He and first wife, political activist Lee Stearns, are the parents of Film and TV Screenwriter Joss Whedon ( Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, and Marvel's The Avengers ).

Tom and second wife, Pam Webber, are the parents of screenwriter and musician Jed Whedon ( Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog ) and scriptwriter Zack Whedon ( Fringe, Deadwood ).

Animator Pete Docter, director John Lasseter, musician Randy Newman, producers Bonnie Arnold and Ralph Guggenheim, production designer Ralph Eggleston, and writers Joel Cohen, Alec Sokolow, Andrew Stanton, and Joss Whedon all won awards for " Best Individual Achievement " in their respective fields for their work on the film.

It is unclear whether they resume their sexual intimacy during the third night ; creator Joss Whedon says on the DVD commentary for " Chosen " that he intentionally left it to the viewers to decide how they felt the relationship progressed, though Whedon had earlier stated on the commentary he personally felt having them resume a sexual relationship would send the wrong message.

The popular Joss Whedon series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, with their continuing serial plotlines, could be described as treading a path first laid by Dark Shadows.

Writer Peg Aloi calls the backlash at Whedon " staggering ", and summarizes Tara's effect with Willow, stating that they were a single unit the moment they met: " Willow's need for approval and Tara's need for unconditional love allowed their supernova trajectory its singular, incendiary thrust toward its triumphant but tragic end ; like all witches who burn, martyred by flames, they move on to a place where their gods are the right ones.

To make sure stories would be unmistakably Gildersleevian without compromising their core integrity, Capitol brought in The Great Gildersleeve's chief writers, Sam Moore and John Whedon, to adapt them to Gildy's unmistakable bearing.

* In the Marvel Comic Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon the aliens of the Breakworld fire a RKV shaped like a giant bullet at the earth, fearing that an earth-born mutant will one day destroy their planet.

Joss Whedon felt so strongly about the importance of the four core characters that he dedicated the finale to exploring their development.

Elegantly Victorian in costume and demeanor, Whedon found their politeness and grace especially unsettling.

For Buffy studies scholar Rhonda Wilcox, The Gentlemen and their straitjacket-wearing minions, who clumsily flap, gyrate, and crouch as they move, are representative of class disparity and patriarchy: The Gentlemen, with their Victorian suits, move effortlessly to accomplish what they set out to do while their minions, whom Whedon called " footmen ", do the " dirty work ".

Robert Bianco from USA Today comments, "( i ) n a medium in which producers tend to grow bored with their own creations, either trashing them or taking them in increasingly bizarre directions, Whedon continues to find new ways to make his fabulously entertaining series richer and more compelling.

Whedon originally wanted to use rear-screen projection for the driving scene, but had to utilize greenscreen instead, as rear-screen projection would be difficult to set up on their stages.

In Erin B. Waggoner's book Sexual rhetoric in the works of Joss Whedon, he found it interesting that the ancient Oedipus complex continues to be used as a way to underscore one's masculinity, but he added that " Connor is not the only one Angel, Wes, Spike and even Fred ( through Gunn ) kill father or father figures in order to come into their own as individuals.

In the DVD commentary, Whedon says the interaction between Buffy and Angel following their night of passion was supposed to have taken place outside of Buffy's house.

Whedon used another long tracking shot from Joyce's face in the morgue following the doctor down the hall to speak with Buffy and the Scoobies to cement the reality of their being so close in proximity, as opposed to cutting shots to give the possibility that it was part of another set located somewhere else.

Whedon stated that these mini dream sequences were like documentaries ; people who find their loved ones dead are desperate to imagine a different, better outcome, and they create fantasies that cause much more pain when they are forced to return to the harshness of reality.

Since Whedon and Noxon were the executive producers of the show, they would often forgo formal credit for their contributions to various scripts.

In the DVD commentary Joss Whedon explains that this episode is intended to resolve the crew's tension regarding River, ending with their acceptance of her as a valuable member of the crew.

* As Whedon points out on the episode's DVD commentary, Early, having secretly assessed the crew from their conversations, takes down Shepherd Book the same way he handles ex-soldier Mal — quickly and brutally — providing another hint of the preacher's hidden nature.

Sarah W. Whedon suggests in an 2009 article in Nova Religio that the social construction of indigo children is a response to an " apparent crisis of American childhood " in the form of increased youth violence and diagnoses of attention deficit disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Whedon fashioned The Gentlemen as something from a Brothers Grimm fairy tale, intending them to be frightening to children — monsters who carve out people's hearts, smiling as they do so.

In the theater scene during Willow's dream, a Frazier lens was used to provide a large depth of field, allowing both the foreground and background to be in focus at the same time, while in Xander's dream, as he moves from room to room in Buffy's house to the university dorm rooms, Whedon used a 17 mm lens to give a sense of motion as the camera passes by walls.

Although Joss Whedon wrote the songs for " Once More, with Feeling ", Beck was hired to realise them and provide the score.

Buffy Summers, the protagonist of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series ( 1997 – 2003 ), was designed by creator Joss Whedon as an alternative to the " final girl " cliché.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer ( often simplified as Buffy ) was originally conceived by Joss Whedon for a 1992 feature film.

Whedon created a group of friends for the main character, including Willow Rosenberg and Xander Harris.

Although the show's writers and producers received a minimal negative reaction from Willow choosing Tara over Oz, the response from viewers and critics alike was overwhelming towards Whedon for killing Tara, accusing him of homophobia.

Between 2001 and 2004, Joss Whedon and Jeph Loeb developed a 4-minute pilot episode for Buffy the Animated Series, which was set during the show's first season.

" Whedon claims the title was criticized for being too silly, and the television network begged him to change it.

Whedon always intended for the character to become an icon, claiming " I wanted her to be a hero that existed in people's minds the way Wonder Woman or Spider-Man does, you know?

" Whedon openly wonders why his identification figure is a woman, but describes it as " a real autobiographical kind of therapy for me " to be writing a strong female character like Buffy.

According to Whedon, Buffy " had been brewing in for many years " before finally appearing in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer film played by Kristy Swanson.

It was also nominated for Best Writing — Screenplay Written for the Screen for the work by Joel Cohen, Pete Docter, John Lasseter, Joe Ranft, Alec Sokolow, Andrew Stanton, and Joss Whedon making Toy Story the first animated film to be nominated for a writing award.

Spike, played by James Marsters, is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.

The character had intended to be a brief villain, with Whedon originally adamant to not have another major " romantic vampire " character like Angel-Marsters says " Spike was supposed to be dirty and evil, punk rock, and then dead "-but the character ended up staying for the second season, and then returning in the fourth to replace Cordelia as " the character who told Buffy she was stupid and about to die ".

In 2004, Joss Whedon set plans for a Spike movie.

In the Angel DVD commentary for " A Hole in the World ", Joss Whedon, the creator of Angel said, " Spike and Angel ... they were hanging out for years and years and years.

Whedon and Greenwalt prepared a six-minute promotional video pitch, often called the " Unaired Angel pilot " for the WB Network.

The writers with the most writing credits for the series include: Joss Whedon, David Greenwalt, Tim Minear, Jeffrey Bell, David Fury, Steven S. DeKnight, Mere Smith, and Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain.

Jane Espenson has explained how scripts came together for Mutant Enemy Productions series Buffy, Angel and Firefly: a meeting was held and an idea was floated ( generally by Whedon ) and the writers brainstormed to develop the central theme of the episode and the character development.