(Willow's subconscious casting him as Cowboy Guy is possibly the funniest moment in the entire series.)
I had another thought on this - I mention downthread somewhere that I initially thought that they might pair Riley with Willow when she and Buffy first meet him; Willow seemed to have more interest in him and I think AH and MB actually had a fair bit of chemistry. Your remark about Cowboy Guy also reminded me that some of MB's best moments in S4 are interacting with Willow, which tend to be comedic: asking what Buffy likes, the "a vague disclaimer is nobody's friend" scene; and also in Restless in Buffy's dream, him and (human) Adam at the conference table, acting like politicians, talking and behaving illogically with synchronized precision. (Whereas with Buffy it's a lot of angst and drama that I'm not sure MB had the chops for, at least at the time.)
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I had another thought on this - I mention downthread somewhere that I initially thought that they might pair Riley with Willow when she and Buffy first meet him; Willow seemed to have more interest in him and I think AH and MB actually had a fair bit of chemistry. Your remark about Cowboy Guy also reminded me that some of MB's best moments in S4 are interacting with Willow, which tend to be comedic: asking what Buffy likes, the "a vague disclaimer is nobody's friend" scene; and also in Restless in Buffy's dream, him and (human) Adam at the conference table, acting like politicians, talking and behaving illogically with synchronized precision. (Whereas with Buffy it's a lot of angst and drama that I'm not sure MB had the chops for, at least at the time.)