More like brick of salt considering what a dick Joss Whedon is.
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“Always with the negative waves, Moriarty, always with the negative waves.“
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Whedon hated Sutherland because in the Buffy movie, Sutherland ad-libbed a lot of stuff and changed things from the script. Some of those ad-libs were indeed dumb, such as claiming that the Watcher reincarnated like the Slayer. (How does that work? What if you have a teenage Slayer and a baby Watcher?) Some of it did improve the story, like Merrick’s dying speech to Buffy. (In the original script, Merrick actually shot himself rather than be turned into a vamp against Buffy).
It must have hurt that Kristine Sutherland, who played Buffy’s mom in the TV series, took her stage name from Donald…
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That’s why Whedon killed her off!
kidding! so kidding!
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He killed just about everyone off sooner or later.
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He had a memorable guest role in a classic Simpsons episode.
RIP Hollis Hurlbut.
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And now Anouk Aimée has passed at age 92.
As a Fellini fan I remember her best in his twin masterpieces, 8½ (IMO, the greatest Italian film ever made) and La Dolce Vita.
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This entry is a little different, a little personal.
It’s not about somebody famous, although some of you may be familiar with his work without knowing it.
It’s not about some one who has recently passed, but one who was taken away much too soon, ten years ago today.
Steve Viksten was a writer for animated series such as Rugrats, The Fairly Odd Parents and even one episode of The Simpsons. But perhaps his most lasting legacy was his work as a writer and co-producer for 86 episodes of Hey Arnold!
But long before then, way back when, he was my college dorm roommate. We were both new students at the University of Missouri. Both of us went there because of the school’s highly regarded School of Journalism, both of us intending to be writers. But whereas I was a MO resident, Steve was from far off, exotic California. And he kinda looked the part too – laid back, casual and with a full head of 1970s Robert Redfordish blonde hair.
I think we both figured out pretty quickly that journalism wasn’t going to be our destiny. I don’t recall much of anything about the classes I took there. What I do recall are all the times spent just hanging out with Steve and our circle of friends. Lots of movies were seen, lots of pizza was eaten, beer was quaffed when the servers chose not to check IDs, lots of late nights were spent just discussing/debating movies, music, politics, philosophy, all the usual b.s. things young college kids go on and on about. With his quick wit, dry sense of humor and easy going personality, Steve was a key hub in our circle of friends.
We both only spent that one year at MU. I saw Steve a couple of times in the 1980s while visiting friends in L.A., but I’d lost touch with him by the time his career was taking off. I didn’t even learn of his death until a couple of years after the fact. It just seemed, and still seems, so unfair that he should be taken away so early when he clearly had much more that he could have contributed.
Steve also did some voice work on Hey Arnold!, most notably as the character Oskar Kokoshka. So it seems fitting to let him have a final word here.
RIP Steve Viksten, 1960-2014, a good friend and a good guy.
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Saw that Taylor Wily passed over the weekend.
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Huh. Ron Harper, who replaced him on LotL, just died in March.
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Perhaps there is a curse that kills… really old guys who were on LotL?
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Or, y’know… they got older.
Milligan reminds me that so often, the media doesn’t tell you much about the disputes. Or if it does, the angle is always some spoiled greedy actor who wants more than their share. But I read about Milligan’s claims a few months ago, after watching Found Footage’s take on the show. His assertions sure seemed legit to me.
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I lost interest in the show after he left, you just couldn’t replace him, it wasn’t same show, the same dynamic between the cast for me.
Wesley Eure and Kathy Coleman have recently been posting videos together, like a podcast type of thing - on Facebook they shared their thoughts and memories of their TV dad.
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I wonder how much money he wanted to be on a Saturday morning kids’ show about rubber dinosaurs?
Actually, LotL had the highest production values of just about any kids’ show at that time, with scripts by actual SF writers, so if you were going to make bank on a Saturday morning show in the 70s I guess that would be the one.
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His request was that he and the other actors should be compensated for how often their likenesses were being used on tons of merchandise.
I remember watching the show for the first season but not the second. I doubt it had anything to do with the change in performers, since I didn’t even know about that until Found Footage discussing it earlier this year.
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I was typing as Clang posted, but yeah, he felt the cast deserved their fair share of that.
I noticed he was gone but didn’t know why. It did bug me, and I hoped he would be coming back, but nope - eventually I just drifted away, stopped watching.
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Plus, I don’t think that whether or not the show was Masterpiece Theater grade was the issue. The issue was how much money it was pulling in and how that money was being distributed.
[remembers last year’s strike]
Same as it ever was?
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