Joss Whedon, Gal Gadot and Sarah Michelle Gellar

[Btvs fan]

David Greenwalt was a huge part of Buffy's success as well. During S1 Whedon was extremely ignorant of any part of producing a tv show not related to writing. Greenwalt made up for all of Whedon's professional deficiencies. And Greenwalt came up with Angel being a vampire with a soul who would fall in love with Buffy. THE story arc of S1 & S2 & S3.

It is interesting how little credit Greenwalt gets these days.....

I agree and wasn't that the reason he was hired in the 1st place because Whedon had no experience running a show. He Still worked part time on Buffy S4 then left halfway through to work full time on Angel and even then the structure of S4 seemed to jump off a cliff with Whedon not caring about structure only the moment.

Flip side is The interview Tim Minear did with Passion of the Nerd not to long back showed that Minear didn't really rate him that highly and called him a yes man.

There's also the interview the Sabrina writer did where she talks about going for a job interview for Buffy when pregnant and both Whedon and Greenwalt made fun of her. So he doesn't sound like a nice guy personally.

And didn't he try and do another Vampire Detective show which failed miserably ?

 

[NoShip]

Flip side is The interview Tim Minear did with Passion of the Nerd not to long back showed that Minear didn't really rate him that highly and called him a yes man.

Well.... Minear was also a huge yes man...... All the "Hero Writers" on Buffy and Angel and Firefly learned to lick the crack of Whedon's ass just the way Whedon liked it or they learned how to find other employment.

Also, Minear was quite torqued when he didn't get Greenwalt's job right away. When Minear was promoted, he was quite a kiss-up and kick-down kind of boss.

I have never watched Angel so I can't say which is the better showrunner, but, from articles and interviews, it sounds like Minear was the same kind of boss ( for better or worse ) that Greenwalt was.

 

[Btvs fan]

Well.... Minear was also a huge yes man...... All the "Hero Writers" on Buffy and Angel and Firefly learned to lick the crack of Whedon's ass just the way Whedon liked it or they learned how to find other employment.

Also, Minear was quite torqued when he didn't get Greenwalt's job right away. When Minear was promoted, he was quite a kiss-up and kick-down kind of boss.

I have never watched Angel so I can't say which is the better showrunner, but, from articles and interviews, it sounds like Minear was the same kind of boss ( for better or worse ) that Greenwalt was.

You should definitely watch Angel and Minear wrote some of the best episodes of either show.
Somnabulist
Prodigal
Sanctuary- co wrote with Whedon who did the Buffy scenes
Are you now or have you ever been
Darla
Reunion
Reprise
Lullaby
Benediction
Home


Seriously watch Angel

 

[Synch]

The role Greenwalt played during S1 is a classic from 90s when the showrunner auteur began (90s) so Fox and WB wanted someone with more production skills to be Joss number 2. Actually he already had some Buffy formula on his own because Secret Admirer (1985) had some of the fun, emotion and special touch the series had since day one.

Joss commented Greenwalt pitch during Witch (mom twist) was crucial to the show. They also had a similar humour including Greenwalt's joke about Joss' mom not able to see The Body during a screening at Buffy offices.

With Prophecy Girl I guess (because today I'm not sure anymore because... fandom) it was obvious Joss learned to direct and ran the show. The first scene at the library is, by far, better in terms of visuals than the rest of the S1.

When Joss changed Greenwalt with Marti, as his second, the dynamic was also different as she was way more a writing consigliere than a production number two. She was in charge of the show during days when Joss was on set directing, writing or over at Angel but by Season 4 the directors team and DP knew what Joss wanted and by S6 every senior writer (except Espenson, she didn't want to) ran their own episodes. But yeah: I'm more fan of Joss-Marti team because she was crucial on romance and sex stuff and, of course, last minute rewrites: she actually rewrote an Angel S2 scene just before her wedding lol.

PD, the joke about The Body: We were up in the editing room, and this is to illustrate the kind of relationship we had, Joss and I, and you know, a bunch of other writers are in there and people are in tears at such and amazing episode, and I go, "God, Joss, what a great episode. It's going to be so great when you show it to your mother. Oh, oops, never mind" He loved me for that. If I could make him fall out of his chair and spit his drink out, you know, that's how we rolled with each other. He knew I adored him.

Slayers & Vampire book, page 207