Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Written by Chris Earl Wednesday, 14 December 2011

It's a Different Medium – You Idiot!

This month as the latest Twilight movie has taken to the silver screen and made everyone with a brain that little bit more disinterested in vampires, I am taking a look back at the franchise that gave Stephanie Meyer material to plunder in the first place. A franchise that began life as a mangled movie and found success as a cult TV show. I am, of course, talking about Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Big screen beginnings

According to Joss Whedon, he created the character of Buffy as a way of turning the cliché of "the little blonde girl who goes into a dark alley and gets killed in every horror film" on it's head and providing something unexpected. The name of 'Buffy' was deliberately chosen as a silly juxtaposition to 'the Vampire Slayer'; a throw back to B-movies. The name was a sticking point for the studio, but one that Whedon wouldn't move on as it instantly got across the point of the character.

Kristy Swanson's Buffy is a stereotypical, superficial, blonde cheerleader at Hemery High School in Los Angeles, whose biggest concerns are social standing and nails. This changes as she is approached by a man named Merrick Jamison-Smythe (Donald Sutherland) who informs her that she is The Slayer, or chosen one, and he is a Watcher whose duty it is to guide and train her. After the obligatory 'I don't believe you, oh okay, I do', she begins training with him, kills some vampires, discovers the Alpha-vampire, finds a distance between her and her friends and finds a romantic interest in the damsel in distress, Pike, played by Luke Perry.

Buffy is eventually drawn into conflict with the Alpha-vampire, Lothos (Rutger Hauer), who has kills Merrick to bait her. The final battle occurs at the High School dance, Buffy overcoming her doubts and slaying both Lothos and comic-relief, Amilyn, played by Pee Wee Herman himself, Paul Reubens.

Upon seeing the final film, however, Whedon was not satisfied with the translation from script to screen, particularly the character's treatment in the film, feeling "that's not quite her. It's a start, but it's not quite the girl. I had written this scary film about an empowered woman, and they turned it into a broad comedy. It was crushing" Whedon then wrote the pilot to the TV series as a sequel to his original script, which is why the show makes references to events not occurred in the film.

Success on the small screen

When a 20th Century Fox executive approached Whedon with the possibility of rethinking Buffy as a TV series. A non-broadcast pilot episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was produced by Fox in 1996 to pitch the series to networks. Joss Whedon wrote and directed the twenty-five minute pilot and was rewritten and shot for the first episode of the series proper. The Buffy of the original film had grown more mature and open-minded, finding that she fit in more with social outcasts Willow and Xander, than the popular cheerleader Cordelia, who was created to embody the shallow, selfish ways that Buffy had left behind. Many of the features of this pilot carried over to the series, including most of the main and supporting cast, sans Willow.

The show was picked up by Warner Bros as a mid-season replacement (thus only commissioned for half a season) and went out on the WB in March 1997. Described as a cross between My So called Life and The X-Files, Buffy followed a monster-of-the-week format, whilst building an overarching story (The Master's rise in the case of the first season). The show was a success and was picked up for a full-length second season (although they faced cancellation at the end of several seasons). The season finales of Seasons 2 and 5, in particular, were meant as an 'end' to the series because they weren't expecting to be picked back up for new seasons.

The show became known for it's clever dialogue, unexpected twists and for Whedon's ever-present threat that any character could die and that the status-quo would be changed before the audience got too comfortable with it. The show also used the forces of darkness as metaphors for the challenges of real-life; a mother taking over her daughter's life, strict stepfather is an unfeeling robot, a young lesbian fears that her nature is evil, a girl has sex only to find the guy turns on her afterward, running away from home to find that working for a living is hell.

Whilst some of the plans for the series changed with fan response (such as Spike being promoted from a couple of appearances to a major villian), Whedon often planned his arcs quite far ahead. In fact there are references to Dawn's arrival in Season Five as early as the Third Season.

Through out the series Buffy experiences many trials and, whether with her friends or by herself, she always comes through them stronger. Whedon had finally created that strong female icon that could stand against Wonder Woman and Kitty Pride. It's odd then that he never let her be happy, at least, not for very long. From dying in the first season, to the horrific conclusion of the second, from meeting a fellow slayer, to putting a rogue one in a coma, from gaining a sister, to sacrificing her life, from existing in heaven to clawing her way from the grave (literally), every time that Buffy gains a foothold on some contentment, she is put through the wringer to pay for it.

Spin-offs

The original plan for Angel was that he would stay dead after the season finale of the series two, but the WB network told Joss Whedon that they wanted a spin off series. Angel was brought back to unlife during the third season to set up his solo series (to be honest the third season of Buffy suffers slightly because Angel doesn't have much to do other than wait for the finale so he can leave). The show follows Angel as he moves to Los Angeles and tries to right his past wrongs by 'helping the helpless'. During the first four seasons of the show, he works as a private detective with failing actress Cordelia and former-Watcher Wesley (also from Buffy), whilst in the final season he takes the reins as CEO of the evil law firm, Wolfram & Hart, whose head office is in hell.

Often Angel seemed more like an avenging vigilante rather than a private detective, something that Whedon reflected in the opening titles as Angel's billowing coat harks back to The Shadow, Zorro and Batman. "We wanted a much darker show, darker in tone. It's set in Los Angeles because there are a lot of demons in L.A. and a wealth of stories to be told. We also wanted to take the show a little older and have the characters deal with demons in a much different way. Buffy is always the underdog trying to save the world, but Angel is looking for redemption. It's those two things that creatively make the shows different."

The popularity of Buffy and Angel led to attempts to develop more TV spin-offs, as well as movies based on both Buffy and Spike. Buffy the Animated Series was proposed by Whedon and Jeph Loeb were to be executive producers for the show set during the first year of the TV show, with most of the cast ready to return to voice younger versions of their characters. A three-minute pilot was completed in 2004, but the show was never picked up. "We just could not find a home for it. We had six or seven hilarious scripts from our own staff – and nobody wanted it."

Ripper was a proposed television show based on Buffy's watcher, Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) and his adventures back here in Blighty. Differing reports have had the show as a mini-series or a TV feature, but all agree that it would be made and shown by the BBC. In 2007, Joss Whedon mentioned that talks were almost done for a 90 minute Ripper feature with both Head and the BBC completely on board, with no word of this since, it's probably safe to assume that it's been shelved.

Eliza Dushku turned down a series based on Faith to produce and star in Tru Calling. The show was basically going to be Faith meets Kung Fu. It would have been Faith, on a motorcycle, traveling the globe, kicking demonic arse and trying to find her place in the world. In hindsight, even a single season of Faith the Vampire Slayer would have been a better choice.

Jane Espenson, one of Buffy's main writers, talked about the possibility of Slayer School which might have starred new slayers and potentially included Willow Rosenberg as one of their instructors. Whilst Whedon didn't want to move in that direction, it is something that he touched upon during his comics for Dark Horse (which I'll discuss in greater detail at a later date).

Back-seat writing: The real pitfall of creating icons

Now here in lays the main problem when dealing with movie studios. Joss Whedon tried to create a strong female icon within the confines of a horror movie, what he ended up with was a sub-par comedy that took off the teen flicks of the time.

A video is considered to be feature-length when it lasts 75 minutes+ and most movies come in between an hour and a half and two hours. TV series, however, last almost any number of hours (Buffy came in at around 108 hours). The plot and character development that could occur during that 108 hours is obviously greater than in two or three. This is especially true when the two hours in question are as shallow as the Buffy movie. Sarah Michelle Gellar's Buffy grew from an insecure teenager, struggling with her Slayer-life balance, through a self-destructive phase and into the leader of an army in the battle against evil.

Buff the Vampire Slayer is one of those fantastic exceptions to the rule. We can't say that it was intended to be a movie, so of course the movie is better, because the movie didn't reflect the original intentions of the creator. Instead we have to look at the series and say;

This series revolutionised television, so don't even attempt to remake the movie.

Whilst the movie didn't hit the same mark as the TV series, there have been moments in other media that have come close. Come back in a few months when I explore the Slayer's adventures in the worlds of comics, books and video games.