In every generation, there is a TV show…
Twenty five years ago today, the first ever episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer aired. Following the campy, moderately-received 1992 film of the same name, Welcome to the Hellmouth was the start of a seven season journey that remains one of the most beloved and iconic television shows of all time. We’re going to attempt to understand what about the show made it so legendary.
Across the six plus years it was on air and the decades since it’s finale, Buffy has more than proven itself as a cult classic adored by both critics and fans for it’s boundary pushing, genre breaking content, that unites fans and friends alike. The Blueprint itself owes its creation in part to Buffy: one of our first bonding moments was Maddy proving to Jamie that she could list all one hundred and forty four episode titles in order.
So, in keeping with the anniversary, here are twenty five reasons why the legacy of Buffy the Vampire Slayer lives on twenty five years later.
1. Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Performance
There are so many exceptional performances across Buffy’s seven seasons, but it’s its star’s dynamic yet balanced performance that grounds the entire show. Sarah Michelle Gellar brought gravitas, humour, femininity, and integrity to Buffy Summers each and every week, moulding a character so complex that she felt lived-in, like someone you might’ve known in your own life…whilst she battled vampires and monsters every week. A teenage superhero could easily have been mishandled as a concept and have come across as a caricature, goofy without the heart to back it up. But SMG’s portrayal helped to establish Buffy as a Real Person, and as someone viewers could see themselves in as well as see a friend in.
Honestly, SMG gives a brilliant performance in each episode, no matter what it is she’s asked to do in the process. But for some specific examples of her range and strong grasp of the title character, look to episodes like Prophecy Girl, I Only Have Eyes For You, The Body, Chosen and the list could genuinely just be the show’s entire run. On the rare occasions too, when she plays characters other than Buffy, she is so effortlessly distinguishable. The Emmys definitely missed out on awarding her…but that’s something we’ll dive into another time, so watch this space for a more comprehensive overview of how stupid the Television Academy is!
2. Strength in Femininity
Buffy will drive a sword through a demon’s heart with ease, then complain about breaking a nail whilst doing so. She isn’t the type of “strong female character” who battles against her emotions and becomes cold and callous in the process; the show embraces and celebrates the fact that Buffy is a high school girl who cares about things like her outfits and dancing at The Bronze while also trying to maintain her life as a Slayer, and doesn’t belittle or demean the importance of the traditionally feminine or teenage aspects of her life. In a world that trivialises and mocks the interests of teenage girls, this was groundbreaking to see, and it still is today.
3. “What? I Can’t Have Layers?”
No matter whether it’s one of the central Scoobies or a minor character who’s in only four episodes, the characters in Buffy are treated with respect and their arcs are unmatched by many other shows. The writing team and actors really seem to work together to carry the characters forward authentically and put time into understanding the characters and how they might develop organically, rather than taking the easy way out that some shows do and making the characters do things that don’t fit with their arcs or personalities.
Actors brought on for one or two episodes are brought back again and again if potential is recognised (pun intended); characters who start out relatively unimportant or undeveloped end up becoming some of the fans’ favourites because of how they grow and learn from their experiences and mistakes.
Even the characters that are usually played for their archetypes have growth (Cordelia, Spike, especially Xander) and by the end of their arcs, they are practically unrecognisable from the people they were when they were introduced. They still have their core qualities, but their experiences and new circumstances shape them into fully realised characters with new dimensions added to the parts we’ve loved about them and will continue to love about them as long as we’re talking about the show.
4. Taking Risks
An episode with almost zero dialogue, an episode with no music, a musical! Introducing a major new character without immediate explanation in it’s fifth season?! Buffy was no stranger to taking a big swing and hoping it connected and, most of the time, it did. While the introduction of Dawn, for example, was met with a mixed response, nobody can deny that the move was a bold one and we can’t help but love the fact that the show never settled into familiar rhythms, always with a new surprise just waiting around the corner.
What differentiates Buffy’s risks from other television shows is the intention in which it was executed. These big moves weren’t done for shock factor, to pull viewers in and keep them hooked as so many shows do: they were decisions made by a writing team dedicated to challenging themselves to push the limits of what a television show could be, always maintaining that crucial authenticity.
5. Buffy Speak
The language of Buffy was a phenomenon in itself. Notable for being quick, witty, and stacked with fun, relevant pop culture references, the show’s lexicon was one of its most distinguishing factors during its run, without feeling like it was trying too hard to be something it wasn’t. The writing always felt true to the characters and let the teenagers speak like teenagers.
Incorporating era-specific slang allowed the show to feel fresh while establishing a strong link to the linguistic trends of the time. While this could have made it feel dated in the wrong hands, the strength of the writing ensured that it transcended any barriers that may have been put in place by the change in language over time. Even now, the dialogue in Buffy feels like a window into a specific moment in time, but still translates to a modern day audience. It also mimics real life, particularly when capturing the dynamics of a friend group such as the Scoobies and how they might converse. The abundance of in-jokes and shared language habits makes the group feel genuine, and more importantly, make you as the viewer feel one of them in your own understanding of the language.
That’ll put marzipan in your pie-plate, bingo!
6. “I Think I’m Kinda Gay?”
Buffy fought hard behind the scenes to portray a healthy, non-heteronormative relationship without fanfare, as something beautiful, welcomed and ultimately: totally normal.
Having a beloved, integral character discover their sexuality a few seasons in was a game changer in LGBTQ+ representation on television, and having said character be a female who never fit in the “typical” boxes for a queer character was even more groundbreaking. It gave audiences a main character on a popular television show who went through a journey of self-discovery, breaking out of her preconceived heterosexuality, who was also accepted and loved by her friends. This, along with airing one of the first same-sex kisses on television, made the storyline something that would be remembered and it never shied away from the understanding that it was outside of the cultural norm at the time.
Despite some inflammatory reactions to the development and Willow and Tara’s relationship into something romantic, the exposure of a same-sex couple on a beloved show became a symbol of hope for a lot of fans, particularly queer fans who felt they could identify with the progression of Willow’s storyline. Even as LGBTQ+ characters and relationships are shown more frequently on our screens, there’s a reason fans continue to re-explore iconic characters like Willow, Tara, and Andrew even twenty-five years after the show’s conclusion.
7. Something to Sing About
‘Songs that could be played at The Bronze’ is a favourite musical sub-genre of ours and it’s easy to see why. Like a lot of shows have done since then, Buffy became a great way for a lot of great American indie bands to get some deserved exposure in their careers by being featured on the show.
With numerous performances at The Bronze and other notable music moments in key scenes, Buffy consistently showcased a whole host of great music weekly, as well as some absolutely killer score tracks. Look no further than the gorgeous Buffy/Angel love theme for a shining example of the majesty of this, especially the way it repeats throughout the major moments in Season 2, culminating in best example of the leitmotif in Becoming Part 2 which builds on the melody and captures the scene so beautifully.
8. Stylish Yet Affordable Boots, and More
It would be remiss not to draw focus to the exceptional costuming featured in this show. Each week was a runway of nineties to early Y2K eleganza, that was not only on and ahead of trends, but also displayed character in a fascinating, evident way. We as the audience are able to recognise a character’s strong sense of self, through Willow’s dorky sweaters, Xander’s inexplicably bad shirts and Giles’s tweed. Buffy herself wears her heart on her sleeve through her fashion choices: she’s overtly girly by day; slick and styled for patrolling; and when she’s vulnerable, she slips into comfort – the depression dungarees are a clear example. She’s also clearly influenced by those around her: watch as she dons more leather when spending significant time with Faith or Spike, and resorts back to bright pastels when separating herself from them. This is without even mentioning the costuming for more specific events such as Halloween or period flashbacks. Hoop skirts! In Buffy! It’s stunning.
If you’re an inch interested in the costuming of this show, then you must follow Instagram’s @buffytheoutfitslayer: your life will be enriched tenfold.
9. Looking Camp Right in the Eye
It’s not reinventing the wheel to say that Buffy in many moments feels very campy, in the best way possible. The concept alone of a high femme teenage girl slaying demons by night is camp in itself; then add hyena possession, evil professors, demons playing poker and Ethan Rayne in general to name but a few, and you’ve got yourself some Susan Sontag approved content.
Technically too, instead of feeling insanely outdated, the early special effects have a nostalgic, cherishable quality to them that preserves them through the advancement of special effects technology in TV and film. If Buffy had crisp, realistic VFX, it just wouldn’t be the same. And the satisfying hiss of a vampire being dusted…we wouldn’t trade that for anything.
Jamie wouldn’t be Jamie if he didn’t mention camp queen Gwendolyn Post, who absolutely feels like the epitome of a campy female villain. High priestess of camp Glory often gets the lion’s share of the attention as she probably deserves, but Gwen also deserved the time to develop in that. Okay, rant over, back to building the shrine to Gwen Post in the Blueprint HQ.
10. The Actors And Their Beloved Characters
Over two decades on, the cast are still connecting with fans worldwide over their characters. The show and its cast is still a hot commodity for fan conventions and the actors themselves still attend them, remaining proud of the character they portrayed, flaws and all. They recognise how the heart of the show lives on through the diehard fans and there’s a real joint effort to keep the spirit of the Buffy universe alive.
Obviously, over the last few years there’s been a real shift in the discourse surrounding Buffy largely due to You Know Who, but love for the show itself has prevailed largely through the individual actors’ rightful ownership over the roles, and the recognition of the huge personal work they each invested into their work on the show. So many of the cast were quick to realise the importance of the characters they were playing and who they represented to the viewers, and took to playing them with a real duty that ensured they never betrayed the fans.
11. The Scary (And Silly) Big Bad of the Week
There are a lot of monsters on Buffy, that much goes without saying. From the casual vamps Buffy swats away like they’re nothing to the bigger, dangerous villains we all love to remember, the show has something for everyone.
Any show that can balance two drastically different tones across episodes deserves unending respect. Some wanted the show to be sillier, some wanted it to be darker and more serious, so there’s really something for everyone. You want silly? Go watch the unnecessarily aligned Beer Bad. You want dark and terrifying? Go watch Same Time, Same Place. See what we mean? There’s an exceptional diversity in how the monsters are conceptualised and executed, from a range of practical effects to demons masquerading as ordinary-seeming humans. The Mayor, Angelus, Glory, some of Buffy’s biggest bads, all appearing as human.
Sorry, but how can a show go from having a literal loan shark to having something like Der Kindestod? We here at the Blueprint call that range. Buffy excelled at catering to the sillier aspects of demonic mythology, and being able to poke fun at the things that go bump in the night allowed Buffy to pull out some of its more terrifying horror concepts that took viewers by surprise when they really went for it.
12. Making Up Monsters
Coming off the back of the previous point, the practical monster making is a huge part of how the show stands the test of time. The vampire facial design alone was so iconic that it’ll forever be used as a reference point in today’s world of onscreen prosthetics.
The makeup department of this show worked on a huge, feature film level paralleled only with shows the likes of Star Trek and The Walking Dead, with full bodied demons and creatures appearing on our screens weekly, alongside the signature vampires, more often than not exclusively through practical effects without computer animation aid at all. Sure, occasionally there’s CGI for the few, larger scale creatures, but for the most part it’s tangible. It’s the same reason Jurassic Park and the Harry Potter films will not age even as technology advances on screen: favouring practical effects, and putting exceptional craftsmanship into making them work, ensures the audience can see the realness, and therefore find it easy to believe.
13. Serious Stunt Work
The serious stunt work of this show ensures that the show doesn’t just talk the talk when it comes to saving the world from vampires, demons and forces of darkness. Buffy’s stunt co-ordinator, Jeff Pruitt, had Sarah Michelle Gellar doing midnight round kicks and David Boreanaz up on a wire doing backflips on a casual Tuesday. The work was never half-assed, recognising how vital it is that we really believe this girl is in the fight of her life as a skilled slayer, ensuring the stakes (again, pun very much intended) are always high.
And the fight choreography absolutely never disappoints. Each character has their own recognisable style; whether it’s Buffy’s more disciplined blend of martial arts and acrobatics, or Faith’s looser, more aggressive style of combat. These differences play into the character work really well, thanks to the actors and their commendable stunt doubles who work together to create well-crafted fight sequences that go a long way in furthering the immersion of the show.
14. Welcome to Sunnydale: Home Sweet Home!
As a show contained to one town, the physical production value was off the charts, and never in a flashy way. The sets were concise, fit for purpose and meticulously built to create the sense of a very real, lived in world. Sunnydale has a number of iconic locations: the school library, The Bronze, The Magic Box, Buffy’s house, Giles’ apartment, the Espresso Pump coffee house. The Initiative was literally just a warehouse pit lined with tin foil, but the idea of it is successfully sold on a grand scale from the delicate balance of big ideas crafted with practicality. This goes back to the show’s boldness, taking big swings and making them work. In every aspect of the craft, the dedication and love is so apparent.
Throughout the show’s evolving characters, storylines and big bads, and the ever-changing nature of Anya’s hair, Sunnydale and it’s Hellmouth remains the one constant.
15. Buffyverse Vampire Lore
Buffy gave us a practical, appropriately modernised take on traditional vampirisms: staking through the heart is very much in, garlic is out.
It takes what we know exists in vampire lore and expands upon it in a mostly grounded way, with a lot of moves being made for convenience alone. The show introduced the concept of vampires turning to dust when killed to prevent Buffy having to spend half her life dragging corpses around, for example; and the infamous ‘bumpy foreheads’ were designed specifically so as to paint Buffy herself as a slayer of monsters, not a murderer of normal looking people.
There are so many other points to be commended: the lineage of slayers itself is an excellent notion; the specific concept of a soul is deeply philosophical if you overthink it for even a second; and its portrayal of the vampire who started it all, Dracula? Exceptional, never to be beaten.
16. “The Hardest Thing in this World is to Live in It”
High School is hell, as is the adult life that follows it. Buffy is sympathetic and doesn’t mock the real stuff that’s ongoing behind the vampires and monsters which are supposedly the focus of the show. Some of the biggest horrors on Buffy are that of grief, depression, misogynistic power hungry boys like Warren, not to mention the sixth season’s money struggle arc that hits home just to think about.
Season Six as a whole is notable for being the bleakest season in terms of the horrors that aren’t supernatural. It’s further proof that Buffy never shies away from uncomfortable feelings and situations that populate everyday life. If (for some reason) you couldn’t relate to saving the world every week and roundhouse kicking monsters after school, Buffy made sure that its storylines dealt with real struggles, and this only helped to make its characters feel even more lived in and real than they already were.
There’s a notion in a lot of teen-focused content that high school feels like the end of the world when you’re in it, and then you look back and realise it wasn’t that serious. Buffy throws this out of the window and stakes it in the heart, combining literal world-ending disasters with the inner politics of high school and beyond.
17. Legacy
Sure some of the effects in Season One aren’t up to today’s standard, but it doesn’t feel as dated as it potentially could have and as other shows of the era do. Whether that’s because super fans are more willing to overlook the patchier elements of the show remains to be seen, but it’s an undeniable fact that Buffy is one of those rare, timeless shows that people will continue to discover and rediscover again and again for whatever they need.
Part of the reason that Buffy has held up so well is that it deals in themes and ideas that won’t go out of vogue: love, friendship, strength, responsibility, the list goes on and on. While the effects and some of the cultural references won’t be as easily understood or appreciated today, we can still relate to a lot of things that happen in the show.
18. The Iconic Theme Tune
Yes, we know we have a ‘soundtrack’ section, but Nerf Herder’s absolute bop of a theme tune deserve its own special mention for being the cause of many cases of whiplash for just going absolutely feral at the beginning of every episode. Buffy was struggling to find a theme tune in the infancy of its production, and it was actually Alyson Hannigan who suggested Nerf Herder as a band to contact about it. They just so happened to have a piece without lyrics that they were struggling to find a use for, and the rest is history. And accompanied by the cool flashes of Buffy kicking ass in the episodes, what more could you want honestly?
19. Buffy Herself – The Strength of Having a Great Protagonist
Many shows suffer from having protagonists who are perhaps the least interesting characters on the show, so often outshined by the supporting cast around them. Buffy never has this issue, because she’s a special kind of protagonist; the kind who could never be a supporting character because she’s simply too interesting not to be the main focus. That’s not the say the characters around her are less interesting, because that’s definitely not the case, but Buffy is a pleasure to follow every week.
As is the curse of being a protagonist in a fantasy/horror show, Buffy Summers is put through the ringer. Being the one girl in all the world, the ‘chosen’ one, Buffy inherited the task of keeping her town and the world safe from the evils of the Hellmouth. She’s died several times, been subsequently resurrected several times, witnessed the deaths of those closest to her, and been through a gauntlet of the hardest pains anyone should ever have to experience. But it’s her resilience that shines through and wins the day. Even when she gives up, it’s never for long. With her friends around her to bolster her, Buffy just keeps going with optimism and a determined spirit that rallies those around her. Creating such an exceptional character to centre a show around definitely helps, and that’s never more apparent when watching Buffy.
20. ‘Family Don’t End in Blood’
Many important characters either leave or die in the Buffyverse, and new ones come along all the time, so maintaining complex and interesting character relationships could have been a very difficult task. Luckily, Buffy had its bases covered on all fronts, using its story progressions to explore new character dynamics that challenge the existing circumstances and push characters into compelling arcs that break away from their moulds, and ultimately maintain this strong sense of unity between the characters.
The actual family relationships in Buffy could get quite complicated at times: Buffy herself often had to sacrifice her relationship with her mother in order to carry out her duty as a Slayer by sneaking out and lying to her, and we certainly won’t be giving a moment’s thought to the deadbeat Dad that is Hank Summers. But, she was able to confide in her best friends about all aspects of her life, and find a father figure in Giles. It quickly became apparent that the show was excellent at creating trust and familiarity within its friendships and even the romantic relationships.
New characters would join the core gang and they would learn they had a home there, creating an important sense of ‘found family’, a now popular trope that sees the standard family dynamics thrown out of the window in favour of perhaps unexpected connections betweens friends, teachers, and everyone in between.
An obvious yet compelling example of this is the Season 5 episode “Family“. Featuring certified Blueprint Bestie Amy Adams, the episode explored a little more about relative newcomer Tara’s family life, and how she had found her place among Willow and her friends. There’s a really touching interaction between Willow and Tara that encompasses this quite well:
Tara: I was just afraid that if you saw the kind of people I came from, you wouldn’t wanna be anywhere near me
Willow: See, that’s where you’re a dummy. I think about what you grew up with, and then I look at what you are – it makes me proud. It makes me love you more.
Tara is startled to find complete acceptance within the group, but it’s really second nature to the Scoobies, who have been through so much together, to practise acceptance and tolerance towards their loved ones. And we just think that’s pretty damn special.
21. The Yellow Crayon
While we’ve established that a lot of the attention towards Buffy’s writing goes to the snappy dialogue, the show often delivers a lot of big speeches, whether they’re a call to arms before the biggest battle of their lives, or one that so happens to save the world. A lot of television shows and films misuse speeches like this one, overdoing them or making them too anticlimactic in certain moments, but Buffy often nails its big moments.
There are too many standouts to choose from and trying to cite them all would be a logistical nightmare, but look to Buffy’s speech in Bring on the Night, Spike’s tender moment in Touched, or Xander’s heroism in Grave. The series as a whole can be encompassed by the season finale’s killer “Are you ready to be strong?” speech, and to nail that in the final episode is a huge testament to the incredible writers behind this show.
These moments are among the most endlessly quotable in Buffy’s entire run and they’re almost always used to develop character and always brilliantly written.
22. The ‘Event’ Episodes
When Buffy wants to deliver a concept, you’d better expect nothing less than pure greatness. These episodes are some of the best in its run and ones that are some of the most fondly remembered from casual and diehard fans alike.
Some of the episodes that are most often used as examples of Buffy’s best work are the ones that feel singular in their ambitions. The 52nd Emmy Awards saw Buffy’s only Primetime nomination for Best Writing in a Drama Series for the episode “Hush”. You likely know about this episode even if you’re not a Buffy fanatic. The fact that this nomination sat between shows like The West Wing and The Sopranos demonstrates the fact that Buffy was operating at a high level, and it was high time it was recognised as such.
And now that even the most unlikely shows have musical episodes (The Flash, Grey’s Anatomy, Lucifer) Buffy feels like one of the first to not only do it, but to do it well, creating a number of songs that will stick in your head until the end of time. We challenge you to go listen to Rest in Peace and then NOT obsess over it for the next six to eight months.
23. Spin Off: City of Angels
Not many revered television shows can deliver a successful spin-off. They’re frequently attempted, but most pale in comparison to the original: Buffy’s spin-off, Angel, may not quite live up to the heights of its mother series, but it’s absolutely packed with quality moments and lives on in its own right as a worthy spin-off. Angel is more adult, grittier and grounded. The bad guys are lawyers for crying out loud! It didn’t rely on Buffy, and the context of that predecessor only added an additional richness to a stand alone show, saving the rare crossovers only for big impact moments.
On Buffy, Angel was contained as the broody boyfriend with a dark alter-ego. It was excellent, but it was clear that both Angel and Boreanaz clearly had more to give, so taking that character, and putting him in the lead in his own show gave the opportunity to explore all the other facets to Angel, from his leadership skills to his goofiness. It’s a testament to not only David Boreanaz’s work, but also the perpetually excellent presence of Cordelia and Charisma Carpenter’s performance that made fans follow them into a completely different branch of the so-called Buffyverse, especially considering both shows ran simultaneously for four years.
The character work is of no lesser calibre than on Buffy, with the exception, of course, for Cordelia’s slanderous ending. Doyle, Gunn, Fred, Lorne, Lyndsey and Lilah are fantastic, top tier characters that are deeply beloved, and not without reason. The development of pre-existing characters like Darla, Spike, Faith and even Harmony, too, are perfect for this darker world: Wesley Wyndam-Pryce is perhaps the Buffyverse’s greatest accomplishment in character arcs in his transition from bumbling, incompatant Watcher to revered demon hunter.
The fact that there are diehard Buffy fans that actually prefer Angel just goes to show how strong it can stand both as a companion piece to Buffy and on its own merit. And for the theme tune alone, it’s more than worth a serious fan’s time.
24. “Pop Culture Reference, Sorry”
The vast impact of Buffy on pop culture, television formatting and even academia is hard to be ignored. It’s a show of many firsts: one of the first shows to air a same sex kiss; the first to air a same sex couple sharing a bed and later, the first lesbian sex scene in broadcast television history. It was also the first show to use the term ‘Google’: when researching a Sunnydale High student in the seventh season, Willow asks the gang: “Have you googled her yet?”, to which Xander answers: “She’s seventeen!”, making Willow scoffs and confirm, “It’s a search engine”.
Buffy changed television forever by proving that a show didn’t have to be confined to being genre-specific; pushing what was acceptable to see on our screens; and re-popularising long story arcs on primetime television. As a show that broke so much new ground, Buffy’s waves were also studied across academia: a 2012 study by Slate Magazine named Buffy as the ‘most studied pop culture work by academics’ crediting over two hundred papers, essays, and books devoted to the series, and you can understand why. It also makes sense that a show that referenced pop culture so much itself, would in turn lend itself to being referenced across the biggest shows on television. And while vampires and monsters have always been popular in fiction; Buffy’s turn of the century depiction of them could easily be credited as the groundwork for the huge influx of teenage supernatural works in the 2000s, including the massive franchise Twilight.
The ripple effect that Buffy started is still apparent all these years on, across all forms of media. I mean, here we are, launching our entire site with it as a diving board.
25. How It Changed Our Lives, a Lot
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a show with a lasting legacy, because it means so much to it’s fans. For many, watching the show was a deeply personal journey, and the younger you watched it, the more defining it became. Even if you didn’t grow up with the characters in real time, watching the show at different stages of your life can teach you different lessons. You can take things when you need them and there’s always something new to be gleaned. For us personally, Buffy played, and continues to play, an integral part to our lives.
Whether it is the boldness of the vision, the campiness of some of the monsters, or the depths of the characters that make it so beloved, or all three of those things and more, the fact remains that Buffy’s specialness remains through several revolutions of the fantasy/horror genre on television due to its incomparable ability to simultaneously charm and frighten an audience. A lot of the things we’ve mentioned in this list contribute to Buffy being a singularity and in a complete league of its own. As long as people are looking for their place in the world, Buffy will be there to show them the way.
Any Buffy fan can tell you, that to dissect it becomes a challenge to articulate. Because really, Buffy’s legacy is longstanding and timeless simply because it always has, and continues to, resonate with people on a deep personal level. It’s lessons are of friendship, family, grief, the weight of responsibility, the desire to have agency of your own, and being gay as fuck and proud of it!
It may have been twenty five years, but Buffy the Vampire Slayer still feels as relevant today as it did in 1997.
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