Buffy The Vampire Slayer

David "Sgt." Fury Q+A @ ACMI, Melbourne, Australia, 5.30pm, Fri 1st July 05
This was a highly entertaining Q+A for which the first hour and a bit the moderator asked (in Fury’s words) well researched questions followed by about 45 mins of audience questions. Unfortunately I didn’t take notes, but what I remember included:
# his primary influence is the dry character based stylings of Bob Newhart and he also mentioned Dick Van Dyke as an influence
# did much of his early writing with his wife, Elin Hampton, including his first Buffy ep, Go Fish
# encouraged anyone interested in writing for tv professionally to move to LA because that’s where it’s at. He also mentioned that a small film on DVD would be a good idea.
# went into considerable detail how a Buffy episode is built: ie. teaser, 1st act is the setup, 2nd act break was to spin setup on its head, 3rd act is the moral choice, 4th is resolution and also how a season is built, backwards bascially. start with last episode, eg. Buffy sacrifices herself. So they know 6 episodes before this Buffy must get mad at Dawn for a reason, etc. etc.
# I think I got this right, but he talked about Brent Fletcher, a Script Coordinator on Angel and how he built two complete 11 hole miniature golf courses in the writing offices. He also co-wrote an episode of Lost with Brent.
# Speaking of office hijinks, Fury spoke about the general work hours, they would have a brief meeting in the morning, have lunch, have a break, do some work, go home. He nearly always went home on time to wife and kids. Somehow, I can’t believe this is true. He found writing came fairly easily.
# He talked about Buffy-speak, this is the way Joss spoke naturally and Fury learnt to write in that way. Marti Noxon used a thesaurus.
# David seemed to be a little unhappy the way in which Lost was broken (half dozen episodes at a time) and it’s lack of resolution. He said he was a big fan of Desperate Housewives, mainly because of the brilliant way it had tied up all the loose ends. Apparently they had no idea that Locke was in a wheelchair until after they shot the pilot.
# I took no notes at this, but its crazy the way things are coming back to me as I type: David said he was a huge fan of Deadwood (I second that). He didn’t understand half of the politics of it, but it was some kind of crazy Shakespearean western.
# He mentioned Alias briefly, The Inside (consulted on) and his current gig on 24.
# Someone in the audience mentioned a film they had seen called Revenge of the Mushroom People which involves a plane crashing on an island and the film has flashbacks involving each of the characters. David went on to say that writers plagarized, just not from what they were accused on plagarizing.
# As I mentioned before, there was an incident while he was working on The Jackie Thomas Show for Tom and Roseanne, where Julia-Louis Dreyfuss while working on Seinfeld he parked in Tom’s car park space by mistake. In retalliation, Arnold had plastered her car with graffiti and photos of naked butts. He wanted a photo of Fury’s naked butt, but Fury wouldn’t oblige him. Apparently, part of this story had also been told on Curb Your Enthusiasm episode.
# Because Australia is behind the US on all US shows, he accidentally dropped a spoiler or two about Lost.
# He spoke about how most of his scripts were co-written, and he said that was because he was lazy. He seemed to be better at the first half, the setup, and would then let someone come in (like Steve DeKnight) and do the big fight scenes.
# He spoke about Lies, My Parents Told Me as a favorite script.
# He questioned a couple of times why people were leaving and was hoping he wasn’t boring people. I’ll admit I’m surprised how long it went (but not unhappy).
# He mentioned he was working with JJ Abrams on a another tv show but could say nothing about it. He also mentioned that he is often described as a "Co-Executive Producer" which translated means "Not the Executive Producer".
# The WB wants to do Buffy/Angel tv movies and Joss does, but there’s legalities and financing to be sorted out. And it wouldn’t be looked at until after Serenity (and I’m assuming Wonder Woman also?). All the other shows (Ripper, BtAS etc.) are in the same boat. Top choice for tv movie is Spike/Illyria. Faith is another possibility.
# David chatted with people after the event (my chat was to wait for the moment).
I’m exhausted, time to move along...

# David "The" Fury @ Tabula Rasa Convention, Melbourne, 9.30am, Sunday 3rd July 2005
Finally for the Big Fat Geek Weekend we went to Tabula Rasa’s last convention yesterday (Sunday 3rd July) with Fury, James and ASH. Not sure why it is their last but I hope someone else picks up the ball (not someone who is shonky though). Realising the error of my ways Friday night I purchased a notebook and pen on the way. We arrived just after 9.30 when the doors opened and promptly found a huge queue for tickets to James’ photo session. Um, no, been there, done that. We got our tickets, received a new Serenity pamphletsat and waited for Fury to come out. Unfortunately for me (and I guess a handful of others) David repeated much of what he said Friday night. Extra tidbits included:
# David said Sarah doesn’t like to laugh and doesn’t like to run. He did impressions of both. Very funny, with the hands up high in the run. He also did the Mustard man song.
# There was much discussion of fan fiction (the previous day also apparently) which Fury has never read.
# Fury reiterated about Spike always retaining a part of his humanity, quoting the Judge: "You stink of humanity" and, again with "Lies, My Parents Told Me".
# He again mentioned that if there was a Buffy/Angel tv movie, Joss would have to do it himself. He couldn’t let anyone else do it.
# When he was growing up on Long Island his parents had jokingly told him: "We’re moving to Australia". Being a mad, keen Skippy fan he was keen to have a pet kangaroo and a digeridoo, and was heartbroken when told they weren’t for real.
# He also mentioned Monty Python and early Woody Allen as huge influences.
# He talked about spoilers and how much he hates them (Joss also). They feel cheated and feel the spoilerers do it for no other reason than to feel superior.
"Spangel" anyone?
# He briefly mentioned some things which were planned for season 7 but didn’t materialize, like Oz coming to town with a pack of werewolves or things which came up late in the breaking, like the Potentials. Fury’s main contribution to the season arc was the First’s plan to wipe out the line of Slayers.
# David spoke about how most of the high school experiences came from Joss. David couldn’t remember his, it was a blur. Xander was the character David could relate to the most.
# He often got roles in the show because he really threw himself into his story pitches. When he played a role in the Angel episode, "Reprise", Boreanaz did a double take and said (Fury did a great impression of DB) "What the hell are you doin’". Also, he was supposed to have originally played Arzt in Lost but had since moved on to 24 Season 5.
# David admitted that about 7 episodes into the last season of Angel, Joss came it and said "I can’t do it anymore" (referring to the stand-alone episodes that the WB wanted) and they started to move back to the serialised mythology eps.
# Someone mentioned fatherhood, specifically referencing the Watchers Council, and David said that much of it came from Joss’ relationships with his mother and father, esp. his mother.
# Someone asked why Anya had to die and Fury said it was because she hadn’t really paid for her sins, so she needed to go out heroically, plus she was expendable. There were never considering killing off anyone in the core group.
# At the end David mentioned his wife and children were there and they did a very quick pan to them at the back of the room.

They then started taking people out for James’ photos. We did this last year so we started watching OMWF. Everyone of course did the big sing-a-long.

We then went out about 30mins later for the Fury/ASH signings. It was around midday by now. We cleverly queued in both the ticket and signing queues so we we were fairly early. My sister and I both got ASH’s autograph. I stumbled with ASH, overwhelmed by his loveliness, but got a brief chance to chat with David. An incompetent, unconfident and uncomitted, but aspiring writer, I asked Fury about these qualities in a writer and he admitted they all had them. They all got the block, and every script was like reinventing the wheel everytime. When I said my impression that Joss didn’t have this problem, he said that Joss finds it fun. They found it hard work, but Joss genuinely loves what he does.