Buffy the Vampire Slayer: How the show influenced modern entertainment
It’s been 20 years since Buffy The Vampire Slayer first hit our TV screens. It has fans all over the world, and made a star of its lead actress Sarah Michelle Gellar.
A TV series based on a not-great movie about a Californian teenager who attends high school by day and fights vampires by night, seems an unlikely candidate to be a serious contender to become a TV classic and hugely influential piece of popular culture.
But Buffy managed it and after close to 150 episodes - with its final outing airing in 2003 - its influence is still felt today as a truly ground breaking piece of work.
Here are some of the things that Buffy has given the world of entertainment.
In TV and film it’s all too common for female characters to be the love interest or the support to a male lead.
Buffy successfully put a woman at the centre of the series, and led the way for characters like ‘The Hunger Games’ Katniss Everdeen, ‘The Force Awakens’ Rey, Homeland’s’ Carrie Mathison, and so many more.
This was a trademark feature of Buffy - one example, after a gruesome multiple murder at a college fraternity house, a demon approvingly comments: “It’s like somebody slaughtered an Abercrombie and Fitch catalogue.”
Series ranging from Gilmore Girls to Family Guy gleefully use dialogue in a similar, although less gruesome, way.
Buffy’s show runner is now one of the biggest names in Hollywood.
Two of the films in the Top 10 highest grossing of all time were directed by him - Marvel’s The Avengers and its sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron. Both took over $1.5bn (£1.23bn) and he also had a role overseeing other successful Marvel films.
And it all started with the experience he got writing and directing Buffy.