Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon, which aired from 1997–2003. It featured the exploits of the Slayer Buffy Summers and her group of friends, the Scooby Gang, as they protected Sunnydale from vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness.
Synposis[]
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is in serialized format, with each episode involving a self-contained story while contributing to a larger storyline, broken down into season-long narratives marked by the rise and defeat of a powerful antagonist, commonly referred to as the Big Bad. While the show is mainly a drama with frequent comic relief, most episodes are a blend of different genres, including horror, martial arts, romance, melodrama, farce, science fiction, comedy, and even, in one episode, musical comedy. The series' narrative revolves around Buffy and her friends, the Scooby Gang, who struggle to balance the fight against supernatural evils with their complex social lives in the fictional city of Sunnydale. The show mixes complex, season-long storylines with a villain-of-the-week format; a typical episode contains one or more villains, or supernatural phenomena, that are thwarted or defeated by the end of the episode. Though elements and relationships are explored and ongoing subplots are included, the show focuses primarily on Buffy and her role as an archetypal heroine of the Slayer. As the title suggests, the most prominent monsters in the Buffy bestiary are vampires, which are based on traditional myths, lore, and literary conventions. Although, as the series continues, Buffy and her companions face an increasing variety of demons and supernatural creatures, as well as unscrupulous humans. They frequently save the world from annihilation by a combination of physical combat, magic, and detective-style investigation, and are guided by an extensive collection of ancient and mystical reference books.
Origin[]
Writer Joss Whedon says that "Rhonda the Immortal Waitress" was really the first incarnation of the Buffy concept, "the idea of some woman who seems to be completely insignificant who turns out to be extraordinary." This early, unproduced idea evolved into Buffy, which Whedon developed to invert the Hollywood formula of "the little blonde girl who goes into a dark alley and gets killed in every horror movie." Whedon wanted "to subvert that idea and create someone who was a hero." He explained, "The very first mission statement of the show was the joy of female power: having it, using it, sharing it."
The idea was first visited through Whedon's script for the 1992 movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The director, Fran Rubel Kuzui, saw it as a "pop culture comedy about what people think about vampires." Whedon disagreed: "I had written this scary film about an empowered woman, and they turned it into a broad comedy. It was crushing." The script was praised within the industry, but the movie was not.
Several years later, Gail Berman (later a 20th Century Fox executive, but at that time President and CEO of the production company Sandollar Television, who owned the TV rights to the movie) approached Whedon to develop his Buffy concept into a television series.[3] Whedon explained: "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." The supernatural elements in the series stood as metaphors for personal anxieties associated with adolescence and young adulthood.
Early in its development, the series was going to be simply titled Slayer. Whedon went on to write and partly fund a 25-minute non-broadcast pilot, that was shown to networks and eventually sold to The WB network. The latter promoted the premiere with a series of History of the Slayer clips, and the first episode, "Welcome to the Hellmouth", aired on March 10, 1997.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy (Seasons 1–7) 144 episodes.
- Nicholas Brendon as Xander (Seasons 1–7) 143 episodes.
- Alyson Hannigan as Willow (Seasons 1–7) 144 episodes.
- Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia (Seasons 1–3) 54 episodes.
- David Boreanaz as Angel (Seasons 2–3. Recurring seasons 1, 4, 5, and 7) 56 episodes.
- Seth Green as Oz (Seasons 3–4.06. Recurring season 2, 4.19 and 4.22) 39 episodes.
- Marc Blucas as Riley (Seasons 4.11–5.10. Recurring season 4.01–4.10 and 6.15) 31 episodes.
- Emma Caulfield as Anya (Seasons 5–7. Recurring seasons 3–4) 81 episodes.
- Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn (Seasons 5.02–7. Recurring season 5.01) 66 episodes.
- Amber Benson as Tara (Season 6.19 only. Recurring seasons 4.10–6.20) 47 episodes.
- James Marsters as Spike (Seasons 4.07–7.22 Recurring seasons 2, 3, 4.03 and 4.06) 96 episodes.
- Anthony Stewart Head as Giles (Seasons 1–5. Recurring seasons 6–7) 121 episodes
Recurring cast[]
- Kristine Sutherland as Joyce (Seasons 1–7) 58 episodes.
- Mark Metcalf as Master (Seasons 1–3 and 7) 8 episodes.
- Julie Benz as Darla (Seasons 1–2 and 5) 5 episodes.
- Andrew J. Ferchland as Collin (Seasons 1–2) 6 episodes.
- Dean Butler as Hank (Seasons 1–2 and 5–6) 4 episodes.
- Mercedes McNab as Harmony (Seasons 1–5) 16 episodes.
- Elizabeth Anne Allen as Amy (Seasons 1–4 and 6–7) 8 episodes.
- Armin Shimerman as Snyder (Seasons 1–4) 19 episodes.
- Robia LaMorte as Jenny (Seasons 1–3) 14 episodes.
- Jason Hall as Devon (Seasons 2–4) 8 episodes.
- Julia Lee as Anne (Seasons 2–3) 2 episodes.
- Danny Strong as Jonathan (Seasons 2–4, 6, and 7) 28 episodes.
- Juliet Landau as Drusilla (Seasons 2, 5 and 7) 17 episodes.
- Eliza Dushku as Faith (Seasons 3–4 and 7) 20 episodes.
- Harry Groener as Wilkins (Seasons 3–4 and 7) 14 episodes.
- Alexis Denisof as Wesley (Season 3) 9 episodes.
- Lindsay Crouse as Walsh (Season 4) 9 episodes.
- Leonard Roberts as Forrest (Season 4) 12 episodes.
- Bailey Chase as Graham (Seasons 4–5) 13 episodes.
- George Hertzberg as Adam (Seasons 4 and 7) 9 episodes.
- Charlie Weber as Ben (Season 5) 14 episodes.
- Clare Kramer as Glory (Seasons 5 and 7) 13 episodes.
- Kali Rocha as Halfrek (Seasons 5–7) 7 episodes.
- Adam Busch as Warren (Seasons 5–7) 16 episodes.
- Tom Lenk as Andrew Seasons 6–7) 26 episodes.
- James Charles Leary as Clem (Seasons 6–7) 8 episodes.
- Iyari Limon as Kennedy (Season 7) 13 episodes.
- D.B. Woodside as Robin (Season 7) 14 episodes.
- Sarah Hagan as Amanda (Season 7) 10 episodes.
- Indigo as Rona (Season 7) 8 episodes.
- Nathan Fillion as Caleb (Season 7) 5 episodes.
International titles[]
- Bulgarian: Бъфи — убийцата на вампири (Buffy — The Killer of Vampires)
- Chinese: 吸血鬼猎人巴菲 (Vampire Hunter Buffy)
- Croatian: Buffy — Ubojica Vampira (Buffy — Vampire Killer)
- Czech: Buffy, Přemožitelka Upírů (Buffy, Vampire Slayer)
- Danish: Buffy — Vampyrernes Skræk (Buffy — Vampire Scare)
- Estonian: Vampiiritapja Buffy (Vampirekiller Buffy)
- Finnish: Buffy, Vampyyrintappaja (Buffy, Vampirekiller)
- French: Buffy Contre les Vampires (Buffy Against the Vampires)
- German: Buffy — Im Bann der Dämonen (Buffy — Under the Demons' Spell)
- Greek: Μπάφι η βαμπιροφόνισσα (Buffy the Vampiremurderess)
- Hungarian: Buffy, a Vámpírok Réme (Buffy, the Vampire Slayer)
- Italian: Buffy l'Ammazzavampiri (Buffy the Killvampire)
- Japanese: バフィー 〜恋する十字架〜 (Buffy ~The Loving Cross~)
- Korean: 뱀파이어 해결사 (Vampire Solver)
- Lithuanian: Vampyru Zudike (Vampire Killer)
- Latvian: Baffija pret vampīriem (Buffy against the vampires)
- Norwegian: Buffy — Vampyrenes Skrekk (Buffy — Vampires' Horror)
- Polish: Buffy: Postrach Wampirów (Buffy: Terror of Vampires)
- Portuguese (Brazil): Buffy, a Caça-Vampiros (Buffy, the Hunt-Vampires)
- Portuguese (Portugal): Buffy — Caçadora de Vampiros (Buffy — Vampire Hunter)
- Russian: Баффи — истребительница вампиров (Buffy — Vampires Fighter)
- Serbian: Bafi, Ubica Vampira (Buffy, Vampire Killer)
- Slovenian: Buffy — Izganjalka Vampirjev (Buffy — Vampire Exorcist)
- Spanish (Latin America): Buffy, la Cazavampiros (Buffy, the Vampirehunter)
- Spanish (Spain): Buffy, Cazavampiros (Buffy, Vampirehunter)
- Swedish (cable TV): Buffy och Vampyrerna (Buffy and the Vampires)
- Swedish: Buffy Vampyrdödaren (Buffy Vampirekiller)
- Turkish: Vampir Avcisi Buffy (Vampire Hunter Buffy)