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Dolly Parton Secretly Produced Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Fans Have Only Just Found Out

posted by martyb on Sunday April 26 2020, @05:32PM   
from the what-else-has-she-been-up-to? dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Dolly Parton secretly produced Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and fans have only just found out:

While Parton was not herself credited as a producer on the long-running fantasy series, a company she co-created and owned was responsible for it coming to television.

Sandollar Entertainment, which is listed on the end credits of every episode of the show, was created by Parton and her friend and former business partner Sandy Gallin in 1986. It produced a number of films, including Father of the Bride (1991) and Fly Away Home (1996), as well as several Parton projects – most recently her Netflix anthology series Dolly Parton's Heartstrings.

It also produced the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie, released in 1992 to dismal reviews. It was Gail Berman, then an executive at Sandollar, who still believed there was potential in the property, and proposed launching the concept as a TV series.

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Original Submission

• I disagree with how this is presented (Score: 4, Interesting) by dwilson on Monday April 27 2020, @11:04PM

  by dwilson (2599) on Monday April 27 2020, @11:04PM (#987653) Journal

  Dolly Parton Secretly Produced Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Fans Have Only Just Found Out

  Okay, seems reasonable. I'm a fan of her music and know she does Good Things, so I'll keep reading because I'm interested.

  While Parton was not herself credited as a producer on the long-running fantasy series, a company she co-created and owned was responsible for it coming to television.

  So... -she- wasn't involved, a company she founded was?

  It was Gail Berman, then an executive at Sandollar, who still believed there was potential in the property, and proposed launching the concept as a TV series.

  Aha, details at last. So, -Gail Berman- is largely responsible, and used the resources of the production company he/she worked for to make it happen. A company which, incidentally, was/is owned by Dolly Parton.

  I skimmed the article looking for details, and was unimpressed. This blurb jumped out at me:

  Both Berman and Gallin are credited as executive producers on the Buffy series, along with its spin-off series Angel, though Parton herself is not. She did, however, play a fundamental if often forgotten role in bringing Joss Whedon’s creation to the screen.

  I read the whole thing. No where is any light shone on this supposed fundamental role. From the information available, the only reasonable conclusion is that Dolly Parton personally had sweet Fuck All to do with Buffy the vampire slayer, and I defy anyone to prove otherwise. No, seriously. If there's information beyond the attention-whoring-headline article linked in the summery, I'd love to see it.

  I mean, if this is the level of informational accuracy we're willing to accept, I might as well submit this story I just found from last february: Bill Gates secretly Saved Minecraft from Notch [venturebeat.com]. Bill Gates started Microsoft, so he's obviously the uncredited mastermind behind the GitHub purchase... right?

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  - D

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