Watched it last night on BBTv, and first of all it was a blast, glad I joined in! 🙂 Most everything has already been covered in this thread. I'm kinda in the middle of rewatching S7 so it was a trip to go from having just watched "Him" to the pilot and see just how different everyone looked back then. I've alwys found it amazing how when shows run for a long time the actors grow up right before your eyes and it seems gradual and subtle as its happening but to go back its always like wow!
Watching the Pilot again I realized how much I missed S1-mid 4 Willow... I am very much more a fan of early Willow before magic engulfed pretty much everything for her. I know we all love the classic "Deliver" scene... but yeah stuff like that. She just used to have this quirky naive yet full of conviction quality about her I loved.
The Darla stuff has been commented on to death, and I am on the wtf train... she was SUCH a wimp! I'm constantly yelling at her to grow some balls, and it gets to me everytime how clueless she seems to be about slayers... she's been around FOREVER, even if the backstory wasn't written yet that she was around when Spike killed the chinese chick, she should still pretty much be aware opf what a Slayer embodies and be able to identify Buffy as such pretty much right away, common sense! Its frustrating!
Angel, DB.... I thought his acting was just bad the first few eps of S1 starting with the Harvest.... he of course got legions better, but here its just cringeworthy for me to hear him deliver some of his lines. It just seems to be that this early on DB, being new to acting, didn't really have the greatest grasp of who this Angel character would be and he kinda played him all over the place. He honed his skills pretty quickly though so kudos to DB for being a quick study! 🙂
A couple of us watched and discussed the unaired pilot right after too. It was so interesting to watch them back to back and compare. There were a few good lines and moments in the unaired pilot that they definately could have kept in (faux principal Flutie was hilarious and how he kept calling Buffy the wrong names, it was priceless and SO should have been kept in. Also a scene with Xander pointing out all the different cliques to Buffy in the quad) but overall what we got was VASTLY better. The unaired pilot went a thousand times downhill in its last half, it became laughably cheesy and the acting from pretty much all parties was awful (Don't even get me started on the original Willow!). So yeah, I'm glad they had a little more time to flesh it out and work on it so that we got what we got 🙂
Some of my favorite/classic lines:
Cordelia: I don't mean to interrupt your downward mobility, but I just wanted to tell you that you won't be meeting Coach Foster, the woman with the chest hair, because gym was canceled due to the extreme dead guy in the locker.
Buffy: 'Cause, it's the weirdest thing. He's got two little, little holes in his neck, and all his blood's been drained. Isn't that bizarre? Aren't you just going, 'ooh'?
Buffy: To make you a vampire they have to suck your blood. And then you have to suck their blood. It's like a whole big sucking thing. Mostly they're just gonna kill you.
Giles: A, a Slayer slays, a Watcher--
Buffy: Watches?
Giles: Yes. No!
Buffy: Hi! I'm an enormous slut!
Joyce: Are you, uh, going out tonight?
Buffy: Yeah, I'm going to a club.
Joyce: Oh. Will there be boys there?
Buffy: No, Mom. It's a nun club.
Angel: Let's just say... I'm a friend. (starts to leave)
Buffy: Yeah, well, maybe I don't want a friend.
Angel: (turns back) I didn't say I was yours. (one of the only decent line deliveries from DB in the pilot IMO)
Willow: No, we're just friends. We used to go out, but we broke up.
Buffy: How come?
Willow: He stole my Barbie. (Buffy looks confused) Oh, we were five.
Buffy: Oh.
Willow: I-I-I don't actually date a whole lot... lately.
Buffy: Why not?
Willow: Well, when I'm with a boy I like, it's hard for me to say anything cool, or, or witty, or at all. I-I can usually make a few vowel sounds, and then I have to go away.
Buffy: It's not that bad!
Willow: No, i-it is. I think boys are more interested in a girl who can talk.
Cordelia: With you?
Jesse: Well, uh, yeah.
Cordelia: Well, uh, no!
Cordelia: God! What is your childhood trauma?!
Buffy: Have you guys seen Willow? Did she come by here?
Cordelia: Why? Do you need to attack her with the stick? Jeez!
(Buffy turns and goes.)
Cordelia: (to her groupies) Excuse me, I have to call
everyone I have ever met, right now.
Cordelia: But senior boys, hmm, they have mystery. They have... What's the word I'm searching for? Cars! I just am not the type to settle. Y'know? It's like when I go shopping. I have to have the most expensive thing. Not because it's expensive, but because it costs more.
Cordelia: Well, I heard it was rival gangs. You know, fighting for turf? But all I can tell you is they were an ugly way of looking. And Buffy, like, knew them! Which is just too weird. I mean, I don't even remember that much, but I'm telling you, it was a freak show!
Giles: The Earth is doomed!
:biggrin: