The Return of Buffy The Vampire Slayer? (Nope. Probably not)

This COULD, and more importantly SHOULD, happen!!!

Various people have already posted this FAN MADE Buffy the animated series opening on their Facebook pages. 

I couldn't embed the original posted by Stephen Byrne, but if you CLICK on his name, it'll take you to ALL of his art work including this Animated Doctor Who opening on his Facebook page:

So why should this series come to fruition? 

A few months ago, Billy Hanshaw of Leeds, created a FAN MADE opening to season 8 of Doctor Who. DW Show runner, Stephen Moffet saw it and immediately reach out to Leeds. With Leeds permission, the Doctor Who team used his opening as the basis for the ACTUAL season 8 Doctor Who opening.

Comparison of the Fanbase vs real opening 

"It was the only new title idea I'd seen since 1963," said Moffat. 

Pretty powerful stuff, right? And who knows better than a fan?

So, why wouldn't Buffy The Vampire creator, Joss Whedon and crew jump on board with this animated idea immediately? Well for one, they did! 

Back in 2001 Whedon, along with Comicbook guru and Smallville scribe Jeff Loeb, produced an animated series for 20th Century Fox which was to run on Fox Kids. Unfortunately the show died when Fox Kids went belly up and no other network was interested. 

WHAT?!?

You can read ALL THE SORTED DETAILS here.

OK, fine. That was 2001. When things were simpler. We weren't fighting wars on 16 fronts and people still believed in the divinity of ABC, CBS & NBC (oh..and sometimes FOX). But this is 2014! Netflix (which isn't even a fucking network) & HBO dominate Emmy nominations. With shows such as Community having a second life after Network fumblings, there's no longer any reason a show with the fanbase of BTVS shouldn't have a dozen outlets clamoring to air the series.

In an interview with TV Guide in 2005, Whedon said the animated series is dead. But perhaps, like vampires themselves, the dead shall rise again? 

Not always, but sometimes the fanbase knows what's best...ie Han shot fucking first!

Mr. Whedon, don't make us angry...you wouldn't like us when we're angry!

Happy Holidays!

As bloggers everywhere write their obligatory “I’m thankful for the following” lists, I decided I’d forgo the entry meant merely to tout your year’s accomplishments.  I mean, do I need to mention I co-write and produce a musical to critical acclaim? ( still got it in, YES!)

Instead I wanted to write about the expression, “Happy Holidays.”  Because NOBODY else is thinking of doing that.  

“Yeah Kev, why don’t people just say ‘Merry Christmas’?” 

Ummm…yeah.  That’s not really what I meant.  

In this ever growing ugly world, where we are all one misunderstood gesture away from being shot in the face, I get why people don’t want to “assume” by saying “Merry Christmas.”  Oh, also…it’s NOT FUCKING CHRISTMAS YET!

That said, I don’t mind someone saying “Happy Holidays” to me as opposed to assuming I celebrate Christmas.  I do.  But how would they know that?  

Likewise, I don’t mind someone saying “God Bless You” when I sneeze, as opposed to assuming I’m not into Religion.  I’m not.  I’d never spurned a person’s kind words or gesture, because it just might make this world grow uglier a little slower.

But NONE of this is the point for my writing of “Happy Holidays.”  Instead I am curious, which holidays are you wishing me happiness towards?  Obviously there are the BIG three:  

Christmas.  It’s still 28 days away  (that’s a rehab stint),

Chanukah or Hanukkah.  No one really knows how to spelling it, which means I probably should have been Jewish ( terrible speller)

Thanksgiving.  Or as it is sometimes aptly known, “The Day We Gave Indians Smallpox Blankets In Exchange For Teaching Us How To Live Off Their Land.” (Man, that’s a mouth full)

But there are OTHER Holidays that fall within the “Holiday” spectrum of November 9^th- December 30^th/31^st.  My guess is their inclusion is why MANY conservative types rail against saying “Happy Holidays” as opposed to Merry Christmas.

“I don’t mind wish my Jewish friends a Happy Hanukkah, but there are probably Muslim holidays in there too!”

I know.  We get it.  You’re a dick.

First, allow me tell you how I came up with my timeframe parameters:  I firmly believe, no Holiday should be celebrated until after Election Day.  

“Kevin, isn’t your birthday usually around Election Day?  And can’t this be interpreted as a selfish way for you to keep the focus on you a little longer?”

Ummm…yeah.  But if we do start the first week of November, why not back up to include Halloween under the “Happy Holidays” umbrella as well?

SIDE NOTE:  While trick or treating with my nephew, I wished a woman a “Happy Halloween.”  She returned the gratitude with candy and by saying, “Happy Holidays” to me.  I laughed at her.  And then threw the Good N’ Plentys at her face…cause those things are fucking gross!

“OK Kevin, I concede that Halloween should NOT be covered under the ‘Happy Holidays’ brand.  As no one has a problem saying ‘Happy Halloween’ except maybe Brits with a Cockney accent who say, ‘‘appy ‘alloween’.   But why only go until December 30th/31^st?  Shouldn’t this cover New Year’s?  And what’s the deal with it being 30^th/31^st anyway?”

OK.  Allow me to address this point by point.

1. Thank You
2. Please don’t make fun of the Brits.  They are our allies in most of the world’s problems and more importantly, they gave us Doctor Who
3. Because, similar to how you point out “no one has a problem saying ‘Happy Halloween’,” they don’t have a problem saying “Happy New Years” either as it appears on our Roman/Greco calendar .
4. Good question.

Right or wrong, we have stretched the Christmas season to last from the second you get up from the Thanksgiving table to New Years Eve.  Personally, I view Christmas like a rollercoaster.  The buildup lasts FAR longer than the actual event.  That said, I think Christmas ends the first time you forget to turn on your Christmas lights, which is either 12/30 or 12/31.  It just happens, folks.

So what are all of the holidays that are supported by the catch all, “Happy Holidays”?  Here is a list of Holidays celebrated in the US during that timeframe:  

11/28 Thanksgiving – National Holiday

11/28 Hanukkah (begins) – Jewish Holiday

11/29 American Indian Heritage Day – State Holiday in Maryland

11/29 Robert E. Lee’s Birthday – State Holiday in Georgia

11/29 President’s Day – State Holiday in New Mexico

11/29 Black Friday – State Holiday in 17 states

11/29 Lincoln’s Birthday* – State Holiday in West Virginia & Indiana

*This is bizarre as Lincoln’s birthday is 2/12.  However this was done to give state worker’s a day off for the day after Thanksgiving.

12/1 First Day of Advent – Christina Holiday

12/2 Cyber Monday – Observance

12/5 Last Day of Hanukkah – Jewish Holiday

12/6 St. Nicholas Day – Observance

12/7 Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day – Observance

12/8 Feast of the Immaculate Conception – Christian Holiday

12/12 Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe – Observation

12/17 Pan American Aviation Day – Observance

12/17 Wright Brothers Day – Observance

12/21 December Solstice – Season

12/24 Washington’s Birthday* – State Holiday in Indiana

*It’s actually 2/22…again, weird.

12/24 Christmas Eve – Observance, Christian Holiday.  Also, state holiday in:  Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin

12/25 Christmas Day – National Holiday/Christian

12/26 Day After Christmas – State Holiday in Kansas, North Carolina, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Texas  (Clever name guys!  It’s also Boxing Day in Canada, but the US barely recognizes Canada as a nation, surely they won’t recognize their dumb holidays)

12/26 Kwanzaa – Observance

So next time you wish someone a Happy Holiday, just remember, what you’re really saying. 

“Have a ‘PANTASTIC’ Pan American Aviation Day!”  

Which sounds stupid, even with a Cockney accent.

Once...(Because Who'd Want To Go Through THAT Again?)

When it was announced that Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams, AKA Rory Pond of Doctor Who fame) was taking over the lead role in the Broadway musical, Once, Julie and I immediately knew we had to see it.  She loved the film and I...bought it for her.  I actually liked the film too.  I don't remember loving it, but I am a fan of Rory...er, I mean Arthur.  OK, I'm a bigger fan of his Doctor Who wife, Amy Pond...but she wasn't performing in New York this weekend. 

Julie looked into tickets and instantly put the kibosh on the whole shebang.

"It's too expensive."  

We have seen a few shows on Broadway.  They are expensive, but always worth it.   

"We are about to have a child," she reminds me.  I don't need the reminder.   
"That's exactly why we SHOULD go!" I reply.   

We know these opportunities will be few and far between when our little Pond gets here.  So Julie happens to mention our situation to our dear friend and jet setter extraordinaire, Tara.  Tara sends Julie a link for a "buy one get one free" offer the next day.  BAM!  Tara is what I call "an enabler."  And I love her! 

So Julie & skipped out of work early on Friday and caught a train to New York City.  

Right in the middle of Fashion Week!  Holy Traffic!!!  Thank God we decided to take the train and not drive.  Who knows what time we'd end up getting home with all of this mess. 

(That's called "Foreshadowing" kids)

We had dinner at a very nice Vegan restaurant called, Blossum 

(W'oh!)

After dinner we walked about 30 minutes to The Bernard B Jacobs Theatre.  It was a hell of a hike for a pregnant lady...and for an out of shape Dad to be.  We knew that the walk back to the train would be about 15 minutes. 

The show was as amazing as we'd hoped it would be.  Our seats were in (about) the 9th row, I think the tickets said 11th, but there were only about 8 rows in front of us.  The cast was phenomenal, all playing their own instruments, while singing and dancing.  The use of the minimal set and the space was perfect for this show.  Darvill and Joanna Christie, who plays "The Girl" (opposite Darvill's "The Guy") were incredible together.  I highly recommend running out and seeing this show.      

Afterwards we met our Doctor Who star.  I took Julie's picture with him and got another fan to take one of all three of us together.  Artie, as I call my new buddy, couldn't have been nicer.  "You are amazingly tall!" I said to him.  He laughed and thanked me.  We told him how great his performance was as well as the overall show.  He spent time talking to everyone, taking photos with them and signing autographs. 

We looked at the time and realized the train left in 20 minutes, if we missed it we'd have to wait a WHOLE hour for the next one.  So we left Artie with the intention of catching up with him again soon.  It was our intention, not necessarily his.  We headed through the theater district and ran smack into the middle of RUBE CENTRAL, Time Square.  It was PACKED.  We decided to duck back down the next street (44th) to cross back to Madison Square Garden with less traffic.  As we were booking ass down 44th, we noticed Kinky Boots and Annie were both letting out.  I wasn't sure if there we any other Doctor Who cast members who might be lingering about in these shows (John Barrowman in Kinky Boots would be killer, right?), but we had no time to stop. 

We made it to the train station with a handful of seconds to spare.  We still had to buy tickets and we both needed to pee.  There was no way we were making that train, and that was fine.  We had our memories of Artie to talk about and carry us through to the next train in an hour.  Julie bought a lemonade from Nathan's and we just hung out talking about the show.  I also googled Annie and Kinky Boots to make sure I didn't need to high tail it back to catch up with anyone. 

The hour flew and we boarded our train which would eventually take us back to our car in Hamilton, NJ's train station parking lot.  The train was pretty packed for this time of night, because the Yankees game let out late, which meant a bunch of drunken, disappointed fans were on the train with us.  Oh yeah, the Yankees lost.  The commuters included two girls who's voices could not have been any more annoying.  The one girl would say "fuck this" and "fuck that" in a high pitch squeaky voice, while the other one just talked about how she was going to "throw up" starting the second she sat in her seat.  I pointed these girls out to our unborn daughter and immediately grounded her to make sure the lesson sunk in. 

After sitting on the track for what seemed like an hour (it was about 10 minutes), the train start chugging towards our destination. 

Something seemed wrong as the train lumbered along, and never seemed to get to full speed.  The train's interior light began acting weird and it took forever for us to get to the first stop, Secaucus.  Once we were in Secaucus an announcement came over the speakers that there is a power issue and they we going to "reset" something on the train.  None of us were engineers, but everyone knew this was some bullshit.  The air conditioning didn't work during this entire time either, so it grew hot, QUICKLY.  After much more bitching, drunk girls #1 & #2 got off the train.  The rest of us rejoiced silently, but remainder on the motionless train.  About every 10 minutes there would be an announcement that basically said, "We don't know what's wrong."  Because, that's what you want to hear from a high speed train you're currently inhabiting. 

Then the announcements came every 15 minutes.  "Still no idea what is happening, however there's a low voltage issue on all of the trains through the entire Northeastern Corridor."  HOLY SHIT!  IT'S THE TERRORISTS!!  

Here's a tip, your trains run like SHIT!

Seriously...it is the fucking Terrorists, because we as a country have funneled so much freaking money into chasing the bogeyman that we have let the infrastructure of the nation fall to shit.  Be careful on bridges ladies and gentlemen, because they are just going to start falling into the abysses they stretch across (my predication for 2014). 

They called in the cops in case we became unruly. 

This looks like a Michael Jackson video is about to happen.

Luckily, I have a penchant for whining on Facebook, this resulted in a couple of friends offering to help us with our current predicament.  One of those friends, Amy, was only about 6 or 7 or 8 or...well she was in Freehold.  Which is about an hour away.  Did we want her to come get us?  OF COURSE!  But, how do you ask a friend to do this?  I'm looking at the clock, which now is past 1am and I know I have to be on site filming somewhere at 8:30am.  Finally at about 2am, the train is still not moving and the announcements have slowed to once every 25 minutes or so.  Amy says, "Screw this, I'm on my way."  Actually, this is not how Amy talks, as she is a lady...though a lady from New Jersey, so she probably said "Fuck this, I'm on my way." 

At 2:45 am Julie and I have exited the train and are now sitting in the Secaucus Terminal.  Where we find: 

-a Sbarros that is closed.  Dammit, I wanted that black & white cookie...I could probably reach my hand in... 

-a Pepsi machine where everything is "SOLD OUT"

-a Coke machine that is fully loaded...but not working for some reason 

-a crappy piece of art 

-a statue of two dudes "bro'ing out" 

-and of course Edward Snowden.   

Jesus, that really is Edward Snowden!  Or a guy I thought looked like him so I made Julie take our picture together.  

She gets the "Boy Who Waited", 

I get the "Dude Who Summers In Russia." 

Finally Amy is here...well, not HERE exactly.  It seems there is road construction and the exit to get to us is closed.  BUT, Amy has heard on the radio that the trains are running again.  We run to our platform (Announcements have become nonexistent). 

"There's a train going to Hamilton behind this one" we are told.   
"Wait, what happened to our train?"  We wonder out loud. 
"It already left.  I think they made an announcement."   

FUCKERS.  They didn't.  I bet the drunk girls are already home.  I extend the grounding of my unborn daughter another week. 

FINALLY!  We are on the train.  And exhausted.  It's about 3:30am and an announcement comes:  "If you fall asleep and miss your stop, the next train leaves Trenton at 4:45am"  Eff you Jersey! 

Still, the night was worth it. 

I love Arthur "Artie" Darvill, Rory Williams, Rory Pond, Amy Pond, Amy Martin, Tara Bennett, Joanna Christie, Joey Lawrence, Bernard B Jacobs, John Barrowman, Edward Showden, The random guy who let me take his photo because I told him he looked like Edward Snowden at 2:45 in the morning, my unborn daughter and of course my lovely wife Julie.  If I had to be in this mess, I"m glad she was there with me.   

We got home and into bed around 5:30am.  I had to be in Wilmington, DE (30 minutes away) at 8:30am giving me the possibility of about 2 and half hours of sleep.  Julie woke me up at 8:37am.  SHIT!   

Well, at least we weren't in Trenton.