In Season Four, Spike was introduced to fill the antagonistic role that Cordelia had in seasons One to Three ; as Joss Whedon explains on the DVD featurette, " All of our characters got to the point where they were loving and hugging, and it was sort of like, where's Cordelia?

Some special effects shots came about by accident ; in his commentary Whedon explains that when Buffy smeared the mud all over her face, it looked as though she was giving herself a facial.

Whedon explains: "... the Cheese Man — meaningless.

Whedon explains this episode presents an ideal opportunity to-through Cordelia, who was " there at the beginning "-ask of Angel, " Where are you now?

In the audio commentary for the episode, creator Joss Whedon explains he is aware of the continuity issue with the Turok-Han's powers.

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.

Television series executive producer Marti Noxon later reflected that this story might have been produced by the studio in order to frighten Whedon into taking the reins of the project.

Whedon admitted he was upset by Green's announcement and that if he had wanted to continue, Oz would have been a part of the story.

Whedon and the writing staff had been considering developing a story arc in which a character explores his or her sexuality as the Scoobies left high school, but no particular effort was made to assign this arc to Willow.

In 2007, Buffy's story was continued when Joss Whedon resurrected Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a comic book.

The character proved popular with fans, and since 2003, Joss Whedon has attempted to continue Giles ' story through a spin-off, Ripper ; as of 2009, Whedon has submitted a 90-minute script to the BBC, but rights issues have so far prevented the series moving into development.

Whedon upheld that it was the necessary course to take to propel Willow's story arc further ; both the show's producers and Amber Benson deny that any malicious intent was the cause.

" The cancellation of the show was the inspiration for Wesley's death ; Whedon gave Denisof the option of keeping the character alive, but Denisof believed killing the character was right for the story, " It was very upsetting to read.

" Fray next appears as a main character in the 2008 Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight crossover story arc, " Time of Your Life ", by Whedon and Moline.

The penultimate episode, " Primeval ", had concluded the Initiative storyline, but Whedon felt the season's overall story arc had not been as cohesive as it could have been, and therefore chose to create an episode to act as a " grace note " to the season, an episode which would comment on each of the four main characters and what they had just been through.

Whedon notes that while he already has decided that Cordelia and Connor were going to have sex, the story had to be changed and move faster because Charisma Carpenter became pregnant.

In the commentary, when Joss Whedon is asked about his decision to turn Angel evil, he said that he feels it was necessary to keep the story fresh as viewers would quickly become bored with Angel and Buffy's relationship.

" Since Whedon suspected this season would be the last, Carpenter says, " we didn't want to just leave Cordelia in a coma .. this would be a very big story left untold.

Angel: After the Fall is the canonical continuation of the Angel story, written by Brian Lynch with executive oversight from Joss Whedon.

Although the television series ended with season seven, series creator Joss Whedon devised a comic book series that continued the story beyond the seventh season.

Cover and short story ( 12 pages ) written by Joss Whedon, about a female medieval vampire hunter.

Whedon has said of Reavers, " Every story needs a monster.

Rejecting all the scripts and storylines that were developed over a decade of failed production attempts, Singer developed the story for the film with DeSanto in a week and then worked on the script with writers Ed Solomon, Christopher McQuarrie, Joss Whedon, and finally David Hayter ( who had started out as Singer's driver ).

It was written by Brett Matthews with Joss Whedon credited for story, illustrated by Will Conrad, and colored by Laura Martin.

" Several years before Angel debuted, Joss Whedon developed the concept behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer to invert the Hollywood formula of " the little blonde girl who goes into a dark alley and gets killed in every horror movie.

While the central concept behind Buffy was " high school as a horror movie " in small-town America, co-creators David Greenwalt and Whedon were looking to make Angel into a different " gritty, urban show.

Amber Benson defended Whedon in 2007, saying he " is 100 percent behind the LGBT community.

* In the DVD commentary, Joss Whedon says that he wanted Angel to exit the show exactly like he entered, backing out into the darkness behind him.

Seth Green came to Whedon early in the fourth season to announce that he wished to work on his film career.

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.

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 ".

Whedon killed off Giles where he did so that it might have a greater effect on the coming season, " because wanted to make all this matter ".

It was stated that Anya would return in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer season eight comic book series, even with Joss Whedon telling MTV that she was " definitely dead ... but that doesn't mean she's gone.

Whedon has expressed regret over not being able to go further with Dawn's character in season seven, but, as he says, " You get into a situation that you do like to stand alone ' Dawn Goes on a Date ' is not something that people would really sit for.

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.

She was developed by Joss Whedon and portrayed by Amber Benson from the fourth to the sixth season until the character's death.

During the fifth season, Whedon informed Benson that Tara would be killed off.

Joss Whedon revealed in an interview that Wesley was originally intended to survive and appear in Angel season six, but was inspired to kill Wesley off after being pitched the idea of his death scene by one of the script writers.

" Denisof talked with Whedon about what storylines would have been in place had the television series received another season ; Wesley would not have died, and he and Illyria would have featured in an arc in which the transformation of Illyria to Fred would have been extended over many episodes and taken to a " much deeper, darker place " than it briefly was in the late fifth season episode, " The Girl in Question ".

Although in the first season, under writer Levinson, Birdie was often portrayed as saliently less than bright, she slowly developed as the real brains and caretaker of the household under writers John Whedon, Sam Moore and Andy White.

Despite Fred's soul supposedly shattering in the process of Illyria taking over her body, Joss Whedon originally intended for either Fred and Illyria to be split in two had Angel gotten a sixth season, as revealed by Amy Acker in an interview: " As I ’ m playing this new character now, it was just some stuff that he was going to do with her and bringing Fred back and getting to work with both characters ", or for Illyria to take on more and more of Fred's memories.

Whedon was concerned that audiences would consider this implausible and that weekly confrontations would leave no tension for the season finale when Buffy and the Master would finally meet and battle each other.

Series creator Joss Whedon called it a " strange, sort of schizophrenic season " with a " weird incoherence ", but also stated that the episodes in the fourth season were among the series ' best.

Joss Whedon originally intended for Fred and Illyria to either be split in two had Angel gotten a sixth season, as revealed by Amy Acker in an interview: " As I ’ m playing this new character now, it was just some stuff that he was going to do with her and bringing Fred back and getting to work with both characters ", or for Illyria to take on more and more of Fred's memories.

In planning for the third season, series creator Joss Whedon and the team of writers for the show sought to explore the issues of the abuse of power, and the choices people in or with power make.

Much like the fourth season finale " Restless "— which consisted almost entirely of dream sequences — and the sixth season musical " Once More, with Feeling ", Whedon was certain he would fail at attempting to present the show in such a novel way.

The episode served as a coda to the fourth season instead of a climax, as Whedon wanted to achieve something different for a season finale.

Previous seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer had ended with an action episode which tied up all the threads of the season's main plot line, but series creator Joss Whedon wanted to end season four differently.