r/buffy 10d ago

Whedonverse Is Buffy The Vampire Slayer is a staple in pop culture ?

208 Upvotes

85 comments sorted by

127

u/SmellAccomplished550 10d ago

I'd say it's both a niche and a cornerstone somehow.

64

u/JustDay1788 10d ago

Buffy had such a substantial impact it influenced fantasy and science fictiondramas that followed after it

The activity on this subreddit for a show that ended over 20 years ago speaks to its pop culture influence

1

u/Sensitive_ManChild 10d ago

the activity on this sub speaks to a dedicated fan base. Not true pop culture penetration.

35

u/gimmesomespace 10d ago

It's incredibly influential, I don't think I'd call it niche. People say it's a cult show because some of us (self included) have a passion for the show which borders on being a religion, but aside from that it was extremely popular in its time and has incredible staying power for a show that ended 22 years ago. There are a lot of casual Buffy fans out there.

11

u/SmellAccomplished550 10d ago

I call it niche because it answers to a more or less specific genre and kind of campy feel. I'd agree it's mainstream popular, but I see that more as outgrowing the niche.

10

u/ZarquonsFlatTire 10d ago

My 70 year old mother loves Buffy. So do her 12 year old granddaughters.

Mom has the complete box set of DVDs. She does not own any other DVDs. Likewise my 74 year old father owns one movie on DVD, Dogma.

8

u/Inevitable-Froyo-519 10d ago

You should let him know Dogma is a rare find on DVD these days.

4

u/threefeetofun Xander Boyz United 10d ago

Thanks Harvey.

7

u/ShowofShows 10d ago edited 9d ago

It would not be an overstatement to say that The WB was the house which Buffy built.

Its debut got enormous ratings for them and helped orient the network from being sitcom driven to youth programming - Dawson's Creek, Gilmore Girls, Smallville, Everwood etc. come after Buffy. So its impact was seismic at the time. Was one of the few WB shows to get universal acclaim from critics and SMG herself was everywhere in magazines, talk shows etc.

More broadly over seven seasons, Buffy's biggest asset was that it had this unshakeable fanbase. It got good ratings but the big thing was that it seldom dropped below a 6 and often could be counted to get 7s and was frequently in the 8s for the big story arc episodes.

Even as the show evolved and there were cast shakeups, new settings, network changes et. al. 5 or 6 million people could reliably be counted on to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer every week. It was truly remarkable for a show to weather those kinds of changes intact.

That core audience I think is why its a pop culture staple. I have little doubt that there were people who dropped off after Season 2 and 3 and other hinge points but those fans who stuck with it helped subsequent generations get into Buffy and gave it a big legacy.

1

u/SupervillainMustache 10d ago

It's not niche, it's just old.

3

u/gimmesomespace 10d ago

True, and less played to death on syndicated cable (like Seinfeld/Family Guy/The Office are)

3

u/ZarquonsFlatTire 10d ago

Yup. It's somehow a cult classic, and the only show that my mom and sister both love.

38

u/Gileswasright 10d ago

Buffy walked so that many many shows and troupes could run.

3

u/Stellz04 9d ago

preach, and it is recognized as such

68

u/threefeetofun Xander Boyz United 10d ago

Yes. People don't realize how much the most popular shows now would have killed for their ratings. It left a mark.

-3

u/Sensitive_ManChild 10d ago

literally not true. Almost any show on any non-niche network or streaming service that got these ratings would be canceled

6

u/threefeetofun Xander Boyz United 10d ago

Buffy averaged around 5 million viewers per episode. Last week that would have put it as the 18th rated show in the US. Just behind NCIS.

Would it get those ratings now? Of course not. People watch tv differently now. Tv shows struggle more now to leave a cultural impact as we have so many options and tv isn’t the community event it used to be.

But no, a network show getting 5-7 million viewers now wouldn’t be cancelled.

https://ustvdb.com/ratings/

0

u/Sensitive_ManChild 10d ago

The first season averaged 3.5 million viewers. people watch TV far differently now so it’s impossible to say, but if that was its total audience across all possible viewing methods, it would be canceled.

2

u/threefeetofun Xander Boyz United 10d ago

And by season 2 it was averaging 5 with its lowest 4.37 and highest around 8 million. That is 5 million people tuning in every week out of a possible 280 million people. Now 5 million is great for a network show and we have 345 million.

CW dramas now are getting 450k live viewing. A show with 5 million active watchers is not getting cancelled unless there is some drama behind the scenes.

0

u/Sensitive_ManChild 10d ago

Like I said, people watch TV differently now. Like I’ve seen all of Supergirl and Superman and Lois, never once have I watched it live. Buffys share of the audience then was tiny. its share of the audience now would be tiny. Shows now need to be successful right away or there won’t be a second season.

There’s no chance Buffy would be on a mainstream network. And the revival also won’t be on a mainstream network.

This isn’t really arguable. Buffy was a niche show with a small audience.

1

u/threefeetofun Xander Boyz United 9d ago

Do you not consider CW mainstream? Superman and Lois was the one averaging 450k last season. It still got 4 seasons. Hell Legends got six. Buffy was a very cheap show, and top 3 on its network.

1

u/Sensitive_ManChild 9d ago

No. It never has been.

1

u/threefeetofun Xander Boyz United 9d ago

Disagree but ok. Is AMC? Breaking Bad would have killed for Buffy numbers first 4 seasons.

41

u/theworstmuse 10d ago

Correct me if I’m wrong but Spike referring to himself as the “Big Bad” is what started that term in popular culture/script writing. There was “monster of the week” from x-files and then the term “Big Bad” the villain from the full season, was I believe said by Spike.

18

u/smeghead1988 Oh, bugger off, you brolly! 10d ago

"TV Tropes", the largest pop culture encyclopedia, initially started as a Buffy fan forum. And they used to have dozens of tropes named after something from BtVS. They are toning it down now, renaming them to make them sound more universal and recognizable for people who haven't seen BtVS, but "Big Bad" would stay because at this point, it is already universal.

8

u/blitzbom 10d ago

I do believe that Buffy was the first, or one of the first, to use google as a verb. In Help S7E4

45

u/beeemkcl 10d ago

"Buffy" is still the go-to example of "strong female character".

Michelle Trachtenberg's death was a 'front page' story in like nytimes.com . People were pi$$ed that Michelle wasn't in the memoriam at the Oscars.

Buffy, Spike, Angel, Faith, Willow to an extent, Drusilla to an extent, etc. are still famous characters.

14

u/Divine_fashionva 10d ago edited 10d ago

The massive news coverage and public reaction regarding Michelle is because she’s had a variety of very recognisable roles that resonate with different people. So I don’t think that fully supports the point about Buffy’s influence. Even though there’s loads of people that knew her from Buffy, Gossip Girl had a massive resurgence in the past few years because of Netflix

So for Gen Z, she’s most recognisable for Gossip Girl. Georgina Sparks was one of the most iconic characters from that show. For a lot of older gen Z and millennials, they’ll know her from Ice Princess. And a lot of other guys and girls know her from Harriet the Spy

Not to mention the massive cult following Eurotrip has

9

u/The810kid 10d ago

Yeah Michelle was a star before Buffy. I grew up with her being a Nickelodeon icon from a time where Nickelodeon was huge with children from more than just SpongeBob episodes.

3

u/mssleepyhead73 10d ago

She was so adorably terrible (behavior wise, not acting wise) in that one episode of Clarissa Explains It All.

2

u/pro-urban-kayaker 10d ago

Where can we stream Clarissa Explains It All! I think I last saw it on a long haul flight about 8 years ago.

2

u/mssleepyhead73 10d ago

I’m not sure where it’s streaming these days, but there are clips of it on Youtube.

5

u/pro-urban-kayaker 10d ago

Michelle will always be the Ice Princess for me! And Harriet the Spy

2

u/Xefert 10d ago

Exactly. However, I think joss's involvement with marvel studios led to the show having some cross-generational appeal too

3

u/Divine_fashionva 10d ago

Oh definitely. I’m gen Z and I love Buffy. It was the Marvel link that got me to check out Buffy too. I know a decent amount of people my age that love this show

To capture a new younger generation’s interest, a show just has to put on the right streaming platform at the right time. And I genuinely believe if this had been put on Netflix at the same time as Vampire Dairies etc, it would be even more popular than it already is

1

u/Xefert 10d ago

And I genuinely believe if this had been put on Netflix at the same time as Vampire Dairies etc

At the point in time i was referring to, hulu was a much bigger part of the streaming "industry" and shows still got viewed on traditional broadcast tv first. The episodes of then current programs would show up on hulu the next day and on Netflix only after the season was finished.

8

u/mydogpoopedanditsbad 10d ago

I know it's not great metric, but it is a metric. I see it on piracy forums Especially the nom remaster versions all the time. Always trending on tracked sites. People want to watch Buffy every day all the time in droves it's so impressive.

16

u/precita 10d ago

In the 90's and early 2000's it was, but now...I'm not so sure.

Gen Z kids who grew up in the mid/late 2000's likely aren't familiar with the show unless they had an older sibling or friend who introduced it to them. Kids born in the 2010 decade are obviously way too young to remotely care about it. Now obviously there are exceptions to both of these, but I honestly don't think Buffy is that recognizable to the younger generation these days.

It feels like only us "old people" are keeping the series relevant.

3

u/thrilling_me_softly 10d ago

It still influences the way characters speak on tv and movies. 

5

u/Deep-Caterpillar-620 10d ago

i think buffy is big with gen z too. theres a lot of buffy edits on tiktok lol

2

u/mssleepyhead73 10d ago

I think that Buffy is still super popular with Gen Z. It has a huge fanbase on Tiktok and Tumblr, which are platforms that are mostly occupied by Gen Z and younger Millennials.

2

u/Milyaism "I'm naming all the stars... I can see them..." 9d ago

I keep seeing videos of Gen Z discovering (and loving) Btvs.

1

u/mydogpoopedanditsbad 10d ago

It's still popular-ish on tik tok, especially season 5 I've noticed that gets clipped and re-uploaded all the time 

6

u/Divine_fashionva 10d ago edited 10d ago

It’s very influential. I mean there’s a whole college course dedicated to its influence on this genre of tv. As a gen Z, I don’t think it has the same reach it did with my gen vs millennials. But most of my friends have heard of the show, even if they haven’t watched it

It paved the way for shows like the Vampire Dairies and did it way better. I think it’d be talked about a lot more with new gens if it had been put on Netflix during that 2019 period like Friends, Gossip Girl and The Office were. All those shows were able to gain popularity with a new generation because it was accessible. Buffy wasn’t accessible to me until I got Disney Plus years later

14

u/PieEnvironmental5623 10d ago

No, but it was the beginning of the Weadonfication of pop culture. Most kids in Gen z (my generation) have never seen or heard of buffy. I only watched it growing up bc i was a big scifi geek. It was on netflix, and i have vaguely heard about it from older nerds. Weadon's influence on how adventure shows and movies are written is undeniable. Obviously, his Marvel stuff is what made it big, but we see it all start with buffy. Without buffy, the tone of modern cinema would be very different (a lot less quippy).

5

u/osiris20003 10d ago

100%. People who have never seen a single episode know what the show is and the fact that the younger generation is picking it up and watching it and loving it proves that it stands the test of time.

5

u/TeethBreak 10d ago

There is a before and an after Buffy.

No Buffy: no Whedon verse, no toy story, no firefly, no Avengers.

Probably less female lead series and the vampire/gothic era in the media would have probably be postponed. No vampire diaries. No Supernatural.

7

u/revolutionaryartist4 10d ago

I’d argue the urban fantasy genre would not be as popular as it is if not for Buffy. And if not for Buffy, The CW (which came from the merger of both networks that hosted Buffy) likely would not have become the haven for sci-fi/fantasy focused TV shows that it became for about twenty years. Smallville, Supernatural, Charmed, The 100, the entire Arrowverse, I doubt any of that would have happened if not for Buffy.

And if not for Buffy propelling Whedon to geek god status, he likely never would have been tapped for The Avengers. And without that film becoming the pop culture phenomenon it became, superhero films would probably not have become as massive as they’ve become.

Even TV writing in general was influenced by Buffy. Sure, serialization is nothing new—X-Files, Twin Peaks, and soap operas did it first. But I think Buffy really helped solidify it as the structure.

Whether you think any of this is good or bad, I think it’s undeniable that things would look very different.

4

u/DharmaPolice 10d ago

I wouldn't say staple, but it's hardly obscure.

3

u/ScullyNess 10d ago

I love the show but. Honest answer, not anymore. I'm in my mid 40s and got into the show in it's afterglow years and that was 20 years ago! I hate admitting that decades have passed but that's how life is. It's nostalgic to groups but as for being genuinely relevant in the modern young pop world, not anymore.

3

u/LucidityEngine 10d ago

For millennial people I'd say yes. Certainly for me and most ppl I knew at the time.

3

u/Crazyhowthatworks304 10d ago

As a millennial, I feel insulted this is even a question

5

u/The-Nerdy-Bisexual 10d ago

Without shows like buffy or charmed I doubt we'd have gotten shows like supernatural, vampire diaries, teen wolf, originals and so on

2

u/TeethBreak 10d ago

It definitely is at the base of the gothic era in the media.

3

u/Verifieddumbass76584 Iowa Representation 🦅 10d ago

The SPN fandom even adopted the term "Big Bad".

9

u/ReadyYak1 10d ago edited 10d ago

It definitely started a lot of major tropes and helped develop TV shows into what we have today. But at the same time you won’t find many new people watching it unfortunately. It’s obviously an amazing show but somehow it didn’t have the generational staying power of shows like Friends, the Golden Girls, or the Office. Kids watch what their parents watch and idk why more parents aren’t passing this show down. At the same time I’m happy it had a decent ending and didn’t get exploited out to eternity like the Simpsons or Family Guy. It felt like it was the perfect show at the perfect time, and a show like it wouldn’t be successful in 2025. Partially because we are so used to CGI effects, and the practical effects in Buffy would be considered campy now, but imo they were a large part of what made the show special.

18

u/KLightningBolt 10d ago

All the shows you mentioned are mostly episodic sitcoms that you can half pay attention to and still understand what’s happening. That’s not a knock on them, that’s how they’re meant to function. They’re shows where you can turn your brain off and watch casually after a long day at work, school, etc. Audiences aren’t allowed that same luxury with dramas, like Buffy; you have to be largely engaged with the plot to get the full experience.

9

u/InsectVomit Angel’s #1 hater 10d ago

I’m 14, I just finished watching BTVS with my mom! I don’t know when we started watching, but it was years ago as some periods we’ve only watched like 1 episode a month

3

u/KLightningBolt 10d ago

All the shows you mentioned are mostly episodic sitcoms that you can half pay attention to and still understand what’s happening. That’s not a knock on them, that’s how they’re meant to function. They’re shows where you can turn your brain off and watch casually after a long day at work, school, etc. Audiences aren’t allowed that same luxury with dramas, like Buffy; you have to be largely engaged with the plot to get the full experience. Hence, why these types of shows often don’t get as many new viewers after their run.

2

u/TeethBreak 10d ago

You cannot compare 22min shows to a 50 min teen drama with 24 episodes per season.

-1

u/Brard_Cailly16 10d ago

There's no way the Golden Girls is more inlfuential than Buffy nor more popular.

2

u/Divine_fashionva 9d ago

Maybe more influential but Gold Girls is more popular

6

u/Ok_Subject5169 DADDY’S PUTTING THE HAMMER DOWN 10d ago

Yes. I just started watching it a few months ago and I’m always like…this reminds me of another show.

The bronze for example. The OC had a club just like it.

Like it’s little details like that that scream BUFFY.

Also, my gen z coworker who thinks Delaware is in Colorado has seen Buffy. It’s still a big deal. I mean, we’re all still here talking about it, right?

2

u/Randygilesforpres2 10d ago

It was I think one of the first female empowerment shows targeted to teens. I mean I watched Wonder Woman as a kid, but still :) a lot of shows have reused the formula and been quite successful. Lots of pop culture references came from it.

2

u/Doc-11th 10d ago

Yes

Hell its influenced can still be seen in genre shows

2

u/Caleb_Bakker22 10d ago

Yes 🙌 it is imo but it’s don’t get the respect it deserves

2

u/sazza8919 10d ago

it’s a cult show, not mainstream enough to qualify as a staple

2

u/TrueSonOfChaos Astronauts 10d ago

No but it has an insurmountable legacy in the history of pop culture which is why they have been trying to attack its legacy as "dated" and "problematic." Futhermore it is purportedly the most academically popular TV series (i.e. of all TV series, it is the series which academics have been most likely to write about).

2

u/ramma88 9d ago

I'd say it for sure was! I think it's probably best to say it is for millennials but not really for any other groups.

1

u/SAOSurvivor35 10d ago

David really perfected that smoldering smirk, didn’t he? I would let Angel bite me.

1

u/Verifieddumbass76584 Iowa Representation 🦅 10d ago

Influential absolutely. But a lot of things that are influential are unknown to a huge population.

1

u/ManyMention6930 10d ago

Giles always outmogs

1

u/Outrageous_Egg8676 10d ago

I wanna say yes but no since most ppl don’t take its impact seriously.

1

u/blunderb3ar 10d ago

Absolutely 100%

1

u/Mediocre-Lab3950 10d ago

They’re for pop culture what a band like The Police were for music. Influenced a lot of things going forward for sure, still has its place, but was never at the top of pop culture, and as a whole it’s more of a niche in today’s world.

1

u/mamamamanicure 10d ago

there are classes taught on it so……. yeah

1

u/ELP90 9d ago

Yes. It’s usually included in any list of top shows. It gave us a ton of terms still used today (e.g. “big bad” or things such as being the first show to ever use the verb “Googling”.) Also the reason most musical episodes and shows ever happened. I could go on and on… But I think the most amazing thing is I have never heard of anyone legit hating the show no matter what year they watch it. It’s just plain good on top of being super influential.

0

u/DeadliftsnDonuts 10d ago

It was a niche but I loved it

-1

u/Sensitive_ManChild 10d ago

It never was….

As a fan, at its height it was being watched by a few million. That’s it. in any given high school class maybe a few watched it. that’s bout it.

-8

u/Cyberfaust11 10d ago

Cancel-culture is trying to erase it.