Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is an American supernatural drama television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon. It is based on the 1992 film of the same name, also written by Whedon, although they are separate and otherwise unrelated productions.[12] Whedon served as executive producer and showrunner under his production tag Mutant Enemy Productions.
This article is about the television series. For the 1992 film, see Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film). For other uses, see Buffy the Vampire Slayer (disambiguation).Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Walter Murphy
- Christophe Beck
- Shawn Clement
- Sean Murray
- Thomas Wander
- Robert Duncan
United States
English
7
144 (list of episodes)
- Joss Whedon
- David Greenwalt
- Marti Noxon
- David Fury
- Fran Rubel Kuzui
- Kaz Kuzui
42–51 minutes[11]
March 10, 1997 –
May 22, 2001
October 2, 2001 –
May 20, 2003
The series premiered on March 10, 1997, on The WB and concluded on May 20, 2003, on UPN. The series follows Buffy Summers (played by Sarah Michelle Gellar), the latest in a succession of young women known as "Vampire Slayers", or simply "Slayers". In the story, Slayers, or the "Chosen Ones", are chosen by fate to battle against vampires, demons and other forces of darkness. Buffy wants to live a normal life, but as the series progresses, she learns to embrace her destiny. Like previous Slayers, Buffy is aided by a Watcher, who guides, teaches and trains her. Unlike her predecessors, Buffy surrounds herself with a circle of loyal friends who become known as the "Scooby Gang" or "Scoobies" – a reference to the animated franchise Scooby-Doo that features a group of friends solving mysteries together.
The show takes place almost exclusively in the fictional setting of Sunnydale, a small Southern California city. Sunnydale is located on a "Hellmouth"; a portal "between this reality and the next," and a convergence point of mystical energies.[13] Because of this, supernatural creatures and beings with magical powers, both good and evil, are drawn to Sunnydale, or rise from below ground to menace the town and the world.
The series received critical and popular acclaim, and is often listed among the greatest television series of all time. Original airings often reached four to six million viewers.[14][15] Although lower than successful shows on the "big four" networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox),[16] these ratings were a success for the relatively new and smaller WB Television Network.[17] Despite being mostly ignored by major award programs like the Emmys, the series was nominated for the American Film Institute Award for Drama Series of the Year, Gellar was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama for her performance in the show and the series was nominated five times for Television Critics Association Awards, winning once in 2003 for the Television Critics Association Heritage Award.
The success of Buffy has led to hundreds of tie-in products, including novels, comics and video games. The series has received attention in fandom (including fan films), parody, and academia, and has influenced the direction of other television series.[1][18] Buffy was part of a wave of television series from the late 1990s and early 2000s that featured strong female characters, alongside Charmed, Xena: Warrior Princess, La Femme Nikita, Dark Angel, and Alias.[19] The series, as well as its spin-off series, Angel, and extensions thereof, have been collectively termed the "Buffyverse".
Broadcast history and syndication[edit]
Buffy the Vampire Slayer first aired on March 10, 1997 (as a mid-season replacement for the series Savannah) on The WB, and played a key role in the growth of the Warner Bros. television network in its early years.[96][97] After five seasons, it transferred to UPN for its final two seasons. In 2001, the show went into syndication in the United States on local stations and on cable channel FX; the local airings ended in 2005, and the FX airings lasted until 2008 but returned to the network in 2013. Beginning in January 2010, it began to air in syndication in the United States on Logo.[98] Reruns also briefly aired on MTV. In March 2010, it began to air in Canada on MuchMusic and MuchMore.[99] On November 7, 2010, it began airing on Chiller with a 24-hour marathon; the series airs weekdays. Chiller also aired a 14-hour Thanksgiving Day marathon on November 25, 2010.[100] In 2011, it began airing on Oxygen and TeenNick. On June 22, 2015, it began airing on ABC Family.
While the seventh season was still being broadcast, Sarah Michelle Gellar told Entertainment Weekly she was not going to sign on for an eighth year; "When we started to have such a strong year this year, I thought: 'This is how I want to go out, on top, at our best.'"[101] Whedon and UPN gave some considerations to production of a spin-off series that would not require Gellar, including a rumored Faith series, but nothing came of those plans.[102] The Buffy canon continued outside the television medium in the Dark Horse Comics series, Buffy Season Eight. This was produced starting March 2007 by Whedon, who also wrote the first story arc, "The Long Way Home".[103]
In the United Kingdom, the entire series aired on Sky One and BBC Two. After protests from fans about early episodes being edited for their pre-watershed time-slot, from the second run (mid-second season onwards), the BBC gave the show two time slots: the early-evening slot (typically Thursday at 6:45 pm) for a family-friendly version with violence, objectionable language and other stronger material cut out, and a late-night uncut version (initially late-night Sundays, but for most of the run, late-night Fridays; exact times varied).[104] Sky1 aired the show typically at 8:00 pm on Thursdays. From the fourth season onwards, the BBC aired the show in anamorphic 16:9 widescreen format. Whedon later said that Buffy was never intended to be viewed this way.[105] Despite his claims, Syfy now airs repeat showings in the widescreen format.
In August 2014, Pivot announced that, for the first time, episodes of Buffy would be broadcast in high-definition and in a widescreen 16:9 format authorized by the studio, but not by any of the series' principals.[106] The transfer was poorly received by some fans, owing to a number of technical and format changes that were viewed as detrimental to the show's presentation; various scenes were heavily cropped to fit the 16:9 format, and shots were altered to have a brighter look, often with color levels altered. Other problems included missing filters, editing errors, and poorly re-rendered CGI.[107] Series creator Joss Whedon and other members of the original team also expressed their displeasure.[108]
The series became available on Disney+ (under the Star brand) beginning February 2021,[109] and was added to Comet's digital network in 2022.[110]