Product Description

A demon who takes sadistic delight in forcing his victims to express themselves in song visits Sunnydale. In the process, Buffy and her friends are made to reveal some inner secrets which would otherwise have remained unspoken.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #233083 in Books
• Published on: 2002-12-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 96 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer are used to seeing its creative team pull off unique feats in every season, but Once More With Feeling is perhaps the most creatively challenging episode so far. A superbly enjoyable pastiche of old Hollywood musicals and Broadway shows, it finds an all-singing, all-dancing demon descending on Sunnydale intent on making the town's inhabitants free their innermost secrets through song. As a pivotal episode it proves a turning point for many of the characters, and as a unique piece of TV it's quite clearly unrivalled. There isn't a bad song among them and it's hard not to turn demon-green with envy that show creator Joss Wheedon, who wrote and directed this episode, can be so sickeningly talented. It doesn't matter that some of the cast are less then blessed vocally, but stand-out performances from James Marsters (Spike) and Amber Benson (Tara) help carry along the weaker voices. This book is fan's dream with a detailed behind-the-scenes look at how the episode came about, the complete script, photographs and even the music sheets should you wish to try the songs from the comfort of your Steinway. This is a worthy and essential companion to perhaps Buffy's finest hour (and eight minutes) yet. --Jonathan Weir

Customer Reviews

Simply Stunning
I got this book shortly before Christmas, and it definitely lived up to its description. The book contains picture, sheet music, a shooting script and making-of information. It has to be said on the downside the pictures are mainly captures from the episode, and weren't anything we hadn't seen before. The rest was terrific.
The making-of information did not reveal anything special but it contained intervies with Joss Whedon (writer/director), Marti Noxon and David Fury (co-executive producers) as well as costume, make-up and location designers, as well as many others. A fascinating read, but once read does not draw you back.
The sheet music is just what is says, and contains the music (and background instrumentals) for the majority of the songs in Buffy. I've been using the Keyboard, and they all sound fine.
the main thing this book offers is the shooting script. Located within this is the lyrics of the songs, Whedon's description of events/songs, as well as un-recorded dialogue (including a missing verse from Walk Through the Fire), which is all terrific.
In case you hadn't noticed, this is all working towards a terrific book. the only warning I have is there are two pages in this book (titled 'Where do we go from here') where the main plots of the rest of season 6 are explained. If you haven't seen the rest of Season 6 (being shown on BBC 2 in England at episode 10 on (21/12/02) then you may want to either avoid the book or these pages.
Overall, this is a fantastic book for anyone who enjoyed the musical episode of Buffy, and I would definitely recommend it.

Thanks for reading

The perfect companion volume to the Buffy musical episode
I have three different CD versions and the "for your consideration" Emmy video tape, so of course I am going to add "the original shooting script from the acclaimed musical episode" of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." We all thought that once Joss Whedon was nominated for his script of "Hush" the Emmy people had recognized what great work he had been doing in relative obscurity over there on the WB. We figured "The Body" would obviously get a nomination, but that did not happen. Then we though "once More, With Feeling" was a no brainer, but, ironically, it turns out we were right and the people who do Emmy nominations do, in point of fact, have no brains.

This edition of "Once More, With Feeling" proves once again that the "official" volumes associated with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" are top drawer. What we have here is much more than the script, but let us start with that, because this is a Joss Whedon script, and if you have ever read one of these efforts you know that he tosses around editorial comments with gleeful abandon. For example, the script begins with the TEASER, which immediately explains how there is NO TEASER, but sketches what he would like to see if they have the time. Even if you have the entire script memorized, you will still have fun reading Joss' stage directions. This is essentially the shooting script, which is just a way of saying that you are not going to find lots of stuff that ended up on the cutting room floor, especially since the episode ran eight minutes over anyhow.

Once you finish the script, you happily discover you are not even halfway through the book yet. There is a list of "Musical Terminology from the Script" that helpfully explains not only the basics such as melodies and verse, but also the pop culture references to Carmen Miranda's coconuts, Seventy-six (bloody) trombones and "Koombaya." Then we have "I've Got a Theory," where Joss not only explains about the genesis of this musical episode, but also offers insight on the role of music in the series (there is an especially interesting section that talks about "The Body"). Marti Noxon offers insights on the production problems and other behind the scenes personnel provide additional details, including the literary idea of nonstop dancing (i.e., "The Red Shoes"). "Something to sing about" provides a musical look at the episode, explaining the rational behind the various types of music. Of course, we already know that the strength of the songs were that they were so wonderfully character drive. "Where Do We Go From Here?" covers the rest of the season in answer to the musical question that closes the episode.

Obviously, by this point we have more than gotten our money's worth from this volume but now we get to the color photographs taken mostly from the episode and then you get sheet music for all of the major songs (i.e., not for the bit pieces "Parking Ticket" and "They Got the Mustard Out"). That is certainly a lot for your money and a lot more than just the script and/or the sheet music. When you have a rare individual like Joss Whedon, who puts together a first rate-television show that keeps finding ways of establishing high water marks, and who also takes care of the show's fans in terms of products like this, then supporting him and his efforts through out patronage is both a privilege and a pleasure.

Going through the motions.
Although it cannot be denied that this is a fun book to accompany what is arguabley the best episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it has to be said that the content is lacking in originality. While we get the full episode script and sheet music from the featured songs, it lacks detail concerning how the show was put together. It would have been nice to see some cast interviews and more behind the scenes images. Nevertheless, this book is certain worth a read.