“So a Werewolf, Two Lesbian Witches, and a Vengeance Demon
Walk into a Magic Shop . . .”
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THE STORY OF BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a show that shouldn’t exist. First of all, the title itself is risky, and the reason why many people won’t watch it. “You watch a show called Buffy the Vampire Slayer?! Yeah, that sounds like a life-enhancing experience.”How many fans have had to hide the fact that we watch this show, or have suffered derision from the masses of the uninformed? The title is meant to be funny, juxtaposing a name usually given to dumb blondes in beach movies with the incongruous phrase vampire slayer. But unless you actually watch the show, you don’t understand the irony, and it just seems like a big joke.

In order to acquire the show, the networks allowed the executive producer almost full creative control, even though he takes huge risks. In the seven years the series ran, he did what no other show had: put a young flighty teenager in the role of “savior of the universe”; had an ensemble cast that included a werewolf, two lesbian witches, and a vengeance demon; featured almost no adults, except Giles, who happened to raise a demon in his younger years; introduced shocking elements with no explanation for several episodes (Dawn); and wrote an entire show in the form of a dream that makes absolutely no sense (“Restless”). On regular network television, these kinds of risks just aren’t allowed — the executives find what sells and churn out that type of show. That’s why we have countless shows about teenage angst (without vampires), sitcoms about families who just keep finding themselves in the strangest predicaments (while, of course, taking time out to have that “extra-special episode” when Suzie is caught with the drugs), and so many shows about judges, lawyers, cops, and courtrooms that audiences are subjected to three different series with the words Law and Order in the title.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is different, as any viewer will agree. How many of us have had someone make fun of the show, then become completely absorbed in it once we lent them a few of our dvds? Buffy is a tv show like no other, with its own unique mythology, an incredible ensemble cast, and a team of writers who kept the show on top creatively.

But in the beginning, it was all the brainchild of one man.

The Master of All Things Buffy

In the world of Buffy fandom, he is simply known as “god.” The creator. The producer. The writer. The man who makes Buffy who she is, puts the words into the mouths of the characters, and shapes the storylines of one of the most original shows in the history of television. But he didn’t always have so much control over the character. In fact, on his first time out, the character of Buffy was turned into his own nightmare.

Born on June 23, 1964, Joss Whedon came from a family of television writers and grew up in Manhattan. His grandfather had written scripts for 1950s and ’60s television shows like Mayberry RFD, The Donna Reed Show, and The Dick Van Dyke Show, and Whedon’s father had written for Alice and Benson in the ’70s and ’80s. But when Joss first tried his hand at writing, he wasn’t as successful. “I wanted to write for tv, so I wrote a sickening number of tv specs, most of which were returned to me. The rejection notes usually said something like, ‘Very charming. I do not wish to have it,’” he recalls.