Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 1)

Plot

The first season exemplifies the "high school as hell" concept. Buffy Summers has just moved to Sunnydale after burning down her old school's gym and hopes to escape her Slayer duties. Her plans are complicated by Rupert Giles, her new Watcher, who reminds her of the inescapable presence of evil. Sunnydale High is built atop a Hellmouth, a portal to demon dimensions that attracts supernatural phenomena to the area. Buffy meets two schoolmates, Xander Harris and Willow Rosenberg, who help her fight evil through the series. She also gets a love interest in the form of Angel, a vampire who has a soul. They soon become known as the "Scoobies". Together they must prevent The Master, an ancient and especially threatening vampire, from opening the Hellmouth and taking over Sunnydale.

While befriending Buffy on her first day, both Willow and Xander have motives to fight. Xander's motive to fight alongside Buffy was the loss of his friend Jesse, who was turned into a vampire by The Master's minions. Xander soon kills Jesse. Willow however was more timid and fiercely scared of monsters. They both soon become Buffy's most loyal sidekicks. There is some romantic tension between them as Xander has a crush on Buffy and is oblivious of Willow's affections for him. The Scoobies distrust Angel but warm up to him as the season progresses.

Buffy and her friends often clash with Cordelia Chase, who attempted to befriend Buffy on her first day, but Buffy didn't like the way she treated Willow. Throughout the season, Cordelia was often at odds with Buffy and her friends but near the end of the season, she becomes aware of the supernatural world around her and helps Buffy.

In the earlier episodes, Buffy and Angel encounter The Master's favorite minion Darla, who was the vampire who sired Angel. Darla is soon killed much to The Master's anger, but The Master gains a new ally in the form of the Anointed One, a child like minion who has a major role in opening the Hellmouth.

In the season finale, Buffy learns of a prophecy involving her death at the hands of The Master. Just as The Master begins his plot, Buffy finally confronts him. The Master bites Buffy and leaves her to drown in a shallow pool. Buffy recovers via CPR by Xander and confronts The Master again on the school roof. After a final stand off, The Master is impaled and killed on a piece of wood after falling through the Sunnydale High skylight. After saving the world, Buffy and her new friends go to a party.

Origins

Writer Joss Whedon says that "Rhonda the Immortal Waitress was really the first incarnation of the Buffy concept, just the idea of some woman who seems to be completely insignificant who turns out to be extraordinary." This early, unproduced idea evolved into Buffy, which Whedon developed to invert the Hollywood formula of "the little blonde girl who goes into a dark alley and gets killed in every horror movie." Whedon wanted "to subvert that idea and create someone who was a hero." He explained, "The very first mission statement of the show was the joy of female power: having it, using it, sharing it."

The idea was first visited through Whedon's script for the 1992 movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which featured Kristy Swanson in the title role. The director, Fran Rubel Kuzui, saw it as a "pop culture comedy about what people think about vampires." Whedon disagreed: "I had written this scary film about an empowered woman, and they turned it into a broad comedy. It was crushing." The script was praised within the industry, but the movie was not.

Several years later, Gail Berman, a Fox executive, approached Whedon to develop his Buffy concept into a television series. Whedon explained that "They said, 'Do you want to do a show?' And I thought, 'High school as a horror movie.' And so the metaphor became the central concept behind Buffy, and that's how I sold it." The supernatural elements in the series stood as metaphors for personal anxieties associated with adolescence and young adulthood. Whedon went on to write and partly fund a 25-minute non-broadcast pilot that was shown to networks and eventually sold to The WB Television Network. The latter promoted the premiere with a series of History of the Slayer clips, and the first episode aired on March 10, 1997.

Main cast

Crew

Series creator Joss Whedon served as executive producer and showrunner. David Greenwalt joined the series as co-executive producer as 20th Century Fox wanted an experienced television producer as Whedon had never run a television series before. Whedon wrote the most episodes, writing three and the original pilot, as well as writing the story for a further two. Greenwalt wrote three episodes, devising two of the stories himself and working his third script for the season from a story by Whedon. Story editors Rob Des Hotel and Dean Batali wrote two episodes and the other pair of story editors, Matt Kiene and Joe Reinkemeyer wrote one episode. Staff writers Ashley Gable and Thomas A. Swyden wrote one episode and wrote the teleplay for another from a story by Whedon. Dana Reston also wrote a freelance script.

Bruce Seth Green directed the highest amount of episodes in the first season, directing three episodes, followed by Whedon, who directed two, the original unaired pilot and his broadcast directional debut with the season finale "Prophecy Girl".

Reception

On the review aggregator website Metacritic, the first season scored 80 out of 100, based on 15 reviews, indicating "Generally favorable reviews".

The pilot episode, "Welcome to the Hellmouth", was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Makeup for a Series.

DVD release

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete First Season was released on DVD in region 1 on January 15, 2002 and in region 2 on November 27, 2000. The DVD includes all 12 episodes on 3 discs presented in full frame 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Special features on the DVD include a commentary track by creator Joss Whedon on "Welcome to Hellmouth" and "The Harvest", along with the original script for the episode. Other features include interviews with Joss Whedon and cast member David Boreanaz, with Whedon discussing the episodes "Witch", "Never Kill a Boy on the First Date", "Angel" and "The Puppet Show". Also included are cast/crew biographies, DVD-ROM content, photo galleries, and series trailers.