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Originally Published July 16th, 2003
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Prior to the series premiering in 1999, Joss Whedon's Angel was presented to television critics and insiders with this six-minute presentation "reel," filled with clips from the series itself and its predecessor, Buffy, The Vampire Slayer. The entire presentation is included for your viewing pleasure.
The WB ended the 1997-1998 season with a 3.1 rating, peanuts compared to season winner NBC's 10.2 rating (or even Fox's 7.1 rating, the lowest the fourth network had averaged since the 1990-1991 season) [1, 2]. Nevertheless, that represented roughly a 20% increase over The WB's 1996-1997 rating and, more importantly, allowed the netlet to pass its closest competitor, UPN, in seasonal ratings for the very first time [3].
Much of the responsibility for The WB's success had to do with its Tuesday line-up consisting of Buffy, The Vampire Slayer and Dawson's Creek. Despite ranking 142nd and 132nd for the season, respectively, the dramas were strong in the teen demographics that were the network's trademark [4]. Looking to expand on its rising fortunes, The WB added more teen dramas to its 1998-1999 schedule, including Felicity and Roswell.
View the Angel Presentation Reel
The network also gave an early 13-episode order to another drama, this one for the 1999-2000 season, in June of 1998. Produced by 20th Century Fox TV and developed by Mutant Enemy, Angel would be a spin-off of Joss Whedon's hit dramedy Buffy, The Vampire Slayer [5]. Along with another drama, D.C., Angel was one of the big properties The WB was touting during the development season for fall 1999 (D.C. would ultimately premiere in April of 2000 and run for only four episodes) [6].
No pilot was shot for Angel; instead, a "pilot presentation" was shot on location in Los Angeles by a "skeleton crew" prior to The WB's upfront presentation on May 18th, 1999 [7]. In fact, when the presentation was being filmed, the cast and crew weren't even sure when Angel would be scheduled; the hope was it would follow Buffy, The Vampire Slayer at 9PM on Tuesdays [8].
As it turned out, Angel was given the Tuesday at 9PM timeslot, creating a two-hour block of vampire drama. At the upfront presentation, after screening what The Kansas City Star called a "stylish trailer," Joss Whedon explained that Angel came about because "it occurred to [him] there was another story that needed telling" [9]. In keeping with its youthful orientation, The WB opened its upfront presentation with a music video featuring its young stars [10].
Introduced during the first season of Buffy, The Vampire Slayer, Angel (played by David Boreanez) was a 240-year-old vampire with a soul, cursed to live with memories of those he had harmed. After embarking on a relationship with Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) that ultimately ended badly, Angel eventually decided the best thing to do for all involved was leave town.
Following the belated conclusion of Buffy, The Vampire Slayer's third season (the finale was pulled following the Columbine school shooting and not aired until July of 1999), Angel left Sunnydale, California for Los Angeles, the City of Angels. Following him was aspiring actress Cordelia Chase (played by Charisma Carpenter). In Los Angeles he meets an Irish demon named Doyle (Glenn Quinn) who receives visions from The Powers That Be. Together, they form Angel Investigations, with the motto "help the hopeless."
The Angel presentation reel, roughly five minutes and fifty seconds in length, covers the aforementioned aspects of the series and serves to introduce the characters, their backstory and sets up the premise of the series. The first two and a half minutes are a monologue by Angel, followed by clips from Buffy, The Vampire Slayer and scenes between Angel, Cordlia and Doyle.
The premiere episode of Angel, entitled "City Of" and originally broadcast October 5th, 1999, in essence is simply an expanded version of the presentation, although obviously one that goes into greater depth. The last scene in the premiere, showing Angel atop a skyscraper in Los Angeles, is actually taken from the presentation.
Voiceover work is used to integrate it with the rest of the episode. Several scenes from the presentation would be reshot for the first episode.
A word-for-word transcript of the presentation reel follows:
1 Furman, Phyllis. "It Adds Up For WB Network 'Buffy'-Fueled Programming Pushes It Past Rival UPN." New York Daily News. 22 Jun. 1998: 52.
2 Carman, John. "TV Season Ends with a Bang -- Of Implosion." San Francisco Chronicle. 22 May 1998: C.1.
3 Furman, Phyllis. "It Adds Up For WB Network."
4 Aucoin, Don. "'Dr Quinn' Falls Victim To TV's Lust for a Younger Audience." Seattle Post-Intelligencer. 1 Jun. 1998: D.8.
5 Hontz, Jenny and Chris Petrikin. "Whedon and Fox vamping." Daily Variety. 5 Jun. 1998: 1.
6 Hontz, Jenny. "WB swears in interns' drama 'DC'." Daily Variety. 7 Jan. 1999: 1.
7 Fretts, Bruce. "City of angel." Entertainment Weekly. 21 May 1999: 40.
8 Ibid.
9 Barnhart, Aaron. "Upfront and hyping: Networks try to sell advertisers on their new seasons." Kansas City Star. 7 Jun. 1999.
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