[Televisionary]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer might be long gone (sadly) and Doctor Who doesn't return for a few more weeks (darn!), but that doesn't mean that you can't smush the two together into something as fun as a jaunty bow-tie. In this case, this means mashing the familiar opening credit sequence of Buffy with the visuals of the Matt Smith-era Doctor and his companion Amy Pond (Karen Gillan), with a special appearance by Alex Kingston as River Song, of course. You can watch this lovingly crafted homage to both Buffy and Doctor Who below. Season Six of Doctor Who kicks off on April 23rd on BBC America.

Happy Festivus, everyone! To celebrate today (in addition to the feats of strength and airing of grievances), I rounded up the top 10 nontraditional Holiday television episodes over at The Daily Beast , from Community and Seinfeld to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Doctor Who . (And, yes, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia 's direct-to-DVD special--which just aired on FX for the first time this month--made the list, naturally.) An aside, I could have filled the entire list with just British television shows, from The Vicar of Dibley and Doctor Who (which both made the list) to Gavin & Stacey, Blackadder, Catherine Tate, Absolutely Fabulous , and about a zillion others. But I am curious to know: what is your favorite nontraditional holiday episode/special? Putting aside the traditional Rudolph and Charlie Brown Christmas , what are some of the more out there holiday episodes or specials that add that extra spike to the eggnog? Or make that Festivus aluminum pole shine a li...

Wonder just what ever happened to Joss Whedon's Buffy prequel Ripper ? Speaking on a press call last week to promote his new series Merlin (which launches later this month on NBC), former Buffy star Anthony Head addressed some questions about that long-stalled Ripper project, plans which Head says were "sideswiped by Dollhouse ." Head, who plays Uther Pendragon on the NBC/BBC series, was candid about the likelihood of donning Rupert Giles' specs for another go-around as the much-beloved Watcher, created by Joss Whedon. " Ripper is a kind of a - it's a funny old thing," said Head. "Whether it ever gets made or not... if it does ever get made, I'll probably be an octogenarian by the time it does. But it is something I actually introduced Joss to [ Doctor Who producer] Julie Gardner, who was a producer with the BBC. She has long wanted to do something with the project. There are obviously complications with Ripper because there are lots of t...

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. Jennifer Westfeldt ( Grey's Anatomy ) and John Boyd ( The Notorious Bettie Page ) have been cast in Day Eight of FOX drama series 24 . Westfeldt will recur as journalist Meredith Reed, an ambitious writer who has ties to Middle East leader Arman Hashemi (Anil Kapoor), who arrives in the U.S. on a peacemaking mission. Boyd, meanwhile, will be a series regular and will play CTU analyst Jonah Schwartz. ( Hollywood Reporter ) The Middleman creator Javier Grillo-Marxuach has joined the writing staff of NBC's upcoming sci-fi series Day One, where he will serve as writer/co-executive producer. Also joining the writing staff, according to series creator Jesse Alexander (who broke the news via Twitter): Kings ' Erik Oleson, and Angela Kang. ( io9 ) BBC Films has confirmed that a big screen version of Doctor Who is being developed and that development of a script is currently underway. It's unclear whether inbound showrunne...

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Could Buffy be heading back to the big screen... sans Joss Whedon, Sarah Michelle Gellar, or any of the supporting talents that made the franchise a success? Sadly, yes, in what appears to be shaping up as one of the worst ideas of the year. Executive producers Fran and Kaz Kuzui, along with Vertigo Entertainment's Roy Lee and Doug Davison are said to be developing a reboot of the Buffy franchise. (Fran Rubel Kuzui directed the original Buffy feature.) However, said project would not involve characters like Willow, Xander, Angel, or Spike (or, indeed any of the above elements) and would instead focus on a new slayer and would kick off a new franchise. The producers are currently meeting with writers and have not reached out to Joss Whedon about any involvement with the project. ( Hollywood Reporter ) David Tennant will star opposite Elisabeth Sladen in two upcoming episodes of Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures ...

With so many high-profile series like Lost , Desperate Housewives , and Heroes proving themselves willing to kill off main characters over the last few seasons (and rumors swirling about many a death on upcoming series by the end of the season), it got me thinking about the role of death on television and whether it's still an important tool in the television writer's arsenal of plot devices or an over-hyped gimmick to force viewers to tune in. The most recent death on television was, of course, the shocking demise of Kal Penn's Dr. Lawrence Kutner on FOX's House earlier this week . In the April 6th episode, entitled "Simple Explanation," Penn's typically levelheaded character commits suicide very unexpectedly and his absence from work prompts two of the series' characters to investigate his whereabouts; they discover his body in his apartment with a gun by his side. Reactions to the episode have divided both critics and audience alike, with some prai...

Buffy fans looking to add one more DVD collectible to their burgeoning collection are in luck. The Paley Center for Media has announced today that it has released a DVD of PaleyFest: Buffy The Vampire Slayer Reunion , which captures last year's Paley Festival event that reunited creator Joss Whedon and the cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer a decade after it launched. (Missed the event last year? You can read all about it here .) The panel, shot last March at the Cinerama Dome at the Arclight Cinema in Hollywood, featured cast members Sarah Michelle Geller, Seth Green, Amber Benson, Nicholas Brendon, Charisma Carpenter, Emma Caulfield, James Marsters, and Michelle Trachtenberg along with creator Joss Whedon and producers David Greenwalt and Marti Noxon. (Sadly, no Anthony Stewart Head, I'm afraid.) The single-disc DVD will feature an introduction by Whedon, behind-the-scenes anecdotes, the full video of the PaleyFest08 Buffy Reunion panel, and backstage photos and videos. Pric...

I woke up this morning with a singular thought: what ever happened to that planned Buffy spinoff Ripper ? If you remember back nearly a year ago, the internet was abuzz with the news coming out of San Diego Comic-Con: Joss Whedon had announced plans to go ahead with Ripper , the proposed Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff centering on Watcher Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head). Fanboys (and girls) everywhere were proclaiming it to be a very happy day indeed, what with Whedon returning to the franchise with Ripper and the then-upcoming Buffy Season Eight comic book. (Shame on you, if you're not reading it!) Since then, a lot has happened, both here in Hollywood and specifically to Whedon himself. Joss ended up selling a seven-episode drama series called Dollhouse --starring former Buffy staple Eliza Dushku and BSG 's Tahmoh Penikett --to FOX; pre-production is currently underway for a spring shoot and Dollhouse has been slated to air this fall. (I, meanwhile, have been hard a...

If you attended the massively hyped Buffy the Vampire Slayer reunion event last night at the Arclight (courtesy of the 25th anniversary installment of the Paley Festival) and didn't leave humming Joss Whedon's tunes from the musical episode "Once More With Feeling," there's something dead inside you. The mood was positively euphoric as the cast and crew of seminal television series Buffy reunited for the first time in four years (has it really been that long since the Scoobies last saved the world?) and waxed nostalgic about the aforementioned musical episode (which was screened in its entirety before the panel), that silent-film inspired episode ("Hush"), and recalling the difficult, funny, and memorable moments that go into making a television series as powerful and oft overlooked as this one. So who was there? Joss Whedon, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, James Marsters, Emma Caulfield (attired in a sexy outfit dubbed "a 40s gumshoe...

Feeling nostalgic for a time when Lorelai and Luke sparred over a morning cup of coffee, Felicity Porter had not yet cut her trademark locks, or Buffy was still an only child, a mini-skirted naif whose destiny was thrust onto her? Such nostalgia has gotten a little easier with the news that Warner Bros is relaunching The WB, home to such series as Gilmore Girls, Felicity , and Buffy the Vampire Slayer ... not as a linear television network, but as a web site. The ad-supported site, which has wb.com as its working title, will serve as an online home for all Warners-produced WB series that ran on the network during its brief lifespan from 1995 to 2006, including Gilmore Girls, Everwood , and What I Like About You . (It's still, sadly, unclear whether that will eventually include non-Warners produced titles like the aforementioned Buffy or Felicity , but fingers crossed.) It will also include original short-form series, all targeted at the WB's signature demographic of women 12-3...

The big news yesterday was, of course, that Sarah Michelle Gellar would join creator Joss Whedon and the cast for a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reunion at this year's William S. Paley Festival, to be held at the Cinerama Dome at the Arclight in Hollywood. I'm hoping that Gellar's presence on the guest list spurs hold-outs Anthony Head and Alyson Hannigan to join up with the rest of the crew, which currently includes Amber Benson, Nicholas Brendan, Emma Caulfield, Eliza Dushku, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Seth Green, James Marsters, and Michelle Trachtenberg. (I'm also hoping they lure former writers Jane Espenson, David Fury, and Doug Petry to the event.) As for me, I've already gotten my tickets so I'll be there (as well as at a bunch of other panels) with bells on. Great big, vampire-repellent bells on. Let's just hope they do something fun and make the pre-panel screening interesting and intriguing: the pilot perhaps? Or "Once More with Feeling"? But ...

The PR machine is in overdrive for the 2008 William S. Paley Television Festival, the fest's 25th anniversary installment, which moves its location this year from its cramped quarters at the DGA to the Cinerama Dome at the Arclight. (Wahoo!) While the festival's organizers are being pretty coy about the full lineup and schedule this year, what with teasing us about a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reunion , they have quietly nailed down some dates for some of the panels: March 14th: Elvis '68 Comeback Special (Opening Night Selection) March 15th: Pushing Daisies March 17th: The Comedy World of Judd Apatow & Friends March 18th: Chuck March 20th: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Reunion March 21st: Dancing with the Stars March 25th: Dirty Sexy Money March 27th: Mad Men (Closing Night Selection) The full lineup and schedule, including the date for the previously announced panel for Gossip Girl, is slated to be revealed on February 4th. Individual tickets for members of the Paley Cen...

It pays to be a member... of the Paley Center, that is. As with most years since I moved out to Los Angeles (five years ago, for those keeping score), I'm planning on attending as many William S. Paley Television Festival events as I can (and as many as my wallet will allow). The festival's organizers--from the Paley Center for Media--have been particularly canny this year, teasing the audience with little glimpses into this year's lineup (March 14-27 at the Arclight, in the Cinerama Dome, no less), which so far includes panels for Pushing Daisies and Gossip Girl and a special evening with Judd Apatow. If that wasn't enough, they then made me drool with sweet, sweet anticipation with their latest tantalizing unveiling of the schedule, which features panels for Chuck , Dirty Sexy Money , Dancing with the Stars , and Mad Men . And, oh, a reunion of the cast from a little show called Buffy the Vampire Slayer . Yes, that's right, ladies and gents, the cast of the cult...

Confession time: in my living room, above my entertainment center is a framed Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More with Feeling poster. It is, even after the years since this brutally smart cult series wrapped, one of my prized possessions. A Televisionary reader send in this link to a current eBay auction for another hard-to-find piece of Buffy history : a matted and framed original limited edition piece of artwork created for the final wrap party on Buffy . It features the regular cast at the time, including Sarah Michelle Gellar, James Marsters, Nicholas Brendon, Emma Caulfield, Alyson Hannigan, Michelle Trachtenberg, and Anthony Stewart Head in a sort of hand-drawn pre-Jo Chen piece that any fan would love to have. Auction ends December 3rd at 10 pm PT and the Buy It Now function is available at a cool $750. And with the holiday season swifty approaching, the perfect gift for any Buffy fan looking to add to their collection. What's On Tonight 8 pm: Kid Nation (CBS); Christma...

Better sharpen those stakes. In a surprise Comic-Con announcement, Joss Whedon has confirmed that the long-gestating Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off, entitled Ripper , finally looks like it's going forward. Whedon says that he's thisclose to signing a deal with the BBC to finance a 90-minute telepic that will star Buffy 's Anthony Stewart Head as former Watcher Rupert Giles as he combats the things that go bump in the night sans Slayer. The deal hasn't been signed yet, so anything can happen, but Whedon was quick to say that no US distribution has been decided. Meaning that it's still a bit soon to circle a launch date on your calendar or break open the bubbly. Meanwhile, Whedon has launched a non -Buffy -related online comic called Sugar Shock with Dark Horse (the publishers of the Buffy Season Eight comic). It's free, it's online, and it might just tide you over until Ripper ... or the next issue of the Buffy comic.

Covering "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Season Eight Entertainment Weekly 's PopWatch column managed to score a first look at an image that many Buffy fans have been waiting an eternity for. Dark Horse Comics has released the cover image of the new Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic book, which will envision what might have been had there been an eighth season of the supernatural drama. Like the series, which slayed its last vampire in 2003, the comic book will be written by Buffy mastermind Joss Whedon. Joss currently writes a little comic you may have heard of -- Astonishing X-Men -- and previously wrote a fantastic (if terminally delayed) Buffy comic spin-off called Fray and a three-issue mini-series that bridged the gap between his Firefly series and the Serenity feature. Pencils will be provided by Georges Jeanty, though I have to agree with Blog@ Newsarama and say that the cover art looks suspiciously like the work of the talented Jo Chen (just check out the cover...