buffy

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a cult American television series that first aired from March 10, 1997 until May 20, 2003. Writer-director Joss Whedon created the concept and TV series under his personal production tag, Mutant Enemy. The series follows the life of Buffy Anne Summers, the latest in a line of young women chosen to battle against vampires, demons and the forces of darkness. Like previous slayers, Buffy is aided by a Watcher who guides and trains her. Unlike her predecessors, Buffy surrounds herself with a circle of loyal friends who become known as the "Scooby Gang". Sarah Michelle Gellar starred as the title character.

The series reached between two and four million viewers on its original run, achieving lower ratings than successful shows on the "big four" networks (ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox).^[1][2] However reviews were overwhelmingly positive,^[3] and the ratings were a success for the relatively new Warner Brothers Network.^[4] The WB network closed on September 17, 2006, after airing a "homage" to their "most memorable series", including the pilot episodes of Buffy and its spin-off, Angel.^[5]

Buffy's success also led to hundreds of tie-in products, including novels, comics and video games. The series has received attention in fandom, parody and academia, and has been called influential by commentators on the entertainment industry.^[6]

Production

Origins

Writer Joss Whedon developed "Buffy" to invert the pervasive horror film formula of "the little blonde girl who goes into a dark alley and gets killed in every horror movie."^[7] Whedon instead hoped "to subvert that idea and create someone who was a hero."^[7] He has said that:

The concept was first visited through Whedon's script for the 1992 movie, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which featured Kristy Swanson in the title role. However, the director saw it as a "pop culture comedy about what people think about vampires."^[9] Whedon said of the result, "I had written this scary film about an empowered woman, and they turned it into a broad comedy. It was crushing."^[10] The script was recognised within the industry,^[11] but the movie was not.^[12]

Several years later, Gail Berman, a Sandollar Productions executive, believed that the concept might make a good TV show, and approached Joss Whedon to develop it.^[13] Whedon explained that "They said, ‘Do you want to do a show?’ And I thought, ‘High school as a horror movie.’ And so the metaphor became the central concept behind Buffy, and that’s how I sold it."^[14] The supernatural elements in the series stood as metaphors for personal anxieties relating to adolescence and young adulthood.^[15] Whedon wrote and partly funded a 25-minute presentation, sometimes called the unaired Buffy pilot,^[16] and showed it to various networks. Eventually, the WB Network bought the show and promoted the premiere with a series of History of the Slayer clips.^[17] The first episode aired on March 10, 1997.

Executive producers

Joss Whedon was credited as executive producer throughout the run of the series.^[18] The show runner is more important on a daily basis, serving as head writer and being responsible for every aspect of production. Whedon was show runner for the first five seasons (1997-2001). He put Marti Noxon into the role for seasons six and seven (2001-2003), but continued to be involved with writing and directing Buffy alongside other projects such as Angel, Fray and Firefly.^[18] Fran Rubel Kuzui and her husband, Kaz Kuzui were credited as executive producers^[19] but were not heavily involved in the show. Their credit, rights and royalties over the franchise relate to their funding, producing and directing the original movie version of Buffy.^[20]

Writing

The writing was undertaken by Mutant Enemy Productions, created by Whedon in 1997. The writing team went through changes every year. The writers with the most writing credits include: Steven S. DeKnight, Jane Espenson, David Fury, Drew Goddard, Drew Greenberg, Rebecca Rand Kirshner, Marti Noxon and Doug Petrie.^[21]

Jane Espenson has explained in interviews how the writing process worked on Buffy.^[22] First, the writers discussed the emotional issues facing Buffy Summers at each point in the story, and how she would confront them. Then the episode's story was 'broken'. Espenson explained, "Breaking the story means organizing it into acts and scenes". Events at act breaks needed to intrigue viewers about how events would unfold. The writers then collectively "filled in" scenes surrounding the actbreaks with a more fleshed out story. A whiteboard marked their progress with brief descriptions of each scene. Once breaking was complete, the credited author then wrote an outline for the episode, which was later checked by Whedon or Marti Noxon. The credited writer wrote the full script using that outline. The draft then went through a quick rewrite from Whedon or Noxon, producing the final article, the shooting script.

Casting

Four roles were cast as series regulars prior to the premiere episode. The title role went to Sarah Michelle Gellar, who had appeared as Sydney Rutledge in Swan's Crossing and Kendall Hart in All My Children.^[23] In 1995, Gellar had won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Leading Actress in a Drama Series at age 18.^[24] She was initially cast as Cordelia Chase during a week of auditioning.^[25]

Anthony Stewart Head had already a prolific acting and singing career^[26] but remained best known for a series of twelve 1980s coffee commercials with Sharon Maughan for Nescafé Gold Blend.^[27] He accepted the role of Rupert Giles.

Unlike other Buffy regulars, Nicholas Brendon had little acting experience,^[28] instead working various jobs — including production assistant, plumber's assistant, veterinary janitor, food delivery, script delivery, day care counselor and waiter — before deciding to break into acting to help him overcome a stutter.^[29][30] He landed his Xander Harris role following only four days of auditioning.^[31]

Alyson Hannigan was the last of the original four to be cast. Following her role in My Stepmother Is an Alien,^[32] she appeared in commercials and supporting roles on television shows.^[32] On Buffy the role of Willow Rosenberg was initially given to Riff Regan for the unaired Buffy pilot but Hannigan auditioned when the role was recast for the series proper. She described her approach to auditions in an interview through her approach to a particular moment: Willow tells Buffy that her Barbie doll was taken from a her as a child, and Buffy asks if she ever got her Barbie back. "Willow's line was 'Most of it.' And so I thought I'm gonna make that a really happy thing. I was so proud that she got most of it back. And then that clued in on how I was going to play the rest of the scene. It defines the character."^[33] Hannigan subsequently won the role.

Broadcasting

Buffy the Vampire Slayer first aired on March 10, 1997 on the WB network and played a key role in the growth of the Warner Brothers television network in its early years.^[34] After five seasons, it transferred to the United Paramount Network (UPN) for its final two seasons. The show went into syndication in the U.S. on FX. In the United Kingdom, the series aired on BBC2. The BBC gave the show two time slots, an early-evening slot for an edited family-friendly version with some violence and bad language cut out and a late-night uncut version.^[35] From the fourth season onwards, the BBC aired the show in anamorphic 16:9 widescreen format. Whedon later said that Buffy had not been intended for widescreen viewing.^[36]

Opening sequence

The Buffy opening sequence provides credits near the start of each show. The music used with the images is a punk metal version of a German pop song from the Eighties by Döf, called "Codo". It was played by punk rock band Nerf Herder, formed in 1994. In the DVD commentary for first Buffy episode, Whedon explained that part of his decision to go with Nerf Herder's theme was that cast member Alyson Hannigan had made him listen to the band's music.^[37] Janet Halfyard, in her essay "Music, Gender, and Identity in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel", describes the opening:

But the theme then changes, as instrumental rock music kicks in. "[The opening sequence] removes itself from the sphere of 1960s and 70s horror by replaying the same motif, the organ now supplanted by an aggressively strummed electric guitar, relocating itself in modern youth culture".^[38] This music is heard over images of a young cast involved in the action and turbulence of adolescence. The sequence provides a post-modern twist on the horror genre.^[38]

Music

Main articles: Music in Buffy and Angel and List of songs featured in Buffy and Angel

Buffy features a mix of original, indie and pop music. The composers spent around seven days scoring between fourteen to thirty minutes of music for each episode.^[39] Christophe Beck revealed that the composers used computers and synthesizers and were limited to recording one or two 'real' samples. Despite this, their goal was to produce "dramatic" orchestration that would stand up to film scores.^[39]

Alongside the score, most episodes featured indie rock music, most often at the characters' venue of choice, The Bronze. Buffy Music Supervisor John King explained that "we like to use unsigned bands", that "you would believe would play in this place."^[39] For example, the group Four Star Mary were portrayed on screen by the fictional front Dingoes Ate My Baby. Pop songs by famous artists were rarely featured prominently, but several episodes spotlighted the sounds of more famous artists such as Sarah McLachlan ("Full of Grace" and "Prayer of St. Francis") and Michelle Branch ("Goodbye to You"). The popularity of music used in Buffy has led to three soundtrack albums: Buffy: The Album, Radio Sunnydale and "Once More, with Feeling" Soundtrack.

Storylines

Setting and filming locations

Main articles: Sunnydale, Hellmouth and Filming locations

Most scenes of Buffy were shot on location in and around Los Angeles, California.^[40] The show is set in the fictional Californian town of Sunnydale (roughly analogous to Santa Barbara), whose suburban Sunnydale High School sits on top of a "Hellmouth", a gateway to demon realms. The Hellmouth serves as a nexus for a wide variety of evil creatures and supernatural phenomena, and lay beneath the school library before the building was demolished. In addition to being an open-ended plot device, Joss Whedon has cited the Hellmouth and "High school as Hell" as one of his primary metaphors in creating the series.^[41]

The high school used in the first three seasons is actually Torrance High School, in Torrance, California.^[42] The school exterior is frequently used in other television shows and movies, most notably Beverly Hills 90210, Bring It On, She's All That (explaining Sarah Michelle Gellar's appearance in the cafeteria scene of that movie), and the spoof, Not Another Teen Movie.^[42] In addition to the high school and its library, scenes frequently take place in the town's cemeteries, a local nightclub (The Bronze), and Buffy's home, where many of the characters live at various points during the series.

Format

The series narrative revolves around Buffy and her friends (collectively dubbed the 'Scooby Gang') who struggle to negotiate the battle against supernatural evils with their complex social lives. Buffy is told in a dual-arc serialized format, with each episode telling a story while contributing to a larger storyline, which on Buffy is broken down into season-long narratives marked by the rise and defeat of a powerful antagonist, commonly referred to as the "Big Bad".

A typical Buffy episode contains one or more villains, monsters, or supernatural phenomena that is thwarted or defeated. Though elements and relationships are explored and ongoing subplots are included, the show focused primarily on Buffy and her role as an archetypal hero. The show blends different genres, including horror, martial arts, romance, melodrama, farce, screwball comedy, and even (in one episode) musical comedy.

Inspirations and metaphors

During the first year of the series, Whedon often described the show as "My So-Called Life meets The X-Files."^[43] My So-Called Life provided a sympathetic portrayal of teen anxieties, in contrast, The X-Files delivered a supernatural "monster of the week" storyline. Alongside these series, Whedon has cited cult film Night of the Comet as a "big influence",^[44] and credited the X-Men character Kitty Pryde as a significant influence on the character of Buffy.^[45] The authors of unofficial guidebook Dusted point out that the series was often a pastiche, borrowing elements from previous horror novels, movies and short stories and from such common literary stock as folklore and mythology.^[46] Nevitt & Smith describe Buffy's use of pastiche as "post modern Gothic".^[47] For example, the Adam character parallels the Frankenstein monster, the episode "Bad Eggs" parallels Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and so on.

Buffy episodes often include a deeper meaning or metaphor as well. Whedon explained, "We think very carefully about what we're trying to say emotionally, politically, and even philosophically while we're writing it… it really is, apart from being a pop-culture phenomenon, something that is deeply layered textually episode by episode."^[48] Academics Wilcox and Lavery provide examples of how a few episodes deal with real life issues turned into supernatural metaphors:

The love affair between the vampire Angel and Buffy was fraught with metaphors. Their night of passion cost the vampire his soul. Sarah Michelle Gellar said: "That's the ultimate metaphor. You sleep with a guy and he turns bad on you."^[50]

Monsters and dark forces

The most prominent monsters in the Buffy bestiary are vampires, which are based on traditional myths, lore, and literary conventions. Buffy and her companions fight a wide variety of demons, as well as ghosts, werewolves, zombies, and evil humans, and even gods. They frequently save the world from complete destruction. Buffy and company use a combination of physical combat, magic, and detective-style investigation, guided by an extensive collection of ancient and mystical reference books. Hand-to-hand combat is chiefly undertaken by Buffy, Angel and later, Spike. Willow eventually becomes an adept witch, while Giles contributes his extensive knowledge of demonology and supernatural lore.

Plot

Main articles: Buffy the Vampire Slayer plot summary and List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes

The first season exemplifies the "high school as hell" concept. Buffy Summers has just moved to Sunnydale and hopes to escape her slayer duties. Her plans for a normal life are complicated by Rupert Giles, her new Watcher, who reminds her of the inescapable presence of evil. Sunnydale High is built atop a Hellmouth, a portal to demon dimensions that attracts supernatural phenomena to the area. At school, Buffy quickly meets two friends who will help fight evil through the series. They must prevent The Master, an ancient vampire, from opening the Hellmouth and unleashing Hell on Earth.

The emotional stakes are raised in the second season. Two deadly vampires arrive in town. Buffy consummates her relationship with her vampire lover Angel, unknowingly completing a curse and taking away his soul. He once more becomes a sadistic killer and sets out to destroy the world. Buffy is forced to kill him.

After attempting a new life in Los Angeles, Buffy returns to town in the third season. She is soon confronted with an unstable slayer, Angel (again), and the evil mayor's plans for Graduation Day.

The fourth season sees Buffy and Willow enroll at UC Sunnydale while Xander joins the workforce. Willow explores her sexuality with another witch, while Buffy begins dating a student who is a member of The Initiative, a top-secret military installation based beneath the UC Sunnydale campus. They appear to be a well-meaning anti-demon operation, but a secret project goes horribly wrong.

During the fifth season, an exiled Hell-God searches for a 'key' that will allow her to return to her home dimension. The 'key' has been turned into human form as Buffy's younger sister. The Hell-God eventually discovers the truth and kidnaps Dawn. Buffy sacrifices herself to save Dawn and the world.

Buffy's friends resurrect her through a powerful spell in the sixth season. Buffy returns from Heaven and finds a job at a fast food restaurant. Her friends are unaware of her inner turmoils as they face their own troubles: Xander leaves his fiancée at the altar and Willow becomes addicted to magic. When Willow's girlfriend is killed by a deranged murderer, Willow descends into darkness and begins a rampage.

The instability caused by Buffy's revival enables the First Evil to amass an army of powerful vampires against humankind during the final season. Willow invokes a magical spell that activates all potential Slayers in the world as the Scooby Gang defeats evil once more.

Characters

Main characters

Buffy Anne Summers (played by Sarah Michelle Gellar) is "the Slayer," one in a long line of young women chosen by fate to battle evil forces. This mystic calling endows her with a limited degree of clairvoyance, usually in the form of prophetic dreams, as well as dramatically increased physical strength, endurance, agility, intuition and ease of healing.

Buffy receives guidance from her Watcher, Rupert Giles (played by Anthony Stewart Head). Giles, rarely referred to by his first name, is a member of the Watchers' Council, whose job is to train the Slayers. Giles researches the supernatural creatures that Buffy must face, offering insights into their origins and advice on how to kill them.

Buffy is also helped by friends she meets at Sunnydale High: Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan) and Xander Harris (Nicholas Brendon). Willow is originally a bookish wallflower; she provides a contrast to Buffy's outgoing personality, but shares the social isolation Buffy suffers after becoming a Slayer. As the series progresses, Willow becomes a more assertive character, a powerful witch, and a lesbian. In contrast Xander, with no supernatural skills, provides comic relief as well as a grounded, everyman perspective. (Buffy and Willow are the only characters who appear in all 144 episodes; Xander is missing in only one.)

Supporting, recurring and minor characters

Main articles: List of Buffy characters and Buffy minor characters

The cast of characters grew over the course of the series. Buffy first arrives in Sunnydale with her mother, Joyce Summers (portrayed by Kristine Sutherland) who functions as an anchor of normality in the Scoobies' lives, even after she learns of Buffy's role in the supernatural world ("Becoming II"). Buffy's teenage sister Dawn Summers (Michelle Trachtenberg) does not appear until the fifth season.

The vampire Angel (portayed by David Boreanaz) is Buffy's love interest throughout the first three seasons. He leaves Buffy to make amends for his sins and search for redemption in his own spin-off, Angel.

At Sunnydale High, Buffy meets several other students willing to join her fight for good (alongside her friends Willow and Xander). Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter), the archetypal popular, shallow cheerleader, reluctantly becomes involved, and Daniel "Oz" Osbourne (Seth Green), a part-time rock guitarist, joins the Scooby Gang through his relationship with Willow even after he becomes a werewolf. Anya (Emma Caulfield), a former vengeance demon (Anyanka) who specialized in avenging scorned women, becomes Xander's lover after losing her powers, and joins the Scooby Gang in the fourth season.

In Buffy's senior year at school, she meets Faith (Eliza Dushku), the second current-slayer who was brought forth when a previous slayer was killed by a vampire. Although she initially she fights on the side of good with Buffy and the rest of the Scooby gang, she comes to stand against them after accidentally killing a human.

During the series, Buffy gathers other allies: Spike (James Marsters), a vampire, is an old companion of Angelus and one of Buffy's major enemies in early seasons, although they later become allies and lovers. Spike is known for his Billy Idol-style platinum blond hair and his black leather duster, stolen from a previous Slayer. Tara Maclay (Amber Benson) is a fellow member of Willow's Wicca group during the fifth season, and their friendship eventually turns into an ongoing love affair. Buffy also allies herself (personally and professionally) with Riley Finn (Marc Blucas), who is initially an operative in a military organization called "the Initiative" that uses science and military technology to hunt demons.

During its seven seasons, Buffy featured dozens of recurring characters, both major and minor. For example the Big Bad characters were often featured for at least one season (e.g., Glorificus was a character that appeared in 13 episodes, spanning much of Season 5).^[51] Similarly, characters that allied themselves to the Scooby Gang and characters which attended the same institutions sometimes featured in multiple episodes.

Spinoffs

Buffy has inspired a wide range of official and unofficial works, including television shows, books, comics and games. A timeline listing when these stories take place in relation to each other can be traced in a Buffyverse chronology. This expansion of the series encouraged fan-use of the term 'Buffyverse' to describe the fictional universe in which Buffy and related stories take place.^[52]

The franchise has inspired Buffy action figures and other merchandise such as official Buffy/Angel magazines and Buffy companion books. Eden Studios has published a Buffy role-playing game, while Score Entertainment has released a Buffy Collectible Card Game.

Angel

Main article: Angel (TV series)

Buffy's perpetual love for the vampire-with-a-soul, Angel, played by David Boreanaz, is a recurrent theme in the first three seasons of the show. After three seasons of Buffy, the spin-off series Angel was introduced in October, 1999. The series was created by Buffy's creator Joss Whedon in collaboration with David Greenwalt. Like Buffy, it was produced by Whedon's production company, Mutant Enemy. At times, the show, which has a darker tone than Buffy, performed better in the Nielsen Ratings than its parent series.^[53]

The series details the ongoing trials of Angel in Los Angeles. The return of his soul, punishment after more than a century of murder and torture, leaves him tormented by guilt and remorse. During the first four seasons of the show, he works as a private detective in a fictionalized version of Los Angeles, California, where he and his motley associates work to "help the helpless" and to restore the faith and "save the souls" of those who had lost their way. Typically, this involves doing battle with evil demons or demonically-allied humans (primarily the law firm Wolfram and Hart), although Angel must also contend with his own violent nature. In the fifth season, the Senior Partners of Wolfram and Hart take a bold gamble in their campaign to corrupt Angel, giving him control of their Los Angeles office. Angel accepts the deal as an opportunity to fight evil from the inside.

In addition to Boreanaz, Angel inherited Buffy regulars Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase and Alexis Denisof as Wesley Wyndam-Price, followed later by Mercedes McNab as Harmony Kendall and James Marsters as Spike. Angel continued to appear occasionally on Buffy and several actors whom played Buffy characters (including Seth Green as Oz,Sarah Michelle Geller as Buffy Summers, Eliza Dushku as Faith Lehane, Tom Lenk as Andrew Wells, and Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg) made guest appearances on Angel.

Expanded universe

Main articles: Buffyverse canon, Buffyverse chronology, Buffyverse novels, and Buffyverse comics

Outside of the TV series, the Buffyverse has been officially expanded and elaborated on by various authors and artists in the so-called "Buffyverse Expanded Universe". The creators of these works are generally free to tell their own stories set in the Buffyverse and may or may not keep to established continuity. Similarly, writers for the TV series were under no obligation to use information which had been established by the Expanded Universe, and sometimes contradicted such continuity.

The Buffy comics are published by Dark Horse, which has retained the right to produce from 1998 onwards.^[54] In 2003 Whedon wrote a eight-issue miniseries for Dark Horse Comics entitled Fray, about a Slayer in the future. In 2004, Dark Horse Comics halted publication on Buffyverse-related comics and graphic novels, following the publication of Tales of the Vampires. The company has recently announced that Whedon will be producing another comic series with 20 issues beginning in March 2007, to pick up where the television show left off — taking the place of an eighth canonical season.^[55]

Pocket Books hold the license to produce Buffy novels. Since 1998, they have published more than 60 Buffy novels. These sometimes flesh out background information on characters; for example, Go Ask Malice provides lots of information about Faith Lehane. The most recent novels include Carnival of Souls and Blackout. They continue to be released approximately every two months with upcoming books scheduled for October and December 2006.

Five official Buffy video games have been released on various portable and home consoles. The most recent, Chaos Bleeds, was released in 2003 for GameCube, Xbox and PlayStation 2. This was the first game that allowed players to take control of characters other than Buffy Summers.

Undeveloped spinoffs

Main article: Undeveloped Buffyverse productions

The popularity of Buffy and Angel has led to attempts to develop more on-screen ventures in the fictional 'Buffyverse'. These projects remain undeveloped and may never be greenlighted. In 2002, two potential spinoffs were in discussion: Buffy the Animated Series and Ripper. Buffy the Animated Series was a proposed animated TV show based on Buffy. Whedon and Jeph Loeb were to be Executive Producers for the show and most of the cast from Buffy were to return to voice their characters. 20th Century Fox showed an interest in developing and selling the show to another network. A three minute pilot was completed in 2004 but never picked up. Whedon revealed to Hollywood Reporter: "We just couldn't find a home for [it]. We had six or seven hilarious scripts from our own staff — and nobody wanted it."^[56] Neither the pilot nor the scripts have been seen outside of the entertainment industry, though writer Jane Espenson has teasingly revealed small extracts from some of her scripts for the show.^[57]

Ripper was originally a proposed television show based upon the character of Rupert Giles. More recent information has suggested that if Ripper were ever made it would be a TV-movie or a DVD-movie.^[58] As of 2006, there are still no concrete plans for Ripper.

In 2003, a year after the first public discussions on Buffy the Animated Series and Ripper, Buffy was nearing its end. Jane Espenson has said that during this time other spin-offs were discussed, "I think Marti talked with Joss about Slayer School and Tim Minear talked with him about Faith on a motorcycle. I assume there was some back-and-forth pitching."^[59] Espenson has revealed that Slayer School might have used some of the new slayers and potentially Willow Rosenberg, but Whedon did not think that such a spinoff felt right.^[60]

Dushku declined the pitch for a Buffyverse TV series based on Faith and instead agreed to a deal to produce Tru Calling. Dushku explained to IGN why she declined: "It would have been a really hard thing to do, and not that I wouldn't have been up for a challenge, but with it coming on immediately following [Buffy], I think that those would have been really big boots to fill."^[61] Tim Minear explained some of the ideas behind the aborted series: "The show was basically going to be Faith meets Kung Fu. It would have been Faith, probably on a motorcycle, crossing the earth, trying to find her place in the world."^[62]

Finally, during the summer of 2004 after the end of Angel, a movie about Spike was proposed.^[63] The movie would have been directed by Tim Minear and starred Marsters and Amy Acker and featured Alyson Hannigan.^[64] Outside the 2006 Saturn Awards, Whedon announced that he had pitched the concept to various bodies but had yet to receive any feedback from those bodies.^[65]

Cultural impact

Buffy has had a cultural impact in various ways. It has impacted television studies, through fan-made films, it has been parodied and referenced in various mediums and it has even influenced the development of some other fiction.

Academia

Main article: Buffy studies

BtVS is notable for attracting the interest of scholars of popular culture.^[66] Academic settings increasingly include the show as a topic of literary study and analysis. It has inspired several books and essays, including Reading the Vampire Slayer, edited by Roz Kaveney, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy, edited by James B. South. An online refereed journal, Slayage, dedicated to critical studies of the show, continues to build an expansive list of essays and articles from professors, critics and students. The creators of Slayage coined the now commonly accepted term Buffy studies.

The overall analysis of Buffy frequently focuses on its relevance to contemporary feminism.^[67] The show is sometimes used as a textual example of third wave feminism, a field which encourages the development of scholarship and courses exploring Girl Power in popular culture. Others have referred to Buffy as post feminist,^[68] while some take issue with Buffy being identified as a feminist work.^[69] Other topics associated with Buffy are issues of sexuality (particularly lesbianism) and its representation and issues of race, class and otherness metaphorically represented through supernatural creatures.^[70][71] Australian academia, in particular, devotes a significant amount of time studying the program, as evinced in its inclusion in several highschool Media Studies curricula and it's continual airing out in the media journal Screen. Since the show's demise, broader research into the origins and nature of the vampire slayer is coming to the fore, for example, Bruce McClelland's Slayers and Their Vampires: A Cultural History of Killing the Dead.

Fandom and fan films

See also: Buffyverse (Fan made productions)

The popularity of Buffy has led to websites, online discussion forums, works of Buffy fan fiction and several unofficial fan-made productions. Buffy fan films have been created for distribution on the internet. In 2001 "Fluffy the English Vampire Slayer" was released and became "one of the first widely watched Whedonverse fan films".^[72] The computer-animated series Consanguinity, following the non-canonical vampires Damien and James, was released from 2004 onwards. Most recently Cherub, a parody of Angel, has completed its second and final season. The upcoming Forgotten Memories will provide a direct continuation of Buffy (with all roles recast), set 2–3 months after "Chosen".

Parodies

Main article: Buffyverse parodies

The show has been spoofed by several comedy sketch shows. For example MADtv featured a "Buffy the Umpire Slayer" sketch, in which Buffy slew umpires in high school baseball games.^[73] Sometimes Buffy cast members have been involved in spoofs. Sarah Michelle Gellar has participated in several sketches parodying Buffy, including a Saturday Night Live sketch in which the Slayer is relocated to the Seinfeld universe,^[74] and adding her voice to an episode of Robot Chicken that parodied a would-be eighth season of Buffy (Seth Green, who played Oz on Buffy, is a co-creator of Robot Chicken).^[75]

The Simpsons 2005 episode, "Treehouse of Horror XVI" contained four segments, the last of which was entitled, "I've Grown a Costume on Your Face" and parodied the Buffy episode "Halloween" (which had aired eight years earlier).

There are several Buffy adult parodies, web comic parodies include Muffin the Vampire Baker on the Sluggy Freelance webcomic, and several musical spoofs including: Once More With Hobbits, which rewrites the lyrics of Buffy's musical episode Once More, with Feeling and the filk song "Angel's Lament".^[76]

Cultural references

The series, which employed pop-culture references as a frequent humorous device, has itself become a frequent pop-culture reference in video games, comics and television shows.^[77][78][79] For example, in the Friends episode entitled "The One Where Chandler Can't Cry", Phoebe's sister Ursula stars in a movie entitled Buffay the Vampire Layer.^[80] Similarly, in the Supernatural episode "Hell House", two amateur ghost hunters ask themselves "What would Buffy do?"^[81]

In 2005, a Trans-Neptunian object 2004 XR₁₉₀ was unofficially named "Buffy", after the main character of the series.^[82]

Impact on television

Commentators of the entertainment industry have cited Buffy as "influential",^[83] and BellaOnline.com chose Buffy as the second "Most Influential SciFi Shows of the ’90s" (behind The X-Files) and commented: "Without [Buffy], we wouldn’t have Charmed or Smallville, heck, there’s a question as to whether Alias would have made it on the air without Buffy having made an example that others could emulate."^[84] Autumn 2003 saw several new shows going into production in the U.S. that featured strong females forced to come to terms with some supernatural power or destiny while trying to maintain a normal life.^[85] These post-Buffy shows include Dead Like Me and Joan of Arcadia. Bryan Fuller, the creator of Dead Like Me said that "[Buffy] showed that young women could be in situations that were both fantastic and relatable, and instead of shunting women off to the side, it put them at the center.^[86] Buffy was used as a blueprint for the current British series of Doctor Who (2005-),^[87] and executive producer Russell T. Davies has said

In addition, Buffy alumni have gone on to write for or create other shows, some of which bear a notable resemblance to the style and concepts of Buffy. Such endeavors include Tru Calling (Douglas Petrie, Jane Espenson and even lead actress Eliza Dushku), Wonderfalls (Tim Minear), Point Pleasant (Marti Noxon), Jake 2.0 (David Greenwalt), The Inside (Tim Minear) and Smallville (Steven S. DeKnight).

Series information

The first season was introduced as a mid-season replacement, and therefore was made up of only 12 episodes. Each subsequent season was built up of 22 episodes. Discounting the Unaired Buffy pilot, the seven seasons make up a total of 144 Buffy episodes aired between 1997 and 2003.

DVD releases

Main article: Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVDs

Awards and nominations

Main article: Buffy the Vampire Slayer awards and nominations

Buffy has received various awards and nominations.^[89] These include an Emmy Award nomination for the 2000 episode "Hush", which featured an extended sequence with no character dialogue.^[89] The 2001 episode "The Body" revolved around the death of Buffy's mother. It was filmed with no musical score, only diegetic music; it was nominated for a Nebula Award in 2002.^[89] The fall 2001 musical episode "Once More, with Feeling", received plaudits, but was omitted from Emmy nomination ballots by accident. It has since featured on Channel 4's "100 Greatest Musicals".^[90]

Footnotes and references

All links retrieved and checked as of September 15, 2006 or after.

External links

Official sites

• 20th Century Fox — Buffy section

Selected fan sites

• All Things Philosophical on Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Buffyguide.com
• Buffyverse Dialogue Database
• Buffyworld.com
• Slayage.tv - Buffy academic essays
• StakesandSalvation.com
• Whedonesque.com