Yes, yes, we know Alyson Hannigan has a prominent role on a hit sitcom (she’s Lily, the lusty kindergarten teacher on CBS’ How I Met Your Mother), and it’s been a long time since she pulled up stakes on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Still, if you were going to interview the erstwhile Willow, as Whitney Pastorek did for next week’s Entertainment Weekly, you too would be unable to restrain yourself from asking Hannigan what her favorite Buffy episodes were.
Fortunately, the actress was a good sport and offered her four faves. Not surprisingly, one of them featured Alexis Denisof, who later became Mr. Hannigan. Here are the actress’ picks, along with her comments:
1. ”Hush” (Season 4; creepy floating demons the Gentlemen rob everyone of the power of speech.) ”It was a whole new way of figuring out how to act, the not-talking thing.”
2. ”The Body” (Season 5; Buffy’s mom dies from an aneurysm; the episode had no background score.) ”I just remember the no sound, no music — it was so disconcerting.”
3. ”Ted” (Season 2; John Ritter guests as Buffy’s mom’s evil robot suitor.) ”John Ritter was the best. We would all just hang out in his trailer and be like, ‘Hi, John Ritter!!’ and he didn’t care. And, we got to shoot at a mini-golf place.”
4. ”Dopplegangland” (Season 3; a spell gone awry spawns Willow’s nefarious twin.) ”I was in the vampire Willow outfit, and Alexis had some holy water, and he made this noise, like FFFFT!! And it just cracked me up. I had such a crush on him.”
These may have been Hannigan’s favorite episodes to shoot, but were they your favorites to watch? What’s on your best-of-Buffy list?
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The Body, Hush, and Once More With Feeling are the most distict episodes. I really want EW to do an episode guide for Buffy. Or any show, I just really want an episode guide.
I agree that The Body, Hush and Once More With Feeling are were groundbreaking television. OMWF wouldn’t be on Aly’s list because she’s not much of a singer.
Other definate faves:
1. Surprise/Innocence – I’ve gotten lots of people hooked on Buffy by showing them these episodes.
2. The Zeppo – the one that hooked me. I just loved that they would blow off the whole apocalypse storyline to focus on Zander.
3. Tabula Rasa – hilarious… and heartbreaking. I can’t hear “Goodbye to You” without thinking of it.
4. Passion – Angel at his most evil.
5. Conversations with Dead People – could only have been better if they could have gotten Amber Benson back like originally planned.
good god, where do i start????? I am so getting that whole buffy set that comes out in november, cant wait, but i would never, EVER make a buffy list and not include Hush(season 4) and The Body(season 5), and Once More With Feeling(season 6) 3 of the finest episodes in television history….
Those are the classics, but I love The Wish as well as The Prom. The Prom gets me all misty every time. :-p
Buffy! Hazah! There are just so many fabulous episodes, and like everyone else, where to begin. Each one that everyone else has put down is awsome, here are some more I love:
1)Chosen – Buffy rallying the troups once last time, and when the core 4 join together at the end talking about about what they’ll be doing the next time and Giles says “the world is definetly doomed”….sooo good. nice little nod to the pilot.
2)Becoming Part 2 – Buffy saving the world by killing the man she loves, JUST as he gets his soul back AND gets kicked out of her house. Where are the tissues?
3)Something Blue – just a hysterical episode where everything that could go wrong goes wrong. Plus, Giles is blind.
4)Band Candy – Giles and Joyce as teenagers? priceless
man! just when I thought Im finally over missing Buffy… here you go again and remind me of those oh so wonderful episodes! Damn I loved so many but to list a few, I loved passion, the prom, the wish, the body, and tabula rosa
1. Becoming Part 2. The best payoff/season finale ever.
2. Hush.
3. Once More with Feeling. I’ve listened to the soundtrack a thousand times. Joss is a god.
4. Dopplegangland. Because I’m the biggest Aly fan.
5. The Body. This episode felt so real.
6. The Wish. Love the slo mo death at the end.
7. Passion. Aly’s crying makes me cry.
8. Fool for Love. Spike!
9. Innocence.
10. Earshot.
I also liked Adam’s death in Primeval, Lover’s Walk, Buffy getting her umbrella, The Freshman and Living Conditions, Sexy Willow in Halloween, and Anya in the bunny suit Fear, Itself, Conversations with Dead People… and I totally loved evil Willow.
1) Once More with Feeling
Buffy vs Dracula
2) Restless
3) Doppelgangland
4) Conversations with Dead People
5) Lie to Me
6) The Body
7) Selfless
9) Innocence
10) Becoming pt 2
11) Consequences
12) Earshot
13) The Harsh Light of Day
14) Who Are You
15) Family
16) Fool For Love
17) Into the Woods
18) Crush
19) Beneath You
20) Hush
1. Passion
2. Becoming, Pt. 2
3. The Body
4. Innocence
5. Once More, With Feeling
i loved hush, seeing red, once more with feeling and the rest of the series it just brill and well written. the acting was out of this world and it just blows your mind. i hope they bring it back and do a couple more seasons with the same actors.
I have favorites from each season…
Season 1: “The Pack”
Season 2: “Lie to Me”
Season 3: “Amends”
Season 4: “Hush”
Season 5: “The Body”
Season 6: “Once More, With Feeling”
Season 7: “Chosen”
Hush and Once More, With Feeling tie for me – but I can see why Ms. Hannigan wouldn’t include OMWF in her list. “I think this line’s mostly filler”.
For her work, Seeing Red (and the rest of Season Six from that point forward), Full Moon Rising and Dopplegangland do stand out the most.
If I stand back from my own prejudices (Musicals and Horror), “The Body” is perhaps the best episode of TV done in the past decade. Take some time and netflix the disc if you don’t own it – don’t let commercials get in your way. That is 42 minutes of… well, entertainment isn’t the best word. Neither is education, and edutainment is just wrong.
It’s 42 minutes of distilled reality.
My mom passed away about 3 years ago, at least as suddenly as Joyce did (we didn’t even have the brain-cancer prelogue). When someone goes when it’s unexpected, somone that important to you – things go haywire.
This episode always brings that back to me. the chaos, the “I shouldn’t be feeling this” feelings…
Joss peaked with The Body.
Id have to go for Hush, Restless, Family, The Body, Tough Love, OMWF & Tabual Rasa. Im still watching Buffy on DVD, it’s still as engrossing as ever!
Totally agree with anyone who said passion was the best ever. I mean how often is voice over done well on TV. Not only was it done well it was extremly creepy.
Hush, the Body, The first four season finales, were all great. But, I have to include the episode early in season one, when five students including Xander were possessed by Hyenas and ate the principle. At that moment, I knew this show was special.
My favorites like everyone else include Hush and Once More With Feeling. But I also really enjoy any episode with evil Angel. He was such a better character when he was bad. It was quite wierd actually, I never liked Angel in the show. In fact I downright hated him. But I LOVED Angelus. He was awesome. My other 2 favorite episodes were “Ted”, (so glad Alyson Hannigan agrees with me on that one!) and my ALL TIME FAVE, THE ONE THAT REALLY REALLY REALLY GOT ME HOOKED: The Zeppo. Best Episode Ever. It was hilarious.
The Body was the best written episode in the series.
Hush was the scariest.
The most fun was Once More with Feeling.
Episode I most indentified with – The Zeppo.
Best episode – “every single one of them. This is definetely one of the best tv serieses ever.”
wow. how do i pick just a few eps of the best show ever…? Becoming PT 2, The Body, Hush, Passion…all classics for sure but i also loved anything with Dru, Faith or Glory…best girl villains ever! I was a huge Buffy/Angel fan and loved anything when they were together (even when he was evil)…talk about star-crossed. And Spike…..I really miss this show but watching the dvds is just as fun.
I loved Graduation. It know it’s not the best episode compared to Hush and OMWF, but i really liked it.
Restless is definitely my favorite.
That is such a pretty picture of Alyson!
My favorite episodes of Buffy are:
Earshot
Hush
Dopplegangland
Consequences
In that order
The Body and Hush are amazing.
The first showed that you can talk about death in a teen show without being cliche, and also be very honest.
I think that not only Joss peaked with this episode (together with Hush), but all the cast members.
Sarah Michelle Geller deserved an Emmy for her performance here.
It’s the most depth episode of them all.
The second is so cool! It’s so cool to watch it and see how much it is inspired by old silent horror movies. It’s a genius episode. Once again, it’s where the show got this peak.
Another episode I love is the one where Buffy loses her powers. I don’t remeber the name, but I think it was in the third season. It was great, but no one ever remebers it.
And of course, Anne, which is the best season premiere of all.
PS: Fear, Itself was the most entertaining of them all.
“OMWF” and “Hush” will please most people; even non-Buffy viewers, the writing and storytelling are impeccable. “Bad Girls” from season 3 is my favorite of them all cause that’s when Faith starts showing her true colors. “Normal Again” was an incredible episode with a very disturbing ending and “the Body” is simply SMG acting at her best.
My all-time favorite ep is Amends. “It’s the demon in me that needs killing.. it’s the man.” I love the Buffy-Angel angst.. and of course it’s the first time we see the bringers – Joss rewards us for paying attention in the early years. My short list:
1. Amends
2. Becoming Parts 1 & 2
3. Surprise/Innocence
4. When She Was Bad
5. Anne (“want to see my impression of Ghandi? You know.. If he was really pissed off.”)
6. The Body – I agree that this is one of the best hours of TV, ever. The lack of a soundtrack was heartbreaking, and everything about it was just about perfection. However -I can’t bear to watch it over and over, like I do with my favorites from the high school years… it’s just too hard.
7. Basically, the second half of season three, starting with Enemies (Angel and Buffy trick Faith into thinking Angel has lost his soul), all the way through Graduation Day part 2. Every week was amazing.
The high school stuff is pretty excellent (Season Three is probably my favorite big arc overall), but for some reason most of my favorite individual eps come from the UPN years. I love “Tabula Rasa” from season 6 (everybody loses their memory, which leads directly to Tara leaving Willow) and “Conversations with Dead People” from season 7 (the stuff between Dawn and Joyce is phenomenal and creepy). I also am in love with “Two To Go” from the end of season 6 because it has the single greatest reveal/entrance in the history of television.
Willow: Nobody can stop me!
(Gets blased by a fireball)
Giles (appearing in doorway): I’d like to test that theory.
I get goosebumps just typing it.
Thanks for fantastic Aly photo!
I think Aly’s best episode is Doppelgangland. My personal faves are
Intervention
OMWF
FFL
The Gift
Chosen
TabRasa
S\I
Becoming 2
Hush
Dead Things
Never Leave Me
And, Joey – EW did a BtVS episode guide in Oct., 1,1999 issue
Tabula Rasa is great! Spike thinking his name is Randy Giles and that Giles is his dad! So very funny. And of course Once More With Feeling, which is actually being performed by a theater group in San Francisco this weekend. I’m going, should be interesting.
I’m down with Becoming 1 & 2, Surprise/Innocence, etc. But I’ve always loved Bad Girls for the initial stake (no pun intended) driven between Faith and Buffy. Brilliance.
Ok…wow I miss Buffy! It’s even tough for me to catch reruns. First my favorite seasons: 6, 2 and 5 tie, 3 and 1 tie, 4.
Favorite episodes (I could never pick just 4)
Fool for love–Seeing spike minus baudy accent is hilarious
Something Blue
Becoming Part II–who said something about tissues earlier?
Amends–who knew the evil First would reappear?
The Prom
The Replacement
Crush
The Gift–The Ultimate 100th episode
Of course The Body, Hush, and OMWF are the premiere Buffy episodes.
I love most everything in Season 6 including Tabula Rasa, Smashed, Gone, Two to Go and Grave (Ultimate Season finale).
You guys have named some of my all time favorite episodes. Here are some of my other favorites that I don’t think anyone has mentioned. The list isn’t in any order except for seasons.
Prophecy Girl – Season 1 finale, the first time Buffy died. The first really great Buffy episode.
Lie to Me – Season 2, where an old friend betrays Buffy. First episode to indicate how dark season 2 would be.
Innoncence – Season 3, some of the most heart breaking scenes in the series in this episode.
This Year’s Girl and Who Are You – Season 4, Faith returns and I loved how Sarah played Faith and Elizu played Buffy.
Restless – Season 4 finale. Loved the look of the episode and it also gave important clues for the rest of the series.
Selfless – Season 7, great episode giving Anya’s background.
Storyteller – Season 7, great episode with Andrew recording the goings on at Buffy’s.
I’ll stop before I do every episode.