In the Buffy...
Article by Bindi Lavelle

From humble beginnings as a teen comedy flick, Buffy with its post-modern humor was able to build a lucrative universe and a massive name on the small screen.

In 1992, screen writer Joss Whedon, (Titan AE, Toy Story, Alien Resurrection) penned Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The film stared Donald Sutherland and 90210 heart-throb Luke Perry in what was intended to be little more than a throw away pop-corn comedy.

And it very nearly ended there.

With little more than a small cult following, 5 years later Whedon was asked if he would like to develop Buffy for television. And, well, Joss said yes.

Buffy aired in 1997 and ran 2003, even spawning the spin-off Angel, which followed the adventures of everyone's favorite vampire with a soul.

Rather than simply picking up where the movie left off or re-working and repeating the film's plot Whedon did a combination of the two; after some bad stuff happens, Buffy and her mum move to Sunnydale to start afresh, there Buffy has to deal with the usual teenage dramas such mean girls and trying to find a date to the prom all the while battling various demons, because as it turns out Sunnydale High sits on a Hell mouth.

A solid quality of this series was its characters; awkward teens who get picked on from time to time instead of cheerleaders and football players. The scooby gang as they called themselves, weren't a super team but average teens trying figure themselves out amongst the chaos around them.

What makes Buffy worthy f merit is: its exploration of high school literally being a hell-hole, Whedon showed adolescence as a horror film and provided the audience with characters they could grow with. The post-modern comedy used in the show has been copied to death, but of course the clones fall down flat.

The world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer has spilled into all kinds of media (comics, novels and video games to name a few) because Sunnydale is a pleasant retreat for the imagination; who doesn't want to travel to a place where you and your nerdy mates can save the world?