Joss Whedon has revealed his witty and wordy recipe for creating one of his most popular characters, Buffy Anne Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer). He told PopWatch:

“There’s a whole recipe for how to make a Buffy,” he explains. “Take one cup Sarah Connor from the first Terminator movie; one cup Ripley [from Alien]; three tablespoons of the younger sister in [the 1984 post-apocalyptic comedy] Night of the Comet*; a few sprigs of A Little Princess — the book, not the movies; and a pinch of Jimmy Stewart for pain, because nobody does better pain. Bake those up. Once it’s cool, add a little Rosalind Russell from His Girl Friday. All of this must be in a P.J.-Soles-in-Halloween crust. That’s very important.”

buffy the vampire slayer

And now we also know how Whedon feels about this vampire sensation. Well, not exactly. But he’s said, “Ultimately, my show was less about vampires than most shows with vampire in the title. The show’s about growing up, which for her was basically ages 15 through 22, but the kind of 15 through 22 where you fight wars.” The idea of vampires wasn’t the point of his series, which is why it worked. When a show/book series/movie is mostly just …”hey, here are vampires and they are sexy and deadly” a show can’t compete with Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

*The name of an episode of The Vampire Diaries, yes. Homage much?

Previously: Name the best TV shows of the past 20 years

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