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The Angel Presentation Reel
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.
A Much-Anticipated Spin-off
Angel Presentation Reel
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].
Angel Presentation Reel
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].
The Story of Angel
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.
Angel Presentation Reel
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.
Angel Presentation Reel
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.
Transcript
A word-for-word transcript of the presentation reel follows:
ANGEL
My name's Angel. I was born 244 years ago in Ireland. Small town, good family. 27 years into an unremarkable life I met a woman. She told me she could show me a world I had never seen. She wasn't kidding. Life as a vampire was a constant thrill -- power, danger, the outfits... good outfits. Never getting old, also a plus. But in the end it was all about the kill. The kill was everything. Until I killed the wrong girl. Gypsy, in my experience, are heavily into vengeance. They cursed me. Gave me back my soul, my conscience. I had to live with everything I had done and I had to live forever. It took another woman to show me that my endless life was worth living. Her name was Buffy. You might actually know her. She was my first love. I'm not saying it was an easy relationship. But it was real. I guess I knew it couldn't last. You see, gypsies, they pulled a funny on me. If I ever experience a moment of true happiness, if my soul is ever at peace, I'll lose it. Become a monster again. So I had to leave. I wanted to shut the world out. No more love, no more pain, no more demons. I figured life didn't have any more surprises for me. Alive for 244 years, I thought I'd seen everything. Then I came to LA. ALLEN FRANCIS DOYLE
One hell of a city, man. Buckets of fun if you're a nasty creature of some kind. A little hard on the humans. People will get very lost. They get very dead. And worse. Everyone's got their demons. You wanna help yourself? Help them. Give 'em hope. CORDELIA CHASE
I think it's great that you want to help people fight their personal monsters. You shouldn't turn your back on the helpless. I'm just saying a nominal fee. I mean, why can't we charge the helpless. Monster fighting is difficult work and we have rent. Hey, I'm not the one who's hung around for 200 years and never developed an investment portfolio. Okay? ALLEN FRANCIS DOYLE
She come with he office, man? Sometimes it's easy making with the fisticuffs and stuff. You can handle yourself in a fight, right? ANGEL
I get by. ALLEN FRANCIS DOYLE
Sometimes it's not so easy. Not all demons have horns. Not every damsel wants to be rescued. ANGEL
I know. You can't imagine the price for true evil. ALLEN FRANCIS DOYLE
There's powerful forces out here. Agents of pure evil. They've made great business out of people's despair. ANGEL
They're not going to like me stirring up the waters. ALLEN FRANCIS DOYLE
What, and you're afraid of that? ANGEL
I'm counting on that. ALLEN FRANCIS DOYLE
Quite the masculine fellow, aren't you. ANNOUNCER
David Boreanaz
Charisma Carpenter
Glenn Quinn From Joss Whedon and David Greenwald... Angel
Works Cited:
My name's Angel. I was born 244 years ago in Ireland. Small town, good family. 27 years into an unremarkable life I met a woman. She told me she could show me a world I had never seen. She wasn't kidding. Life as a vampire was a constant thrill -- power, danger, the outfits... good outfits. Never getting old, also a plus. But in the end it was all about the kill. The kill was everything. Until I killed the wrong girl. Gypsy, in my experience, are heavily into vengeance. They cursed me. Gave me back my soul, my conscience. I had to live with everything I had done and I had to live forever. It took another woman to show me that my endless life was worth living. Her name was Buffy. You might actually know her. She was my first love. I'm not saying it was an easy relationship. But it was real. I guess I knew it couldn't last. You see, gypsies, they pulled a funny on me. If I ever experience a moment of true happiness, if my soul is ever at peace, I'll lose it. Become a monster again. So I had to leave. I wanted to shut the world out. No more love, no more pain, no more demons. I figured life didn't have any more surprises for me. Alive for 244 years, I thought I'd seen everything. Then I came to LA. ALLEN FRANCIS DOYLE
One hell of a city, man. Buckets of fun if you're a nasty creature of some kind. A little hard on the humans. People will get very lost. They get very dead. And worse. Everyone's got their demons. You wanna help yourself? Help them. Give 'em hope. CORDELIA CHASE
I think it's great that you want to help people fight their personal monsters. You shouldn't turn your back on the helpless. I'm just saying a nominal fee. I mean, why can't we charge the helpless. Monster fighting is difficult work and we have rent. Hey, I'm not the one who's hung around for 200 years and never developed an investment portfolio. Okay? ALLEN FRANCIS DOYLE
She come with he office, man? Sometimes it's easy making with the fisticuffs and stuff. You can handle yourself in a fight, right? ANGEL
I get by. ALLEN FRANCIS DOYLE
Sometimes it's not so easy. Not all demons have horns. Not every damsel wants to be rescued. ANGEL
I know. You can't imagine the price for true evil. ALLEN FRANCIS DOYLE
There's powerful forces out here. Agents of pure evil. They've made great business out of people's despair. ANGEL
They're not going to like me stirring up the waters. ALLEN FRANCIS DOYLE
What, and you're afraid of that? ANGEL
I'm counting on that. ALLEN FRANCIS DOYLE
Quite the masculine fellow, aren't you. ANNOUNCER
David Boreanaz
Charisma Carpenter
Glenn Quinn From Joss Whedon and David Greenwald... Angel
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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