"He was, like, 'People move on. You have to move forward all the time,' " Greenwalt said. "What I do like about the show is that it does keep changing and we are full of surprises. And people do come and go as in real life. . . . People fall in love and people move forward.
Except for fans who post nasty messages on Web sites and send Greenwalt chocolate and peanut butter — meant to remind him that Angel and Buffy belong together forever.
"The idea that Angel and Cordelia would have feelings for each other — it scared us all and it sort of appeared out of the material," Greenwalt said.
I've seen it mentioned occasionally that Cangel was forced by the network and that they only renewed the show on the condition that Angel was given a love interest in season three.
If true, it complicates the narrative of past interviews that described how Joss thought Cangel was a natural progression, and how it was Joss that pushed for the pairing to happen in the show against Greenwalt not wanting to "do that to Buffy." (Greenwalt has stated that he thinks Buffy and Angel were soulmates)
According to one source, Joss even used his own romantic history when discussing it with Greenwalt: saying that he didn't marry his first love, that people move on.
Darla was a love interest or non-platonic focus for Angel in season two - he even had sex with her - and that storyline extended into season three. Because of that, the network pushing against Angel not being paired with someone, or objecting to having a "sexless" lead to the point of threatening to cancel the show (and Cangel being the antidote to that) doesn't make sense to me, but I am genuinely open to any new information or revelations about this topic.