Buffy The Vampire Slayer

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It’s been almost three years since Buffy and her gang saved the world-again-and rode their little yellow school bus into the sunset and television history. But the "Buffyverse" still shines in the hearts and minds of its fans and creators, living on in novels, comic books, video games, action figures and countless other collectibles-and maybe even enjoy a live-action revival in the not-too-distant future.

Buffy Alumni

Actors

* Sarah Michelle Gellar
feature films The Grudge, Scooby-Doo 2, Southland Tales

* Alyson Hannigan (Willow)
CBS- How I Met Your Mother

* David Boreanaz (Angel)
FOX - Bones

* Nicholas Brendan (Xander)
FOX - Kitchen Confidential

* Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia)
UPN - Veronica Mars

* James Marsters (Spike)
WB - Smallville

* Seth Green (Oz)
Comedy Central - Robot Chicken

* Emma Caulfield (Anya/Anyanka)
Steven Spielberg’s Munich

Writers

* Marti Noxon
FOX - Prison Break

* David Fury
ABC - Lost

* Jeffrey Bell
ABC -Alias

* Jane Espenson
ABC - Jake in Progress

* Douglas Petrie
USA - The 4400

* Steven S. DeKnight
WB- Smallville

* Drew Z. Greenberg
FOX -The O.C.

* Drew Goddard
ABC - Alias

* Joss Whedon
who knows? Seems to have fallen off the planet. Anyone heard from this guy? ...no?

The Chosen One

The Chosen OneEvery week Buffy would face a new supernatural threat that underneath it all was just a metaphor for the horrors normal teenagers face every day in a typical American high school. But Buffy herself wasn’t normal. She was the "one girl in all the world" chosen to protect mankind from the evil emanating from the Hellmouth under Sunnydale High School. By the end of the series, however, Buffy had changed the rules and redefined what it meant to be the Chosen One.

This week old fans and fans-to-be can choose her all over again with the release of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer "The Chosen Collection" DVD set. It collects all seven seasons of this ground-breaking series into one smart looking package and features a special bonus disc of never-before-seen featurettes. If you’ve never encountered Buffy before, or perhaps only saw a random episode, then you’re in for a treat watching the whole series back to back.Buffy DVD Box Set Unlike typical TV police procedurals or medical dramas, you can’t just sample it every now and then; it has to be savored over multiple episodes. Each season is like a 22-hour movie, full of twists and character development that may only become evident when watching it in sequence or after repeated viewings. Even when the show is still trying to find its direction in its foreshortened, 12 episode first season, its central story line is shocking, funny and heartbreaking all at the same time. Creation of a Pop Icon

According to show creator Joss Whedon, Buffy the Vampire Slayer has always been about "the joy of female power; having it, using it, sharing it", as he described at a panel discussion at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Whedon, a third generation sitcom alumnus, started in television working as a writer on Roseanne, a strong woman in her own right but appealing to a very different demographic than Buffy. But it did foreshadow the impact Whedon would have on changing the face of popular entertainment for the near future and perhaps for all time.

Creation of a Pop IconA "future" wasn’t very probable for the poor little Slayer back in 1992 when Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the feature film written by Whedon but reflecting little of his vision, hit the box office with a resounding "thud." It wasn’t until five years later that the property was revived for television with new characters, a different cast and, more importantly, Whedon in the driver’s seat. No one ever expected the show with the silly sounding name, premiering on the fledgling WB network, to ever work. And, although it didn’t take off right away in ratings, it did immediately garner a loyal and vocal fan following, and the WB stood behind it (for 5 seasons anyway). At the end of the fifth season Buffy and the WB parted ways, but the show, like its eponymous lead character, wouldn’t stay dead and UPN brought her back for 2 more years.

At the end of Buffy’s third season a spin-off series was created featuring her undead boyfriend Angel. A more traditional TV series, but an equally critically acclaimed show, Angel survived for 5 years on the WB before being canceled just as its ratings were starting to pick up.

The Buffyverse, however, did not go quietly into that good night. To this day academics attend conferences and teach college courses about the underlying themes and philosophical content of the show. Fans attend conventions to get autographs from actors who played only tiny, make-up covered roles. Google returns over 4.5 million hits for "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." How in the world did this little show about a teenaged demon hunter become so immensely popular and turn into a worldwide phenomena? The Legacy

Well, for one, the show broke conventions both thematically and stylistically, venturing where teen-centric television had never dared before. Whedon always pushed the boundaries of his severely limited budget, bringing us new evils every week including; sea creatures, witches, seductive giant insects, invisible girls, slime demons, earthbound gods, and vampires - lots of vampires. He imbued his characters with wit and personality and, using supernatural creatures as metaphors for teenage angst, started a franchise that brought out the "fanatic" in its fans.

Joss WhedonMore importantly Buffy the Vampire Slayer paved the way for female characters in science fiction and fantasy; a largely male bastion until Buffy kicked down the door. Whether it was Star Wars, Star Trek or horror movies, the genre rarely gave women a main character with which they could identify. Certainly there had been precedents in the genre such as Aliens’ Ripley or Terminator’s Sarah Connor, but never before had such a strong young female protagonist been on television week after week. Buffy showed the world that women would watch fantasy if they were given someone to cheer for. As a direct result of Buffy’s influence, other shows, films and video games featuring powerful, independent women have started to pop up and grow their own cult followings. From Alias to Lara Croft, to the revamped Charlie’s Angels, more and more females are headlining popular genre media. Currently, two popular sci-fi TV series, Threshold and Surface feature strong women in lead roles. Not to mention Joss Whedon’s self-proclaimed favorite television program - Veronica Mars, which also features two Buffy alumni in its cast and crew. Writing the Good Fight

That is yet another aspect of the Buffy legacy - writers, directors and actors from both Buffy and Angel have migrated to other quality shows, inserting little Buffy-isms into their lexicons. Whether it’s Angel writer Jeffrey Bell having Marshall on Alias use Faith’s favorite expression ("five by five") or the film marquee in the background on Tim Minear’s The Inside displaying that "Once More With Feeling" is playing, the cast and crew of the Buffyverse have spread out far and wide, bringing their brand of tongue-in-cheek postmodern, self-aware wit to an entirely new audience of prime time viewers.

CastUltimately, it’s too soon to fully judge the impact Buffy and friends will have on popular culture and fandom, but it is sure to be significant. The reason for this may be best summed up by Whedon himself, who explained the appeal of the show in an interview with the online entertainment gurus at TheOnion.com; "I designed Buffy to be an icon, to be an emotional experience, to be loved in a way that other shows can’t be loved. Because it’s about adolescence, which is the most important thing people go through in their development - becoming an adult. And it mythologizes it in such a way, such a romantic way—it basically says, ’Everybody who made it through adolescence is a hero.’ And I think that’s very personal, that people get something from that that’s very real. And I don’t think I could be more pompous. But I mean every word of it. I wanted her to be a cultural phenomenon. I wanted there to be dolls, Barbie with kung-fu grip. I wanted people to embrace it in a way that exists beyond, ’Oh, that was a wonderful show about lawyers, let’s have dinner.’ I wanted people to internalize it, and make up fantasies where they were in the story, to take it home with them, for it to exist beyond the TV show. And we’ve done exactly that." The future of the Buffyverse

Buffy CartoonEver since Buffy faced her final TV apocalypse and Angel and Spike took on all of the Hell that Los Angeles could throw at them, fans have been clamoring for further on-screen exploits of their favorite demon fighters. While most of the discussion has discounted the possibility of Sarah Michelle Geller returning to the Slayer role, or of David Boreanaz carrying on as the brooding Angel, there has been talk of the legacy continuing with other fan-favorite characters. However, few projects have moved forward, and there have been more aborted Buffy spin-offs than Star Trek series. Whedon developed a BBC series to feature Buffy’s former Watcher, Giles, to be called Ripper (after the character’s nickname from his hellion days). Angel executive producer Tim Minear had pitched a pilot to "have been (rogue slayer and anti-Buffy) Faith, probably on a motorcycle, crossing the earth, trying to find her place in the world." However Eliza Dushku (who played Faith) had a commitment to Fox’s Tru Calling so that series didn’t happen. Even longer in development was a proposed Buffy animated series featuring new adventures of the Scooby gang (and the retconned Dawn) set in the high school years. In a 2004 BBC interview, show runner Jeph Loeb said the project was stalled despite the fact that former Buffy scribes had completed many scripts and much of the original cast had committed to providing voices. The project still remains in limbo over at Fox.

Buffy ComicsBut do not abandon all hope for the future of the Buffyverse. Rumors began swirling months ago about a possible TV or straight-to-DVD movie featuring one of the more popular supporting characters from both Buffy and Angel, the reformed vampire - Spike. Joss WhedonJust last week Joss Whedon posted on Whedonesque.com about the project; that they "still haven’t finalized anything, but I feel that very soon I’ll be able to go to James (Marsters, who plays Spike) and say something a lot more interesting than ’Wouldn’t it be cool if...’" In the same post, Joss also confirmed that he would be writing the continuing adventures of Buffy and friends for a new series of Darkhorse comics.

In addition to his Buffy projects, the always prolific - and apparently sleep-deprived - Mr. Whedon is also busy elsewhere: Writing a Marvel comic book called X-something, riding the wave generated by a little film known as Serenity, and writing a big, huge blockbuster-type superhero movie for Warner Bros, Wonder Woman. I ask you: What project could be more perfect for the writer that brought ass-kicking women to the small screen and started a new genre of female empowerment ?

Check out the great selection of in-stock Buffy the Vampire Slayer merchandise : Click Here