Buzz isn't in The Beginnning, he's in the early Barnabas eps, so the full Hackett glory is available on DVD in the first collection or two already.

Dark Shadows has been mentioned by the BtVS&A staff, though never through Whedon himself as far as I know. A clip from DS even appears in the Buffy Season 2 DVD bonus features. In addition to that, one of the writers mentioned DS in a commentary, saying that he "felt Buffy was closer to My So-Called Life than Dark Shadows." Gunn also directly referenced DS in an episode of Angel, and there are a few paragraphs dedicated to DS in Buffy: The Monster Book, though they had a few pieces of incorrect information if I remember correctly.

In reference to Taeylor's comments on TrueBlood, Bill and Barnabas are tremendously different characters; I wouldn't really describe Bill as a tortured soul type. Of course, Barnabas helped to usher in vampire mania to the modern era, setting the stage for Anne Rice to further popularize vampires, eventually leading up to the new generation of Buffy, Angel, Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire Mysteries/TrueBlood (too many blasted names for one series!), Twilight, Moonlight, et al, so it's entirely possible that Bill wouldn't exist without Barnabas.

And I don't really consider what Darla and Angel had love. I think the only person that Darla truly loved post-vampire was Connor, but that's just my opinion.

Oh, I know what you meant, Magnus. I'll watch those storylines again sometime. Granted, I'll complain the whole way through, but it's not truly unwatchable!

Same here, Magnus. This atrocious bit of writing and acting comes from one of my other favorites, Death Note. Of course, I find many episodes of series unwatchable not for lack of quality, but for other reasons. The Body, which I personally consider the best episode of BtVS, is one of my least favorites to watch. However, I'm going off-topic here.

The Leviathan arc probably is one of my least favorite arcs, though not my least favorite - that dubious honor goes to 1841PT, followed by 1970PT, with 1840 in third place. I do think it showed tremendous potential - it's too bad that a lot of it went to waste. I could rant about Jeb, and especially Jeb and Carolyn, all day long.

That was purely and simply because of DC's involvement. However, DC claimed that supposedly he was going to back away had the show been renewed, and the writers did have ideas to take the second season's storylines in new and totally different directions. But, again, alas...

Oh, I know that. I'm just talking about what did make it to the airwaves.

Many excellent TV series have been canceled unfairly - ABC killed Twin Peaks and My So-Called Life, Fox killed Firefly and Wonderfalls, Showtime killed Dead Like Me... What are you gonna do, though? I did still watch Lost and Bones, despite the fact that the networks are evil. Of course, it doesn't really affect me with my current lack of cable. :/

I don't think he meant any harm, either; he simply feels that if there's going to be a new Dark Shadows, it should be a new Dark Shadows, as opposed to a retelling. Personally, I'd love to see either a sequel series or a retelling, as long as said retelling had enough differences to make it stand out from the original series. The fact that the revival didn't deviate too much from the original show/HoDS was one of my main gripes with the show.

EDIT: I have seen Ladyhawk. It was good, and I can definitely see Dan Curtis saying, "Yeah, let's do that," had DS been running at the time it was released. 

Actually, I was just joking about it because of your signature, but it can be interpreted that way.

Darn, I had another one that reminded me of DS, but it's totally left me.  Guess I'll be running back here as soon as I do remember it.