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WhedonAge: Joss Whedon and friends news & fan community > Site News > Four Years Ago Today... ANGEL's Valentine's Day Surprise

14 Feb 2008 Four Years Ago Today... ANGEL's Valentine's Day Surprise

Written by Simon February 14, 2008, 01:09:00 AM 1133 Views Rating: (1 Rates) You have rated this file.
"Do you know what's a good day to break up with somebody? Any day besides Valentine's Day! I mean, what, were you running low on dramatic irony?"
Xander Harris, "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered"
On February 14, 2004, viewers of ANGEL, Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt's spin-off to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, received an upsetting Valentine's surprise: the cancellation of their favored series. In response, fans from around the world rallied, and in concerted effort with various online campaigns made themselves known. Activists bought space in trade magazines and on traveling billboards; sent candies, flowers and bottles of hair gel to the networks; they gave blood and donated to food drives-- all to show their support for a TV series the WB claimed couldn't find a large enough audience. The network brass attempted to appease the fans by holding out the promise of stand-alone movies centered on ANGEL and Buffy characters, and hinted that the development was close to fruition.

Four months after driving a stake into the series, the chief exec of The WB, Jordan Levin, was out on the street; and later, the WB itself was shut down, merging with its competitor UPN. The promised TV specials evaporated; Joss had closed up Mutant Enemy, and focused on non-TV media. Even the oft-expected Buffy animated series never saw more than a few beautiful character drawings hinting at the possibilities left untapped. Darkness seemed to fall across the land... until the following year when Whedon's Serenity brightened the silver screen.

Since then, Buffy and ANGEL comic series have continued to tell the stories where the TV shows left off. Joss has returned to television to direct episodes of The Office, and is developing a new series Dollhouse with fan favorite Eliza Dushku.

And the flame of hope for more projects from the mind of Joss Whedon have been kept burning by his fans-- such as those here and on the many other great fan sites. While some have faded away, or gone dormant, new sites have sprung up, and others have continued to grow and change.

So today, I ask that we remember and thank those individual fans and online communities who came before-- and look forward to more in the future. If you have some persons, sites or events which led you to fandom,  please share them with us, in the comments. Eventually, these will be used for a site listing page.
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Comments

1 Re: Four Years Ago Today... ANGEL's Valentine's Day Surprise Written by Simon February 14, 2008, 01:01:28 PM
Please leave a note about the other site(s), group(s) or person(s) who you would like to thank for supporting the fandom, leading you here, and/or making the community of Whedon fans more enjoyable.

I'll kick it off with saying thanks to our first Web guru, Shaun, for making the original site happen; to Andrea for keeping it together, often without due recognition; to Guido for stepping up and being a voice of reason; to Kristen for her tireless enthusiasm and drive.

Of course, to Joss Whedon, without whom... well, one shudders at the possibility.

And to all of the rest of you, for keeping this new site going: Thanks!
2 Re: Four Years Ago Today... ANGEL's Valentine's Day Surprise Written by buffysmglover February 14, 2008, 10:00:26 PM
My thanks goes to Simon, who, although appearing dead for a time (lol) when I first got here, was keeping the site up and available to us many fans, even after the show was long gone.

To Guido, for if it hadn't been for his live q&a with talented author Keith R.A. DeCandido I would have never come to SaveAngel, and if I hadn't been at that chat on January 20th and been copying a transcript of it to post tidbits at Buffy & Angel: The Authors, I wouldn't have had it to offer to him when he asked Scott to do the transcript, and if I hadn't helped them with the transcript, I never would have mustered up the small amount of courage I needed to ask about hosting a 100 Question Live Buffy Trivia Contest at an Angel site, and therefore the 50 Question LiVE Buffy/Angel Trivia Contests would not exist.

To Shiai, for posting the link to the live q&a with talented author Keith R.A. DeCandido at SlayerLit, an extraordinary Yahoo! Group I'm proud to be a part of.

To talented author Keith R.A. DeCandido, who graciously allowed SaveAngel.org to open up a live q&a with him on January 20th, 2007, in which he showed up late due to karate lessons.

To Scott (Buffyverse Forever), who has shown up to every contest and chat I have hosted here, at SaveAngel, and at Buffy & Angel: The Authors, and who remained a dedicated judge  and contestant each month while Guido has been away. (Guido, if you're out there, we still need three judges with the new chatroom smile  ), and for being as loyal a poster at Buffy & Angel: The Authors as he is at WhedonAge and was at SaveAngel.

To Kristen ( MaidenGreen ), who not only donated a prize for one of our contests, but also has been the key to this site remaining on track since the time I've been here. Thank you.

To Beth. Without her help, the December BtVS Trivia Contest wouldn't have been 1/2 as popular as it was, and who has become a great friend of mine.

And to Joss Whedon... for being Numfar... and for proving we crazy people DO do the dance of joy.

Other thanks go to Sarah Michelle Gellar, David Boreanaz, and the other leading and guest cast members, along with Brian Lynch, Franco Urru, and Scott Allie.
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