Buffy The Vampire Slayer

In case you’ve been living under a rock, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog will be getting the actual Sing-along treatment at New York’s Paley Center this Friday at 7:30 PM. Who better to host the event than Buffy Sing-along founder, Clinton McClung? Buffyfest had the good fortune to interview Mr. McClung a scant few days before the festivities begin.

Buffyfest: Let’s recap - we here at Buffyfest were devastated when the awesome Buffy Sing-along came to an end. Can you tell us anything now about the rights issue that caused that tragedy?

Clinton McClung: Unfortunately, most of what went down was between Fox and the Screen Actor’s Guild, and I wasn’t privy to any of the specifics. But, from what I’ve gleaned, the popularity of the Buffy Sing Along lead SAG to investigate the theatrical screenings, and they didn’t think they were being appropriately compensated by Fox for that revenue. With potential strikes looming, and other business issues to deal with, Fox decided to simply pull the rights for doing our shows (and all other television programs that were being presented in cinemas for admission, like Firefly and Family Guy) so as to avoid a potential legal fight.

Buffyfest: We were actually at the Sing-along at the IFC center when MTV was there covering it. The show got so much publicity and fame, how was that for you?

CM: It was insanely fast. I didn’t have any grand scheme to start doing Buffy shows full time, it was just a fun hobby. And then I got sucked up on this crazy roller coaster ride. The MTV piece lead to more exposure and more media coverage, and within a month I had theatres all over the country contacting me because they wanted to do a sing along. Since I had done some theatrical booking in the past, I had those contacts and was able to make the show happen in more places than just New York. I spent the summer traveling the country and meeting other Buffy fans, and every single show was so filled with this feeling of camaraderie and love, it was really incredible.

As for personal fame, that really wasn’t a factor. The show wasn’t about me at all, I was just the one who happened to be getting it started. When I would promote the show I would always use "we", because I didn’t make it happen by myself. It is a sing along, and without the audience participating and being excited and really getting into it, the screenings would have been kind of "blah". Plus, I had the NYC cast that were all volunteers, and Buffy fans in pretty much every city who helped with the shows.

(...)

Click on the link for more :

http://buffyfest.blogspot.com/2008/12/clinton-mcclung-talks-dr-horrible-and.html