Buffy The Vampire Slayer

The late-April setting sun gilds the main street of Sunnydale, with its brick facades and vintage movie theater. The light also falls on hanging bits of wood and flapping blue tarp, because Sunnydale — that fictitious haunt of demons, vampires and all manner of evil — is now just a deserted TV set.

It’s been about a week since production wrapped on the final episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in Santa Monica, Calif. While producers finish the last episodes for air, the cast already has scattered, including star Sarah Michelle Gellar, who is off to Vancouver, Canada, to work on the "Scooby-Doo" sequel.

After seven seasons, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" signs off for good on Tuesday, May 20, on UPN, where it moved two years ago after a successful run on The WB Network.

"Buffy" turned an introspective screenwriter into a cult hero, a former soap-opera star into a pop icon, and a misunderstood and dismissed genre into fodder for everything from Internet mania to scholarly dissertations.

"The biggest surprise," says executive producer Marti Noxon, who joined the series as an entry-level story editor, "was how much this became part of pop culture. Even though ’Buffy,’ let’s face it, is a relatively small-scale television hit — it ain’t ’American Idol’ — but at the same time, it became woven into the fabric of pop culture."

"Given the fact that when I first got the job, people were feeling really sorry for me, that was some surprise."

"Buffy" began as a feature film written by Joss Whedon, who was not satisfied with how his concept was translated to the screen. He took back his idea — essentially transforming the blonde, teen victim of horror films into an uber-warrior against evil — and reworked it into a TV pilot, which didn’t sell.

Following some tweaks and recasting, Whedon shot another pilot, which premiered on The WB in the spring of 1997.

"When I started the show," Whedon says, "I didn’t know its full potential, because I just had the basic notion of ’It’s hard to make it in high school,’ and it’ll be funny and involving and scary and really hip on things people can relate to."

"The basic idea that I think we’re very true to, especially in the last episode, the empowerment of girls and the toughness of this life, was always there, but it grew beyond my best intention."

"It introduced a new kind of female hero," Noxon says, "one who was both super and super-real. She had a lot of human failings, but could also kick ass to save the world, which is something I didn’t see a lot of growing up."

"I saw either idealized women with no problems who saved the world or women who were basically taking care of families and getting hit in the nose with footballs."

In its high school years, "Buffy" happily mixed wisecracks, kung-fu fighting and every possible horror-movie cliche as it magnified ordinary teen problems to apocalyptic proportions.

That was literally true when Buffy’s first sexual experience, with soulful vampire Angel (David Boreanaz), began a chain of events that nearly ended the world. Unsafe sex, indeed.

When the story moved to college and young adulthood, life got more complicated, and Buffy suspected the source of her power to do good might be rooted in the darkest evil.

Buffy’s struggles with love, loss and maturity escalated until the only release she could find was in self-sacrifice. And even death in the fifth-season finale was not enough to free Buffy, as UPN picked up the show, and Buffy’s witch friend Willow (Alyson Hannigan) defied nature to drag the Slayer back from paradise.

This season, Buffy again faces an apocalypse, with little more than her ex-lover, the reformed vampire Spike (James Marsters); a few friends; a gaggle of barely trained potential slayers; and her own fierce determination to sustain her.

"Buffy’s taken on the mantle of being the general in this army," Noxon says, "and she’s taken it very seriously. I’ve often said that I feel like this season is the Joss Whedon story. It’s not easy being a genius. It’s not easy being in charge. There are costs. It’s lonely up there."

"It’s tough to be a leader," Whedon agrees. "At one point, they voted me out. That was weird."

Whedon had a great deal of artistic freedom on "Buffy," and with this show more than many others, the creator and his creation cannot be separated. But whatever part of him is Buffy, Whedon always has asserted that his true alter ego is Buffy’s insecure friend Xander (Nicholas Brendon), who has no superpowers. In a recent episode, Buffy’s sister, Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg), talked to Xander about that.

"We pretty much made the statement when Dawn said, ’Maybe that’s your power, seeing everything, knowing, being the person who observes and reports,’" Whedon says. "Basically that’s like saying, ’You’re the writer, not the star.’ You couldn’t have made him more mine and the writers’ proxy than that."

With all the words generated by "Buffy," whether in magazines, books or enough Internet postings to fill volumes, none are more important than the words on the script pages. As Whedon prepares for a well-deserved rest, Noxon reflects on what she learned from her boss.

"It’s about trying to keep shows surprising and let humor carry emotions, when to go for the jugular, how to tell a story and take people on a journey that doesn’t feel like it’s good for them, but is."

As for the future, Whedon says, "We do not destroy the entire fabric of the universe at the end of the last episode, and some people even live, so there’s an open door."

The critically acclaimed series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" ends its seven-season run Tuesday, May 20 at 9 p.m. ET on UPN, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar in the title role.