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‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer,’ “Welcome to the Hellmouth”

A lot can change in 25 years. For Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which debuted 25 years ago today on the now-defunct WB network, those changes include… uh, almost all of television being remade in the image of one scrappy show about a sophomore with a stake in her purse and a quip on her lips. Seriously — Buffy the Vampire Slayer introduced a generation of TV viewers (and future show runners) to a modernized version of heavily serialized storytelling where it truly felt like anything could happen to anyone. Nowadays, so many TV shows utilize the season-long story arcs, sexy antiheroes, pop culture-literate wit, and “big bads” that Buffy helped popularize — and all of that is apparent in Episode 1, “Welcome to the Hellmouth.” Few shows start out as confident as Buffy did. Watching the premiere back today, it’s almost like the show knew that it was making moves that would change the course of pop culture.

Of course, the flip side of all of this is that Buffy’s legacy is tied to a man who ended up being more of a big bad than a chosen one. How do we reconcile what we now know with what we’ve spent 25 years loving? That’s a hard question that every fan has to answer for themselves — and those answers can change day by day. Maybe you can reclaim the show on behalf of and in support of everyone else who made it groundbreaking television, or maybe you can focus on all of the great works of the past 25 years inspired by Buffy. The thing to remember is, Buffy the show — like the titular slayer herself — wasn’t alone. The show was as much about the audience and how it impacted us. So even if you ultimately can’t celebrate the show because of that IRL big bad, maybe it’s possible to instead focus on what the show meant (or means) to you.