I dunno about the chip, but I would love a BuffyBot.


Get your mind out of the gutter. I meant as a study in robotics. >:)

NickSeng | May 30, 10:49 CET

Can I say eww about the Buffybot. I don't think something made to be a sex robot is a cool gadget. But to each their own.

FalenAnjl | May 30, 12:01 CET

Yep, one of those please, for scientific research only of course.

The idea was brilliant and SMG played it so well, the line 'but she looks nothing like me' is one of my high points of S5.

On the other hand I gather from the convention reports that if Warren had started building sensitive soulful SpikeBots he'd be richer than Bill Gates by now.

[ edited by jpr on 2005-05-30 10:25 ]

jpr | May 30, 12:23 CET

Amazon should sell BuffyBots, they'd outsell the Segway easy. I'd buy one. For "research" of course.

And I thought SMGs performance was great. The Buffybot was just different enough to wildly funny to us but still believable by her friends. And the end of the episode...

zz9 | May 30, 12:33 CET

SMG was great as the Buffybot and it helped quite a bit in latter episodes. I thank Spike and Warren for this invention that made me LOL.

I also loved the end of INTERVENTION.

twiggy | May 30, 15:55 CET

*raises hand for one of jpr's "soulful Spikebots"*

yes, please. scientific purposes, shmurposes.

barest_smidgen | May 30, 16:08 CET

Can I add a vote (and a pre-order) for the sensitive Soulful Spikebot please?

Yum.

Gill | May 30, 16:09 CET

hell, I take a Soulless Spikebot too...

MySerenity | May 30, 17:43 CET

The Buffybot was ridiculous.

Grounded | May 30, 17:52 CET

One of the great things about Whedon shows is that they allowed actors to play emotions and characteristics that weren't familiar to their characters. Evil Willow, Buffybot, Xander in The Pack and even more throughout the seasons. It allowed all the actors to stretch their wings and show what they're made of.

eddy | May 30, 20:23 CET

There have been a lot of robots in the Buffy-verse... Moloch, Ted, April, the Buffy-bot, the Warren-bot... am I missing any? Can't recall any in Angel although I haven't seen the final season.

Razor | May 30, 20:25 CET

I liked the Buffybot. :( The Buffybot was part of the reason that Sunnydale didn't go to hell until that one incident with the vampire and the sparkage. I really wish they'd fixed her up and used her for the final fight during Chosen...

Plus, she was polite and kind and helped Dawn get through much of her depressing summer.

[ edited by Christopher on 2005-05-30 21:39 ]

Christopher | May 30, 23:38 CET

Razor, there were robots (well, "Ninja cyborgs" technically) in Angel Season 5, episode 7, Lineage. Also, in the previous episode, The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco, there is a mention in flashback by some supporting characters that "the devil has built a robot!", which Wesley seems to have heard about somehow: "Of course. El Diablo Robotico." Angel then complains that "nobody tells me anything." Another in a long line of Joss' beloved "petty Angel" moments!
Back on topic though, I think those may be the only two instances from Angel's final season. I'm struggling to come up with any others from Angel's run, so far nothing else.

gorramit | May 30, 23:57 CET

Hello, the Buffybot was a metaphor. Go back to 'I was made to love you." The robot was empty of feeling, of understanding life. Buffy started to understand and she finally looked at her life. Guess I don't need to say where that ended.

Season six, we have a facile of Buffy. Not quiet right with Dawn, Willow, or Xander. What's missing? We see that Dawn lays next to her 'robot' sister and cries for her. Was there a dry eye in the house? I don't think so. I'm going to stop there because I tend to get emotional with the later scenes.

Madhatter | May 31, 00:30 CET

Which leads me back to my favourite wish, bring back April!

I'd watch a spin off starring Shonda Farr as the AprilBot. She wasn't bad, just programmed that way...

zz9 | May 31, 01:41 CET

getting back to useful gadgets, I think it is too bad no one ever praises the bathroom arrangements in Mal's cabin onboard the 'Serenity'. I thought that that was so cool, and simple. And I really loved that they put it in the show.

embers | May 31, 03:14 CET

Did anyone else hear that Britney Spears was originally supposed to play April? I nearly died when I heard that. Hopefully, it was just a rumor...

MySerenity | May 31, 03:38 CET

Hey, uh, I uh, *ahem* kinda like the name April for a reason but it's kind of a joke my only real-life fellow Whedon fanatic friend/ex boyfriend made once... but kinda hard to explain. We broke up but still have this total online talk thing stemming from whedon-based convo.

ETA: MySerenity, the rumor I heard was that BS was to play the role and SMG said "No." Heh. BS.

[ edited by April on 2005-05-31 02:12 ]

April | May 31, 03:44 CET

Actually, I remember reading in some magazine that SMG was FOR Britney Spears' appearance. I could be wrong, my memory sucks..

Christopher | May 31, 07:56 CET

Christopher, I heard that too. Actually, what I heard (well, read to be more specific although for the life of me I've no idea where that would have been...4+ years ago...I feel old now) was that SMG and Britney Spears are friends and that SMG was in favour of such a guest star but unfortunately Britney's busy schedule just couldn't allow it.

*Sigh* imagine what could have been...

gorramit | May 31, 08:44 CET

I think that rumour was started by a British tabloid. Very probably The Daily Star. My fellow UK posters will know how reliable that paper is for US entertainment gossip.

Simon | May 31, 10:54 CET

Wasn't it The Star that said Holly Vallence was going to replace SMG?

zz9 | May 31, 12:21 CET

I think I heard that about Holly Valance too. But I had heard the Britney story many times, from various sources, including I think the official Buffy magazine. I'm pretty sure the part of April was specifically designed for Britney Spears but she eventually pulled out due to other commitments. Ironic that her part was a robot, considering in anything else I've seen her in she can barely convince you that she's a human.

I'm glad it didn't work out though, because it would have been so horribly out of place and it would have looked like a desperate cameo from a celebrity to boost ratings, which I'm pretty sure has never happened before. I mean they're brought back important characters at certain points, like Angel in 'Chosen' or Giles in 'Two To Go' but it has always been part of the story, and it's not like Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt shows up all of a sudden.

Plus Britney would have given a horrible performance. I think Shonda Farr did a great job and made April a very sympathetic character. I wonder what actually happened to the April-bot? There was her final scene where she shut down on the swings, then suddenly Buffy goes home and her discovery pushes everything else out of the story, but I'd still like to know what happened to her. Did Buffy just leave her there or throw her in a dumpster or what?

I'm sure Willow could have reprogrammed her to not love Warren and she could have been a good ally. April and Buffy-bot kicking some vampire ass together!

Razor | May 31, 18:21 CET

Rumors are so funny. My version stated that SMG made comments to distance herself socially from Brittany, who has yet to convince me either she can act. Or perform beyond the category of child-star.

April | May 31, 18:39 CET

I'm sure Willow could have reprogrammed her to not love Warren and she could have been a good ally. April and Buffy-bot kicking some vampire ass together!

From Willows comment in The Bronze when April walked in I can see Willow programming April for a WAY different function....

zz9 | May 31, 19:26 CET

I was always thankful for the lack of 'stunt casting' in BtVS. /ponders Willow programming April for 'different reasons'.

zeitgeist | May 31, 20:01 CET

Hey, zeitgeist, come out from your bunk for a minute and focus, will you? :) I thought the Ashanti casting in S7 was pretty stunty, especially as the spots promoting it made copious mention of her album sales and various nominations. (As i recall it, anyway, with my advancing age, and all that.) Sorry to her fans, but I found the whole thing pretty awkward and embarassing.

barest_smidgen | May 31, 20:42 CET

Agreed, barest_smidgen, about the Ashanti casting. Yet I could deal with it because the alternative might have been so much worse. I had heard about and desperately feared a Britney Spears appearance. To borrow your phrase, sorry to her fans, but if Britney Spears had ever been injected into the Whedonverse I would have seriously prepared for the coming apocalypse. In the real world. BtVS didn't need that level of stunt casting and I think would have suffered for it. The only other famous folk I can think of who guest starred on BtVS were Joel Grey (love him) and John Ritter (love him, too.) Both did great jobs portraying their respective characters and neither would I call "stunt casting." Am I leaving anyone out?

Back to thread topic: Smg did a great job as the Buffybot and I loved the choice of actress for April. Great casting, that.

phlebotinin | May 31, 20:56 CET

Continuing w/ the stunt-casting topic, wasn't it the late John Ritter in "I Robot, You Jane"?

and the thought of Willow w/ Aprilbot...WHOOBOY!

two_guns | May 31, 21:16 CET

No, John Ritter was in season two's "Ted" as the title character, Joyce's new boyfriend who turned out to be a robot.

I had forgotten about Ashanti, I do think it was one example of stunt casting because her performance was pretty poor. The way she pronounced her lines and the timing was awful, she clearly found it hard enough to talk normally, never mind act. However, her part was quite small, basically one or two scenes flirting with Xander, all she had to do was seem kind of nice, and then another couple of scenes only as an evil character, she didn't need to have too much depth, so it wasn't a complete catastrophe.

What exactly was her character anyway? Some sort of demon? I can't even remember the character's name Ashanti was so unconvincing.

I think April was a little different though. Yes, she was a robot but you were meant to see how unjustly Warren had treated her and her naivety due to her programming, and Shonda Farr did that very well, making her a sympathetic character even if she was a robot. I doubt Britney Spears could have done it. In fact I suspect she would have had trouble even mastering acting like a one-dimensional robot.

Razor | May 31, 21:38 CET

There is long standing Internet gossip that Sarah Michelle Gellar and Britney Spears are best friends, although it seems to be based on absolutely nothing other than, presumably, a wish for it to be true. Gellar was quoted recently as saying she had met Spears a couple of times at public events and that was it (my apologies for not being able to direct anyone to the actual source, I didn't pay that much attention.)

I believe Simon is right when he says the rumour about Britney Spears appearing in 'IWMTLY' originated from a British tabloid. Nothing more really needs to be said.

For what it's worth, I found the interview I mentioned here, but since it's in German it probably isn't going to be of much interest to most people here.

[ edited by dashboardprophet on 2005-06-01 02:10 ]

alien lanes | May 31, 22:08 CET

barest_smidgen -- ah, yes, my mind had blocked out that horrific event. Thanks for the pain :) I'm not sure that I would call Ritter stuntcasting. He wasn't some 'hot' property at the time AFAIK. Although, back to Ashanti for a second, remember what I said only sentences ago about horrific? Yes, I stand by that. /shiver

[ edited by zeitgeist on 2005-05-31 20:53 ]

zeitgeist | May 31, 22:50 CET

eh, I'll take Ashanti over Brittany... um, she was very pretty and it was sorta cute when Xander met yet another demon woman.

dashboardprophet, now that you mention SMG's quotation about Brittany, I'm fairly certain I read that. Maybe Buffy News linked to it...

I didn't think Ritter was stunt casting. He made for a convincing robot too, for what that's worth in the BuffyVerse.

April | June 01, 03:41 CET

I don't think Ritter was stunt casting. It was casting an actor who bought an established image as a nice guy to play a role where everyone thought he was a nice guy except Buffy. It made us tempted to question Buffy for doubting him.

zz9 | June 01, 16:09 CET