Excerpt
Foreword
Over the past eight years Joss Whedon has transformed Buffy the Vampire Slayer from her original one-note movie incarnation of horror and comedy into a young woman any Watcher would be proud to be associated with. Since the television show first aired in 1997, Buffy Summers and her circle of family and friends have been shaped by fantastic expressions of the horrors every adolescent encounters in the growing process. Their demons manifest in the flesh, but the fears they bring with them are universal. Fear of isolation, of being an outsider. Fear of making the wrong choices in romance. Fear of losing a loved one.
In the time it has been on the air, Buffy has truly reached the status of "cultural phenomenon." This means more than appearing on refrigerator magnets and door hangers (although this edition of The Watcher's Guide covers that aspect as well). It means that Buffy and the other residents of Sunnydale have become a part of the world's vernacular. People who don't watch the show are at least acquainted with the premise. And people who do watch, embrace the characters and feel their trials and triumphs along with them.
In addition to fans' fascination with the characters, Buffy also has a strong element of metafiction. Viewers are both aware and appreciative that the situations and dialogue they view each week come from the minds of Joss and his fellow writers.
This book contains more information on both levels of the Buffyverse. It contains a complete episode guide for Seasons Three and Four, with cross-referenced continuity and in-depth character descriptions. It also contains more behind-the-scenes informationincluding a day-by-day look at the making of Season Four's pivotal episode, "The I in Team," -- than has ever been available before. We documented the process of turning ideas, words, photographs, and sketches into a televised episode 'in two weeks.
Our goal in assembling this material was to include everything we believe a true fan desires to know. We hope we have met that goal for you.
Nancy Holder
Jeff Mariotte
Maryelizabeth Hart
Copyright © 2000 by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation