Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Fox Television has driven a stake into the Buffy the Vampire Slayer singalong.

Lawyers for the network behind the TV show have told a group of volunteers, led by Boston’s Clinton McClung, to stop all future performances of a singalong version of "Once More With Feeling," a musical episode of the cult show.

Fans dressed as their favourite character and sang from the audience as a group of aficionados took to the stage to play the principal roles and lead the singing.

The single musical episode, written and directed by show creator Joss Whedon, was nominated for an Emmy Award.

Although Criterion Pictures had granted a licence for the singalong events, Fox, a division of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., has stepped in to demand "significant payments" for showing the episode in movie theatres.

McClung started the midnight screenings at a theatre in Boston more than a year ago. Continue Article

He drew so many of the show’s loyal fans, he moved the event to an art-house cinema in New York’s Greenwich Village. It has since played in about 15 other cities.

He has had to cancel a costume party later this month as well as 10 shows in theatres around the country as a result of the cease-and-desist order.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer went off the air in 2003.