“I wish I could do that!” Mr. Whedon says during UPN's day at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour. Buffy, which moves from WB to UPN on Oct. 9, was the centerpiece of the day.

TALK OF THE TOUR

William Shatner, host of Iron Chef USA: Showdown in Las Vegas Nov. 16 on UPN, describing the camp American adaptation of the popular Japanese culinary competition seen on the Food TV Network:     “This is the World Wrestling Federation meets Wendy's.”

        Mr. Whedon has heard from various parts of the country where viewers can't get UPN, although UPN executives say Buffy will reach 88 percent of the United States, matching the WB's national penetration.

        “But there are some places that don't get the WB, and that get UPN, so I guess it evens out more or less,” Mr. Whedon says.

        Mr. Whedon and star Sarah Michelle Gellar met with TV critics in a press conference with more talk about dollars than the death of Ms. Gellar's Buffy Summers character in the season finale.

        UPN lured the cult drama from WB by agreeing to pay more than $50 million for two years, or $2.3 million per show. WB offered a reported $39 million ($1.8 million an episode).

        “WB didn't want to make the show the way we wanted to do it. They didn't want to give ... Joss what he needed to make the show the way it has to be made,” Ms. Gellar says.

        Mr. Whedon insists the series will remain unchanged, despite the millions. The huge payday goes to Twentieth Century Fox Television to recoup the deficit on the first 100 episodes produced for WB, he says.

        “We really don't have a higher budget,” he says. “We're making the show exactly the way we were before.”

        Except for one small detail — Buffy, the sole protector of her generation from the undead, died in May.

        Mr. Whedon refuses to reveal plot twists in the two-hour UPN premiere. The story will resume three or four months after the WB scene showing Buffy's grave marker in Sunnyvale, Calif.

        “It will be resolved by bringing her back (to life), but it won't resolve her fate. She has a lot to deal with,” Mr. Whedon says.

        Will she still be a slayer? “What Buffy will be when she comes back, you'll have to see,” he says.

        He promises no stupid TV tricks, like Dallas asking viewers to believe the 1985-86 season was a dream after Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) came back from the dead.

        “It's not going to be simple. It's not going to be a dream sequence. It's not going to be a cheat. We did this knowing we were going to have to bring her back, and that we were going to have to do it legitimately with integrity. It will not be a simple process,” he says.

        “Buffy is dead. She's really in the grave. I'm going to bring her back soon. It's going to be really creepy.”

        He won't say more because he doesn't want to spoil the surprise.

        “We've had a lot of leaks (on the Internet). We've had horrible leaks on Angel. I resent it, but there's nothing I can do about it,” he says. “I feel so strongly — and I mean this philosophically — about the concept of surprise as being a really important thing for human beings.”

        Production starts Thursday on the new season. Buffy fans will see Willow (Alyson Hannigan) emerge as a leader, replacing librarian Rupert Giles. Actor Anthony Stewart Head, who has returned home to England, will be a recurring cast member. Willow will rediscover an interest in computers, while still delving into witchcraft.

        “These kids are just entering the grown-up world,” Mr. Whedon says. “Buffy doesn't need somebody to tell her what to do now. She needs to figure it out on her own.”

        Buffy fans also are in for a treat in November sweeps — a musical episode with at least 10 songs. Two-thirds of the show will be sung. “I'm trying to tell the stories as much as I can in the songs,” Mr. Whedon says.

        Ms. Gellar, who had wanted the show to stay at WB, says she embraces the move to UPN now.

        “I'm nervous. I'm excited. UPN has been wonderful,” says Ms. Gellar, who has a contract for two more seasons. “There's been a real enthusiasm from the UPN. They not only are happy to have us, but they're true fans, and it makes you want to work harder.”

        But what about her frustrated fans in Cincinnati? Couldn't Mr. Whedon unleash the undead on those stubborn Time Warner Cable folks?

        “If I do, you'll know, because they'd run amok and destroy the whole town,” Mr. Whedon says. “And then I'd feel really bad.”
       
       TV critic John Kiesewetter is reporting from the Television Critic Association's summer press tour.
       

Testing the waters
Water taste test
Meet the Taste Team
Minerals make the water
At 10, 'Rugrats' still Nickelodeon's baby
'Buffy' will live on - but not here
Dinosaurs get smarter, humans don't in JP III
Peach Pie Clarification
Recipe Rehab
Smart Mouth
You can fight back
Body & mind
Get to it