Seth Green vs. Amber Benson: Opening Credits

[Joshua]

Do you think it was unfair, how someone who had more lines and more screen time then Seth Green and Oz and had more of a fleshed out backstory, didn't get billed onto the opening credits?

But yet Seth Green who barely had screen time and his backstory wasn't even fleshed out as much as Tara's, but yet he got billed onto the opening credits.

Make sense?

 

[WileyDairyGnome]

I never actually noticed that, now I am really POed about it! That totally doesn't make any sense.

I get though that Seth Green was more known than Amber, but still, don't actors get paid more for being in the credits? I think Amber definitely deserved that extra pay than Seth, she had much more to work with than him.

It actually makes me dislike her being in the credits for Seeing Red now. It's like "I know I had Seth be in the credits full-time when he only had like 2 lines in almost every episode he was in, but lets have you in the credits ONCE right before your beloved, developed, and meaningful character dies! 🙂"

Oh, Joss...

 

[Jodast]

It doesn't make that much sense and I wish I knew why Amber didn't get a main title listing until Seeing Red. My guess would be that, initially at least, it was a get out clause if fans and/or studio execs didn't take to the Willow-Tara relationship, they could just sever ties quickly and easily. If the writers knew in advance that they were going to kill her off during season 6, maybe they didn't feel it was worth giving her the billing and the money that goes with it during eason 5.

 

[drlloyd11]

Why Joss left her out of the credits

Sadly the reason AB never got a credit was obvious at the time. Joss had said in interviews years before that he always wanted to "sucker punch" the audience with a character death the same time they make the credits. It blew up big time in his face..


(I cannot yet post the URL to this, I am too new.)


[“I realised, just the other day, that I have this terrible reputation for killing people not just because I killed Tara, but because I was such a dick about it,” he laughs. “[Adding her to the credits] was just mean. Tara may be dead, but she haunts me still, because now all anybody ever talks about is the fact I kill characters off, and I think, ‘I do other things as well!’”
-Joss Whedon

Eventually the writer of the episode Steve Deknight posted on the leading Willow and Tara board (thekittenboard.com) an apology for how they acted before and after "Seeing Red".


It's easy to forget know how badly Season 6 went over at the time.

 

[Robb Stark]

I don't think this should be an indictment on Oz or Seth Green. I agree that Amber Benson absolutely deserved to be credited in the opening, but that doesn't mean Oz didn't. He was a big part of the show, and a huge part of Willow's character. I'm re-watching S3 right now and Oz is just as big an impact on Willow as Tara did prior to S6.

This isn't a shipping comment at all. I think they both fully deserved to be in the opening credits.

 

[Evil Angelus 95]

I'm fine with Oz/Seth being in the opening credits UNTIL he leaves in S4, then Tara/Amber should have replaced him, considering how much she shows up, especially in S5 and S6

 

[Robb Stark]

Also, I forgot to mention, I'm sure that Joss and the studio wouldn't have stiffed her on the pay side of things, if Joss' whole intention was to kill a character the same time he/she was introduced into the credits. I mean, they work together quite closely still today, and Amber is one of the Buffy comic book writers if I'm not mistaken, so I'm assuming things went fine.

 

[BuffyElevated]

I'm not mad that Seth got more time in the credits than Amber, but I never understood why Amber was never made a regular until Seeing Red. Even though I'm a Woz fan, I think Tara was just as important to the show as Oz was.

 

[sk]

I'm quite certain that I read in an interview with Amber that she actually declined to be in the credits because her main goal at the time was to do movies.

She wanted to be free to join different movie projects during seasons and being in the credits would mean a different contract that would leave her with less options to do the things she wanted to do outside the show.

/SK

 

[dexeded]

Yup, I distinctly remember reading somewhere that Amber wasn't in the credits because she didn't want to be. Can't remember the link, and not sure about the movie thing.