Stake 'That'

Buffy The Vampire Slayer revolutionised tv with quips, feels and kick-ass action. Join us as SFX celebrateS 20 yearS of Joss whedon’s “little show that could”. anniversary, much?

THE CHOSEN ONES

“THE SECRET SAUCE WAS JOSS!”

Tara Bennett Revisits Buffy’s Writers’ Room With Two of Sunnydale’s Storytelling Team

When Buffy The Vampire Slayer debuted on 10 March 1997, no one thought it would last more than a few episodes, much less change the television landscape. But change TV it did, as Joss Whedon’s bold, sassy and sometimes scary metaphor for our teen years placed a strong, witty heroine front and centre and had her save herself… and the world. A lot.

Two decades later, Buffy remains a TV icon with 144 bingeable episodes of adventures still captivating a new generation of fans – and making her original generation of viewers nostalgic for the show’s indelible mix of humour, pathos, horror and the occasional helping of heartbreak. Two of the show’s writers, Jane Espenson and Howard Gordon, are today respected figures in the current golden age of television. They’ve written for a host of classic series from Battlestar Galactica to 24, yet both see their time on Buffy The Vampire Slayer as career-changing in terms of what they learned to value as storytellers.

So why does the show’s popularity endure, 20 years on? “I think the secret sauce was Joss,” Espenson tells SFX. “He has a vision that seems so singular and clear, and yet we all found it impossible to capture when he wasn’t there. There really wasn’t a formula, which I guess is part of the formula. A lot of it had to do with having something underlying the episode that really needed to be said. Joss always made us focus on Buffy’s emotional experience and growth.”