Joss Whedon is the creator if Buffy The Vampire Slayer. He originally thought of the idea while watching movies where the women always stood around screaming while the man came to save her. Joss Whedon had the idea of the woman being the hero with super powers, and Buffy was the result.

In September 1992 a movie called Buffy the Vampire Slayer was released to poor box office takings and a critical backlash. The movie, starring Luke Perry and Kristy Swanson as our eponymous hero, centred around the struggle of a teenage girl who discovered that she was the one girl in her generation who could defeat the forces of darkness.

Despite it's poor quality (Joss Whedon walked out part way through filming as it was turning out so bad), the movie garnered a small cult following. Meanwhile, Joss Whedon was building a reputation in Hollywood, performing uncredited script doctoring for the film Speed along with other films, and receiving an Oscar nomination for his work on the Pixar/Disney hit Toy Story.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer - the TV Programme

In 1996, Fox approached Joss Whedon to revive his failed movie as a television series. Fox were looking for something to appeal to teenage women, the 18-24 demograph, and a show about woman power and the hero being an average teenage girl was just the thing.

On 10 March, 1997, the first episode of the hit TV series of Buffy was aired in the USA on the WB network. None of the original Buffy actors from the film were in it apart from. Instead, the Buffy TV series stars Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Boreanaz, among others.

The TV series was very successful and went on for 7 seasons. After 3 seasons a spin-off called Angel began, and also became a hit show.

After 5 seasons on the WB, Joss Whedon did not receive the budget he needed for the show, and it went on to the UPN network where Joss had a bigger budget and more freedom to do things never before seen on television. This included, in season 7, a lesbian sex scene between two of the characters.

Buffy went on for another 2 seasons on UPN, before finishing in 2003 after 7 seasons. There is still a lot of talk about possible spin-offs, but with Angel still continuing, now in it's 5th season, the Buffy The Vampire Slayer universe is still continuing.

Characters

Good Guys

• Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar): Is the vampire slayer, the chosen one. Moved to Sunnydale when she was 15 with her mum. She's died twice.

• Angel (David Boreanaz): A vampire cursed with a soul who falls in love with a Buffy, a vampire slayer. Has been around for over 200 years, and when soulless is known as Angelus.

• Riley Finn (Marc Blucas): Buffy's commando boyfriend in seasons four and five.

• Willow Rosenburg (Alyson Hannigan): Buffy's best friend. A geek in high school and a whizz on computers, who gets in to magic and becomes a powerful witch.

• Oz (Seth Green): Willow's boyfriend in seasons two to four. Oz was bitten by a werewolf in season two and has since been a werewolf himself.

• Xander Harris (Nicholas Brendon): One of Buffy's best friend's, and the only one never to have any sort of special powers or abilities. Xander is your average Joe Blogg fighting vampires.

• Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter): Miss Popular! Cordelia is rude and selfish in high school, although befriends the Scooby Gang and goes out with Xander for a short time. Cordy joins Angel in his spin-off series.

• Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head): Buffy's Watcher, assigned to guide Buffy and train her. In high school Giles is the school librarian, although for most of the latter two seasons, especially season six, Giles is in England leaving the Scooby Gang to fend for themselves.

• Spike (James Marsters): One of the most popular Buffy characters, Spike hs gone through numerous development, from being a badass vampire to a harmless vampire to a vampire with a soul.

• Drusilla (Juliet Landau): Spike's girlfriend, except she gets dusted at some point. Angel is her sire and she is very mad, and when she's strong she can be extremely dangerous.

Brief History and Plotline

It is quite usual that if someone guest stars in Buffy, something is bound to happen to them that turns them bad. Usually they are turned into a powerful vampire, or they are bad already, but are made to look good.

Buffy has a secret identity as the slayer, but is not very good at keeping secrets. Indeed, five people know about her that shouldn't; these people being Willow, Xander, Cordelia, Oz and Buffy's mum. Giles is allowed to know as he's her watcher and is supposed to guide her.

Buffy Summers came to Sunnydale in 1997 when the Hellmouth moved its location to Sunnydale High School, where many vampires and demons tend to congregate. If the Hellmouth was to move then Buffy would follow it, along with whoever her watcher is.

Very early on there is the Master, who is the head of the vampires. She kills him off pretty early and Spike takes his place. As usual something's got to go wrong. So Buffy takes quite a liking to Angel who, as we said before, must not experience one true moment of happiness, otherwise his curse is lifted and in this state he's bound to do harm. He and Buffy get together, eventually falling in serious love, sleep together for a night, and for the first time in over 100 years, Angelus is back, and he almost kills Buffy by attacking her emotions. He tries to awaken the demon Acathla which can literally suck the Earth into hell. Buffy stops this, but to do this she must kill Angel, who at the last minute is cursed by Willow, but Buffy has to kill him. But never fear, because he returns from hell a few episodes later.

Slayspeak

As with a lot of stories, Buffy has its own special 'language' - 'Slayspeak'. So, here are the main terms:

• The Slayer: In every generation there is a slayer. She alone will stand against the vampires and demons (this is actually said at the beginning of every episode).

• Watcher: Every slayer has a watcher who researches events and their dates and generally looks after the slayer.

• Dusted: When a vampire is reduced to dust ie dead.

• Sire: The vampire who made another vampire ie, in the case of Angel and Drusilla, Angel made Drusilla a vampire, therefore he is her sire.

• Feeding: When a vampire is feeding off a human's blood.

• Host: A human who is being fed off by a vampire, and they are then as good as dead, if not actually turning in to a vampire themselves.

• The Hellmouth: This is, to quote Giles, 'a mystical convergence'.