In a phenomenon nearly equivalent to "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," fans of cancelled series Buffy the Vampire Slayer have been dressing up for the "Once More With Feeling" sing-a-long events across the country. Faced with outpourings of fans, positive reviews, and good feelings all around, Twentieth Century Fox did the only thing any sensible studio would: they shut it down.  Er, wait.  That's not sensible at all.

The Buffy Sing-A-Longs have been travelling the country, hitting major metropolitan spots like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.  Fans dress up as their favorite Buffy characters, get goody bags with favors like vampire teeth and noisemakers, and then sing along (obviously) with the musical episode.  Meanwhile, actors play the parts of the characters in front of the crowd.  It's ... Well, it's Rocky Horror.  With lyrics and music by Joss Whedon.

Clinton McClung, the organizer of the Buffy Sing-a-Long events, said on the official site: "I don’t yet have an official written statement as to why exactly this has happened, but from my understanding the circumstance around the suspension of the rights for our screenings isn't greed or anything like that - so please don't use this as an excuse to lash out at Fox. Basically, the idea of presenting television shows in a theatre is so new that there are a lot of details that still need to be resolved around payments of residuals, deals with the guilds and unions, etc (I don’t know any specifics, but these are some of the issues that usually come up). Both Fox and Criterion need to fix some of these issues before they can continue to do any theatrical screenings."

The words "significant payments" have been batted around by the studio.

"We have to protect our interests, and that's what we're doing," said Chris Alexander, a spokesman for Fox. "There are plenty of legal ways for fans to enjoy Buffy, but this particular event is not going to be possible at this time."  The lawyers for Fox say that, although McClung obtained rights to screen the episode via Criterion Pictures, the permissions he obtained were far more than Criterion was able to grant.

So in summary, an event that brings out fans, makes a lot of money, and gives great publicity has been canned, with the only hope now being that Fox will bring it back itself, charge a lot more, and make it the Creation Conventions of the fannish get-together world.

There's a reason the Whedonverse mocked The Powers That Be.

(Source: Yahoo)