Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV series)

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Original Run	March 10, 1997 to May 20, 2003
No. of Episodes	145
Genre(s)	Horror, Fantasy
Creator(s)	Joss Whedon
Exec. Producer(s)	Joss Whedon Gail Berman
Starring	Sarah Michelle Gellar Nicholas Brendon Alyson Hannigan Emma Caulfield Michelle Trachtenberg James Marsters David Boreanaz
Country of Origin	United States
Original Channel	WB, UPN

Spun off from the film of the same name, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003) was an original TV series from the creative mind of Joss Whedon. It picked up where the film left off, when Buffy Summers, in her efforts to slay vampires as per her duty as The Slayer, burned down the gym of her L.A. high school. As a result, she is expelled, and her parents eventually divorce. Buffy and her mother, Joyce Summers, move to the California town of Sunnydale, which Buffy soon discovers sits atop a hellmouth. This is where the series begins.

Spoiler Warning: Plot details and/or information about the ending follow. If you wish to enjoy the work first, stop reading here and return at another time.

1 Summary
2 Buffyverse
3 Cast
4 Recurring Characters
5 Popular Culture
6 Memorable Quotes
7 Episode Guide
8 External Links

Summary

Sarah Michelle Gellar stars as Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.

Tagline: "In every generation there is a Chosen One. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer."

Despite being destined for the role, Buffy Summers wants nothing more than to be a normal girl; she wants to do all the the normal teenage things, date and hang out with her friends. Her new watcher, Rupert Giles, has other plans in mind, however. He has been sent by The Watcher's Council to train her to fight the forces of evil and stop the always looming apocalypse.

The show aired for five years on The WB network before switching to UPN for its last two seasons.

The series differs dramatically from the film. Whereas the film is generally thought to be campy and comedic, the series is a dark teen drama expanding the Buffyverse from its original simple concept, to include demons, witches, and other supernatural evils. All of these dark forces can be seen as metaphors for the trials of teenage life and the growth into adulthood.

Also, unlike the film, which centered solely on Buffy, the series features an ensemble cast of strong, complete characters, with whom the audience can identify. They are most noted for their ability to grow and change, and over the series' seven seasons, they grew up with their audience, taking on the challenges of adulthood.

The success of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a pop culture phenomenon that eventually became a successful franchise, and has come to include comics, novels, and a spin-off TV series, Angel.

Buffyverse

The Buffy franchise has expanded far beyond the TV series and original film to include:

Cast

Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Anne Summers

Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg

Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris

Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

James Marsters as Spike (1999–2003)

Emma Caulfield as Anya Jenkins (1998–2003)

Amber Benson as Tara Maclay (2000–2002)

Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn Summers (2000–2003)

Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase (1997–1999)

David Boreanaz as Angel (1997–1999)

Seth Green as Oz (1997–1999)

Marc Blucas as Riley Finn (1999–2000)

Recurring Characters

Eliza Dushku as Faith Lehane

Juliet Landau as Drusilla

Robia LaMorte as Jenny Calendar

Armin Shimerman as Principal Snyder

Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers

Elizabeth Anne Allen as Amy Madison

Harry Groener as Mayor Richard Wilkins

Alexis Denisof as Wesley Wyndam-Pryce

Lindsay Crouse as Professor Maggie Walsh

Mercedes McNab as Harmony Kendall

Clare Kramer as Glory

Charlie Weber as Ben

Popular Culture

On June 29, 2007, TV Guide listed Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV series) as #3 in its list of the Top Cult Shows Ever

Memorable Quotes

Spike: "You know, you take the killing for granted and then it's gone, and you're, like, I wish I'd appreciated it more. Stop and smell the corpses, you know."

Anya: "First there's the love and the sex, and then there's nothing left but vengeance."

Spike: "You listen to me. I've been alive a bit longer than you, and dead a lot longer than that. I've seen things you couldn't imagine, and done things I'd prefer you didn't. I don't exactly have a reputation for being a thinker; I follow my blood, which does not always rush in the direction of my head. So I've made a lot of mistakes. A lot of wrong bloody calls. A hundred-plus years, only one thing I've ever been sure of. You. Look at me. I'm not asking you for anything. When I tell you that I love you, it's not because I want you, or 'cause I can't have you; it has nothing to do with me. I love what you are, what you do, how you try. . . . I've seen your kindness and your strength; I've seen the best and the worst of you and I understand with perfect clarity exactly what you are. You are a hell of a woman. You're the one, Buffy."

Buffy: I don't want to be the one.

Spike: I don't want to be this good looking and athletic. We all have our crosses to bear.

Willow: "Life is a neck. Drink deep."

Anya: "We're all on death's door repeatedly ringing the doorbell, like maniacal girl scouts trying to make quota."

Principal Snyder: "People can be coerced, Summers. I'm no stranger to conspiracy. I saw JFK. I'm a truth seeker. I've got a missing gun and two confused kids on my hands. Pieces of the puzzle. And I'm gonna look at all the pieces carefully and rationally, and I'm gonna keep looking until I know exactly how this is all your fault."

Xander: "I hate to break it to you, oh Impotent One, but you're not the 'Big Bad' anymore. You're not even the Kind of Naughty. You're nothing but a waste of space; my space. And as much I always got a big laugh watching Buffy kick your shiny white bum, and as much as I know that I could give you a little bum-kicking myself right now, I'm here to tell you something: You're not even worth it."

Giles: "You know what gets me? This is what gets me. Twenty years I've been fighting demons. Maggie Walsh and her nancy ninja boys come in; six months later, demons are pissing themselves with fear. They never even noticed me."

Willow: "It's just in high school, knowledge was pretty much frowned upon; you really had to work to learn anything. But here, the energy, the collective intelligence, it's like this force, this penetrating force, and I can just feel my mind opening up, you know? And letting this place just thrust into and, and spurt knowledge into . . . that sentence ended up in a different place than it started out in."

Buffy: "Any apocalypse I avert without dying? Yeah, those are the easy ones."

Buffy: "What about me? I love you so much. And I tried to make you go away. I killed you and it didn't help. And I hate it. I hate that it's so hard, and that you can hurt me so much. I know everything that you did because you did it to me. Oh god, I wish that I wished you dead. I don't. I can't."