Raising the Stakes

An Essay by Leah Mazur

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was created by a man named Joss Whedon, who wanted to turn around the stereotype of the young blond girl who goes into an alley and gets killed in so many horror movies. He stated that, "the very first mission statement of the show was the joy of female power: having it, using it, sharing it".

In 1992, Joss Whedon's idea was made into a movie, starring Kristy Swanson as Buffy. However, the director saw it as more of a comedy, and Whedon was very disappointed. A couple years later, he was asked to turn his concept into a television show, and that's how Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the series, began. It starred Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy.

Buffy is about a teenage girl, who is given the strength to fight the forces of evil. However, part of the originality of the show comes from the fact that Buffy battles vampires and demons with the help of her friends, but also has to deal with the problems in her own life, including high school, her mother's death, and finding a job to support herself financially.

When Buffy first aired, fans and critics alike took immediate notice. It stood out from other shows, for many reasons. Buffy blends many different genres, including horror, romance, drama, comedy, and there's even an episode that's a musical. Buffy was one of the first female heroines on television, and really paved the way for more to come. The show also has very clever writing and dialogue, and is full of deeper meanings, the most noticeable being the "high school as hell" metaphor. Whedon once explained, "we think very carefully about what we're trying to say emotionally, politically, and even philosophically while we're writing it... it really is, apart from being a pop-culture phenomenon, something that is deeply layered textually episode by episode".

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is one of the most influential television shows ever made. The September 2006 issue of SFX magazine lists Buffy as the fourth most influential show, stating that Buffy "subverted the male superheroic ideas beloved of comic books" and "it did something very rare for genre TV: it developed a formidable female fanbase". BellaOnline listed Buffy as the second most influential television show ever created. A few of the shows that have been directly influenced by Buffy the Vampire Slayer include: Angel, Smallville, 24, Lost, Joan of Arcadia, Dead Like Me, Doctor Who (the new one), Roswell, Kim Possible, Tru Calling, Veronica Mars, Charmed, Hex, and many more. Russell T. Davies, the executive producer of the new Doctor Who, once said that Buffy, "showed the whole world, and an entire sprawling industry, that writing monsters and demons and end-of-the world isn?t hack-work, it can challenge the best. Joss Whedon raised the bar for every writer?not just genre/niche writers, but every single one of us."

Buffy has also impacted the world culturally. It has attracted a lot of interest from scholars of popular culture. The term

"Buffy Studies" is commonly used among Buffy-related academic writings. It includes academic studies of Buffy in relation to feminism, psychology, philosophy, religion, and much more. There have been hundreds of articles and around 20 books written about the themes of Buffy. There are even some universities that have included Buffy Studies into their curriculum.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer raised the stakes for every television series since. It's combination of female power, unique writing, clever metaphors, and genre blending has made it a show that has and will influence the entertainment industry for decades to come.