May 13, 2008
Another Whedon connection
Posted by Deborah Lipp under Actor Talk, TV & Culture | Tags: Angel: The Series, Joss Whedon, Helen Bishop, Darby Stanchfield |I’ve posted in the past about the Whedon connection to Mad Men. Well, my son and I are watching Angel on DVD these evenings, and lo & behold, looks like Darby Stanchfield (Helen Bishop) guest-starred in the Angel Season 2 episode “The Anniversary.”
It’s very geeky, but I love finding things like this.
May 13, 2008 at 9:22 am
And yet ‘very geeky’ bears repeating.
May 13, 2008 at 7:12 pm
I was on the IMDB House discussion board, because last night was intense, and did have a Mad Men connection to boot, which would be spoilery to discuss too much.
(But, as the kids say, OMG!@?!?)
There was an actress who looked really familiar, and it burns out she was Riley’s wife on Buffy. Someone with the name YoSafBridge said that anytime an actress looks familiar, it usually traces back to Buffy.
That’s definitely the case with me. When I think someone looks familiar, I start thinking Whedonverse.
May 13, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Wow, my last post made me look semi-illiterate, sorry!
May 13, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I THOUGHT that was her! Damn, I still HATE her!
May 13, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Oh, damn, that WAS her. I was trying to place her. You know when you’ve got a wrong idea that drives out the right one? I kept thinking she was Michelle Ryan (Bionic Bad Actress).
I even recognized her name in the credits and didn’t put it all together. Damn.
She also has a Bond connection—she was in Casino Royale as LeChiffre’s girlfriend—so I should be doubly ashamed for not realizing who it was (and p.s. I just finished watching House 10 minutes ago and stopped by here to see if there were comments because my mail server is down—and sure enough, there are comments discussing the show I just watched).
By the way, Ivana whatshername or not, best House in a damn year.
May 13, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Killer House. Reminded me of the teen book I Am The Cheese by Robert Cormier.
May 13, 2008 at 9:39 pm
I always miss at least the first ten minutes of House because of my work schedule, which makes me disappointed about missing some next week.
I think my jaw dropped when I saw, you know!
With my 40th breathing down my neck, it was gratifying to see that Lisa Edelstein still has a terrific figure — granted, my body is nowhere near that, but she gives me hope and a goal.
Bones has had an amazing amount of Whedonverse people — other than the obvious. So, whenever someone looks familiar there I assume Buffyness.
Years ago I was watching, oh, that Michael Douglas movie where Demi Moore was sexually harassing him, and there was an actress I knew I knew, but couldn’t place. I don’t know if we just didn’t have internet, but it really bugged me. Just when the answer was there, it would flit away. One day, I was doing something, not thinking about it directly and I realized the actress was a Klingon on Star Trek Next Generation.
It was my geekiest moment ever.
May 13, 2008 at 10:33 pm
Glass, my life is one geeky moment like that after another. Hence, blogging.
I love my DVR. Love. My DVR.
If you love discussing House, check out Polite Dissent (linked on the left). It is a doctor’s blog discussing pop culture, primarily comics, but every week a detailed House review analyzing the medicine. WAY better than IMDb.
I’m assuming that Edelstein was not playing Edelstein’s fantasy body. I mean, really.
And okay, I just looked up Disclosure, thinking to myself that the only female Klingon you could actually recognize would be Suzie Plaxson, and sure enough, it was her. I think I just won Geekiest Ever.
May 14, 2008 at 12:07 am
Not quite, because I knew her name, and opted not to mention it because I wanted to hold back the full geek revelation.
I’m a pretty casual House viewer, but last night was amazing.
My regular shows are Mad Men — don’t know if you knew that — Bones, but always miss it due to my hours, Hell’s kitchen (miss part of that, too), and House. But can miss most of those without minding too much.
Are you saying Cuddy had a — gasp — body double?
Oh, one of the other things “Riley’s wife” was in was Love Actually. Didn’t mention it, because I didn’t think anyone would care, but I just remembered she was a Wisconsin Hottie along with January Jones.
May 14, 2008 at 8:28 am
So who was Mrs. Finn playing on “House?” I didn’t recognize her, and she’s not listed yet on the IMDB page for the ep (though they do have Fred Durst, of all people, credited. He played the bartender.) Was that her as the fantasy girl in House’s dream, or was she the stripper at the beginning?
May 14, 2008 at 8:34 am
Mell, Ivana (Mrs. Finn) was the fantasy girl in the hallucination; the one with the necklace.
Glass, in case you didn’t understand what I posted (it was late at night, I was punchy), I meant I guessed it must be Suzie Plakson (who also played a Vulcan), then looked at the movie’s IMDb page to check. I mean, I’ve never seen the movie. But Plakson is distinctive, and her makeup showed more of her real face than we see with most Klingons.
And it was totally a body double.
May 14, 2008 at 8:57 am
Huh. Yesterday I was wondering what other shows you guys watched and I log on today and get the answers… Pretty cool. I missed the boat on the Whedonverse, btw.
May 14, 2008 at 9:09 am
I LOVE Suzie Plakson… she is way recognizable. I spotted her as a gynecologist on either Friends or Mad About You or some other decent-ish sit.
As for Edelstein’s body, I am not sure. I have really liked her for many years, but it has been on this series that I’ve noticed how hollywood-hot her body is. It’s like, that character with that face would never have that body were she not on tv.
May 14, 2008 at 9:10 am
(my point is that it might have actually been her body. with editing and computer capabilities, it was totally hard to tell.)
May 14, 2008 at 9:18 am
Mell, Ivana (Mrs. Finn) was the fantasy girl in the hallucination; the one with the necklace.
Ah, thank you. She’s one of the few Whedonverse people I don’t have a vivid image of, though she did inspire one of the greatest pop-cultural cross- references ever when Xander refers to the Finns as “Nick and Nora Fury.”
I LOVE Suzie Plakson… she is way recognizable. I spotted her as a gynecologist on either Friends or Mad About You or some other decent-ish sit.
It was Mad About You.
May 14, 2008 at 10:10 am
“Nick and Nora Fury.”
I forgot that one! Xander had all the best lines. I still die over “I am the Bug Man, goo-goo-ga-joob.”
May 14, 2008 at 12:44 pm
They were kind of gyno-obsessed on Mad About You.
May 14, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Ivana Milicevic.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0587431 <– Riley’s Wife.
Eme, any interest in the Whedonverse?
As much as Buffy is close to my heart, I don’t think people really get hooked, or that it comes into its own, until season 2. Angel, being a Buffy spin-off, shouldn’t be first. I think Firefly works best as a gateway drug, um, series.
My Buffy story was finding it on FX where they would show two episodes a night. It was on right when I got home from work, and at first I made a joke of it to my husband — there’s nothing on, I’ve resorted to watching Buffy while making dinner. It wasn’t long before I was a crazed fan. I honestly didn’t get into new Buffy episodes until Season 6, and then I was confused. Willow is WHAT? That girl isn’t OZ!? Spike hangs out with them?
This is why I understand when people think they know what the show is like, because I only started watching it in a “give me mind candy way.” Who knew?
May 14, 2008 at 3:04 pm
I think I started with Buffy when the library got seasons 1 and 2. I was spending a lot of time at the library at the time; I think 2003. I was unemployed and I would spend some time in the library almost every day just because it gets you out of the house for free.
I loved Buffy right away because I loved the use of language. A very early episode used the phrase “Love makes you do the wacky.” “Do the wacky” was enough to addict me.
Then I watched season 3 on FX but they were so frustrating, what with showing the episodes sort of in order except when they didn’t, that I purchased seasons 4–7. I did it one at a time, on ebay, carefully hunting down bargains.
Then, like a year ago, I decided to buy the 3 seasons I didn’t have and rewatch, but by then the 7-season slimpack was on the market and it was actually hard to find. I finally succeeded, though.
May 14, 2008 at 5:22 pm
“Eme, any interest in the Whedonverse?”
Yes. I think I’m somewhat TV-illiterate (ittelevirate? there ought to be a word for being uneducated about TV) since I’m so ignorant of his work.
May 14, 2008 at 6:14 pm
I watched Buffy from the first episode, though I don’t remember why, since I thought the movie was lame. Either the WB promos made it look interesting, or the advance reviews praised it enough to intrigue me (the TV critics were always very kind to the show). I was immediately hooked, but became a true fanatic with Season 1’s “The Puppet Show.” I couldn’t get over what a brilliant twist it was on the worn-out cliche (or so I thought beforehand) of the living ventriloquist’s dummy. I never missed an episode, and still get up early on the weekends to watch the FX reruns.
May 14, 2008 at 7:17 pm
just thought i’d point out:
whedon and weiner were college classmates (wesleyan ‘86 and ‘87, respectively, i think)
(not that i’m all stalkery, just a fellow alum)
May 14, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Season one was definitely good, but it seems most people really got hooked from season 2 and that’s when it became epic.
You’re right that Joss is a master of language and turn of phrase. Jane Espenson is no slouch either: It’s a doodle. I do doodle. You too. You do doodle, too.
Okay, maybe not a good example.
I assume Joss wrote this:
Buffy: Because… okay, I’m cookie dough, okay?
Angel: Yet another curveball…
Buffy: I’m not done baking yet. I’m not finished becoming… whoever the hell it is I’m gonna turn out to be. I’ve been looking for someone to make me feel whole, and maybe I just need to be whole. I make it through this, and the next thing, and the next… maybe one day I turn around and realize I’m ready. I’m cookies. And then if I want someone to eat m — or, to enjoy warm delicious cookie-me, then that’s fine. That’ll be then. When I’m done.
Angel: Any thoughts on who might enjoy… do I have to go with the cookie analogy?
***
Eme, look forward to some day hearing your impressions on the shows.
May 14, 2008 at 11:20 pm
I blogged about my relationship with watching Buffy and how it affected me here:
http://starsandmoon145.wordpress.com/2006/10/23/whats-all-this-fuss/
Mel, I too get up early many a weekend morn to watch.
mell, that is too cool!
And my personal favorite:
I commit! I’m committed. I’m a committee
May 15, 2008 at 8:25 am
There was the episode where Giles tells Buffy that what she said was pointless, and she said “It’s totally pointy.”
After we saw that, Arthur lay in wait for weeks until I finally said something he said was pointless so that he could counter “It’s totally pointy.”
May 15, 2008 at 8:28 am
You know, Deb, that was the only episode of Buffy I watched. I remembered it because of that line!
May 15, 2008 at 8:52 am
(Umm… I used pointy up in a different thread. Pointy and committee are like… it for me. Do the wacky never got me.)
May 15, 2008 at 9:34 am
I started watching Buffy when I was flipping through channels and I heard her say “the girl makes Godot look punctual.”
May 15, 2008 at 9:46 am
I never actually say do the wacky, it just struck me as beautiful language. I say pointy. I don’t say committee.
May 15, 2008 at 8:56 pm
The trailer for Dollhouse, the new Joss Whedon/Eliza Dushku vehicle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV6egKoZEHM