How Buffy Changed My Life (unedited version)

Once upon a time I did not quote lines from a television show; I did not drive my friends mad by relating every single occurrence in my life to an episode from Buffy I did not have a stack of DVDs taking up half my shelf and prior to entering the ‘Jossverse’ (Urban Dictionary 2005). I had never thought about television viewership in a critical way. Joss Whedon’s brainchild Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) was born when Whedon decided he didn’t like seeing ‘the little blonde girl’ always getting killed in horror movies, he wanted her to fight back (Buffy the Vampire Slayer 2001). Little did he realise that this would become a phenomenon – one which people would build their lives around, whose philosophies would be shaped by a blondie in high heels who could kick butt- and for whom television, and life, would never be the same.

Buffy aired in Australia from 1997-2003 on Channel 7,I, being a mere child at the time was not an avid watcher of prime-time television. I only aware of the show when I noticed the media hype surrounding its final episode (Tonkin, 2003) but it would be two years later, at the age of 15 when I would pick up my first Buffy VHS from the local library, with no idea of what lay ahead. This was not going to be the simple good vs. evil supernatural drama that I was accustomed to Charmed and Sabrina the Teenage Witch stood to little comparison. (Atkinson 2004).

Viewing the series on DVD from season two onwards I found myself with a plethora of extra information I’d never encountered or considered when it came to television viewing. Previously I had always consumed television in a very ‘in the box’ format – the traditional broadcast viewer who consumed without question (Wired 2007). But now I had featurettes taking me behind the scenes introducing me to a world of screenwriting, production, costuming, stunts and thematic consideration. Interviews with Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt showed me that there was real thought put into the show (Buffy the Vampire Slayer 2001). This compelled me to start watching the commentaries as well; I would go back and re-view the three or four episodes per season that featured commentaries and I’d get extra excited if Whedon would be talking. Rather than buying the series I would borrow the DVDs from my local library. Sometimes waiting weeks for my reserved items to come in, I would refuse to watch ahead for fear of missing some crucial moment that could subsequently spoil the entire season for me. So when I did get the DVDs I would watch it in chunks, two or three episodes a day if supply was plentiful or one a day if supply was scarce. This influenced my viewing as the narrative progression was written for a week-by-week viewing audience, not someone who sat down and watched half the season in one night. I’d find myself wondering how things were moving so quickly but also revelling in the instant gratification I was being granted, I was the privileged viewer who didn’t have to wait for next week’s instalment.Another advantage of the DVD format was that I didn’t have to suffer painful interruptions: advertisements, the phone ringing, family members with their endless stream of questions and demands. The DVD was perfect for me, I could stop, rewind and re-listen as much as I liked, and at times enabling subtitle to ensure that I heard everything correctly.

In an attempt to fill the void in my post- Buffy life I sought to get my Buffy kicks from other forms of media, first in the official novels, some written according to events in the series and others with alternate endings (Gwenllian-Jones & Pearson, 2004, pg. Xii). But I found these to be disappointing; they just couldn’t quite capture the essence of the series. So I found myself turning to fanfiction and finding ‘slash fiction– sexual fantasies about favourite characters written by and circulated among cult TV show fans’ (Siegel, 2007, pg.58) particularly intriguing. Fanfiction was a dream come true because it allowed fans to explore in extraordinary detail all our Buffy ‘fantasies’ ‘...perhaps because fandom can be more accepting than the ‘’real world’’?’ (Tulloch & Jenkins, 1995, pg.xii) The endless nights spent devouring and writing fanfiction would be reinforced by the visuals provided by YouTube fan videos that would cut scenes from episodes of the show and paste them together with a song to emphasise a relationship that wasn’t explored in-depth in the series – with ‘slash’ being notably popular. Interestingly I find that these ‘fantasy’ images of Buffy shape my memory of the show as much as the original series itself, it seems Whedon’s Buffy served as a launching pad for endless future scenarios and this evolving nature is part of why it continues to thrive.

Eventually I grew tired of fan created drama and decided to explore critical writing on the series instead. Astonishingly these critical analyses are adding even more layers of meaning to the series, reinforcing my own reading and sometimes forcing me to question beliefs I have held about the show. Similarly during the series I would read Buffy forums because I would be seeking further connection with the show and with other fans. I was interested in what they had to say about events in the series and their opinions on how it fit into the ‘Jossverse’ philosophy. Of course one has to let everyone know they love Buffy and what better way to do it than to post up pictures and quizzes on your social networking site? I’ve added the ‘Addicted to Buffy’ application, become a ‘fan of’ Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and have done many a quiz to determine which character I am most like. Everyone on my list gets an update about it so it’s a great way to share interests and find that other friends are Buffy fans via comments and updates.

Never before had I watched a ‘teen drama’ and found the ‘edgy humour’ appealing (Owen, 1999, pg. 25). Unfortunately I didn’t understand a lot of the 90’s pop culture references which meant I’d go running to the computer after every episode to look up what they meant and then laugh to myself quietly if I understood or remain bemused if I didn’t. Sex is an inevitable component of teen drama and it was not something I’d been exposed to on television prior to Buffy. Having grown up in a household where sex wasn’t exactly dinnertime conversation I would be on parent alert every time I sat down to watch the show. Somehow I would always manage to stop the DVD or change the channel before anyone walked in and any awkwardness could ensue. To make life all the more interesting my nine year old brother would try watching Buffy with me and in the earlier seasons I would (grudgingly) allow it, but after sex started becoming a core component I decided I would have to stop him from viewing it because I would rather not be there or his sex education.



Which brings me to the issue of privacy, I’m a private viewer for me television is a form of escape, an alternate reality where I can sit down with a familiar group of ‘friends’ for years or months and not think about the world. So it gets difficult to ‘escape’ when you have someone intruding on your space, especially when they ask annoying questions ‘who’s that? Why are they doing that? What just happened?’ Ideally television viewing is an individual experience for me which contradicts Seiter’s claim that “media consumption and interpersonal relationship are closely intertwined” (1999, pg.2).

Buffy also covered another taboo – homosexuality. It was the first series I’d watched that featured prominent lesbian relationships, never before had I seen homosexuality depicted positively and openly on a television show. This was further cause for secrecy because the thought of my mother walking in on me watching lesbian sex on television was not one I wished to entertain. Viewing a normalised portrayal of homosexuality made me realise that there was more out there and I went in search of other shows like The L Word, Will and Grace and Queer as Folk.Similarly I wanted to follow the cast’s future careers partly as a feeble connection to the series and also to help me ‘move on’. To my delight I found Alyson Hannigan on How I Met Your Mother which sparked a newfound love of sitcoms and so my Friends obsession was born, as was my appreciation of British humour with Anthony Stewart Head in Little Britain. Not to mention my squeals of delight at seeing Michelle Tratchtenberg guest star on House and following Eliza Dushku in Tru Calling and soon Dollhouse. Buffy was able to open up an interest in a variety of quality television I would never have otherwise considered watching.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer has dramatically influenced my viewing practices, my first teen drama it opened up a world of witty quips and sexuality. My process of viewing was also very different to other programs I had previously consumed as I watched this on DVD years after it was originally broadcast and sought interaction through other forms of media which then led to a variety of new interpretations of the program.