Angel

1. “Grrr Aaargh!” The Collective Vision of Mutant Enemy

9 You look at any television show that is at all memorable and anything that’s really good, like The X-Files or Buffy, you’ll see that they are created by writers, Chris Carter or Joss Whedon, David Kelly. These guys have a vision and the people that produce television are the writers. Whenever you see “executive producer,” it generally means the top writer on a TV show. And we do more than just write the shows, we cast them, we work with the production people, we produce the shows. All the way through the post-production, from editing, to the mix, to the sound effects, to the music, all that stuff. We’re there every step of the way. . . . In movies, it ain’t like that. Tim Minear (qtd. in Bratton 2000) Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly (2002), and Dollhouse (2009) is one of the leading names within a new generation of television writer-producers who, according to Roberta Pearson, had “control over the day-to-day running of the show” but with “relative freedom from the demands of studios and networks” (2005, 17, 18). C h a p t e r 1 “Grrr Aaargh!” The Collective Vision of Mutant Enemy Chapter 1 10 As such the creative vision for these series is generally attributed to Whedon. David Lavery argues that unlike many other television series, “it is not at all difficult . . . to locate the author of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As its creator, executive producer, writer/co-writer . . . Joss Whedon is, beyond question, the ‘mad genius’ . . . of Buffy” (2002, 252). Lavery argues that it is Whedon’s dominant input into the series’ creation as a producer, writer, and director that makes him the primary author of the show. Similarly, in interviews cast and crew of both Buffy and Angel regularly credit Whedon with being the creative force behind each of these series. For instance , David Greenwalt, co-creator of Angel, clearly points out that “any story that you see on Buffy or Angel has been broken substantially by Mr. Whedon, if not entirely” (qtd. in Nazzaro 2002, 154),1 while in another interview Greenwalt argues that Whedon’s hard work and talent serve as an inspiration to the team for “[e]very year he sets some huge new challenge for himself and it raises the bar for all of us. It’s helpful to see the guy at the top working that hard and stretching that far and that’s what makes a well-rounded production ” (qtd. in Bratton 2002). Rhonda V. Wilcox, however, specifically attributes Whedon’s “genius” to his ability “to work with a cast and crew of high quality . . . [and] bring out the best in those he works with” (2005, 6). While Wilcox is speaking of everyone involved in the creation of Buffy, her comment quite aptly applies to the writing team at Mutant Enemy who worked alongside Whedon in the development of each television series. As Whedon himself explains, “I’ve spent five years culling the most extraordinary staff, which I trust to share my vision and my experience. So if somebody gets it right, I leave it alone” (qtd. in Nazzaro 2002, 227). It is therefore to this team of writers specifically working on Angel that I turn my attention. In film production, the director is usually perceived to be the creative force behind a film despite the fact that film is a The Collective Vision of Mutant Enemy 11 collaborative medium. This is based on the understanding that it is usually the responsibility of the director to oversee the contributions of writers, cinematographers, sound technicians , composers, actors, and editors and pull together this range of creative input into one coherent vision. In American television, the structure is very different for, as indicated by Tim Minear in the passage that opens this chapter, a writer is usually at the helm of a TV series and is responsible for its overall conception.2 More to the point, a team of writers work together to create the show. Minear may credit top writers like Whedon, Carter, and Kelly for their vision, but the “we” in his statement applies to the contribution made by the entire team. While it is the responsibility of executive producer –writers like Whedon and Greenwalt to establish the vision for the series, the team of writers turn that vision into televisual reality. Under...