Wndyri+ subscribers can listen to Morbid early and ad-free. Join WNDYRI+ in the WNDYRI app or on Apple podcasts.

You're listening to a Morbid Network podcast.

Weirdos, rewatchers, friends, honored guests. Happy Friday the 13th. That was terrifying. We could not think of a better way to spend this iconic day than having a little bonus episode with our new friends from Slayin' It with Juliet Lando. That's right. We said our new friends. Juliet Lande. Hell, yeah. And you know what? Our new friends are not only iconic, but listen to this kick-ass opening.

Hello, hello. I'm Juliet. We're going to slave. When to come?

Rad. Yeah, we were just rocking out. That's awesome. I love it. I want to listen to that. But you know what? You know us. You're going to get to know our friends, but you know us. And when it comes to Buffy, we go scene by scene. Obviously, we really dive into each scene. But have you ever wanted to go behind those scenes where we technically can't take you? Yes, I do want to go to there. Today, we have Juliet Landaugh, Christopher Feinstein, and Frank Banacci. Hello, friends. Welcome.

Hi. Hello.

Thank you.

Hi. It's so great to see you again. I had so much fun hanging out with you guys on crush.

Oh, my God. We had so much fun. We became best friends that day. So it's a legendary day.

I felt like, yeah, I've known you forever.

Exactly. And here we are just hanging out again. Absolutely. Look at us. Look at us. Best friends meeting again. We have been obsessed with Slayin' It. No, it's our Tuesday must listen. Absolutely. And I was looking for one, and you just handed it right to me. So Juliet, tell us a bit about your new podcast, Slayin' It with Juliet Landaugh.

Slayin' It is the first of its kind Buffy Rewatch podcast with a cast member as your guide. This has never been done before. I co-host with my Scoobies, Scooby Chris and Scooby Frank. Hello, hello. Hi. And Slayin' It has everything that we all love, encompassing heartfelt nostalgia, it's also a fresh evolution and exploration with new content and new entertainment as well.

London, 1861. Night, the fog dances around our heroine.

Slying it, slying it, slying it, slying it, slying it, slying it. Why does this keep coming to me?

Paris, beautiful boudoir. 1875. The drapes are pulled tightly closed. Drusilla tosses and turns in her sleep.

I'm slaining. I'm slaining. Microphones.

Swinging Party, Italy. 1953. Night. Drusilla and Spike are wearing braids..

John, I mean, Joe.

Spikes crypt, Sunnydale, 2001, night.

Tin soldiers put funny little knickknacks in your brain. Can't hunt, can't hurt, can't kill, but you can slay it. What?

What? Versailles Techno Costume Ball, 2024, night.

Here, it's The Podcast with Juliet.

Dev and I were in our hotel room and we heard...

Well, I thought I was hallucinating because there was a party outside and the Buffy theme was on a loop. But I thought at first I said, Dev, am I hearing things or is that the Buffy theme? And he said, no, no, you're not hearing it unless we're both hearing it. It's It's happening again. It's happening.

I have a problem with the master's managerial style. He doesn't dull out punishments equally.

You mean when he does the eye, like he folks out?

Yeah, he Lucio Fulci's that one guy's eye just for But easily understandable error.

But having played a villain who is evil, I mean, isn't that part of the thing that makes it so unpredictable is that you never know what's coming your way? You might get your eye out or you might not. Or do you think he just has a scale that isn't very…

Darla goes into his lunch. Imagine you sent out somebody who worked for you for coffee, and they come back and there's lipstick on the cup. It's like, Oh, see, I had some before. I got thirsty on the way over. Hope you don't mind.

I smoked in third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade, and then never…

Well, you just wanted to get it out of the way. Yeah, one and done. That's good, though, because it's healthy tissue at that point. It counts as right. It's resilient. You're resilient at that age. You could put a bunch of stuff in here. I was raised like a veal. My mother wouldn't let me go anywhere. I wasn't allowed to go past the fire hydrant. I'd get beat with a broom. Yeah, we got attacked for that. You can't go past the fire hydrant, God forbid. God forbid, cross the street. Cross the street. I still hear this, yelling and screams in my ears when I cross the street.

Well, I don't know about you kids, but I was smoking a day.

Yeah, we wouldn't be allowed to hang out with you. Giles is the winner. Everybody wants a Giles in their life. I'd be a captain of industry if I had a Giles in my life at that time.

Usually, he gives her information, he trains her, he's on her side, he's a fount of knowledge. Yeah, it'd be amazing to have a Giles, right? Yeah.

That's my favorite relationship dynamic in the show. Some people are like, Are you Buffy Angel? You Buffy Angel, you Buffy Spike, do you ship this? Buffy Spike?

Excuse me, excuse me? I'm sorry. You mean Spike Drusilla, don't you?

I sure stepped in with that one.

Slaying it, slaying it, slaying it, slaying it, slaying it, slaying it with Julia Lana. We're going to slay it. Want to come?

It's such a different approach to a rewatch show. And we've honestly learned so much. We really have. And it's also awesome to get all these insider dates from people that were creating the show. That blows my mind. That's the thing. It's so cool. So Chris, are you learning a lot of insider info by doing this?

Oh, yeah. It's a treasure trove. I'm one of those insufferable people who watch his television that usually has a laptop or his phone open to be like, How'd they do this?

Same.

How did that happen? Who is that? Where do I know that person from? Doing this, it's like, Oh, now I have actually someone who is there. Tell me about that.

It's fantastic. Oh, that must be so cool. We love the inside scoop. That's my dream. I'm that same person. Yes.

It's terrible to watch television with me.

Same. Let's check out another clip from the show.

For Season 2 and beyond, and I'm pretty sure that it was the in Season 1, we shot eight days per episode, and we usually shot eight pages a day. It started out... It was. Also, there was a lot to do because each episode was like a mini movie in that there were action sequences. You're saying there's a lot to unpack for us to talk about. There was a lot to unpack in terms of shooting it. They were very dense, and they were shot like mini movies. In season one, a lot of the location started out as what's called practical, which means you're really at the location. Then later, the exteriors were still used, but the interiors were built. A lot of the reason that that's done is because the real location are small, they're tight. For instance, in Buffy's bedroom, on a sound stage, you can do what they call flying walls out, which means basically to take certain walls out. That allows you to shoot interesting angles. You put the where a wall would be, or for instance, there's no ceiling on a sound stage with the set. You can do a really interesting angle from above that you can't feasibly do when there's a ceiling on the room.

Then the other thing that it does is it saves travel time. Because if you're all in one stage, a crew is anywhere from 150 to 300 plus crew members, and that takes time and time costs money. It means packing all the trucks and the trailers have to move and all of that stuff. A lot of the things that were built where we shot Buffy was in Santa Monica on Stuart Street. The hall was built on the Santa Monica Soundstage. There was actually only one hall for all of the hall sequences. So it was used over and over. I love that. Yeah. And the library, of course, was built so they can make a much more elaborate library. And later, the graveyard was actually built, not on season one, but by the time I came in, we had a courtyard in the parking lot as well.

That's hysterical. Wait, wow, in the Steward Street stages? Yes. Wow, that's amazing.

And then the funny thing is we would start on a Monday at 07:00 AM. Let's say we'd have a 07:00 AM call or 06:00 AM. You'd start at 06:00 AM on a Monday. And then by Friday, you'd be shooting on Monday at the interiors, especially the vampires who couldn't go out until night. And then on the Friday, we would start at 06:00 PM. Often, we work 17 hours. So you'd be working until 10:00 or 11:00 AM on Saturday. And so the show became called by the cast and crew. We all called it Buffy the Weekend Slayer. Should I give you guys a little bit of behind-the-scenes info? Sure. Yes. So John Voolish of Optic Nerve made the prosthetics, and he won an Emmy for Buffy. He also won for X-Files when it moved from Canada to California, and for Babylon 5. He got the whole gig of Buffy because he had a giant praying mantis already in his shop.

Oh, really?

Yeah. So they knew that this storyline was coming up, and they hired him for the show once they saw it.

This is really heavy craftsmanship in that.

Yes. And the funny thing is that the praying mantis had been made for Babylon 5, and Musetta, who plays Natalie French, was in Babylon 5. Yeah. Now they do 3D scanning for prosthetics. But at the time, they did lifecasts. And the first one I did ever was for Buffy, and I actually still have it. In fact, it is used in the basement set of the Darcel Chase sequence in our film.

No way.

Yeah, we put it in there because we thought it would be cool that he had this mold of Jules' head. I don't know, have either of you ever had a life cast done for prosthetics?

I have not. No. I want to, though.

Oh, my gosh. It's a very trippy experience because it feels like... You know those impressions you get when you get at the dentist? Sure. You know how when that happens, you feel like your teeth might come out with it, but they don't, but it feels like when they... Yeah. This really feels like your skin is going to come off when they peel it, and they They put straws in your nose so that you have a way to breathe while they put all this goop over your head. James had gone before me, and I kept saying to myself as I started this process, James has skin. He still has skin. It's on his face. This should be okay.

Oh, you were freaked out by it.

What happened is the technician was really nice, and he asked me if I was claustrophobic, and I said, No, I don't think I'm claustrophobic. And then they start putting the stuff on and they start to give you the straws. And all of a sudden I thought, Well, maybe I am claustrophobic. This is a little bit scary. And then he told me that he had just done John Travolta for a film, and they had to stop because John completely freaked out. So they couldn't get the cast, and they were trying to figure out what else to do. And so he was just a doll. He literally pet me almost for... Because it takes about an hour, and he talked to me, and he pet me. And this wild life lesson happened where I was under all the group with the straws, and I had this moment where I thought, It's like this fork in the road. I could either completely lose my shit and freak out, or I could go this other way and not do that. I electively thought, I'm going to take that road. I did, and I was able to do it. I thought, I got to apply this to the rest of my life.

This is just really profound and amazing.

I think one of the things that I personally love most about the show are the immersive elements that you guys have been adding in. Yes, they're so awesome. The intro to the first episode absolutely sent me into oblivion. So, so, so good. I love all the vignettes that you do. I'm literally trying to figure out what extra scene you might add. I know. Before they even add it, you're like, What are they going to do? So, Frank, not only have you had all kinds of cool guests on the show, but to Ursula herself shows up every single episode.

I don't think me and Juliet have talked about this, but this still happens. We've been working together for months now, and every now and again, she'll be talking, and I'll just go to myself, Holy shit, that's Ursula.

I would do the same thing.

It just hits me every so often. I'm like, Oh, my God. Hey, you're in Buffy.

Oh, my God. Honestly, the same thing happened to me while we were talking to Juliet, even now. We just jumped on and I was like, Oh, my God, that's Drusilla. Yes, 100 %. I was like, Holy shit.

That's amazing.

But can you actually tell us something interesting? Can you tell us about the missing scene?

So the missing scene is something Juliet came up with, and she writes all the scripts for. And it was funny. It gives me a space to do fun production stuff, where I get to world build and build out scenes because I love audio drama. And so It's fun to put these scenes together. Oh, I love that. We have a lot of fun coming up with these, putting these together. She always throws in these amazing ideas. It's fun to collaborate with somebody you've been a fan of for so many years. It's just like, Oh, my God, we're collaborating and we're working on stuff and making creative decisions. It's like, oh, my God, you're Drusilla. We're creating things together. It gives me an excuse to do silly voices. Oh, hell, yeah. Which is my favorite thing.

Oh, that's always fun. They are basically the missing scene from each episode that could have been in the episode that we are focusing on that week.

What would have we liked to have seen in this week? Let's make that.

We love those. The scenes don't only include Drusilla. We've heard from the Master and from Darla. Your portrayal of her was pitch perfect, Juliet. Let's check out a missing scene.

We now welcome our audience to enjoy this recently unearthed missing scene from the episode.

Darla, bring me some young blood. Okay. But I want to get something to eat first. What to wear? I always make my kills for the clothes my meals are wearing. So much easier than shopping, especially at night. Let's Let's see. No, no, no. Oh, this could work. But no. Oh, wait. I killed that Catholic school girl a couple of months back. Yup, here it is. This is perfect for blending in. I won't stand out in the least. This school does have uniforms, right? Oh, this is This is small. There. Okay. Be back soon with your takeout.

Guys, what has it been like recording Slayinit?

Oh, my gosh. It's been such a blast recording it. I had no idea that they were still thinking of me as Drusilla. I didn't know that.

We all are. You'll never escape it.

Right.

But Slayinit is a perfect companion to your podcasts. Each episode, we also discuss the relatable theme, and listeners have been getting in touch with us. They've been telling us their similar experiences. They've been sharing profound and powerful and touching and hilarious and fun and funny stories of their own. And we are also really loving that the fans are coming on the show. We are building up to the ultimate trivia contest that we are calling the Battle of the Uber Buffy Fans.

Let's get ready to Buffy. That's always fun.

I love that.

I'm just amazed this show is happening because it was one of those, Hey, Mary, I'll ask her because we had been talking for a few months about just whatever. It would be so amazing because I'm such a huge Buffy fan for so many years. It's like, it'd be great if she wanted to do this show with us. Then she said, Yes, which I wasn't prepared for.

You're like, Wait, what now? She said, What? I feel like I pictured you saying yes, but I didn't think you'd actually say yes.

Yeah, I just threw it out there. I was like, Oh, let's do that then.

Oh, we have to do this now?

Oh. Well, it was such an organic flow because we met at a New York Comicon where Frank was doing press, and I was there for Slayers, the audio drama, and also for the worldwide release of my feature film. We got along really well, and Frank came to the New York premiere, and he promoted the film, and we did all this stuff together. Then we started talking about Buffy, and we basically had an episode. Chris came in, we started talking, and then we said, Wait, why does this not exist? Why has this not been done before with a cast member? This just is crazy. And so then we embarked on the voyage.

No, this is seriously the best idea.

It's just been crazy. Going to the Hellmouth where we were at Sunnydale, except for Chris. Chris couldn't make it. I got it in. He did. He did it every episode. You got to remind him. I bring up every episode that he wasn't able to go. But it was so wild just being in Sunnydale with the cast. It's like two months earlier, that wasn't even a thought that that could ever possibly happen. Now it's like, Oh, this is what I do now. Now we're going to Orlando, and it's just like, Oh, we're going to be with the whole nine people from the cast, and we're going to be doing a show. It's like, okay.

Okay. Okay. If you say so. I guess. You're like, All right, life, I guess. No, that's great. Sure. I guess, yeah. We're so excited about this show, and I'm so excited that it's so much fun for you guys to work on. Yeah, and it really was such a brilliant concept to have, because you have every angle covered because you have that behind the scenes stuff. You have an actual, very pivotal cast member, a part of it. And I think it's just like, like you said, it's a perfect companion Our podcasts are best friends now, too.

We're so excited for you to come on Slayinit as well.

Oh, we are so excited. We cannot wait. We cannot wait. Everybody's got to look out for that. We have been absolutely gobbling up your episodes, but guys, let everybody know where they can find you.

Apartment 6A. Slayinit is available every Tuesday. We put a new episode in the watch along, whether it's an interview or a rewatch, and wherever you get podcasts.

Rewatchers, you heard the man. Go check out Slaying It with Juliet Landaugh. You will not regret it.

And this is so exciting to get to do this for Friday the 13th. Yes. It's perfect.

I'm just excited there is one.

It's such an honor to talk to the rewatchers. You guys are O'G's in these Buffy Rewatches.

Thank you. No, this is honestly, we are so excited, and we can't wait to see you guys just explode. Oh, thank you. Yeah. It's so nice to meet you, like virtually Chris and Frank. I know. Nice to meet you both.

Yeah, definitely. You guys are literally the reason I podcast. Oh my God.

Thank you. That's so cool.

This is a full circle moment for me.

Oh, that's so cool. Oh, no way. And we showed you how professional we are. Yes. We can't even plug in that.

That makes me feel better, though.

See? Six years in, it doesn't get any different. How the sausage is made over here. That's so funny. But thank you so much, guys. This has been awesome. And we can't wait to join you on Slaying It. If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining WNDYRI+ in the WNDYRI app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wndyri. Com/survey.