Actress Kristine Sutherland who played Buffy’s mom, Joyce Summers, for 7 seasons on Buffy the Vampire Slayer joins David Bushman and Scott Ryan for an interview. This is our first episode of a new podcast, Big Bad Buffy Interviews. We will try to interview every actor, writer and director from the series. We are honored that Kristine agreed to be our first guest.
Kristine talks about what it means to play a mom in a TV series that is targeted for teenagers viewers. I think her answers will engage and surprise you. In fact, you may want to re-watch the series after hearing her view of her character. She also talks about working with the late John Ritter.
David Fury wrote 17 episodes of Buffy and 12 of Angel. He directed episodes of the series as well. He also wrote one of the most classic episodes of Lost, “Walkabout” which we discuss as well. Mostly we talk Buffy and go through each of the characters and what it was like to write for them. David will go down in TV history as the man who sang about Mustard so we spend some time on the Musical Episode as well.
Marcia Shulman was the casting director for several years on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She cast all the main actors of the series and tells some wonderful behind the scenes stories of Angel, Buffy, Willow and Giles. This is the kind of in depth information that you get from the unsung heroes of the crew of Buffy. She doesn’t do many interviews so enjoy this one.
Kristy Swanson originated the role of Buffy Summers in the 1992 movie, Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The movie opened with competition from Death Becomes Her and lost the box office race. But 25 years later, it is the movie of Buffy that is still a force in Popular Culture. Kristy talks about the movie, if she has ever seen the series and talks about working with Pee Wee Herman.
I had to ask her about her work with John Hughes so towards the end you get some talk about Pretty In Pink and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off as well. Enjoy this talk with our first Buffy, Kristy Swanson.
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There is only one crew member who worked as long on Buffy as Joss Whedon, that person is David Solomon. He edited the un-aired pilot and stayed with the series all the way until the end. He talks about the entire series from start to finish. He directed a fan favorite, The Prom, as well as Beer Bad. Listen to it here.
Stephen Tobolowsky rose to fame with his role in Groundhog’s Day. He also, was cast as the principal in the pilot of Buffy. That pilot was re-cast, but we talk to him about the role that he did, but no one saw. We also talk to him about Bill Murray and the classic comedy, Groundhog’s day.
Douglas Petrie was a writer, director and executive producer on Buffy. He wrote the first episode where Faith joins the show, so we talk a lot of Faith with him. He knew the ins and outs of how Buffy was run over the last 4 years of the series. This is a really interesting interview as Doug is a ton of fun.
Happy 20th Anniversary to Buffy. We celebrate by talking about one of the most popular episodes, Once More With Feeling or The Buffy Musical. Clinton McClung planned events across the country to show the episode in movie theaters. His story is inspiring and heartbreaking. Fans will love this discussion.
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Purchase David Bushman’s Book about Twin Peaks.
Purchase Scott Ryan’s Book about thirtysomething.