Buffy's prophetic dreams gave several hints about Dawn long before her arrival. In 'Graduation Day, Part 2', season 3, dream Faith tells her 'little sis' is coming', and in 'Restless', season 4, dream Tara warns her 'Be back before Dawn'.
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Every time the commandos are seen in the early episodes of this season (The Freshman and Fear, Itself) they wear ski masks to protect their identities. Starting in The Initiative, they stop doing this. The reason is that the audience needs to be able to identify the different commando characters, but it's still a discontinuity. See more...
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Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1997) - 98 trivia entries
Directed by Joss Whedon, starring Alyson Hannigan, Amber Benson, Anthony Head, Charisma Carpenter, David Boreanaz, Eliza Dushku, Emma Caulfield, James Marsters, Juliet Landau, Kristine Sutherland, Marc Blucas, Mercedes McNab, Michelle Trachtenberg, Nicholas Brendon, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Seth Green (add more)
Across whole show
Buffy's prophetic dreams gave several hints about Dawn long before her arrival. In 'Graduation Day, Part 2', season 3, dream Faith tells her 'little sis' is coming', and in 'Restless', season 4, dream Tara warns her 'Be back before Dawn'.
There have been several lines throughout the series have referred to Tuesday ('There's a demon trying to destroy the world and it's just another Tuesday night in Sunnydale' in Revelations and 'Dawn's in trouble. Must be Tuesday' in Once More With Feeling). These are references to the fact that, in the USA, Buffy is aired on a Tuesday.
Many elements of Xander's dream in 'Restless', season 4, were seen again in the season 6 episode 'Tabula Rasa'. In the dream, Spike wears a tweed suit and tells Xander he's in training to be a Watcher (Giles adds "Spike's like a son to me."), also mentioning 'A shark, but on land. A land shark'. In 'Tabula Rasa' Spike is under threat from a loan shark (literally a shark), disguises himself in a tweed suit and after a spell gone wrong believes he might be Giles' son.
In the episode where we learn about Anya's past, there is a flashback to the "Once More With Feeling" episode. Just before Anya closes the door, if you listen very carefully you can hear a prequel to the Mustard Song. Once again it is sung by David Fury and I believe Marti Noxon sings the female part as a prequel to her parking ticket song, and sounds a bit like "Oh no. Mustard on my shirt," "Mustard, I'll never get it out." "My favorite red shirt." "Dryclean it.""How could you serve..." "Mustard."
The 'Grrr Arrrg' monster at the end of each episode (ie. the mascot for Mutant Enemy Inc.) is something that alot of people watch through the credits to see. But if you watch at the end of 'Becoming', he walks past and says 'Boo hoo, I need a hug'...and at the end of 'Once More With Feeling' he sings his 'Grrr Arrrg'...and in the Episode 'Bargaining Pt. 1' Tara gives Giles a small monster as a goodbye present, 'Something to remind you of Sunnydale...' and then goes 'Grrr Arrrg'....Ain't little monster's grand. Also at the end of the Christmas episode where Angel tries to kill himself, the monster is wearing a santa hat, and, at the end of the graduation episode, the monster is wearing a mortar board.
Buffy's chums are regularly referred to as 'The Scooby Gang' which is funny, because Sarah Michelle Gellar actually went on to become an original Scooby as Daphne in Scooby-Doo, the movie.
Sunnydale High School (seasons 1-3) is the same high school that was in Beverly Hills, 90210 (West Beverly High), and the movie Clueless. Its real name is Torrance High located in Torrance, CA.
Nicholas Brendon, who plays Xander, in real life has a stuttering problem and can overcome it by knowing what he's going to say: e.g. scripted, rehearsed material. He said in an interview that he has slowly over the years gotten over the stuttering, but has to work hard at his craft at learning exact lines and rehearsing them over and over again. He doesn't do a lot of live interviews because of this.
After the series ended, Nicholas Brendon offered to jump to sister show Angel, but Joss Whedon felt Xander wouldn't fit into Angel's life.
Giles' kettle is used twice as an ironic sound effect to show the tension, first when Buffy returns at the start of Season 3 and again in "Revelations."
As Spike, James Marsters' English accent was so convincing, a lot of crew members weren't aware that he's an American.
Oz's band, Dingoes Ate My Baby, takes its name from the headline of a 1980's Australian newspaper. A woman claimed that dingoes were responsible for the disappearance of her baby and was subsequently accused of murder, but later acquitted.
Joss Whedon also wrote the 1992 "Buffy" film. Because of the dramatic differences between his screenplay and the finished film, he doesn't consider it canon as established by the TV series. In fact, the series isn't based on the completed movie at all: it's based instead on the screenplay Whedon initially wrote.
While Joss Whedon considers the 1992 movie non-canon, two characters were carried over: Buffy herself (obviously), and her first Watcher, Merrick. Merrick only made one appearance on the show, through a flashback, and was played by Richard Riehle; in the film, he was played by Donald Sutherland.
In 2004, Adam Busch (Warren Mears) began dating Amber Benson (Tara). Ironically, it was Warren who killed Tara in season 6.
Buffy and Willow were the only characters who appeared in every episode. Because it would have been difficult to incorporate a storyline for him, Xander is missing only from "Conversations With Dead People."
Once Spike appeared on the show, Billy Idol's punk-rocker look became a running gag. Numerous times, Spike claimed that he invented the look, and Idol stole it from him.
Nathan Fillion auditioned for the role of Angel. Fillion later appeared as Caleb in the show's final season, and played Malcolm Reynolds on Joss Whedon's "Firefly."
Before production began, an idea popped up that Buffy would be able to identify a vampire solely by their outdated clothes. While this idea was eventually abandoned, it was toyed with in "Welcome to the Hellmouth" when Buffy sees Willow talking to a vampire in 70s-style dress with his sleeves rolled up and his collar upturned.
A lot of the Scooby Gang's dialogue was based on how Joss Whedon really talks.
Joyce's death in season five and Cassie Newton's death in season seven were the only deaths brought about by natural causes.
While Buffy is the universe's primary focus, Angel holds more appearances in Buffyverse canon, appearing in 168 episodes of Buffy/Angel (as well as the canonical comic book "Angel: After the Fall"), as opposed to Buffy, who only appears in 149 episodes and the canonical comic book "Buffy Season Eight."
With her appearance as The First in season seven, Joyce Summers was the only character outside the Scooby Gang to appear in all seven seasons.
I Robot, You Jane (series 1)
In "Where The Wild Things Are," Willow mentions that she used to have a crush on Giles. This is evident in "I Robot, You Jane." When Buffy and Willow are talking at Willow's locker about Willow's new online romance, there is a picture of Giles and Willow in a magnetic frame on the inside of the locker door.
Witch (series 1)
On the cheerleading banner, the year is proclaimed to be 1996, which was when it was filmed. But the episode actually aired in March 1997.
Welcome To The Hellmouth (1) (series 1)
The boy who Darla kills in the first scene is played by Carmine Giovinazzo, who currently plays Danny Messer on "CSI: NY." This episode was Gioniazzo's first major acting job in Hollywood.
Brian Thompson played two different characters in Buffy. He also played two roles in the Charmed series.
Becoming (1) (series 2)
Semi obvious, but I thought it was funny. Several episodes back, Jenny bought an orb of Thessala, and the shopkeeper adds as an aside that he sold a few as paperweights last year. In this episode they need an orb to complete the curse, and Giles says he has one, then adds in an embarrassed way "I've been using it as a paperweight".
In the flashback just before Darla kills Liam in order to turn him to Angel, she tells him to "Close your eyes." In "Becoming Pt. 2", just before Buffy kills Angel, she too says, "Close your eyes".
Surprise (1) (series 2)
In "Surprise" and "Innocence", The Judge is the same person that played Luke in the first two episodes of season 1.
During Buffy's dream at the start of the episode Surprise, we see Willow sitting in the Bronze with a small monkey. Willow says, in French, "L'hippo a piqué ses pantalons" which translates as "The hippo has stolen his trousers." At the end of the episode What's My Line Part 2, when talking about Animal Crackers, Oz and Willow talk about the monkey being the only one to wear trousers, the hippo questioning why he hasn't got any, and the monkey being French.
Inca Mummy Girl (series 2)
This episode marked the first appearance of Oz's band Dingoes Ate My Baby. The band was first mentioned by Cordelia in the unaired "Buffy" pilot as a band playing at The Bronze.
School Hard (series 2)
The Anointed One was killed in this episode because over a season hiatus, Andrew J. Ferchland had grown too much. Had he remained, it would have been obvious he had aged, which would have contradicted the established concept that aging is something vampires don't do. For most, if not all, of his scenes, Ferchland remains on his knees.
When She Was Bad (series 2)
In the scene preceding the credits for the first episode of season 2 'When she was bad,' Buffy saves Xander and Willow from a vampire, she then says 'Hi guys, miss me?' This is addressed to Xander and Willow but is said straight into the camera and is also addressed to the fans who had waited a long time between the 1st season and the 2nd.
All of series 2 (series 2)
Season Two was the only Emmy winning season of the show's seven season run. Christoph Beck won for his score to the episode Becoming, Part 1 and the makeup team won for their work on the two parter Surprise / Innocence
Spike was only supposed to appear in a few episodes, and then killed off. But he became so popular with fans, he remained on the show, and eventually appeared on "Angel" as well.
While planning the Angelus arc near the end of the season, Joss Whedon was unsure if David Boreanaz could pull off the character's personality. Boreanaz's interpretation was so good, he ended up completely creeping out Whedon.
Graduation Day (2) (series 3)
Joss Whedon is known for giving hints for future events. In Graduation Day Part 2 while Buffy is in a coma dream she speaks to Faith. Faith says "Oh yeah. - Miles to go - Little Ms. Muffet counting down from 7-3-0." 730 means 730 days (2 years). If you recall the poem that states miles to go before I sleep. In 730 days Buffy will die in the finale of season 5.
The Prom (series 3)
In "The Prom," Sarah Michelle Gellar genuinely couldn't stop crying when they filmed the scene where Angel breaks up with Buffy. They had to close the set for nearly half an hour.
Earshot (series 3)
The Columbine school massacre happened about a week before the episode was originally supposed to air. Since the episode dealt with a potential school shooting, the producers felt it was respectful and necessary to postpone the episode's airdate. Coincidentally, a similar event later happened to David Boreanaz when the Bones episode "Player Under Pressure" was postponed following the Virginia Tech massacre.
Doppelgangland (series 3)
At the end of the episode, after vampire Willow has been returned to her reality, Willow talks about her evil twin. She says that she thinks her double was a little gay or something to that effect. Angel then begins to mention that the vampire personality of a person is a kind of mirror of what the person is or can be, but stops short of finishing the sentence. This is a hint to Willow's coming out of the closet about being a lesbian later on in the series.
When Willow is describing her evil twin, she uses the phrase "And I think I'm kinda gay." She says the exact same thing to Dawn during Tabula Rasa when they have all lost their memory.
Bad Girls (series 3)
Upon meeting Alexis Denisof, Alyson Hannigan was attracted to him. He initally declined when she first asked him out, but in time they began seeing each other and were married in 2003.
Lover's Walk (series 3)
In 'Lover's Walk' Cordelia falls through a staircase onto a rebar. This is taken from a real life incident; when Charisma Carpenter was young she impaled herself on a rebar too.
The way Spike enters Sunndydale (driving into the sign) is a reference to the first time we met Spike in the season 2 episode "School Hard." Both times he drives into the sign, however in School Hard he steps out but in Lovers Walk he falls out, drunk. The music is even the same.
Band Candy (series 3)
When their personalities are magically changed to their teenage selves, Giles and Joyce listen to the Cream song "Tales of Brave Ulysses" in one scene. Giles later listened to the song again in "Forever" after Joyce's funeral.
The accent that Giles uses as his teenage self is Anthony Head's natural accent.
Beauty And The Beasts (series 3)
When Willow is inspecting the body she keeps her tools in a Scooby Doo lunch box. Well suited as they call themselves the scoobies.
Anne (series 3)
Thought it interesting to note, in the season 3 opener 'Anne', the actor who plays Ken, Carlos Jacott, appears again in the 'Angel' season 1 episode, 'The Bachelor Party' as Richard, as a completely different demon. Re-incarnation or what?
In the Buffy episode 'Anne' we are re-introduced to a character played by Julia Lee. Called Lily in this episode, she was previously called Chanterell in the season 2 ep 'Lie To Me'. At the end of the episode, Lily asks Buffy if she can be 'Anne', Buffy's L.A. persona, to which Buffy replies yes. It is interesting to note that Julia Lee returns later in several season 2 'Angel' episodes as Anne, though by now she has grown up significantly and is now running a hostel for runaway youth, something she once was...
I take it Joss Whedon hadn't heard of the chain of sex shops (and the company responsible for lingerie parties) called Ann Summers in the UK when he gave Buffy her middle name (Anne)?
Hush (series 4)
This was the only episode to be nominated at the Emmys for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series - ironic, given the fact that the show is largely dialogue-free.
Andy Hallett, who later played Lorne on "Angel", was an extra in the opening classroom scene. Hallett was previously one of Joss Whedon's personal assistants.
The Freshman (series 4)
When Buffy and Willow are in the campus bookstore, and Buffy puts her books in the carry cart, she says, "I can't wait til Mom gets the bill for these books. I hope it's a funny aneurism". Buffy's mom actually died from an aneurism in season 5.
At the Bronze, Buffy sees someone whom she thinks is Angel. Until his face becomes visible, revealing it's someone else, the man she sees is played by David Boreanaz.
The Gift (series 5)
This was Anthony Head's last appearance as a series regular. All of his subsequent appearances are as a guest star.
The Body (series 5)
In season 5 'The Body', the one where Joyce dies, there is no music throughout the entire episode. This episode is also the first time we see Willow and Tara kiss, Joss decided that the kiss should happen very matter of factly, without a big dramatic lead up to it.
This was the first episode in which Willow and Tara were seen kissing, after having come out almost a year before.
The Replacement (series 5)
The actor who plays Nicholas Brendan's evil twin in "The Replacement" is actually his real life twin, Kelly Donovan. Both the brothers use their middle names when working rather than their real surname, Schultz.
In 'The Replacement' Xander says to Willow 'Let's see how well you handle it when there's an evil version of you running around.'. Willow's reply, 'I handled it just fine,' is a reference to the episode 'Doppelgangland' from the previous season.
In the episode 'The Replacement' when Xander is trying to convince Willow that he is the real Xander, he does the Snoopy dance for her. Nicholas Brendon didn't know what the snoopy dance looked like and just attempted it after a brief description. He is now frequently asked to perform it at any fan conventions he attends.
In the episode 'The Replacement' Buffy asks what they're going to do with the 2 Xanders who then say 'Kill us both Spock'. This is a reference to an episode of Star Trek where Kirk ended up with an evil twin and Spock didn't know which one to kill, the real Kirk told Spock to kill them both so Spock killed the other one.
Real Me (series 5)
In the second episode of season 5, one of Harmony's minions is played by Tom Lenk who later plays 'the other one' (Andrew) in seasons 6 and 7.
Grave (2) (series 6)
This was the only season finale not written and directed by Joss Whedon.
Villains (series 6)
While "Seeing Red" is commonly considered Amber Benson's last appearance as Tara, she actually appears (and is credited) in this episode as Tara's dead body.
Seeing Red (series 6)
Many gay and lesbian rights groups were angered by the decision to kill Tara. Joss Whedon has argued that the decision was made not because Tara was gay, but because she was involved with Willow; had Willow remained with Oz, he would have been killed instead. Killing Tara was a way for the writers to advance Willow's storyline and transform her into Dark Willow for the season finale.
This is the only episode where actress Amber Benson is acknowledged in the opening credits. This was done with the intent that the death of her character, Tara, at the end of this episode would be more of a surprise for the audience.
Doublemeat Palace (series 6)
In the season 6 episode "Doublemeat Palace", Buffy has to get a job working at a local fast food joint. The writers went out of their way to make it seem like the most miserable, degrading job ever. After this episode aired, several fast food franchises in real life like Burger King pulled their ads from Buffy in protest.
The scene in which Buffy attempts to convince customers the hamburgers are made out of people spoofs the infamous climax of the Charlton Heston film Soylent Green.
Tabula Rasa (series 6)
In the episode 'Tabula Rasa', Buffy says to Spike 'A vampire with a soul? That's so lame', a dig at spin-off show 'Angel'.
The episode, Tabula Rasa, is very aptly named. Tabula Rasa (Latin) means 'blank slate' (which refers to being born 'blank' and that intellect and behavior only comes from experience and perception) and is appropriate since the characters lost all their memories due to Willow's spell.
A Dictionary definition of the phrase "Tabula Rasa" is: Latin, smoothed or erased tablet. 1) the mind in its hypothetical primary blank or empty state before receiving outside impressions. 2) something existing in its original pristine state. Fitting, don't you think?
Tabula Rasa is a philosophical term. It's a school of thought founded primarily by John Locke and it holds that human beings are born as "blank slates" - that is, they have no knowledge or experience. This is contrasted with a belief system that all humans have certain ideas at birth; "God exists" is one commonly put forward.
Once More, With Feeling (series 6)
In 'Once More, With Feeling' the man singing the mustard song is David Fury, the co-executive producer.
In 'Once More, With Feeling' the woman singing about her parking ticket is played by Marti Noxon, the executive producer.
When the woman is singing about her parking ticket, if you turn up the volume you can hear her last line of song 'and im not wearing any underwear' very faint, but its there
The three men who play the two vamps and one horned demon during Buffy's graveyard scene also play the three street sweepers during Anya, Xander, and Giles' street scene, and later they play Sweet's three masked minions.
Alyson Hannigan and Michelle Trachtenberg don't have many singing lines during the episode "Once More With Feeling". This is because Alyson threaten to come down with laryngitis should she get to many lines and Michelle actually did come down with it.
The demon Sweet is never referred to as such in the episode. His name is only mentioned in the ending credits and in the teleplay.
In addition to singing "Rest in Peace," James Marsters also played the song's guitar track.
Chosen (series 7)
In the final episode when Buffy, Xander, and Willow are wandering off talking about shopping, Giles turns round and says "The Earth is doomed!" This is a little tribute to the end of the episode 'The Harvest' when Buffy, Xander and Willow wander off talking nonsense and Giles turns round and says the same thing.
In this episode, Andrew says "You go through the door and are confronted by Trogdor the Burninator", which is Homestar Runner content, Strong Bad Rules.
Clips from the final battle with the turak'han from the episode *Chosen* are featured in the movie *Johnson Family Vacation*, although there are completely different sound effects.
Xander was originally supposed to be the character that died in Chosen. He was suppose to die saving Dawn. Since Emma Caufield didn't want to be tied to doing any future Buffy projects the script was changed so that Anya would die. The script is the same except the parts at the end written for Anya and Xander were switched as well as the parts for Andrew and Dawn.
Near the end of the episode, Giles mentions that there is another Hellmouth in Cleveland, Ohio. In "The Wish," in which Cordelia wishes Buffy had never come to Sunnydale, Buffy is serving as the Slayer in Cleveland.
End Of Days (series 7)
Touched (series 7)
When Buffy asks Spike to stay he agrees and says 'the infernal torture device, the comfy chair'. This is a reference to one of the Monty Python 'Spanish Inquisition' sketches.
This episode featured the first lesbian sex scene aired on a prime-time television network. UPN was more lenient than the WB; when the show was still aired on the latter, Willow and Tara weren't allowed to be shown in any situation even remotely sexual.
To give Eliza Dushku time to film the pilot of "Tru Calling", this episode was filmed after "End of Days", but was aired before.
Potential (series 7)
Obvious with hindsight, but less so at the time. Kennedy is later revealed to be gay, and her interest in Willow is hinted at but not stated outright. However, when all the potentials are playing with the weapons, Rona grabs a stake, saying "I like the feel of wood in my hand". Kennedy arrives mid-way through that line, and says "lost me there". Possibly her thinking it's just a "middle of the conversation" comment, or just a blatant indicator of her sexual preference.
Conversations With Dead People (series 7)
None of the episode's four story lines intersect with each other.
Willow's conversation with a dead person in this episode is with Cassie, of which it is explained that Willow isn't allowed to see Tara because she killed people. In actual fact, the writers did intend for Tara to appear in this episode, however actress Amber Benson was busy with other filming commitments.
Lessons (series 7)
Except for Buffy, all of the First's incarnations at the end of the episode are the previous seasons' Big Bads, in reverse chronological order: Warren (season 6), Glory (season 5), Adam (season 4), Mayor Wilkins (season 3), Drusilla (season 2), and The Master (season 1).
All of series 7 (series 7)
Anyone who has read some of the BtVS books will notice that the background plot for season 7 (killing all the Potential Slayers and then the actual Slayers to end the line and let evil rule) is the plot of the book Pretty Maids All In A Row - Spike and Dru are trying to do just that.
After Giles comes back, eventually people start suspecting that he's the First. However, he's around for many episodes before that - take note of how he doesn't come into contact with anything (the First isn't corporeal so can't touch things). Very well done.
Principal Wood was given the gender-neutral name "Robin" because when the season began production, the producers were unsure about what gender the character would be. So they gave the character a name that could have applied to either a male or a female.
The First Evil first appeared in the season three episode "Amends," in which it taunted Angel and nearly drove him to kill Buffy.
There were plans to kill Xander and have him return as the First. But it was decided that he was too important to the story to kill.
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