Ten Years of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

It's a bit of a challenge to believe that it's been ten years since Buffy the Vampire Slayer first appeared. At first, the title made it sound like it would be an obnoxious, silly series -- and it was, at times -- but in the best possible way.

Buffy's influence on genre television is pretty easy to spot; you can see elements of it in shows like Heroes and the new Doctor Who, and also female-led shows like Alias and Veronica Mars.

My first episode of Buffy wasn't until the last episode of the first season. I had heard through the grapevine that it was a surprisingly good show, and the season finale absolutely proved it to me. And I didn't miss an episode after that.

eBay item 1563843326 (Ends Sep-23-02 01:03:35 PDT ) - James Marsters got a new sofa...
Bringing Buffy fandom to a new level...

Oh happy day: the Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Once More, With Feeling soundtrack is coming out next month.

Buffy Slays. Now What?  - The least-watched great show on TV grows up.  By Tim Appelo

Zap2it | TV: SHOWS: VIDEO CLIPS
Has lots of clips for next week's episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Which is going to run eight minutes long, so set your VCRs and TiVos appropriately.

The official Buffy the Vampire Slayer site has some preview material for next week's musical episode. Something to look forward to, I think. Especially with Anthony Stewart Head's background in Musical Theater as well. It's going to run long, apparently, so make sure you set your TiVos and VCRs to go beyond just the one hour. (Which will make watching Smallville difficult.)

Tuesday night is probably my biggest night of Television.

The Farscape repeat was an interesting enough episode. A middle part of a three part story from the second season. There's good humor in the series, and it works pretty well. Right now this series gets a lot of my time, and it's all still new to me.

Buffy was very funny, but I'm somewhat disturbed to see the geeks becoming bad guys. Wasn't Buffy the series where the geeks were the good guys? [Xander and Willow seem to be less geeky by the season as well.] Though their dialog was hysterical. And I'm going to so miss Giles.

And I think Smallville continues to show a lot of promise. I don't want them to rush into the Lex-as-bad-guy role, and I like how they've got that set up. I think the modifications in general are solid. They'll have some problems in having him discover powers every week - that's not going to last -- but otherwise, this continues to be on my schedule of shows to watch. It's also interesting to compare to Buffy, since Buffy is no longer about high school life, where Smallville is perhaps trying to recreate some of that feel of Buffy of five years ago.

Rory the Vampire Slayer
I've only watched one episode of Gilmore Girls, which seemed a quality show I'm not really part of the target audience on, but this is a funny article about the challenges of it being up against Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

(I record Buffy while I watch that night's Farscape repeat, and if it was on another night I'd probably watch That 70's Show....)

''Buffy'' slays competition in syndication
And I imagine it must be doing well for FX as well. (I spent a couple hours today catching up on episodes that I'd recorded but hadn't seen since they were originally aired.)

UPN has a Buffy site now that they are running new episodes.
I think the show is still really, really good. I won't spoil here though....

As a joke, after last night's Buffy, I wondered what would happen if you looked for the Urn of Osiris on Ebay.

Someone lived up to my expectations

(Though I wouldn't have mentioned Buffy directly if I'd have done it...)

Ain't It Cool News says that the first season of Buffy will come out in January on DVD, with a good set of extras.

Yes!

'Buffy' faces her toughest task: popularity
Only one week until the season starts up....excellent!

(And Angel was good as well last night, as it distances itself a little from Buffy after the network change....)

The Onion has an interview with Joss Whedon, producer/writer of Buffy and Angel

WooHoo -- FX Networks will be starting repeats of Buffy the Vampire Slayer from the beginning at 7 pm eastern / 6 pm central starting September 24th. I'm pleased, because that's not a time that really conflicts with anything big. (Babylon 5 sure, but I've seen all of those...)

I saw on alt-log that there will be a new series from the producer of Freaks and Geeks. I caught some episodes of Freaks and Geeks earlier this year, and I've already told my new TiVo (which I become a bigger fan of each day) to pick up episodes in repeats when it can.

Unfortunately, I see from looking at the fall TV schedule that like That 70's Show, it's up against Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so it means I won't be watching this new show much either. One thing TiVos can't handle are schedule conflicts... (Why can't all networks repeat their prime time schedule between midnight and 6 am?)

More "Buffy" Fansites Slayed
argh.....

I would have liked to have talked about this sort of stuff at the CONvergence fan websites panel, but we found out more about Harry's website and other activities instead, which is a different beast entirely from this stuff. Some other day, perhaps...

Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | Who does Buffy have to slay to get an Emmy nomination?
indeed!

The Buffy Shooting Script Site
It also includes the original second episode script for Angel called Corrupt, but production was halted on it because it was too dark.

Buffy was robbed of an emmy nod for The Body in this years selection of Prime-Time Emmy Nominations

(also see official emmys site)

BBC to make British ``Buffy'' spin-off
Not much more information than what we had earlier; and we discussed this a bit at CONvergence this weekend.

The convention was fantastic, by the way. I don't really have much to say on it right now, maybe once I get some pictures developed. I had a real good time though, talked to a bunch of people. Died of laughter during the Soylent Theater show, as they had a "Doctor Who Drinking Society" sketch, which hit pretty close to home.

Find out what your first name means (my oh-so-rare name means "Who is like God?" -- that it is a question is an important part of that) Also of interest is that Angel's (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel) real name, Liam, means "Guardian".

The Rumor Mill - Current Posts

says that both Buffy and Angel will have their first season released on DVD by the end of the year.... hopefully that's true!

Well, Buffy was really good tonight. The "previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer" section was fantastic. Did they have a snapshot from the prior 99 episodes? I think so... it's amazing how physically they've all changed since the series started.

Angel was a bit difficult to get into tonight though, after that Buffy ending -- but I understand the logic of the two. I'll be interested to see how both series work on different networks next year....

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Oh...today's (well, tomorrow's) trivia fact: I went to my first science fiction convention of any kind fifteen years ago. It was a one day Doctor Who event at the old prom center in St Paul with Peter Davison, run by the old Doctor Who Fan Club of America. I've still got some vivid memories of being a big geek and trying to debate what order we should put the novelizations in; as you could either put them in the order of the book release, or the order of the TV episode airdates.

It wasn't a convention in the sense I like them today -- a couple on stage events and a huge merchandise selection. But it was fun, and it was really good for our club. Our first, small step into a wider world. I should scan in some of my stuff from that sometime...

tvpicks.net - 2001 Fall Schedule Grid

I was a bit worried that WB and UPN would have a really bad conflict for the shows that I watch with the Buffy changing networks, but it didn't happen. I stopped watching That 70's Show due to the conflict, unfortunately, but that's life...

Saturday's exceptionally grim, isn't it?

STATEMENT FROM THE WB ABOUT BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER

I think they're upset.

I just hope that the move of Buffy to UPN isn't a repeat of what happened when Babylon 5 moved to TNT.....

Buffy moves to UPN

More information....and the article confirms that if the WB cancels Angel, it'll follow Buffy to the UPN.

Oh my, Buffy moves to UPN...

Can I say I'm concerned? Yeah...I am.

Lots of articles are appearing about the last new episode of Buffy

And of course, I agree. It was fantastic, and if you aren't watching Buffy, you are definitely missing out.

oh.... while I think of it. Last night's Buffy the Vampire Slayer was fantastic. It put me in very much the right mood for today. Angel wasn't bad either.

I wrote some thoughts on what is going on in Buffy and Angel for the MISFITS site.

Good thing I checked the Upcoming Episodes at BuffyGuide.com -- there's a new Buffy, but not a new Angel next Tuesday.

Wow. Buffy was good tonight. Angel was fantastic and amazing. Both series are the only thing that can absolutely get me in front of a television whenever there is a new episode. And unlike Star Trek -- which couldn't manage two series at the same time very well -- or Babylon 5, which couldn't manage a spin off. Where Angel is emerging not only as a different series, but has frequently been better than Buffy this year....

Amazing.

Guess the Dictator/Sit-Com Character. Though I didn't know Buffy qualified as a sitcom. (I took it "as myself" and came back as Riley...ok, a little wishful thinking, I think. If I'm anyone in the Buffyverse, it's Xander or Wesley...)

I can't wait to see tonight's Buffy and Angel -- I have to tape them, since I'm going to be out tonight, but I always do that anyways. Dru is back, and so I'm looking forward to it. I'm a bit frustrated that there is so much Television on Tuesday night that I'd like to watch, but don't get to, where I don't watch a lot of television the rest of the week. I've missed That 70's Show all season so far, and I'd really like to catch the repeats of Freaks and Geeks, because I get the impression that it might hit real close to home, and I never watched it when it was originally on. (But then, who did?) But Buffy and Angel are my first priority when it comes to television every week.

Otherwise, I'm not watching much. The X-Files might have picked up a bit with the fresh blood, and a necessary reinvention, by changing it so that Scully is the Believer and the new agent is the skeptic. A long running TV series really needs to reinvent itself from time to time. I also usually watch Futurama and the Simpsons, but that's really about it for television shows that are on weekly. I haven't watched a conventional sit-com in years; I had a "must see TV" phase when Friends first started out, and there were some other sit-coms that I was really fond of in the early-to-mid 1990s, but I haven't watched a new one in years, probably since I moved back to Minneapolis.

News Bytes - BuffyGuide.com is reporting that the Season 1 Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVDs are going to be delayed some due to some syndication issues. Argh! And I won't buy the new boxed set of video tapes either -- DVDs only now for me, thank you! (Well, except for Doctor Who, because I'm skeptical about what will happen with all of those on DVD.)

Found an interesting Buffy Log!