Years after seeing his script for the movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer (movie) mangled by the director with the resulting film a giant flop, he revived the concept as a television series of the same name. The show has received critical acclaim, with the episode "Hush" receiving an Emmy Award nomination for outstanding writing in a drama series in 2000. Whedon wrote and directed the musical episode entitled "Once More, with Feeling" (also Emmy-nominated), featuring the show's original cast singing the parts.
In 2003, after his latest show Firefly was canceled by Fox after only 11 episodes, he announced that his proposal for a Firefly movie was picked up by Universal Studios.
Joss is the son of Tom Whedon, a successful screenwriter for The Golden Girls in the 1980s, and the grandson of John Whedon, a writer for The Donna Reed Show in the 1950s.