http://www.the11thhour.com/archives/042000/features/fury1.html

Mister Furious
Writer David Fury on Angel, Buffy, and brains.
      by Lisa Kincaid


David Fury enjoys his work more than your average person, and with good reason: he gets paid to write for the WB's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off, Angel. It's a position many fans and aspiring screenwriters would consider enviable, but if you want Fury's job, you'd have to get rid of him first, and that's easier said than done.

"You'll have to pry my dead, rotting corpse from my office chair to get me out of here," he firmly proclaims. Then he adds: "Oh, did I mention... I'm a dead, rotting corpse."

And if being a member of the undead club weren't enough in the way of qualifications to write for a show like Buffy, David Fury has the kind of background that makes him practically born for the gig. A native of Denton, Texas (which, as he points out, was the location of The Rocky Horror Picture Show), Fury was raised on the east coast, in Old Bethpage, New York. He grew up on a steady diet of two of the things that make Buffy a bonafide hit: horror and comedy. Firesign Theatre, Monty Python, National Lampoon and George Carlin were among his favorites as a lad, along with horror and sci fi classics like The Twilight Zone, The Invaders, Star Trek, The Immortal and Dark Shadows.

"When I was away at Summer camp," Fury recalls, "my mother used to write me every day with the plot synopsis of that day's Dark Shadows episode." Now that's dedication.

"Horror's always been a passion of mine," he continues. "Like most kids growing up on Long Island, I spent my Saturday nights flipping back and forth between Creature Features on Channel 5 and Chiller Theater on Channel 11. My favorites were It! The Terror From Beyond Space -- which Alien ripped off -- and Fiend Without A Face, about killer parasite brains that used their spinal cords to crawl along the ground."

"Brains are a very big motif with me," he notes. "Probably because I envy those who have them."

Sure. Nice cover story. But I see right through it. Fury, who has already admitted to being a dead, rotting corpse, is obviously a zombie. And as we all know, zombies eat brains. So that explains that.

"I actually keep one in a jar in my office," Fury adds. Well, even zombies get the munchies.

After graduating from high school, Fury moved to Manhattan. He began with penning plays and sketches for the New York stage, but he didn't really consider it a career.

"To tell you the truth," he says, "I've never considered myself a writer. I was an actor and director for a number of years, then a stand-up comic, [which was a] perfect opportunity to keep performing between jobs. Eventually I formed the Brain Trust" -- again with the brains! -- "at the Manhattan Punch Line Theatre."

Brain Trust, as Fury explains, is a comedy theatre troupe which has received quite a bit of critical acclaim, appearing on The Tonight Show and Entertainment Tonight.

"When I came to LA to open the first west coast Brain Trust show," Fury continues, "I was hoping it would catapult my acting career. The show was an enormous hit, but all interest shown in me was for my writing, not my acting. People wanted to know what others scripts I had -- screenplays, sitcom specs. I had none. I hadn't thought about writing professionally.

"Once I got used to the idea, I partnered with my girlfriend, Elin Hampton, to write a couple of specs [for Seinfeld and Get A Life]. With the few contacts I'd made from the Brain Trust shows, I managed to get them read at several agencies. Within a week we had offers of representation. And after a few months, we had an offer for our first network job: The Jackie Thomas Show, Roseanne and Tom Arnold's show."

Fury and Hampton continued to work together on a variety of projects, including HBO's Dream On, where they were story editors; House of Buggin', where they were head writers and supervising producers; and Steven Spielberg Presents Pinky and the Brain. It was only after this assortment of comedy that Buffy the Vampire Slayer came along.

Fury had already been a fan of the idea of Buffy... if not so much the execution.

"The day the movie opened, I cut out of work to catch an early matinee," he admits. "I should mention that I never do that. But I loved the premise so much. Imagine my disappointment later... it was a terrible film. A waste of a really good idea. When I met Joss [Whedon, the creator of both the series and the film], I gambled on telling him what I thought. My respect for him grew tenfold when he admitted he shared my judgment. The series, he said, was going to get it right. By the time I saw 'The Harvest', I knew he was right. And I was an avid watcher from that point on."

Actually getting the gig to work on the show, however, was a bit more complex than that.

"Elin and I met with Joss very early in the show's development," Fury recalls, "before the presentation had been shot. At that point, the WB had only ordered six episodes for mid-season. The meeting was a blast and we were excited about doing the show."

But the path to international stardom never did run smooth, and Fury and Hampton hit a major career roadblock.

"At the same time, we were offered a job on another show: Life's Work, a twelve-episode ordered sitcom from Disney for ABC, sandwiched between the then-popular Roseanne and Home Improvement. Our agents at the time couldn't fathom why we'd want to take Buffy over a surefire hit like that, and, frankly, made us feel stupid for considering it. Weak-willed as we were, we took the Life's Work job -- a show that lasted eighteen episodes, whereas Buffy... well, you know."

Indeed we do. Buffy has not only lasted through four seasons -- and already been signed with the WB for a fifth -- but it's also become a merchandising juggernaut and spawned a successful spin-off.

"Needless to say, we promptly fired our agents" -- and probably ate their brains, too -- "and signed with another literary agency -- coincidentally, the one that represents Joss. Our new agents were aware of our desire to write a freelance for Buffy and soon thereafter got us a pitch meeting with Joss and David Greenwalt. The first idea we pitched was 'Go Fish'. After two or three months, we were finally given nine days to write a script. Their happiness with 'Go Fish' led to a job offer for season three.

"However, Elin and I were deciding at this point to separate as writing partners, something we'd hoped to do eventually. And Elin had just been hired as Producer for Mad About You. Joss graciously offered me a solo freelance assignment. In this next pitch meeting, the idea that became 'Helpless' was the last one I'd pitched. Again, much liking from the powers. They quickly offered me another freelance, 'Choices', a story broken by Joss and the staff without me; and episode two of Angel -- a pretty great honor, I thought."

Unfortunately, Fury's first Angel episode never made it to the air.

"I worked with David [Greenwalt] on the story for several weeks and was sent off during hiatus to write it," Fury says. "The original script was called 'Corrupt', and it was never produced. While it bore a few similarities to 'Lonely Hearts', the aired second episode, it was a much, much darker story, involving junkie prostitutes and their pimps. Two days before we were to start filming, the WB pulled it. They felt it was too dark and unpleasant.

"Within the next two weeks, we broke another story which I scripted -- with an assist on the third act by Marti Noxon -- in four days. The success of both of those scripts led to my being asked to write 'Parting Gifts' with Jeanine Renshaw."

One move that provoked a rather strong reaction from the viewing audience was the decision to kill off Doyle (Glenn Quinn), one of the show's three main characters and the only one of the three that hadn't come from Buffy. Doyle met his end in the show's ninth episode, and in his absence, some new (and not so new) characters have been turning up, most notably former Watcher Wesley Wyndham-Price (Alexis Denisof) and "intergalactic princess" Jheira (Bai Ling).

"I miss Doyle," Fury says. "But that's the point, isn't it? To kill off a main character we've grown fond of. Very courageous move, I thought. I enjoy Wesley. I reintroduced the character on Angel with my script 'Parting Gifts'. It's fun to write him. But, I should point out, there are dimensions to the character that are slowly being introduced. There's more to Wesley than people think. Stay tuned.

"As for Jheira, I like her but it's hard to call her an addition when she's only appeared in one episode. While I'm sure she'll appear again next season" -- according to TV Guide, she's already been signed to appear as a recurring character -- "there are new characters we'll be meeting that will be involved on a regular basis, including Gunn, an amateur vigilante vampire slayer, and an eccentric billionaire named David Nabbit, who'll involve himself with Angel."

Fury won't write any of the Angel episodes left in the show's first season, but may write more episodes for season two. Buffy, on the other hand, isn't quite finished with him yet.


"I've just handed in my first draft of the big season climax [of Buffy] entitled 'Primeval'," Fury reveals. "It's the huge battle episode that ends every season, although this one will actually be followed by an intimate coda episode written and directed by Joss, who wanted a break from the huge battle episodes."

Fury acts as Supervising Producer on Buffy these days, and his previous writing credits on the show were for "Go Fish", in which the members of the swim team start turning into fish-people; "Helpless", in which Buffy loses her super-Slayer powers; "Choices", where everybody's trying to figure out where their futures will lead; this season's Halloween episode, "Fear, Itself"; the apocalyptic "Doomed"; and the Initiative-heavy "The I In Team".

Of all of these episodes, only a few have really had the kind of strange and creepy creatures that many of us grew up being terrified by, but one of Fury's memorable monsters was in "Fear, Itself", with Grachnar the fear demon.

"We had earlier talked about Buffy doing battle with some fearsome demon at the end [of 'Fear, Itself']," Fury says. "But I had thought from the beginning that the more appropriate metaphor for fear is that we tend to allow things to seem bigger than they are. I think I originally pitched that when the demon appeared, it was just an ugly little bug that Buffy steps on. But Joss wanted Grachnar to speak to the Scoobies, a funnier idea, since it got us to a chipmunk-voiced mini-De shouting, 'I am the bringing of terror! Fear me!' And Xander's: 'Who's a little Fear Demon?' taunt."

Looking farther back, at his premiere Buffy episode, "Go Fish", the influence of Fury's childhood viewing habits come into play. "When it was time to pitch a freelance idea to Joss and David Greenwalt, we [Fury and then-writing-partner Hampton] knew it had to be a stand-alone episode -- something that didn't need to further the season arc. The show had already done a spin on various classic Universal monsters. The Mummy was spun into 'Inca Mummy Girl'; Frankenstein with 'Some Assembly Required'; then, of course, Dracula and Wolfman with the vamps and Oz. My personal favorite, as a kid, was The Creature From The Black Lagoon. I had a glow-in-the-dark model of it in my bedroom for much of my formative years.

"Also, I'd been very inspired by an H.P. Lovecraft short story called 'Shadow Over Innsmouth', about New England townspeople who metamorphisize into these horrific half-fish creatures. From there it was a matter of bringing it into a high school setting, hence the introduction of the swim team and the allegory of steroid abuse."

The drug theme came up again in his next pitch, "Helpless", though that one didn't come out quite as Fury's original plan had intended.

"The only one that changed from pitch to finished product would be 'Helpless'," he says, "which was called '18', originally. My original plan for the test Buffy was being put through was a drug or hypnosis-induced hallucination that all of her friends were vampires. That she was all alone. The idea changed when the story for 'The Wish' was broken, in which we see Willow and Xander as vampires. Joss and David G. changed the test to make it about losing her powers, instead."

The episode also contained one of Fury's favorite scenes, in which Giles and Buffy have a confrontation and he admits that he's been poisoning her. Other episodes that hold a special place in his heart are Ty King's "Passion", and Joss Whedon's "Hush" and "Becoming, Part 2".

"I have countless favorite scenes from other episodes," he adds. "The Willow/Oz goodbye scene in 'Wild At Heart'; Buffy killing Angel in 'Becoming, Part 2'; Xander and Cordelia hiding from the maggot guy in 'What's My Line, Part 1'; Buffy getting her Class Protector award at the Prom... too many to name."

As for favorite characters on Buffy, Fury seems to prefer those who remind him of himself. Sort of.

"I love all the characters," he says, "but forced to pick, I'd have to go with Xander. He's the one I identify with most. Insecure, but funny. Sardonic, but sincere. And somehow he winds up with incredibly beautiful girlfriends. Just like me!

"On Angel, gotta say Cordy. Struggling actor in LA, honest to a fault, funny, and great breasts. Just like me! C'mon! You're not gonna print that, are you? It was a joke!"

He doesn't know us very well, does he? Fortunately, he does know himself, even if he's a little self-effacing about it.

"I suppose, if I have any strengths," he says, "it's my sense of humor, combined with my sense of scary. Though I'm unaware of it, I seem to write a lot of wordplay. At least, that's what Joss says, and he seems to appreciate it."

His coworkers are less likely to hedge about his contributions to the team, however. "He's the skeptic who makes us all better because we know we can't get anything half-baked past him," comments fellow Buffy writer Jane Espenson.

With both Buffy and Angel soon finishing out their seasons, Fury's already got summer plans. He'll be rewriting the Goosebumps movie for Tim Burton's production company, and the Buffy staff will begin planning the specific story ideas for the fifth season in a few weeks' time. As for his other future plans:

"I'm hoping for the opportunity to direct one of my future episodes, perhaps after next season. I was a film student at UCLA and I've had extensive experience directing for the stage in New York and LA. Also would like to keep my hand in acting. I still get a kick out of it. Beyond that, I haven't given it much thought. I'm working on my dream show right now, learning from the likes of Joss and David Greenwalt and Marti [Noxon]. I can't think of anything else I'd rather do."

But there's always room for improvement, and Fury's got ideas. Big, naked ones.

"The Buffy/Willow/Anya/Tara/Amy the Rat lesbian/beastiality sex orgy," he says, revealing his Master Plan. "Joss is such a prude for not letting me do it."

In parting, Fury offers some surprisingly candid glimpses into the future of Buffy and Angel -- and since these small spoilers were so forthrightly given, we can't be blamed for being suspicious of their validity. Those Mutant Enemy guys are sneaky. Proceed with caution.

"Angel will learn more about his ultimate destiny," Fury reveals. "Buffy will have a spiritual epiphany that will lead to a re-embracing [of] her role as the Chosen One. Willow comes out. Giles will exhibit a hereto unforeseen talent, that will have the fems swooning. Angel vs Riley. And much, much more..."

Alright, so David Fury may not be a brain-eating zombie. But he is a shameless tease.

The 11th Hour staff would like to thank David Fury for his participation in this interview and a generous Bronzer for her help in setting it up. for more information about Fury, visit his fanclub: Fury's Fanatics. (http://www.scoobygang.com/ffanatics/)

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