In the world of fandom events comes HellmouthCon, a celebration of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel with a little Firefly thrown in too. While I saw the campy yet effective 1992 flick in theaters, I did not watch the 1997 show but knew people loved it, it spun off hit show Angel and gave the world full Joss Whedon (take that as you may). The lady loves Buffy so I happily attend the annual confab for Fandom Charities which supports youth, education, cancer and LBGTQ endeavours. The con is held at Torrance High School in Los Angeles, where the TV show filmed many exteriors as Sunnydale High School.
Spread across the high school campus, The Auditorium housed cast panels and an acoustic concert with the gym converted to an exhibition floor. 2025’s headliners were James Marsters who played evil yet charming vampire Spike across Buffy and Angel. Along with Christian Kane who appeared on Angel then went on to many a Dean Devlin show like Leverage and The Librarians while moonlighting as a singer-songwriter. Marsters came off high energy with palpable intelligence and wit during his panel then sang and played guitar that night. Spike was originally planned to appear in 5 or 10 episodes so Marsters dug in and subverted the role to find the love and poetry versus villainy that made Spike a fan favorite, eventually appearing in 100+ episodes across the two shows.
Only being scheduled to appear in one or a few episodes but then being brought back for multiple seemed to be a theme across the panelists that included Juliet Landau, Sarah Hagan, Stephanie Romanov and Robia Scott. It brought up an interesting conversation on how shows could breathe and receive feedback across 20+ episodes back then versus today’s short form and limited series that break or bust instantly.
On the exhibit floor I sought out writer and guest Steven L. Sears who began his Hollywood career working for Stephen J. Cannell of The Rockford Files, The A-Team and 21 Jump Street fame. With so many shows in production, if one Cannell title was canceled or another needed help, writers bounced to each. Sears was a staff writer on The A-Team with multiple episodes to his credit, including the Thanksgiving set “Family Reunion” that I mused about while watching holiday episodes, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Full Circle, Rambo style.
I asked if “Hannibal’s famous Four day Turkey-Eating Experience” was based on any of his own culinary extravaganza’s, he said it just seemed funny. But it did unlock a story about “Hannibal” actor George Peppard not being that interested in a “Faceman” Peck/Dirk Benedict focused episode and stopped talking to Sears altogether. Peppard would send turkeys to all the writers for Thanksgiving but excluded Sears. We shared a few quick comments about action legend Craig R. Baxley who directed two of Sears’ scripts and Carl Weathers, who directed a controversial episode of Sheena for Sears in 2001 that dealt with modern day slavery. Sears was impressed with Weathers’ take on the material and how Carl would always engage with fans. With the show floor closing, I picked up a copy of Sears’ book, The Non-User-Friendly Guide For Aspiring TV Writers, Experience and Advice From the Trenches.
