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| Origins | Executuve Producers | Writing | Casting | Broadcast History | Opening Sequence | Music | |
Writer Joss Whedon says that "Rhonda the Immortal Waitress" was really the first incarnation of the Buffy concept, just the idea of some woman who seems to be completely insignificant who turns out to be extraordinary."[8] This early, unproduced idea evolved into Buffy, which Whedon developed to invert the Hollywood formula of "the little blonde girl who goes into a dark alley and gets killed in every horror movie."[9] Whedon wanted "to subvert that idea and create someone who was a hero."[9] He explained: "The very first mission statement of the show was the joy of female power: having it, using it, sharing it."[10]
The concept was first visited through Whedon's script for the 1992 movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which featured Kristy Swanson in the title role. The director, Fran Rubel Kuzui, saw it as a "pop culture comedy about what people think about vampires."[11] Whedon disagreed: "I had written this scary film about an empowered woman, and they turned it into a broad comedy. It was crushing."[12] The script was praised within the industry,[13] but the movie was not.[14]
Several years later, Gail Berman, a Sandollar Productions executive, approached Whedon to develop his Buffy concept into a television series.[15] Whedon explained that "They said, 'Do you want to do a show?' And I thought, 'High school as a horror movie.' And so the metaphor became the central concept behind Buffy, and that's how I sold it."[16] The supernatural elements in the series stood as metaphors for personal anxieties associated with adolescence and young adulthood.[17] Whedon went on to write and partly fund a twenty five minute non-broadcast pilot[18] that was shown to networks and eventually sold to the WB Network. The latter promoted the premiere with a series of History of the Slayer clips,[19] and the first episode aired on March 10, 1997.
Joss Whedon was credited as executive producer throughout the run of the series, and for the first five seasons (1997–2001) he was also the show runner, a role that involves serving as head writer and being responsible for every aspect of production. Marti Noxon took on the role for seasons six and seven (2001–2003), but Whedon continued to be involved with writing and directing Buffy alongside projects such as Angel, Fray, and Firefly. Fran Rubel Kuzui and her husband, Kaz Kuzui, were credited as executive producers[20] but were not involved in the show. Their credit, rights, and royalties over the franchise relate to their funding, producing, and directing of the original movie version of Buffy.[21]
Script-writing was done by Mutant Enemy,[22] a production company created by Whedon in 1997. The writers with the most writing credits[23] include: Joss Whedon, Steven S. DeKnight, Jane Espenson, David Fury, Drew Goddard, Drew Greenberg, Rebecca Rand Kirshner, Marti Noxon and Doug Petrie. Other authors with writing credits include: Howard Gordon, David Greenwalt, Matt Kiene, Joe Reinkemeyer, Ty King, Tracey Forbes, Thomas A. Swyden, Rob Des Hotel, Dana Reston, Dan Vebber, Carl Ellsworth, Ashley Gable, Elin Hampton and Dean Batali.[24]
Jane Espenson has explained how scripts came together.[25] First, the writers talked about the emotional issues facing Buffy Summers and how she would confront them through her battle against evil supernatural forces. Then the episode's story was "broken" into acts and scenes. Act breaks were designed as key moments to intrigue viewers so that they would stay with the episode following advertisements. The writers collectively filled in scenes surrounding these act breaks for a more fleshed-out story. A whiteboard marked their progress by mapping brief descriptions of each scene. Once "breaking" was done, the credited author wrote an outline for the episode, which was checked by Whedon or Noxon. The writer then wrote a full script, which went through a series of drafts, and finally a quick rewrite from the show runner. The final article was used as the shooting script.
The title role went to Sarah Michelle Gellar, who had appeared as Sydney Rutledge on Swans Crossing and Kendall Hart on All My Children. At age eighteen in 1995, Gellar had already won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Leading Actress in a Drama Series.[26] In 1996, she was initially cast as Cordelia Chase during a week of auditioning. She decided to keep trying for the role of Buffy, and after several more auditions, landed the lead.[27]
Anthony Stewart Head had already led a prolific acting and singing career[28] but remained best known in the United States for a series of twelve coffee commercials with Sharon Maughan for Taster's Choice.[29] He accepted the role of Rupert Giles.
Unlike other Buffy regulars, Nicholas Brendon had little acting experience, instead working various jobs — including production assistant, plumber's assistant, veterinary janitor, food delivery, script delivery, day care counselor, and waiter — before deciding to break into acting to help him overcome a stutter.[30][31] He landed his Xander Harris role following only four days of auditioning.[32]
Alyson Hannigan was the last of the original four to be cast. Following her role in My Stepmother Is an Alien,[33] she appeared in commercials and supporting roles on television shows throughout the early 1990s.[33] In 1996 the role of Willow Rosenberg was initially given to Riff Regan for the unaired Buffy pilot, but Hannigan auditioned when the role was recast for the series proper. She described her approach to auditions in an interview through her treatment of a particular moment: Willow tells Buffy that her Barbie doll was taken from her as a child, and Buffy asks if she ever got the Barbie back. "Willow's line was 'Most of it.' And so I thought I'm gonna make that a really happy thing. I was so proud that she got most of it back. That clued in on how I was going to play the rest of the scene. It defines the character."[34] Her approach subsequently helped her win the role.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer first aired on March 10, 1997 on the WB network, and played a key role in the growth of the Warner Bros. television network in its early years.[35] After five seasons, it transferred to the United Paramount Network (UPN) for its final two seasons. After its original run, 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. Buffy is currently not shown on U.S. television. In the United Kingdom, the entire series aired on Sky1 and BBC2. The BBC gave the show two time slots: the early-evening slot for a family-friendly version with violence, objectionable language and other stronger material cut out, and a late-night uncut version.[36] Sky1 utilised a similar method, in which the show would be edited for an afternoon encore presentation besides the uncut prime-time slot. From the fourth season onwards, the BBC aired the show in anamorphic 16:9 widescreen format, while Whedon later said that Buffy was never intended to be viewed this way, the actual directors of these episodes did. Despite his claims, Sky1 and FX UK now air repeat showings in the widescreen format.[37]
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."[38] 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 became of those plans.[39] The Buffy canon is continuing outside the television medium in the Dark Horse Comics series, Buffy Season Eight. This has been produced since March 2007 by Whedon, who also wrote the first story arc, "The Long Way Home".[40]
As of July 15, 2008, Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes are available to download for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable video game consoles via the PlayStation Network.[41]
The Buffy opening sequence provides credits early in each show. The music was performed by the punk rock band Nerf Herder. The song includes a similar melody to a German pop song from the 1980s called "Codo" by DÖF, but Nerf Herder have said that they had "never heard of DÖF", and that the similarity was coincidental.[42] In the DVD commentary for the first Buffy episode, Whedon said his decision to go with Nerf Herder's theme was influenced by cast member Alyson Hannigan, who had made him listen to the band's music.[43] Janet Halfyard, in her essay "Music, Gender, and Identity in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel", describes the opening:
| “ | It begins with the sound of an organ, accompanied by a wolf's howl, with a visual image of a flickering night sky overlaid with unintelligible archaic script: the associations with both the silent era and films such as Nosferatu and with the conventions of the Hammer House of Horror and horror in general are unmistakable.[44] | ” |
But the theme changes: "[The opening sequence] removes itself from the sphere of 1960s and '70s horror by replaying the same motif, the organ now supplanted by an aggressively strummed electric guitar, relocating itself in modern youth culture."[44] This music is heard over images of a young cast involved in the action and turbulence of adolescence. The sequence provides a post-modern twist on the horror genre.[44]
The brief clips of characters and events which compose the opening sequence are updated from season to season. The only shots that persists across all seven seasons are those of a book titled Vampyr and of the cross given to Buffy by Angel in the first episode. Each sequence ends with a long shot of Buffy, which changes between seasons. The only exception was in the Season Four episode "Superstar", which featured a long shot of Jonathan Levinson, and frequent other clips of Jonathan, in reference to the episode.
Episode-unique credits:
Alongside the score, most episodes featured indie rock music, usually at the characters' venue of choice, The Bronze. Buffy music supervisor John King explained that "we like to use unsigned bands" that "you would believe would play in this place".[45] For example, the fictional group Dingoes Ate My Baby were portrayed on screen by front group Four Star Mary.[46] Pop songs by famous artists were rarely featured prominently, but several episodes spotlighted the sounds of more famous artists such as Sarah McLachlan,[47][48] Blink-182,[49] Third Eye Blind,[50] Aimee Mann[51][52] (who also had a line of dialogue), The Dandy Warhols,[53] Cibo Matto,[54] and Michelle Branch.[55] The popularity of music used in Buffy has led to the release of four soundtrack albums: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Album,[56] Radio Sunnydale,[57] the "Once More, with Feeling" Soundtrack,[58][59][60], and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Score.
