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The Boo! Crew Truth be told, Sunnydale is home to more than one Scooby Gang. Buffy's writers, producers, and behind-the-scenes crew

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WHEDON: People have these insane, ridiculous predictions about what's going to happen, then you'll read one that's totally right. They'll know every damn trick you have up your sleeve for the next year.

EW: Your production values are impressive for a drama. When writing, how much do you consider the budget ($1-2 million per episode)?

WHEDON: A lot. You have to. Sometimes we'll let our vision go wild, and our line producer will fire weapons at us. Once there was a giant, mythic bird who in the final draft became lightning.

PETRIE: That was my first episode ["Revelations"], and every time I passed a producer, the word unfilmable got bandied about. One of these days, if we ever really break out, we're goin' bird.

VEBBER: When Joss goes back and does the special editions, he'll put Boba Fett back into some scenes.

WHEDON: Budgetary restrictions have actually helped the show enormously. You have to learn efficiency and what matters.

EW: The violence and sexual content are pretty intense for an 8:00 show. How much grief do you get from The WB's censors?

WHEDON: They've loosened up a lot, but we constantly go back and forth. Faith kissing and strangling Xander [in "Consequences"]was one of the creepiest things I've seen in a long time, but emotionally it's so pure. I figured that would make them nervous, but it didn't.

VEBBER: Joss is anti-gore in general--if you hold it back, when you do show a little bit of it, it's that much more shocking.

EW: What's the deal with the vampires? In some ways they are like your more traditional bloodsuckers--holy water and crosses usually stop them; Angel can't see himself in mirrors. But they don't, for example, turn into bats.

NOXON: Only fake vampires do that. We have some rules--like only one thing kills them: a wooden stake through the heart. Well, that or beheading. And direct sunlight. Fire, probably. That weird poison Faith used on Angel. Actually, a lot of things kill vampires. Stay tuned.

EW: What changes can we expect in season 4?

WHEDON: Early on, we saw that Sarah can go to a deep, emotional place--she can be light and cute and all that good stuff, but she can also take you to a very dark place, and the show ended up skewing that way. We've put her through so much, and some of our mission statement for this year is to let the poor girl have some fun. We'll still make her cry and stuff--but in a funny way.

THE PRODUCER

NAME Gareth Davies CREDITS Remington Steele, The Marshal JOB DESCRIPTION Keeping Buffy running on schedule (eight shooting days per episode) and on budget is akin to doing battle with The Master: feasible but potentially hazardous to your health. Jokes Davies, "I've developed my share of ulcers." Getting hired wasn't a cakewalk either: "When I first met Joss, we didn't get on at all. There were long silences--the whole thing was awkward. I left thinking 'Well, that's not going to happen.' " But ultimately, Davies was persuaded to join the team by his agent and a Fox exec, and he now considers Whedon a "brilliant and very reasonable person to work with. Sometimes we'll joke about [that first meeting]. He'll say, 'I hated you.' And I'll say, 'I didn't really care for you either.'" BIGGEST CHALLENGE Mounting the action-packed season finales. "There's no relief financially because there's more of everything: more stunts, more special effects, more vampires. And we'll not only need, say, Angel in makeup, but vamp Angel, a stunt-double Angel, and stunt-double vamp Angel going through makeup, too. All those Angels add up to one hell of a headache." FAVORITE EPISODE "Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered." With Gellar out five days to host Saturday Night Live, the writers made do by turning Buffy into a rat. "Nothing against Sarah, but that rat was marvelous. It was a real trouper." RELATES TO Giles. Says the London-born Davies, "I can understand every word he says."

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