"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" has been many things -- so much so that creator Joss Whedon jokes, "I got to make a comic book out of the TV show out of the movie out of the T-shirt out of the opera of the song of the bumper sticker of the shoe line that I love." One of the things he left out in the absurdly long list is an animated series -- which was actually in the pipeline once upon a time, and looks to find new life once again.

Back in 2002, Whedon and Jeph Loeb came up with the idea of doing an animated version of Buffy that would take place somewhere in season one. "We liked to call it episode seven-and-a-half," Loeb joked. "It was a much simpler time. Angel had been introduced, but he was not yet Angelus. We could retrofit Dawn as a ten-year-old, so you can really play the older sister gag. Their mom is alive." And because it was animated, "no one has to grow up." Read more...