Fact that might shock some people

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redheadboi19

Darth-Rossenburg
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OK do you know how many eppisodes of season one of BTVS that Joss Whedon wrote?.....the awnser is a little supriseing. it is one, the very last eppisode was the only that he wrote for the first season.


143816__joss_l.jpg
 
According to my episode guide in Season 1, Joss wrote 'Welcome to the Hellmouth', 'The Harvest', 'Prophecy Girl' and did the story to 'Nightmares' and 'Out of Sight Out of Mind.'

He did however only direct one episode in the season which was 'Prophecy Girl'
 
According to IMDB (So Kristine gets her answer as well. 😉)

Welcome to the Hellmouth
Joss Whedon (written by)

The Harvest
Joss Whedon (written by)

Witch
Dana Reston (written by)

Teacher's Pet
David Greenwalt (written by)

Never Kill a Boy on the First Date
Rob Des Hotel (written by) &
Dean Batali (written by)

The Pack
Matt Kiene (written by) &
Joe Reinkemeyer (written by)

Angel
David Greenwalt (written by)

I, Robot... You, Jane
Ashley Gable (written by) &
Thomas A. Swyden (written by)

The Puppet Show
Dean Batali (written by) &
Rob Des Hotel (written by)

Nightmares
Joss Whedon (story)
David Greenwalt (teleplay)

Out of Mind, Out of Sight
Joss Whedon (story)
Ashley Gable (teleplay) &
Thomas A. Swyden (teleplay)

Prophecy Girl
Joss Whedon (written by)
 
PrincessBuffy16
PrincessBuffy16
I did, I just wanted to write something, haha :D
I think the others are right you meant directed not wrote. i think i remember him saying somewhere that he wasnt sure how he'd be directing, that he was initially more comfy with writing and thats why he only did one for the first season. good thing he found out how awesome he was at it lol
 
Ok yah thanks for the correction everyone. I did men directed. Totaly miss rote that. My bad..
But I was suprised when I found out he had only directed one eppisode from season 1. In later seasons he directs most of the eppisodes that he writes.
 
redheadboi19 said:
Ok yah thanks for the correction everyone. I did men directed. Totaly miss rote that. My bad..
But I was suprised when I found out he had only directed one eppisode from season 1. In later seasons he directs most of the eppisodes that he writes.
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He has only directed a handful of episodes from each of the later seasons...
 
Joss reminds me of Gene Rodenberry, it didn't matter whether he wrote all the episodes or not, we have to remember that Joss just like Gene came up with a great idea that we all love.
 
Joss is guy that some people associate with all the wrightings of BTVS but really I would not even say he is one of the main wrighters. He does make contributions to every eppisode. But he himself actualy wrote less then half of the eppisods. The eppisodes that he wrote are amazeing and had moments that will stick with some of us forever. But you would think that the man who can up with the idea and started the show would have wrighten more then he did. But Joss is still one of my favorite wrighters.
 
S
Skytteflickan88
Well, at one time he did have three shows going at once.
Joss has written a lot of my favourite episodes and he always have a hand in every episode even if someone else write the mainstory. But Jane Espenson is a big favourite of mine as well.
 
I tend to look at the "Written by"/"Directed by" credits for every episode (of pretty much every show I watch; not just Buffy) so I'm not really surprised by this. You have to remember though that TV shows are ostensibly 'written' by the entire writing staff. They sit around a room, talk ideas, break a story (ie: come up with the plot points), then fill in the rest. Most of the staff writers contribute to the story, contribute jokes, etc. Even if the credit says "Written by Jane Espenson", you can bet that a lot of the ideas and jokes came from someone else. The person credited with the episode puts everything together. I don't know exactly how it works, but I assume that the person who gets the credit gets to 'sit in the drivers seat' for that episode, although Joss probably did the final draft.

Most every commentary from Buffy, the writer will say "oh that was a Joss line" at least once. Also, somewhat related, on the show "Ally McBeal", creator David E. Kelley has a "written by" credit (by himself) in practically every episode. Some episodes are listed as "by David E. Kelley and ____". Now that shocked me. I've never really seen that before. The closest I've seen was in Gilmore Girls; ASP and her husband wrote quite a lot of those shows.
 
Crashing Doors said:
I tend to look at the "Written by"/"Directed by" credits for every episode (of pretty much every show I watch; not just Buffy) so I'm not really surprised by this. You have to remember though that TV shows are ostensibly 'written' by the entire writing staff. They sit around a room, talk ideas, break a story (ie: come up with the plot points), then fill in the rest. Most of the staff writers contribute to the story, contribute jokes, etc. Even if the credit says "Written by Jane Espenson", you can bet that a lot of the ideas and jokes came from someone else. The person credited with the episode puts everything together. I don't know exactly how it works, but I assume that the person who gets the credit gets to 'sit in the drivers seat' for that episode, although Joss probably did the final draft.
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Click to expand...

Yeah, that's pretty much how it works. Although, it's important to realise, the credited writer does have a more substantial job that putting the pieces together. If you take an episode and break it down to plot points, act breaks and jokes, you're left with about two pieces of paper. The main writer then has to fill in the dialogue, stage direction, pacing - it's a big job. Which is why it would be virtually impossible for any one person to write a majority of episodes, especially since they usually have to be written as the earlier episodes are being filmed. Joss would have had a read through of the final draft, and he would have made notes, but I doubt his role was any more substantial than that at the final stage - especially when he had Buffy, Angel and Firefly going.
 
Like the character traits and that sort of thing? The exposition, and perhaps some jokes and etc, are basically what comes out in the writers room. So the credited writer has to figure out "how do we get there?" or "what would Xander say in this situation? How would they interact here?" and so on. I forgot about the stage direction too--I've never written a script for anything, except a puppet show in High School, and tend not to think about that when writing. Although I have read some scripts from Buffy (the OMWF script book and the Firefly guides).

Anyway I do tend to recognize the talents of the writers. Together they work well and all, but some writers do stick out to me. You can definitely tell an Espenson episode from a Noxon one; and in that respect there is a clear break between the "staff" and the main writer. Other episodes, namely the ones written by free-lance writers (I'm assuming some were free lance, like the guy who wrote "Normal Again"), seem like a combined effort, like they just needed someone to take their ideas and put it together because there wasn't enough time for the regular staff?

I don't really know for sure though, but I am interested in the writing process for a TV episode. I've seen some examples, such as in The Shield DVD extras that traces the creation of an episode, and a similar thing for 24. However they do it, it sounds like it'd be a fun gig.
 
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