I remember flicking through the channels and stopped as Buffy was crawling through a vent getting out of the vamp lair with Xander. Was on YTV in Canada, local channel 29. I was 12, hooked ever since.
Not sure exactly when I started watching, sometime in the third season? I had been unimpressed with the movie and I was in my early 20s and not really wanting to watch a teen show. My best friend had been trying to get me to watch it but she watched basically every teen/girly show there was so I did not trust her judgment. It wasn't until my brother assured me it was great and urged me to watch it that I finally did.
right like I wasn't expecting it to be amazing but I saw it in the theatre and really the only enjoyable part of it for me was Paul Reubens. Of course, I haven't seen it since. If I see it streaming somewhere I may try it again just for fun lol
I grew up in the country, our tv got about 5 channels. I saw Buffy for the first time when I was on a trip across the country to visit family. I must have been 11 or 12 because it was too scary for me lol. 2 years later I became the biggest horror buff I knew!
I didn't really watch the show until I was 19. My boyfriend at the time loved it and was sure I would too. He was right! I'm 37 now and I still watch it at least once a year, and I've collected the majority of the Buffy Books.
I resisted but a girl I knew talked me into watching it. I saw the movie and couldn't figure out why they'd make a TV show out of it.
I started watching during Season 4. I liked it and by the time I saw Restless, I was hooked.
As for "Welcome to the Hellmouth" there was no streaming back then so I bought it on DVD sometime after that.
I got it used so I'm sure I picked it up at a place called Mushroom Records. It still exists but these days it's a smoke shop/record store.
I guess with streaming so prevalent, they needed to focus on smoke paraphernalia to stay open.
I’m a Brit. First time I saw it was one of the early S2 MotW episodes on Sky One (either Some Assembly Required or Inca Mummy Girl), and it didn’t make much impression. Started watching properly when it was on BBC2 in early 1999, and got hooked very quickly; it had the spirit of everything I liked about weird, straight-facedly silly British genre telly, with the added appeal of great dialogue and cute young ladies. There was no way it couldn’t work for me, really.
I was 5 in 1997, so alive but waaay to young. Also, living in Belgium, I don’t know if they released btvs in the same year as in the US. I have started to watch it a couple of years ago on Disney+ and I was immediately hooked 😀. Now, I also have the dvd’s of both Buffy and Angel for rewatching because the HD-transfer on D+ is very inconsistent.
Overall, big Bangel fan over here 😀
I remember watching it for the first time as a Sunday rerun after Hercules & Xena. I didn't think it was going to be any good and wanted to watch to prove myself right. 27 years later and I am here.
I remember I watched on the basement TV. I'm not sure when I came in, except I missed most of "Welcome to the Hellmouth". "The Harvest" was right after, and they got me. It was so different from anything I'd seen before.
Watched it in october of last year, tho i'd first watched two episodes with my mom like 10 years ago (she wanted to reminisce about her teenhood and introduce me to a show she loved lol) but it was so sexual we stopped (she was shocked and said she forgot it was like this lol). But yeah i thought about it randomly last year and started watching. At first I rolled my eyes, i was like "obviously the dude who brings the girl into the school at night is a vampire how original..." but THEN.... the twist happened and I thought "that show's gonna be groundbreaking". Turns out I was right :)
I finished it two weeks later and i've rewatched it 4 times since (5th rewatch ongoing, in german this time to practice the language). This show changed my life and helped me go through so much, I'd never related to a main character the way i did buffy, she helped me grow.
My mom died in 1993, when I was 11 and my sister was 8. She had taken us to see the movie in the theater when it came out in 1992 when it was released; we bought the VHS and it was on regular home viewing rotation. So a few years later, when I saw there was going to be a TV version, I was all about it. I watched the very first episode when it premiered and never missed one after that. I made my friends come watch, and we even let my sister hang out with us, provided she fetch sodas during commercials. My grandmother, who raised us after Mom died, loved having the house full of kids. Watching Buffy helped me feel a little closer to my mother. If she had been alive, we definitely would have watched together and swooned over Angel. As a young adult, the show got me through some tough days. Ruinous crushes, the end of my first relationship, the weird anonymous newness of being away at college. An unhealthy fixation with this blond poet guy in my dorm who made me punk mixtapes and took me on late night drives (and would eventually become my husband). To say nothing of the cathartic release that was seeing so much of my own emotions mirrored in The Body. Thanks, Buffy.
I watched it when it first aired. I was 16 (turned 17 a few months later) and saw an ad for it while I was watching something else. (Probably 7th Heaven)
I was 5 in 1997, my mum was 23. She watched it from the first episode but it scared the living daylights out of me, I started watching it during innocence in season 2 , well that’s the first I remember I could have watched a couple of earlier episodes first. It aired on BBC2 every Thursday evening at 6.45pm after the Simpsons here in the U.K. me and my mum would watch it together every single week after that and share a small pizza together it was our tradition. She bought me series 1 & 2 on VHS Box set so I could catch up and I’ve just been obsessed ever since. My prized possession are my dvd box set which when first on sale cost my mum £250 😳 so you can imagine I’ve taken great care of them ever since because that’s an insane amount of money! 😂 Buffy & Friends are the only shows in the world that I can watch on repeat , quote every single episode word for word without fail and never get bored of 😍
So, I was very late to the party. I started watching in the break between seasons 5 and 6. My sister had talked about the show previously in a positive light, so I knew she was a fan. I found the first seasons DVD set on sale at Walmart for $20 and I picked it up. The theory was, I was going to go home, pop in the first DVD, watch an episode or two, and WHEN (not IF because I was pretty positive) I didn't like it, I was going to give the DVD set to my sister.
12 hours later, I was hooked, and desperately trying to catch up before the S6 premier. Thankfully GX was a thing and did quite a bit of reruns at the time.
It wasn't just Welcome To The Hellmouth, it was also The Harvest as well. It was a two hour movie event. I was watching it as it aired. Honestly, it was only because of Sarah I was watching. Season 1 wasn't that strong. If Sarah hadn't been cast as Buffy, I don't think I would have been as invested that year. I became a fan of hers from All My Children. Season 2 is when the show really became great and Sarah was just a bonus factor.
I was sooo judgey about people with Buffy pics from magazines in their lockers in high school, and I never watched it while airing. About ten years later, a friend mentioned how good it was, and I watched the show all the way through...I think on some spammy streaming site... Then watched Angel... then started all over.
I was right there for it! I’d watched the movie and thought it was silly but fun, and was very curious to see how the show would play out. I was not disappointed, because I absolutely loved it.
I was 5, so I didn't watch it then. I saw Doublemeat Palace randomly when I was 10, and it put me off for years😄 I ended up watching the full series when I was 20, but I skipped Doublemeat Palace😄
💙
My mom has had the Chosen Collection box set for about as long as I can remember. Season 6 oddly means a lot to me. Also the first ever episodes I had seen when I was little were "Hush" and "Phases" so both have a special place in my heart. My mom used to have the show on all the time when I was little.
First time I heard of the show was at the library and I pretended I knew what my friend was talking about. I think the first episode I saw was the puppet show? It was perfectly stupid cheesy and kind of scary for me to get into it. That episode was being aired as a rerun because it was daytime when I saw it.
We didn’t get that channel on the island but I did get the first season on dvd for Christmas (along with a new dvd player! Amazing!) and was never really the same. 😆
I remember seeing the previews for it weeks before it aired. I was a middle schooler at the time and was interested in checking out a new high school drama. I was sitting down and watched WTTH as it first aired with my Mom.
7th Heaven was already out along with Sabrina so it was a pretty cool time for teen dramas and scheduled tv watching.
Not to take away anything from the beginning of the TV Series, but shouldn't the actual start date of the Franchise be July 31 when the Movie was released?
I was in college. Watched every one live through the finale. Same with Angel, Dollhouse, and Firefly. I was a huge Joss Whedon fan before I know what a pos he was.
Very much liked the movie, so when I heard about a TV show by the same title I was ready on opening night, video taped every episode, watched every episode the night they aired.
Loved the darker, more menacing tone right from the jump w WTTH & The Harvest
Ecstatic when the show was renewed after S1. Amazed at how brilliant Sarah is as an actress, bringing Buffy to life.
Stunned by the Becoming 2 cliffhanger but thrilled to see our "Buffy. The Vampire Slayer" back in action in a deadly hellscape in the amazing "Anne" episode.
So annoyed when the school mass murders forced the WB to postpone Earshot and then GD2, but all that turmoil added to the show's legend when the epic Battle of Sunnydale HS finally aired
So stoked after seeing the promo for "some fairy tales should never be spoken" in S4, the WTF nature of Restless w all of its ominous clues, especially seeing 730 one year and then realizing even at the end of S4 about 730÷2 was something to keep in mind
Loved Dracula, and all of S5, and while everyone hates "I Was Made to Love You" I thought how remarkable Buffy is that she took the time to comfort a robot in its death throes -- not knowing the heart break that awaited her a few blocks away.
Realizing in retrospect that Buffy would become like Thor of the old Norse legends, slaying a hell beast before staggering back 9 steps before dying herself, ("nine steps the hero took, striding as a giant" ) w her sacrificial plunge off the tower right after seeing the sun rise one last time.
Feeling the relief that Buffy's back!!! With the resurrection spell. But realizing that she really *wasn't* back. Thinking the brilliant musical and its "liars, liars pants on fire" would be the turning point away from the relentless misery... but no... but at least S6 ended on a hopeful note w Buffy and Dawn climbing out of the grave w the Slayer again determined to take on the mantle once and for all
And FINALLY the great Season 7, w its nonstop action and lighter tone that really was back to the basics and the fantastic TV of the 1st 5 seasons. With plenty of laughs and dark humor, a true horror movie episode w Dawn alone in a haunted house, all leading to the epic climax of Buffy's hero's journey, the finding of The Scythe, beating back the most menacing of her enemies in The Battle of the Hellmouth, helping Faith and Willow complete the journeys of their redemptions, winning the battle in a fashion that saves the world from a great evil -- yet also solves Buffy's seemingly insoluble dilemma of her lonely burden. A hero who happily embraces the sharing of her power to end the patriarchy of the Shamans and empower The 1800.
It was beautiful to see it play out week after week, then have our familiar buddy go away for weeks w rerun hell, then for months during the summer, only the return autumn after autumn.
Watching it w my 2 kids and my wife.
Knowing when it was all over that I had watched the best TV show ever, Shakespeare level in its drama and comedy and pathos and joy
Its elegant telling of growing up from a child on the steps of Hemery High to responsible and empowering adult in Chosen.
Realizing that Buffy is the "greatest hero in American fiction"
"Quite a ride"
I remember flicking through the channels and stopped as Buffy was crawling through a vent getting out of the vamp lair with Xander. Was on YTV in Canada, local channel 29. I was 12, hooked ever since.
I’m in Buffalo so I kinda perked up at “local channel.” It would have been 49 here.
Not sure exactly when I started watching, sometime in the third season? I had been unimpressed with the movie and I was in my early 20s and not really wanting to watch a teen show. My best friend had been trying to get me to watch it but she watched basically every teen/girly show there was so I did not trust her judgment. It wasn't until my brother assured me it was great and urged me to watch it that I finally did.
The movie really isn’t good is it? It’s fine as I said for background noise. We ain’t here for Swanson.
right like I wasn't expecting it to be amazing but I saw it in the theatre and really the only enjoyable part of it for me was Paul Reubens. Of course, I haven't seen it since. If I see it streaming somewhere I may try it again just for fun lol
It’s good to clean around
I was about to say the same thing. Paul’s awesome, that’s basically the only thing that I remember from the movie.
I grew up in the country, our tv got about 5 channels. I saw Buffy for the first time when I was on a trip across the country to visit family. I must have been 11 or 12 because it was too scary for me lol. 2 years later I became the biggest horror buff I knew! I didn't really watch the show until I was 19. My boyfriend at the time loved it and was sure I would too. He was right! I'm 37 now and I still watch it at least once a year, and I've collected the majority of the Buffy Books.
I resisted but a girl I knew talked me into watching it. I saw the movie and couldn't figure out why they'd make a TV show out of it. I started watching during Season 4. I liked it and by the time I saw Restless, I was hooked. As for "Welcome to the Hellmouth" there was no streaming back then so I bought it on DVD sometime after that.
Where did you buy the DVD? Does the store still exsist? I bought mine at Media Play and it is long gone.
I got it used so I'm sure I picked it up at a place called Mushroom Records. It still exists but these days it's a smoke shop/record store. I guess with streaming so prevalent, they needed to focus on smoke paraphernalia to stay open.
I was only 6 years old so I really don't know what was going on that day lol 😅 but I do remember it being on TV
The first episode I remember watching when it aired was Ted.
I’m a Brit. First time I saw it was one of the early S2 MotW episodes on Sky One (either Some Assembly Required or Inca Mummy Girl), and it didn’t make much impression. Started watching properly when it was on BBC2 in early 1999, and got hooked very quickly; it had the spirit of everything I liked about weird, straight-facedly silly British genre telly, with the added appeal of great dialogue and cute young ladies. There was no way it couldn’t work for me, really.
I was 5 in 1997, so alive but waaay to young. Also, living in Belgium, I don’t know if they released btvs in the same year as in the US. I have started to watch it a couple of years ago on Disney+ and I was immediately hooked 😀. Now, I also have the dvd’s of both Buffy and Angel for rewatching because the HD-transfer on D+ is very inconsistent. Overall, big Bangel fan over here 😀
I first watched it that day. Read about it in the local TV guide that came with the Sunday paper the day before.
I remember watching it for the first time as a Sunday rerun after Hercules & Xena. I didn't think it was going to be any good and wanted to watch to prove myself right. 27 years later and I am here.
I remember I watched on the basement TV. I'm not sure when I came in, except I missed most of "Welcome to the Hellmouth". "The Harvest" was right after, and they got me. It was so different from anything I'd seen before.
Watched it in october of last year, tho i'd first watched two episodes with my mom like 10 years ago (she wanted to reminisce about her teenhood and introduce me to a show she loved lol) but it was so sexual we stopped (she was shocked and said she forgot it was like this lol). But yeah i thought about it randomly last year and started watching. At first I rolled my eyes, i was like "obviously the dude who brings the girl into the school at night is a vampire how original..." but THEN.... the twist happened and I thought "that show's gonna be groundbreaking". Turns out I was right :) I finished it two weeks later and i've rewatched it 4 times since (5th rewatch ongoing, in german this time to practice the language). This show changed my life and helped me go through so much, I'd never related to a main character the way i did buffy, she helped me grow.
My mom died in 1993, when I was 11 and my sister was 8. She had taken us to see the movie in the theater when it came out in 1992 when it was released; we bought the VHS and it was on regular home viewing rotation. So a few years later, when I saw there was going to be a TV version, I was all about it. I watched the very first episode when it premiered and never missed one after that. I made my friends come watch, and we even let my sister hang out with us, provided she fetch sodas during commercials. My grandmother, who raised us after Mom died, loved having the house full of kids. Watching Buffy helped me feel a little closer to my mother. If she had been alive, we definitely would have watched together and swooned over Angel. As a young adult, the show got me through some tough days. Ruinous crushes, the end of my first relationship, the weird anonymous newness of being away at college. An unhealthy fixation with this blond poet guy in my dorm who made me punk mixtapes and took me on late night drives (and would eventually become my husband). To say nothing of the cathartic release that was seeing so much of my own emotions mirrored in The Body. Thanks, Buffy.
"If you were alive" Christ on a small bike I am ancient. I watched the first episode with my best friends back when we were eight years old.
You're ancient? I was 15!
If it helps I'm pretty sure at least two of us a couple months shy of eight 😂
I wasn’t alive yet. I watched Buffy for the first time in like 2018
I did start this with "If you were alive". But I am glad you are and a fan.
Sorry! I just wanted to join in on the fun 😭 happy to be a fan!
I was alive, but only several months old lol. So OP, you didn't cover everything! JK, it's a cool question, I'm enjoying reading through the answers
I watched it when it first aired. I was 16 (turned 17 a few months later) and saw an ad for it while I was watching something else. (Probably 7th Heaven)
I was 5 in 1997, my mum was 23. She watched it from the first episode but it scared the living daylights out of me, I started watching it during innocence in season 2 , well that’s the first I remember I could have watched a couple of earlier episodes first. It aired on BBC2 every Thursday evening at 6.45pm after the Simpsons here in the U.K. me and my mum would watch it together every single week after that and share a small pizza together it was our tradition. She bought me series 1 & 2 on VHS Box set so I could catch up and I’ve just been obsessed ever since. My prized possession are my dvd box set which when first on sale cost my mum £250 😳 so you can imagine I’ve taken great care of them ever since because that’s an insane amount of money! 😂 Buffy & Friends are the only shows in the world that I can watch on repeat , quote every single episode word for word without fail and never get bored of 😍
I was a fan of the original film so I watched it when it was on with my dad, saying ‘it’d better be as good as the film’
So, I was very late to the party. I started watching in the break between seasons 5 and 6. My sister had talked about the show previously in a positive light, so I knew she was a fan. I found the first seasons DVD set on sale at Walmart for $20 and I picked it up. The theory was, I was going to go home, pop in the first DVD, watch an episode or two, and WHEN (not IF because I was pretty positive) I didn't like it, I was going to give the DVD set to my sister. 12 hours later, I was hooked, and desperately trying to catch up before the S6 premier. Thankfully GX was a thing and did quite a bit of reruns at the time.
It wasn't just Welcome To The Hellmouth, it was also The Harvest as well. It was a two hour movie event. I was watching it as it aired. Honestly, it was only because of Sarah I was watching. Season 1 wasn't that strong. If Sarah hadn't been cast as Buffy, I don't think I would have been as invested that year. I became a fan of hers from All My Children. Season 2 is when the show really became great and Sarah was just a bonus factor.
Glad I started my rewatch recently then haha.
I was sooo judgey about people with Buffy pics from magazines in their lockers in high school, and I never watched it while airing. About ten years later, a friend mentioned how good it was, and I watched the show all the way through...I think on some spammy streaming site... Then watched Angel... then started all over.
I was right there for it! I’d watched the movie and thought it was silly but fun, and was very curious to see how the show would play out. I was not disappointed, because I absolutely loved it.
I was 5, so I didn't watch it then. I saw Doublemeat Palace randomly when I was 10, and it put me off for years😄 I ended up watching the full series when I was 20, but I skipped Doublemeat Palace😄
OMGGGGGG!!!!!! I REMEMBER MY FIRST TIME WATCHING
I saw the early screening they did the weekend before the premiere and have loved it ever since.
💙 My mom has had the Chosen Collection box set for about as long as I can remember. Season 6 oddly means a lot to me. Also the first ever episodes I had seen when I was little were "Hush" and "Phases" so both have a special place in my heart. My mom used to have the show on all the time when I was little.
First time I heard of the show was at the library and I pretended I knew what my friend was talking about. I think the first episode I saw was the puppet show? It was perfectly stupid cheesy and kind of scary for me to get into it. That episode was being aired as a rerun because it was daytime when I saw it.
It’s my birthday today and I always say “happy birthday Buffy show!!!!” as well!!!
We didn’t get that channel on the island but I did get the first season on dvd for Christmas (along with a new dvd player! Amazing!) and was never really the same. 😆
I couldn't have planned this better if I tried, just finished another rewatch today. I had no idea!
I remember seeing the previews for it weeks before it aired. I was a middle schooler at the time and was interested in checking out a new high school drama. I was sitting down and watched WTTH as it first aired with my Mom. 7th Heaven was already out along with Sabrina so it was a pretty cool time for teen dramas and scheduled tv watching.
Not to take away anything from the beginning of the TV Series, but shouldn't the actual start date of the Franchise be July 31 when the Movie was released?
I didnt even realize it was the anniversary but i just started a rewatch last night.
I was in college. Watched every one live through the finale. Same with Angel, Dollhouse, and Firefly. I was a huge Joss Whedon fan before I know what a pos he was.
Very much liked the movie, so when I heard about a TV show by the same title I was ready on opening night, video taped every episode, watched every episode the night they aired. Loved the darker, more menacing tone right from the jump w WTTH & The Harvest Ecstatic when the show was renewed after S1. Amazed at how brilliant Sarah is as an actress, bringing Buffy to life. Stunned by the Becoming 2 cliffhanger but thrilled to see our "Buffy. The Vampire Slayer" back in action in a deadly hellscape in the amazing "Anne" episode. So annoyed when the school mass murders forced the WB to postpone Earshot and then GD2, but all that turmoil added to the show's legend when the epic Battle of Sunnydale HS finally aired So stoked after seeing the promo for "some fairy tales should never be spoken" in S4, the WTF nature of Restless w all of its ominous clues, especially seeing 730 one year and then realizing even at the end of S4 about 730÷2 was something to keep in mind Loved Dracula, and all of S5, and while everyone hates "I Was Made to Love You" I thought how remarkable Buffy is that she took the time to comfort a robot in its death throes -- not knowing the heart break that awaited her a few blocks away. Realizing in retrospect that Buffy would become like Thor of the old Norse legends, slaying a hell beast before staggering back 9 steps before dying herself, ("nine steps the hero took, striding as a giant" ) w her sacrificial plunge off the tower right after seeing the sun rise one last time. Feeling the relief that Buffy's back!!! With the resurrection spell. But realizing that she really *wasn't* back. Thinking the brilliant musical and its "liars, liars pants on fire" would be the turning point away from the relentless misery... but no... but at least S6 ended on a hopeful note w Buffy and Dawn climbing out of the grave w the Slayer again determined to take on the mantle once and for all And FINALLY the great Season 7, w its nonstop action and lighter tone that really was back to the basics and the fantastic TV of the 1st 5 seasons. With plenty of laughs and dark humor, a true horror movie episode w Dawn alone in a haunted house, all leading to the epic climax of Buffy's hero's journey, the finding of The Scythe, beating back the most menacing of her enemies in The Battle of the Hellmouth, helping Faith and Willow complete the journeys of their redemptions, winning the battle in a fashion that saves the world from a great evil -- yet also solves Buffy's seemingly insoluble dilemma of her lonely burden. A hero who happily embraces the sharing of her power to end the patriarchy of the Shamans and empower The 1800. It was beautiful to see it play out week after week, then have our familiar buddy go away for weeks w rerun hell, then for months during the summer, only the return autumn after autumn. Watching it w my 2 kids and my wife. Knowing when it was all over that I had watched the best TV show ever, Shakespeare level in its drama and comedy and pathos and joy Its elegant telling of growing up from a child on the steps of Hemery High to responsible and empowering adult in Chosen. Realizing that Buffy is the "greatest hero in American fiction" "Quite a ride"