Riding on the success of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the television series based on the comedic motion picture which had been based on Joss Whedon’s more serious script, 20th Century Fox decided monster killing would perfectly suit the Saturday morning Fox Kids cartoon crowd and greenlit Buffy the Animated Series in 2002. Jeph Loeb, the comic book writer who later created NBC’s Heroes, was set to share executive producer chores with Whedon. Loeb told FanBoyPlanet.com he thought of the animated pilot as Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode 7.5, because of how it was set in the middle of the live program’s first season.
Most of the live series’ cast signed on to voice their roles, six scripts got completed for the planned 22-minute episodes, and then the network shut down Fox Kids. They shopped the animated Buffy to other networks, finding no takers. Fox produced a 4-minute pilot as part of a failed 2004 attempt to revive the project.
Cast: Giselle Loren, Alyson Hannigan, Nicholas Brendon, Anthony Stewart head, Charisma Carpenter, Michelle Trachtenberg
Of course, anybody who wants to see all the Buffy that didn’t make it to TV needs to watch the TV show’s original unaired pilot.
Pilot Part 1
Pilot Part 2
Pilot Part 3
Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Riff Regan, Charisma Carpenter, Anthony Stewart Head, David Boreanaz, Julie Benz, Stephen Toblowsky, Nicole Bilderback, Amy Chance, Mercedes McNab, Persia White, Carmine Giovinazzo, Danny Strong.
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More Buffy is always a good thing! I absolutely would have watched the animated series. I can’t really see it in the Saturday morning cartoon line-up though. I would love to see a reincarnation on Adult Swim one day.
Would’ve loved to have seen the Animated Series, and that first girl in the unaired pilot looked a lot like Julie Benz from Dexter.
shortened url = http://3.ly/BtAS or http://3.ly/Btv
That was Julie Benz from Dexter, silly. 😉 She plays mega-baddie vampire chick Darla in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
I found that un-aired pilot once and suffered through it. It was weird seeing someone else playing as Willow, though not too bad of a job. It’s a wonder the show actually took off from that pilot.
And yes, Julie Benz played Darla, the vampire what made Angel a vampire. She later reprises her role to play in Angel.
Buffy rocks! cartoon woulda rocked too!
Jeph Loeb didn’t create HEROES he was an executive producer on the show. Tim Kring created the show.