Now
that there has been official confirmation that this season
will be the last for Buffy
the Vampire Slayer, rumors are rampant about spin-off possibilities--including
one revolving around Alyson Hannigan's character Willow, the lesbian
witch on Buffy.
Buffy
creator Joss Whedon has publicly confirmed that he is currently
considering spin-off possibilities, saying "I think ideally
the best thing to do would be to wait and not rush anything. There
are paradigms that I've posited that could start next year ...
(but) whatever came next, it would have to have at its center
an idea as worthy as (Buffy and spin-off Angel)
were" (Yahoo News, February 21).
Although
Whedon has indicated that he would offer the spin-off to UPN first,
he has also made it clear that he would shop it around to the
other networks if UPN passes.
The
leading possibility for several weeks was rumored to be
a Faith the Vampire Slayer-type spin-off, based around
Eliza Dushku's character Faith. But that idea became unlikely when
it was announced on February 24th that Dushku had signed up to star
in the pilot for a still-unnamed Fox series (about a woman who graduates
from college and discovers that she's able to save lives by changing
the course of events.)
With
the most obvious spin-off choice eliminated, that leaves a few
other characters on which to base a spin-off, with Willow as the
most logical choice among them. First, however, there are a lot
of issues that would have to be resolved for a Willow spin-off
to happen: Whedon & company would have to decide to go this
route, UPN or another network would have to be willing to take
it on, and Hannigan would have to agree to star in the spin-off.
She has been publicly noncommittal, expressing a desire to continue
working with Whedon but also to explore new characters in other
series/films; there have also been rumors that Hannigan has already
passed on the idea.
But
regardless of whether a Willow spin-off actually happens,
it raises an important question: is network television
ready for a dramatic series which revolves around a lesbian?
If
she were a new character, I believe the answer would definitely
be no. Network television shows have almost never launched a new
show with a lesbian character, preferring to wait until after
the show is established to introduce lesbian characters (e.g.
Buffy, Once and Again, ER,
and NYPD Blue). Notable exceptions include Dark
Angel and 1996's Relativity,
but considering how poorly both of these shows did in the ratings,
they're unlikely to be held up as models by the networks.
But
Willow already has a strong and loyal (if small) fan base, which
mitigates the risk somewhat. This gives the show a level of built-in
security that a brand new series would not have (although that
by no means assures its success.)
On
the other hand, the networks might argue that if Willow
is popular enough to carry her own show, why didn't we see that
reflected in substantial growth in the number of viewers who watched
Buffy over the years? Because while the show had enough
fans to keep it on for seven years, it has never been a ratings
giant.
Lesbian
characters on dramatic series so far have always been part of
an ensemble (ER, Once and Again, NYPD Blue),
or the sidekick to the main character (Dark Angel), and
while any Buffy spin-off is still likely to have an ensemble
feel to it, a lesbian Willow as the lead would be new territory
for the networks.
And
assuming that Willow's new girlfriend Kennedy
(played by Iyari Limon)
comes along for the ride, things get even dicier for the networks--since
then the series won't just revolve around a lesbian, but a lesbian
in a relationship. And if there's anything scarier to the
networks than a recurring lesbian character, it's a recurring lesbian
character having sex.
Kennedy
has gradually emerged as a strong character on Buffy
over the second half of the last season, however, and the increasing
amount of screen time devoted to her character is an indication
that Whedon may be considering Kennedy for inclusion in a Willow
spin-off, as well--or even revolving the spin-off around her instead
(i.e. Kennedy the Vampire Slayer).
Regardless,
either a Willow or a Kennedy spin-off would present similar challenges
to the networks in terms of estimating the risk and reward, since
it would be the first lesbian-led series on primetime network
television.
Some
may be tempted to gauge the likely success of Willow
(or Kennedy) the series by comparing it to Ellen
Degeneres' attempt at a lesbian-centered
show in 1997, but it
is the difference between these two shows that provides hope for
Willow.
First,
Ellen was a sitcom, while Willow would be a drama--and
dramas are traditionally allowed much more leeway in terms of
risque content. Also, Buffy fans (the demographic for
Willow) tend to skew younger and thus more gay-positive
than Ellen's did.
Then
there is the cable factor: during Ellen's heyday, networks
did not yet have to compete with the cable and premium stations
for viewers, and envelope-pushing shows like Queer
as Folk and The Shield had not yet debuted.
Add the reality-TV show craze into the mix, and you have an environment
where the networks are desperate for viewers in an increasingly
fragmented market.
And,
finally, it's 2003, not 1997, and American attitudes towards
homosexuality on television have improved somewhat in the last five
years--thanks in part to network shows like Ellen, cable
shows like Queer as Folk, and reality shows like MTV's
The Real World. The upcoming premiere of the all-lesbian series
The L Word on Showtime is
further proof of this--although it remains to be seen whether Earthlings
will be successful, it was unthinkable five years ago that anyone
would even try to sell a show about a bunch of lesbians.
The
bottom line is, when on any given night you can turn on the TV
and see ex-porn stars wooing fake millionaires, "good"
cops bribing judges and blackmailing other cops, and gay men participating
in orgies, monogamous lesbian characters just don't seem so risque
anymore.
Of
course, if the current climate was really all that pro-lesbian,
the lesbian relationship on ER wouldn't be getting less
and less screen time, the lesbian teen on All
My Children would actually have a girlfriend, and you
wouldn't continue to see every lesbian couple on TV reduced to
a storyline about trying to have
a child.
But
in this increasingly competitive and increasingly permissive
environment, a Willow-type spin-off is more likely than it has even
been to be accepted by the networks, or at least tested. It's probably
not their first choice, though--in fact, UPN is probably right now
trying to convince Whedon to come up with another option, or to
stack the spin-off with so many straight characters that audiences
won't notice the lesbian part.
It's
worth remembering, however, that when Whedon first shopped Buffy
around, the networks laughed at the idea that audiences would
respond to a show revolving around a teenage girl who battled
evil; seven years later, no one's laughing anymore and the networks
have since scrambled to copy this formula (with shows like Alias
and Witchblade and female-led crime dramas like Crossing
Jordan and a few pilots currently in development for next
fall).
If
Whedon creates a Willow or Kennedy spin-off and the actresses
are on board, maybe in a few years we'll be looking back at this
series in the same way--as the one that proved it is possible
to create a successful drama around a lesbian character, after
all.
March
13 Update: TV
Guide just published an article speculating on whether Willow's
cross-over appearance on Angel this month is a sign that Whedon
& co. are considering her for a spin-off. Although Whedon
agrees that "the concept sounds cool," he insists "There's
nothing to suggest [a Willow spin-off in this episode]."
March
21 Update: it's sounding increasingly unlikely that a
Buffy spin-off of any sort will premiere in the fall, but that
doesn't rule out a mid-season start date---if Whedon even decides
to do a spin-off. In a recent talk at a university (recapped on
Ain't
It Cool News), Buffy writer Jane Espenson "mentioned
a possible 'Slayer School' spin-off, using some of the Potentials
(who would be recast), but that did not seem that likely as it
doesn't feel right, and would most likely not happen unless Joss
changed his feelings about it. No mention of the Willow spin-off,
but the feeling was that there will be no spin-off."
May
19 Update: In a recent TV
Guide interview with Whedon, the interviewer commented "I
heard a rumor that UPN and 20th Century Fox balked at a Willow
spinoff because the character was a lesbian." Whedon's response
was "(Laughing) I've never heard that. [Alyson Hannigan]'s
got her movie [American Wedding] coming out, and we never really
discussed the idea of a Willow-centric spinoff, although I've
thought about it. She's talked about doing sitcoms and other things.
So, nobody told me they didn't want to do it, and they certainly
never told me that that was the reason."
