Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Related Works

"Buffyverse" expansions

Buffy's perpetually tragic, doomed love for the vampire-with-a-soul, Angel, played by David Boreanaz, was a recurrent theme in the first three seasons of the show. Angelus, as he was originally known, had his human soul restored by a gypsy curse, plaguing him with guilt over the one hundred and forty-five years of murder and mayhem he had inflicted on a slew of innocent victims. The Angel character was so popular that a series featuring him, Angel, was spun off from Buffy; there were occasional "crossovers" between the two shows and these continued into the final season of Angel even though Buffy was no longer on the air.

Related Topics:
Angel - David Boreanaz - Angelus - Curse - Guilt - Angel

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Angel and Buffy have both inspired several comic book adaptations, magazines, companion books, novelizations, video games, and a card game, as well as several spinoff proposals (including a cartoon series and a BBC drama), and countless websites, online discussion forums, and works of fan fiction. In 2001, Joss Whedon wrote an eight-issue miniseries for Dark Horse Comics called Fray, about a futuristic vampire slayer. Its final issue came out in August 2003. There have also been two soundtrack albums (' and '), as well as a CD (and, in Europe, DVD single) of the "Once More, with Feeling" musical episode.

Related Topics:
Comic book - Video games - Card game - BBC - Fan fiction - 2001 - Dark Horse Comics - Fray - August 2003 - Once More, with Feeling

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Academic works

The show has inspired several academic books and essays, including Reading the Vampire Slayer, edited by Roz Kaveney, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy edited by James B. South. An academic discipline known as Buffy Studies developed during the late 1990s which encouraged the development of scholarship and courses exploring Girl Power in popular culture. Fans of both Buffy and Angel often use the term "Buffyverse" to describe the detailed fictional universe the shows share.

Related Topics:
Buffy Studies - 1990s - Girl Power - Buffyverse

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Parodies and references

There have also been a number of spoofs of the show, including a Hobbit themed rewriting of "Once More, with Feeling" entitled "Once More With Hobbits", and a Saturday Night Live sketch which relocated the Slayer, played by guest host Sarah Michelle Gellar, to the Seinfeld universe. MadTV featured a sketch called "Buffy the Umpire Slayer" in which Buffy (played by series regular Nicole Sullivan) slew umpires in high school baseball games. The series, which employed pop-culture references as a frequent humorous device, has itself become a frequent pop-culture reference in other works. A Friends episode featured Ursula, Phoebe's twin sister, in a porn movie entitled Phoebe Buffay in: Buffay the Vampire Layer; and the Sluggy Freelance webcomic featured a storyline called "Muffin the Vampire Baker". There was also a passing reference to a play "Buffus: The Bacchae Slayer" on an episode of ' and at least three episodes of Will & Grace which mention Buffy or star Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Related Topics:
Hobbit - Saturday Night Live - Seinfeld - MadTV - Nicole Sullivan - Umpires - Friends - Sluggy Freelance - Webcomic - Will & Grace

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Similar works

As well as these extracurricular offspring, Buffy has exerted a marked influence on TV and film, with shows such as Smallville and Roswell, as well as movies such as The Faculty and Bring It On owing something in their themes, devices, and verbal style to the show. The mythology of the series has also influenced other series, notably Cartoon Network's The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, and Sky's Hex.

Related Topics:
Smallville - Roswell - The Faculty - Bring It On - Cartoon Network's - The Life and Times of Juniper Lee - Sky - Hex

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In addition, many Buffy alumni have gone on to write for or create other shows, some of which bear a notable resemblance to the style and concepts of Buffy. Such Whedonesque endeavors include Tru Calling (Doug Petrie), Wonderfalls (Tim Minear), Still Life (Marti Noxon) and Jake 2.0 (David Greenwalt).

Related Topics:
Tru Calling - Doug Petrie - Wonderfalls - Tim Minear - Marti Noxon - Jake 2.0 - David Greenwalt

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Moreover, fall 2003 saw a number of new shows going into production in the US that featured strong girls/young women forced to come to terms with some supernatural power or destiny while trying to maintain a normal life. These "post-Buffy" shows include the aforementioned Tru Calling and Wonderfalls, as well as Dead Like Me and Joan of Arcadia. In the words of Bryan Fuller, the creator of Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls:

Related Topics:
Fall - 2003 - Dead Like Me - Joan of Arcadia - Bryan Fuller

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: really turned a corner for series storytelling. It showed that young women could be in situations that were both fantastic and relatable, and instead of shunting women off to the side, it put them at the center.

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