“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” is an American cult television series that has garnered an Emmy award as well as a Golden Globe nomination within its airing period from March 10, 1997 until May 20, 2003. The series is about Buffy Summers, a young woman chosen to be a slayer of vampires and demons. Buffy is played by actress Sarah Michelle Gellar in the series but the first Buffy who ever appeared on screen was portrayed by Kristy Swanson in the 1992 film version of the same title. Both the movie and TV series versions were written by Joss Whedon but he considers the TV series closer to his ideas on Buffy being the vampire slayer.
The “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” movie was shown in 1992 and was categorized as an action-comedy-horror film about a popular cheerleader chosen to have the strength and skills to fight vampires. Swanson as Buffy embodies the typical blonde and popular cheerleader whom you would not expect to be fighting off demons. The television spin-off character, as played by Gellar, is somewhat different because she is not exactly blonde and is not popular in her school because of the rumors about what happened in her previous school. Gellar as Buffy seemed to appear to have more strength and moves than Swanson’s Buffy. This might also be one of the reasons why the TV series became more popular and successful than the movie.
Another reason why the movie was a bomb is because even though Whedon wrote a horror film about an empowered woman, producers opted to create a commercial broad comedy as dictated by the 90s eras movie trend. However, several years after, Gail Berman, one of the executives of Sandollar Productions asked Whedon if he wanted to turn Buffy into a TV series. This marked the beginning of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” TV series and Whedon’s role as the show’s executive producer and show runner under the Warner Bros. Network. The first episode was aired on March 10, 1997.
Buffy Summers became a TV cult icon since the popularity of the show set off. The duration of the show brought about different memorable characters such as Angel, Buffy’s love interest, whose story after breaking up with Buffy became a spin-off of the television show.
The show’s popularity also gave Buffy the movie the chance to redeem itself by rating high in video rentals and sales. Many Buffy followers felt the need to watch the movie to understand what happened before she moved to Sunnydale.
After several plots and adventures, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” the TV series went off the air in 2003 after seven seasons and continued instead with a spin-off comic book series for its eighth season.
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