5 Saturday at midnight). But having slain the metaphorical demons of high school, Buffy is also entering a new stage of life, although Gellar says she had some trepidation about continuing her series without Boreanaz.

"David and I had a very, very special relationship. In three years of working together we never had so much as a disagreement, and I mean, that's just unbelievable considering the hours we spent together," she says.

"And we worked so well together. We could gauge each other's moods. We could help each other. So, for me, it's very daunting. You have this concern that, you know, part of the reason Buffy worked was Angel and you (think), 'What if I can't do it on my own? What if I need David?' "

Of course, Buffy has proved time and again that she can handle any crisis on her own. And Gellar, 22, says she was thrilled last season when Buffy was given a Class Protector award at the school prom for her extracurricular work plunging stakes into vampire hearts, outwitting hounds of hell and kicking demon butt.

"No one has ever acknowledged in three and a half years that the mortality rate of the school has gone down," she says. "I think she's an incredible role model. I wished growing up that there were characters like that that I could watch. A female that's not the prettiest, not the most popular and can take care of herself. And I think it's so important that girls see that."

Some of the show's most rabid fans are adults, but Gellar says she hopes the kids will still relate when Buffy goes to college this year.

"She's going to leave her boyfriend, she's going to leave her mentor Giles and she's going to learn to experience things on her own.

"So, hopefully, that will be something that a lot of young girls and boys can relate to as well. And I think that's what the new season is going to be about, is that next step in growing up."

He sucked her blood. Now he's moving to L.A. David Boreanaz continues his "Buffy" role in the dark yet slyly humorous spinoff "Angel," which debuts Tuesday on the WB Network (9 p.m. ET). Having barely survived a recent brush with extinction, the handsome vampire leaves the town of Sunnydale -- and Buffy -- for the big bad town of Hollywood, where he hopes to save his own soul by helping others.

Boreanaz is feeling the heat of the spotlight as he goes from "Buffy" supporting player to "Angel" star. "Pressure is something you bring upon yourself," he reasons. "I was fortunate enough to have two great parents who instilled a lot of confidence, and also a lot of humility, in me. I learned just to take things for what they are, work hard and be loose. With those ingredients, along with great cast members and a great support team, it works out."

Sarah Michelle Gellar is expected to make at least one crossover appearance as Buffy, with Seth Green and James Marsters of the parent show also set for "Angel" guest shots. However, Boreanaz feels there's freshness to be mined from his alter ego. "Within each episode, I learn something different about the character," he says. "He has a tortured soul and a guilty conscience, but at the same time, he's trying to make amends and become a better person. I think we'll see that happen slowly but surely."

Charisma Carpenter also transfers her "Buffy" character into the new show as Cordelia tries to start an acting career while helping Angel on his missions. He also gets frequent assists from Doyle ("Roseanne" alumnus Glenn Quinn), an otherworldly mentor.

The key link between the mythologies of "Buffy" and "Angel" is, of course, Joss Whedon, who is the creator and executive producer of both shows. Whedon says he sees the programs as "companion pieces. They belong in the same family and will hopefully draw a lot of the same audience, but at the same time, 'Angel' will have a more adult tone. Angel is a different kind of character, and the worlds he's going to be traveling in are different than Buffy's. I think (the two series) belong together because I don't think they're too similar."

Whedon adds that Angel's vampirism will remain at the forefront: "It informs the show enormously, because it's about that isolation. He's trying to reclaim his humanity even though, on some level, he's not (human). That deals with the feeling, 'Everyone else is normal, it's just me who's different.' It's a liability, but at the same time, he's stronger and faster and harder to kill than other people."

As with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Angel" will attempt to make relevant comments on society while also dealing in flights of fancy. "Redemption is difficult," Whedon reflects. "It takes a long time, and there isn't always a goal in sight. You just have to keep trying to do right, and if you make it easy (in dramatic terms), that's kind of a false hope. The thing about a hero is that even whe it doesn't look like there's a light at the end of the tunnel, he's going to keep digging, just because that's who he is."

I just watched Angel, and, well, I think they may be taking this vampires-like-the-dark thing a little too far. I mean, I know Joss said it would be darker than Buffy, but by the end you're begging to see light. Charisma Carpenter shines, but there's too little Cordy and too much brooding. Angel has become a Batman-like goth guy with Spiderman tendencies. I don't know, I like my superheroes on Saturday mornings and my hotties on Tuesday nights. Of course, it's just a pilot.
[My take: Like I've said over and over, everyone has their opinions, and I'll reserve mine until after I've seen the episode!!!