Buffy Animated

To Buffy fans, Jane Espenson needs little to no introduction. Her work on the series is highly regarded by many fans and critics, and she has written or co-written many memorable episodes - not to mention winning a Hugo Award in the category of Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form for "Conversations With Dead People" with colleague, Drew Goddard. Her affection for the character and universe continues to be evidenced in her willingness to revisit Buffy in other mediums, like the various comic book adventures she’s penned over the past few years, or in the scripts she wrote for the proposed animated series - a project she has yet to fully close the door on.

Eric Wight, on the other hand, probably does need some introduction to Buffy fans, at least for those not privy to the behind the scenes work on their favourite animated slayer and her gang. Eric is a professional animator and illustrator and worked for several years on the Animated Buffy project, designing characters and sets. He was/is largely responsible for the visual style of the show, making each character look cool and establishing the colour palette for the series.

In this interview, the two fill us in on where the series was when it was abandoned, how they got involved with the thing in the first place, and give us a bit of an update on where it is now that it has been dusted off.

MIKE JOZIC: How did the two of you get involved with Animated Buffy back in the beginning?

JANE ESPENSON: Joss was very interested in developing an animated version of Buffy to enable us to tell stories that were visually ambitious and also to allow us to go back and tell stories that would only work in the high school setting. He graciously invited any of the writers on staff to join in if we wanted to.

ERIC WIGHT: It was definitely a case of right place, right time. I was working for Film Roman (the animation company that produces the Simpsons) when they were approached to develop the animated version of Buffy. The producer of the project I was currently working on asked if Buffy was something I might be interested in designing.

JOZIC: Eric, were you a fan of the show before getting involved?

WIGHT: Absolutely.

JOZIC: Jane, it’s very unusual for an animated spin-off to snag writers from the parent show. Was it hard to find a way to squeeze it in to your already busy schedule at the time?

ESPENSON: I jumped at the chance and have not regretted it. Even though the show [has yet to] materialize, I loved working with Jeph Loeb who was in charge of the animated series along with Joss, and I loved the challenge of a slightly different kind of writing.

JOZIC: What other writers from Buffy got involved with the Animated show?

ESPENSON: Steve DeKnight and Drew Greenberg wrote episodes, if I recall. And I believe Doug Petrie did too. I think there was a story set aside for Rebecca Kirshner that she never got to start.

JOZIC: What role did each of you play in the overall development of the series?

ESPENSON: Joss already had a very clear idea of what Animated Buffy was. He knew the sorts of stories he wanted to tell and the tone he wanted them to have. But since these scripts were the very first ever written for this new series, there were obviously decisions that were being made every day.

For example, here’s an issue that came up: The animated series was set during Buffy’s freshman year of high school. Does that mean that the characters can’t make any pop culture references that post-date season one of Buffy? Does it mean that a "new" car is a ’97?

I loved it when things like that came up because it reminded me that it was early days and we were still setting the rules.

WIGHT: My role was to establish the visual style of the cartoon, from character designs, to background layouts, to color.

JOZIC: Eric, looking at your resume, it looks like Beavis and Butt-Head Do America was your first work in animation. Is that correct?

WIGHT: We all have to start somewhere! I had a phenomenal time working for MTV on that movie. I was still in college at the time, so it was tough juggling my course load and working full time. But I worked with a great group of people.

JOZIC: Since then you’ve worked on some pretty amazing shows - and several of my own personal favourites. When you’re looking for a new project, what sorts of challenges do you look for?

WIGHT: I definitely gravitate towards the jobs that allow for the most creative freedom. Working on a high profile project can be a lot of fun, but the politics of all the people involved can be really draining. And it’s great when you are involved from the very beginning of a new project.

It’s a lot more fun to draw from the scripted page than to have to go into a project that they already have five different artists’ styles that no one like but they want you to blend it all into one vision.

JOZIC: Jane, did it make it any easier to write for the show knowing that many of your cast from the series had committed to voicing their animated counterparts?

ESPENSON: Interesting question, but I just wrote it to their voices the way I would if it was a regular Buffy episode. It’s just like when you’re a beginning writer, writing "spec" episodes of a show. If you’re writing a Frasier, you try to hear Kelsey Grammar’s voice, even if it’s a spec Frasier that’s just a writing sample, and will never be performed.

JOZIC: Eric, how difficult was it to adapt living characters from an existing show like Buffy to an animated format?

WIGHT: It was really tough and rewarding all at the same time. Some faces are easier to draw than others. Sometimes you nail the look on the first try, other times I’ve burned through a box of pencils trying to get the design just right. It’s even tougher with a show like Buffy, where all of the characters are so distinct and recognizable.

JOZIC: For all intents and purposes, the show seems like it would have been a winner with a rabid built in audience. What were the circumstances surrounding the show getting stalled when it did?

ESPENSON: I’m not entirely sure on this point. I know there were a number of times when everyone got very hopeful and we were certain that the show would be produced. But something always fell through.

WIGHT: Welcome to Hollywood. Given the fan reaction when I launched my website, it boggles my mind why this show has not been made. As far as the specifics as to why it didn’t work out, you’ll have to ask Mr. Whedon for those answers.

JOZIC: It would have been really interesting to see those early years of the show with Dawn included in the cast. This was explored briefly in the comic books and executed fairly well, in my opinion. Did you see that as a missed opportunity?

ESPENSON: Oh, absolutely, when the animated series stopped being a possibility, I think we all felt the loss of the opportunities to fill in the monk-implanted Dawn years. And of course, we’d all fallen in love with our own individual stories. "Teeny," my script in which Buffy shrinks, was a perfect story to tell in animated form that would’ve been impossible, or at least impractical to do with live-action.

JOZIC: Eric, was there any special criteria that you had to follow with the design work you did?

WIGHT: The biggest hurdle was that Buffy could not look too much like Sarah because she wouldn’t be doing her own voice. That was tough, to make her design look cool and not too generic.

JOZIC: Jane, how many scripts did you write in total for the show?

ESPENSON: I wrote three Animated Buffys. One was called "Teeny" and one was called "The Back Room" and there was a third, about a demon made of cafeteria food... I’m sure I called it something like "Lunch is Revolting!" But I forget for sure.

I believe eight scripts were written [for the series], but one or two of them never went through the final series of notes from Joss and Jeph.

JOZIC: Did Jonathan conveniently make it into any or all your episodes?

ESPENSON: I know he was in at least one.

JOZIC: Eric, I’m sure each job is different but, on average, how long do you generally spend being hands-on involved with a project?

WIGHT: It can range from a few hours to a few years. The first time around, I worked on Buffy off and on for about three years.

JOZIC: You’ve also done some work in comic books, and considering your previous background with Buffy, I wondered if you had been approached by DHC to do any work for the Tales of the Vampires series?

WIGHT: I expressed an interest, but it didn’t happen.

JOZIC: Jane, what writers have influenced your work in the past, or bring you inspiration today?

ESPENSON: I adore the Harry Potter books because the world is so completely imagined. I love Jane Austen because she’s a comedy writer who seems to have written jokes that never get old. Even after oh-so-lots-of-years. There are tons of novelists I love in various ways.

But I think the writers that influence us the most are the ones we work with, because we get to see their process. Writers like Joss and like Amy Sherman-Palladino, and the others I’ve been lucky enough to work with - they influence me the most because I get to see how they deal with obstacles, how they tackle a rewrite, how they craft a story from the ground up. That’s where the real work is done, and when all you have is a completed work, it’s a mystery how it got to be what it is.

JOZIC: And you, Eric, artistically, who have your influences been?

WIGHT: For every project it’s different. For Buffy, I looked at a lot of Mike Mignola, Jack Kirby, Kenichi Sonoda. I watched a lot of Japanese Anime, Hong Kong action films. Having worked with guys like Bruce Timm, Glen Murakami and Shane Glines has definitely influenced my style.

JOZIC: And what has been your favourite project to work on to date?

WIGHT: They all have a special place in my heart, but Buffy is definitely my favorite.

JOZIC: What was/is your favourite aspect of working on the show?

WIGHT: Being able to play in Joss’ sandbox was an amazing experience. The Mutant Enemy writers are some of the best in the business, and the animated scripts were as good as any story from the first couple of seasons of the live action show. So the most exciting part was getting that new script to work from every couple of weeks.

ESPENSON: Hmm... I think my favorite part was writing jokes that worked in these scripts but that would not have worked on regular Buffy. Visual jokes or slightly-broad wordplay-jokes that might’ve seemed too "big" in live-action seemed to me to work very nicely in animation. Also, the scripts were all humor and action and very little angst... they were just a blast to write.

JOZIC: Have you heard the news that Animated Buffy is being shopped around again?

ESPENSON: I had this very conversation with Joss on the set of his movie. It sounds as though there is a chance for it to be revived.

JOZIC: Would you like to get involved in the series again if it gets the green light?

ESPENSON: If it happens, I would certainly want to be involved. I always thought it was a very smart project and I’d love to revisit those characters.

JOZIC: And what about you, Eric? Were you working on anything else when you found out that the pilot was going to be shopped around again?

WIGHT: I’m usually working on two or three (or four) projects at once, but Buffy is a top priority for me.

JOZIC: After three plus years working on it are you still on the project for the long haul?

WIGHT: After being a part of it for as long as I have, I’ll definitely stick around as long as they will have me in some capacity or another.

JOZIC: So, what happened with getting the go-ahead after being on the shelf for so long? Who dug it out and dusted it off?

ESPENSON: I don’t really know the answers to these, but I have to suspect that the DVD success of The Family Guy made some people see the long-term prospects for animated projects.

WIGHT: I think with both Buffy and Angel going off the air, there is a renewed interest because the powers that be want to find a way to keep the Buffy franchise alive, and the animated series is a very logical step.

JOZIC: Is the pilot they went ahead with the same as the original one or is it an entirely new entity?

WIGHT: We never made it to a [finished] pilot the first time around.

Basically, the first time around I had completed designs for most of the main cast, and there were a bunch of finished scripts. That was about as far as we got.

JOZIC: As far as you know, are all the same people still involved, like the TV writers and designers and voice actors et al?

ESPENSON: My understanding is that what has been voiced and is being animated is a presentation - a ten minute chunk of one of the scripts that we wrote years ago. So it is Joss’s pilot, but it is being used as a demonstration piece as much as anything.

As to the story, we wrote them all to be entirely self-contained and capable of being aired in any order, so the pilot stands apart in writing quality, but not in terms of having a series-starting story.

WIGHT: As far as the pilot was concerned, Joss was of course very involved, as well as Jeph Loeb. My boss, animation producer extraordinaire Eric Radomski (of Batman: The Animated Series and Spawn fame) ran things from the animation side of the table. Nicholas, Alyson and Tony reprised their voices, and the girl from the Buffy video games did Buffy’s voice. And of course I was on hand for the festivities as well.

As far as my involvement, I designed the characters, storyboarded it, and did some of the rough background layouts which where then rendered by Ted Blackman.

JOZIC: Anything else you can spill about the project before we shut down?

WIGHT: Sorry, I’m sworn to secrecy! If I spill any details, they’ll put a hex on my family!