Buffy Season 1 . . . point five?

I was looking up the various failed "Buffy" spin-offs on Monday, hoping for a little good news. And I got it, sort of. It seems that the presentation reel made in 2005 for the "Buffy Animated Series" had somehow been leaked onto YouTube last month, and it was the first I'd heard of it.

Of course, the bad news was that the show was never picked up, as Fox's venue for the show (Fox Kids, I think it was called) went away, and no one else wanted it. Jeph Loeb was going to be the showrunner, and in all the times I've talked with him, I never thought to ask him about this show.

They got as far as making a short pilot, which I'll post below, and nearly all the cast had signed on to voice their characters (including Charisma Carpenter, Kristine Sutherland, and Armin Shimmerman), with only Sarah Michelle Gellar being the holdout. It was supposed to take place during the first season of BTVS, with David Boreanaz voicing Angel and Michelle Trachtenberg somehow voicing Dawn.*

Boy, that's some good stuff.

I'm not really that big a fan of cartoons, but I laughed aloud while watching this, and absolutely can't wait to show it to my sister's seven year old. The possibilities a show like this would have offered are--or rather, were pretty darn limitless, and I can't see how on earth this animated series could have failed.

Except by not being made at all.

Well, at least we can see this much, and feel even worse than we did before. But there's a minuscule chance that, now that it's available to see, someone somewhere will decide this show is exactly what they've been looking for, and give it a home.

I can hope that something like that could happen.

And while I'm at it, I'd really like to be a staff writer for the show. I can already see a last-day-of-school evil yearbook episode and a glimpse at a pre-Slayer Faith interlude in my head. Tyranist showed me a comic that revealed how Dawn first discovered her sister was a superhero, and that would be a natural to throw into this show. And I doubt anyone's written a first encounter between Miss Calendar and Angel now that we know her true connection to the man.

I'd better stop before I actually get a pen and start writing these down.

Rish "Future Staff Writer With Cool Made-Up Title" Outfield

*I think setting it in early Season Two (before "Surprise" and "Innocence") would work better, 'cause Cordelia would know about Buffy's powers, and you could have Spike and Drusilla occasionally pop up, or even Kendra, if you wanted to go that way.