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Those words, that performance, Gellar’s command onscreen sent a shiver down my spine. “I just wanna be alive!” Buffy bellows, as she wanders aimlessly through a fog-imbued cemetery, knocking off various dead things. Picture this: a wide-eyed, very green, and totally “straight” 18-year-old witnessing the sweeping, orchestra-driven opening number and being transformed as one is after a baptism. So, imagine my wonderment in beholding “Once More, with Feeling” for the very first time. I grew up transfixed by such landmark cinematic feats as The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Little Shop of Horrors, and The Wizard of Oz, as well as Broadway productions like Into the Woods and Rent. Twenty years later, it remains one of the greatest episodes of television and musicals ever created. More than any other episode, it’s the much-lauded “ Once More, with Feeling,” a musical extravaganza bursting with heart-pounding choruses and aw-shucks quirk, that I hold most dear. I have, of course, come around to the show since, and its fantastical storytelling holds a special place in my ghoulish, cold heart. During the show’s run (1997-2003), I tuned it on occasion, finding great delight in Sarah Michelle Gellar’s wonderfully empowering turn as the titular vampire hunter, but it was never an obsession among my core group of friends. This, more than anything else, is its lasting legacy.I admit: I was only a casual Buffy the Vampire Slayer viewer. Whether one likes the episode or not, it helped show that network television can be as experimental, weird, and genre-bending as premium cable.
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#Buffy once more with feeling episode number series#
It’s no mistake that many series on the WB’s spiritual heir, the CW, continue building off of its success today. Syfy even ran a list of the best and worst songs in 2017. While the episode has some staunch detractors, it’s among the most memorable in a series. At the time, the show was considered something unique and special. Whedon’s recent fall from grace may put shows like Buffy under a microscope. Now, with Hamilton, Dear Evan, Hansen, and other popular shows bringing musicals back into the mainstream, perhaps Buffy has a small role to play. Several hit series rode the same wave that Buffy helped set from the medical sitcom Scrubs to Riverdale. To a 2021 audience, musical episodes may not be all that rare. Luckily for Whedon, Gellar, and the rest of the team behind the series, the episode remains a favorite among fans and critics alike. They got a script two or three weeks before the production, and by that time, it was too late to go back. Whedon put Gellar and the rest of the cast to the fire. Then I talked to Joss and I said, “I don’t have the time and I don’t feel confident enough to do it.” I didn’t realize that would be the episode where you found out where she was. What I didn’t realize at the time is it would be such an emotional arc for the character. So my original intention was to have someone else do the singing. I never have been and I didn’t have a lot of time with the material. All of that changed when the cast was on board. She never sang professionally before, and before the rumors of a musical Buffy episode, she never intended to sing on-camera.