Buffy the Vampire Slayer made vampires cool long before there was True Blood or the Twilight saga. It also helped jump-start the careers of Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hannigan, and David Boreanaz. The series, created by Joss Whedon, left the airwaves in May 2003, but there still continues to be a cult following for the series. The drama was so popular that a spin-off was created in 1999 for fan favorite character Angel. The series would continue in the form of comic book due to still being so popular. An eighth and ninth season comic book series of the show was made beginning in 2007 and a tenth season will came out in comic form last year. Here are ten other fascinating facts about the teenager who killed vampires while also trying to pass Biology that you may not know.
1. Sarah Michelle Gellar as a witch?!
When Sarah Michelle Gellar was auditioning for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she was also being considered for another television series. The show was Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and the show would premiere six months before Buffy. The role of Sabrina would go to Melissa Joan Hart. Gellar has originally auditioned for the part of Cordelia, but Joss Whedon saw her as a great protagonist. Other WB alumni who also auditioned to play Buffy were Katie Holmes who would go on to star on Dawson’s Creek and Selma Blair who would be featured on the short-lived series Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane.
2. James Marsters is not British
James Marsters starred as vampire Spike for 97 episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and is not British like the character he plays. Marsters grew up in California and when he auditioned for the role of Spike, he did so with a southern accent. The producers asked him to try the voice as if the character lived in London and they loved the way he sounded. Anthony Stewart Head, who played Giles, would aid in perfecting Marsters accent. Also, Marsters looks much younger than he actually is. When the series premiered in 1997, Marsters was 34 years old. This year the actor will be celebrating his 53rd birthday.
3. No family for Buffy
During early developments of the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, there was not supposed to be an inclusion of Buffy’s family in any episodes. Joss Whedon did not think sharing Buffy’s family life would be necessary, but changed his mind early into production. At first, there was not a mention of Buffy having a sister but then the role of Dawn was created later. Dawn was originally going to have telekinetic powers and be able to speak to the dead, but that idea was quickly thrown out.
4. Ryan Reynolds could have been on the series?!
Ryan Reynolds has had quite the movie career. After starring on the television series Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place in the late 90’s and early 00’s, Reynolds would begin to star in comedies like Van Wilder and Buying the Cow. Now the actor has become an A-lister that has starred in Green Lantern and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Early on in Reynolds’ career, he was offered the part of Xander on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He turned down the role as he hated high school and did not want to have to go back to that time in his life.
5. David Boreanaz was discovered in a quirky way!
David Boreanaz is currently starring as FBI Agent Seeley Booth on the popular FOX crime drama Bones. Prior to that, he played the part of Angel on both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the spin-off Angel. The producers were having difficulty casting the part and wanted someone who was gorgeous, mysterious, and could be described as the most incredible man on the Earth. A friend of the producers said that he had seen a guy walking a dog in his neighborhood that fit that description. That man was Boreanaz. He came in, auditioned for the role, and was hired to play the vampire.
6. At first, money was tight.
While filming the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, producers had to work with a very small budget. Many of the school scenes were shot in a huge warehouse. There was actually only one hallway that would have to be changed to make it look like different spots of the school. The warehouse where filming took place was also the exterior for The Bronze. Exterior shots of the Sunnydale High are of the same high school from Beverly Hills, 90210 and Not Another Teen Movie.
7. Looking like a vampire isn’t easy.
Actors who were playing the roles of vampires on Buffy the Vampire Slayer had to sit in a makeup chair for almost 90 minutes while a prosthetic from the head to the nose was applied to the face. The actors would also have to wear fake teeth when the vampires were ready to feed. Once scenes were done filming for the day, the actors would return to the makeup department and wait patiently while the prosthetic was slowing taken off the face to avoid any skin coming off with it.
8. No one liked to film the library scenes.
Buffy, Willow, and Xander could often be found hanging out in the Sunnydale High School library trying to help Giles solves the mysteries of the city on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. However, no one in the cast or crew enjoyed filming there. Giles would deliver so many speeches with a lot of information and everyone began to grow tired of hearing him tell another long-winded tale.
9. A special graveyard was built.
During the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, any scenes taking place in a cemetery were filmed at the Hollywood graveyard, where many television shows will go to shoot a funeral scene. The cast would be there so frequently and into the wee hours of the night that the crew decided to build their own graveyard in the warehouse parking lot where the series was filmed. They planted grass and trees to make it look more authentic.
10. Ratings winner for The WB
The WB was never a network that was really strong in the ratings. However, series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dawson’s Creek helped the network to become noticed. The first season of Buffy had an average viewing audience of 3.7 million viewers. Seasons 2, 3, and 4 averaged 5.2 million viewers. By the time the series moved to the UPN network, ratings had slightly dipped to 4.5 million viewers.
Do you know an interesting fact about Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Let us know in the comments section below.
Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images
You have a typo in the title. It should say: “10 Things You Didn’t Know About ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ assuming you’ve never seen the show, or read or heard anything about it”
I knew at least 4 of these things.
Oh, and ratings? The fact that you would even claim that all your readers wouldn’t know about this when this information is publicly available is rather insulting.
2015 will see James Marsters’ 53rd birthday, not his 52nd.
Nicholas Brendon (Xander) has an identical twin brother who was cast to play Xander’s bad half when Xander becomes split in two after a demon attack (S05EP03 “The Replacement”).