Great interview.The Glenn Quinn thing is sad.I think most of us knew this but to have it spelled out is still sad.

Lost of interesting insights about ATS and his work in T.V. in general.

As far as Angel specifically goes.He talks about Glenn Quinn and Doyle's death,how he got a job on Angel,briefly about Angel season 2 in relation to how a season is constructed,the episode,"Billy",writing for the characters,favorite episodes,the Angel/Darla relationship,Darla in general,how the Darla pregnancy story came about,the original pitch for the end of,"Reprise" and Darla's second death,favorite characters and favorite actors.

He also talks Firefly and the end of Dollhouse.

[ edited by Buffyfantic on 2011-04-20 00:15 ]

Buffyfantic | April 19, 23:48 CET

Did Tim Minear say that Joss said to Gruenwalt that Angel was "his show"?

Darkness | April 20, 00:35 CET

Yes,Joss told David Greenwalt that Angel was his show so Greenwalt could hire anybody he wanted on his writing staff which is how Tim Minear got hired since Joss thought Minear was a angry dude and at first was afraid to work directly with him.Being on Angel,Joss figured he wouldn't have to directly work with him since ATS was more Greenwalt's show.

Buffyfantic | April 20, 00:46 CET

Is there a transcript of this anywhere? I'd love to hear/see what he said about Glenn Quinn. It was so tragic. Does he mention letting Lindsey take the name Doyle in S5?

BlueSkies | April 20, 01:23 CET

He doesn't mention Lindsey.As for Glenn Quinn,he comfirmed that Doyle was killed for two reasons.

1)Joss wanted shock viewers by killing a main character who is in the opening credits so early in the series.

2)Glenn Quinn's drug problem was effecting his work and they thought firing him would wake him up to getting some help which unfortuantly it did not.

Buffyfantic | April 20, 01:41 CET

Cool, thanks Bufyfanatic. Guess I was just hoping for more than just a report. It was all over the news here at the time, kind of a big deal. Thanks for that!

BlueSkies | April 20, 01:50 CET

Some of the storytelling decisions revealed in this interview are incredibly interesting. Like how Angel was even more rough with Darla before sleeping with her and that Tim had originally planned for Angel to stake Darla upon consummation. Then there was discussion of Darla's death to give life to Connor, again originally planned as a doctor staking Darla as like a vampire c-section -- and Joss suggested that she stake herself.

I shudder to think how dark and abusive AtS could've become without certain changes.

Emmie | April 20, 04:39 CET

I wish there was a transcript of this interview as well.

menomegirl | April 20, 05:03 CET

Oh, a new Whedon-verse podcast! Got to listen to that. Any one listened to the earlier episodes?

Satai (with Punsch) | April 20, 06:40 CET

Emmie the only thing I'd caution is that Tim always brings a very dark edge to the storytelling and humor and a lot of what he was saying was in the context of actively spinning a story in a writers room. That is, just throwing out ideas and those were Tim's. And a lot of groups have that dynamic, one person does the lighter stuff, another goes as dark as they possibly can and you meet in the middle. Of course we all know that as self-sacrificing as Darla's final moment was, even that caused problems for people.

I do love more Billy backstory which I wish got more love when people make lists of seminal Buffyverse episodes. Since I always view travel along Wesley's charecter arc as starting there, I've always viewed it with quite a bit of admiration.

[ edited by azzers on 2011-04-20 07:30 ]

azzers | April 20, 07:28 CET

Azzers -- yes, I'm familiar with how writing finds balance within the group dynamic. I was more interested in noting how Tim played into that dynamic. (Though in the case of Minear/Whedon/Greenwalt, I doubt it's as simple as one does light, the other dark, yin to the yang, ba da bing, ba da boom. ;))

Regarding Darla, I think it would've been far more problematic in Season 2 for Angel to use her for sex (Minear called it "quasi-force") and then stake her upon completion (not exactly subtle, either) or in Season 3 for the doctor to stake Darla in order to save the baby.

After years of discussion of these problematic scenes, it was almost refreshing to realize that it could've been worse.

Emmie | April 20, 08:30 CET

Wow--in all these years, I've never figured out that the Home Office was supposed to be where the Sr. Partners were traveling to as opposed to from. I thought the issue was just that the Partners somehow also existed on Earth in some incorporeal form. That mythology makes more sense now.

WilliamTheB | April 20, 10:59 CET