Question Was Sarah not available during Angel's last episode or was she not meant to be in it?

[Angelus Domini]

I'm kinda confused.

Was Buffy not supposed to appear in "Not Fade Away" or was she just not available, that's why she couldn't appear? There's a difference.

 

[StarSlayer]

I don't think she was intended to be in NFA. I know she was the original choice to be in "You're Welcome," but she was filming "The Grudge" I believe, so couldn't do it. I'm actually glad because I adore Cordy in that episode. 🙂

 

[Lyri]

The writers did want her for S5, but like StarSlayer said, she wasn't available. I don't know about 'You're Welcome' as I never heard that, but I think she was wanted for...was it 'Destiny'? Where they had to awful dubbed over lines?

But, yeah, she wasn't available at the time they needed her.

 

[Kean]

"Your Welcome" was originally conceived for SMG. There was talk of another ep too, but she was never supposed to be in "The Girl in Question" or "Not Fade Away".

 

[Summerlilly]

Ha ha! This question was the whole reason I found Buffy Boards! I had to seek the thoughts of others because I was so outraged! lol You certainly asked it in a much nicer way then I did originally! This is a very controversial topic, but in my opinion it was very dissapointing for Buffy to have not made some sort of appearance at the end of Angel (and the end of Buffyverse.) It is true she wasn't available but there's been a lot of talk around her and Joss also having some sort of fall out which would be very sad indeed. 🙁

 

[prophecygrrl]

I don't think she was ever meant to appear in NFA, but geez, I would've hated it if Buffy appeared in NFA! 😛 It wasn't her fight. Strategy-wise, it might've been beneficial to have some Slayer squads there to help Angel, but narratively, it was totally and completely Angel's story. Having Buffy there just wouldn't have felt right, IMO.

 

[Kean]

I don't think she was ever meant to appear in NFA, but geez, I would've hated it if Buffy appeared in NFA! 😛 It wasn't her fight. Strategy-wise, it might've been beneficial to have some Slayer squads there to help Angel, but narratively, it was totally and completely Angel's story. Having Buffy there just wouldn't have felt right, IMO.

Yup. This is exactly why they didn't want her in it. While Angel had been part of Buffy's fight in Sunnydale and had a legitimate place at the end of that show, Buffy had no place in Angel's fight in L.A. It would have been wrong for her to be part of that, and would have taken time away from that show's characters.

 

[Lyri]

Ha ha! This question was the whole reason I found Buffy Boards! I had to seek the thoughts of others because I was so outraged! lol You certainly asked it in a much nicer way then I did originally! This is a very controversial topic, but in my opinion it was very dissapointing for Buffy to have not made some sort of appearance at the end of Angel (and the end of Buffyverse.) It is true she wasn't available but there's been a lot of talk around her and Joss also having some sort of fall out which would be very sad indeed. 🙁

I don't think she was ever meant to appear in NFA, but geez, I would've hated it if Buffy appeared in NFA! 😛 It wasn't her fight. Strategy-wise, it might've been beneficial to have some Slayer squads there to help Angel, but narratively, it was totally and completely Angel's story. Having Buffy there just wouldn't have felt right, IMO.

I understand why they wanted Angel to be in the final BtVS ep, even if I didn't like his appearance. But I'm SO glad that they kept Buffy out of the AtS finale, and the final season altogether. (even though those eps where she 'appeared' where abysmal)

AtS was very much Angel's show. It never had to rely on BtVS characters to boost ratings or whatever. Having Buffy in the finale would have taken away what was great about that show for me. I think the focus would have been taken off of Spike, Gunn and Illyria if she had shown up and stuck her oar in.

Although, maybe if she was there, she might have been able to convince Angel to not kill Lindsey, lol.

 

[white avenger]

I know she was the original choice to be in "You're Welcome," but she was filming "The Grudge" I believe, so couldn't do it. I'm actually glad because I adore Cordy in that episode. 🙂

I agree, that episode was perfect with Cordy. Having Buffy in that part would have never worked out as well. Even if it had been completely rewritten to work with Buffy instead of Cordy, they would have had to eliminate that final scene, where Angel gets the phone call from the hospital, and without that,it just doesn't work.

(Besides which, if it had been Buffy, she would have dragged Spike off somewhere in search of a vacant office, and left Angel standing there looking...well, like Angel ALWAYS looks...only more so)

 

[Angelus Domini]

So... she couldn't appear because she was taping "The Grudge"? But... couldn't she just go and get taped for like... an hour or something? Not that big of time.

Ummm... if Buffy and some Slayers were there, they'd be sucked in Hell LA too. lol

 

[StarSlayer]

So... she couldn't appear because she was taping "The Grudge"? But... couldn't she just go and get taped for like... an hour or something? Not that big of time.

Well, not if you don't count the travel time (I believe she was filming the movie in Japan), the time to do make-up, the time to set up the scenes (fix the lighting, move the cameras around for the all the different shots and angles, etc), and the time to rehearse. It would have taken way more than an hour. 🙂

 

[prophecygrrl]

Well, not if you don't count the travel time (I believe she was filming the movie in Japan), the time to do make-up, the time to set up the scenes (fix the lighting, move the cameras around for the all the different shots and angles, etc), and the time to rehearse. It would have taken way more than an hour. 🙂

Yep. I've heard that even getting DB on BtVS at the end of Season 7 was a bit of a hassle, and they only had him for a few hours.

 

[white avenger]

Well, a scene could have been filmed wherever Buffy was, an an available studio, with a few extras. Angel could have said his line, "Let's go to work..." then they could have cut to Sarah, edited to appear several yards behind him, saying to a bunch of unidentified (obviously Slayer) girls, "Come on, ladies, let's go bail the big idiot out. And when this is over, keep your hands off the cute one in the black leather coat. He's all mine."

But, seriously, I think that I heard somewhere that Joss specifically did not want Buffy or any of her Slayers in Angel's last scene, just like he didn't want Angel in Buffy's last scene.He wanted each group have that last scene alone, with no "outsiders" to detract from it.

 

[Angelus Domini]

So Joss didn't want her there, instead of Buffy just not being available? Or both?

 

[Lyri]

I think it's a case of both. Sarah wasn't available when they did want her, and they didn't want her in the finale, so she didn't appear.

 

[Angelus Domini]

Whoa... it must've been quite a long filming time for The Grudge. I actually thought that she would be done filming the movie by the time the gap, Episode 1 to Episode 21, was over. I mean, The Grudge came out in 2004. Angel ended in 2004. So I was guessing, her The Grudge filming was almost over. Enough time for the episode gap of Angel. That's like 21 weeks, until the final episode. Oh well. XD

 

[white avenger]

Since Sarah almost certainly wanted to leave her role as Buffy there in the crater with Sunnydale and get on with what she hoped would be a successful career on the Big Screen, I seriously doubt that she tried very hard to make any sort of appearance as the Slayer after "Choices." Regardless of whatever personal issues that might have existed between her and Joss, if she had wanted, or felt any sort of duty to the fans, to have appeared at any time during the last season, I'm sure that something could have been worked out, if it had been only a phone conversation between Angel and/or Spike and Buffy, whether she really was in Rome or not.

 

[Buffy Summers]

I thought it was a network issue? Like UPN still owned the rights. Having Angel come to Buffy in Season 7 was like a huge deal that had to be made. And also that they wanted the finale to be about Angel (and cast) not Buffy.

 

[Hale Caesar]

I read that they wanted her to be in either "Your Welcome" or the second last episode...it would have been amazing to see Buffy's reaction to the new W&H Angel 🙁

 

[Firefly]

I thought it was a network issue? Like UPN still owned the rights. Having Angel come to Buffy in Season 7 was like a huge deal that had to be made. And also that they wanted the finale to be about Angel (and cast) not Buffy.

Yeah this is why, they ruled out cross network episodes. The wrote it in to the script in "Shells" I think it was when Wesley or Angel (cant remember) called Giles for help with the Illyria infection that was plaguing Fred, Giles refused because of Team Angels partnership with Wolfram & Hart.