Buffy the Vampire Slayer pilot

Known to fans as "the unaired Buffy pilot," this thirty-minute production by Joss Whedon was never intended to air. 20th Century Fox used it to sell the television show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, to a network in 1996. The presentation is not even remotely considered canon.

In this pilot, Buffy Summers has moved to Sunnydale with her mother after having burnt down her school gym and being expelled from school in L.A. Buffy goes to school for the first time at Berryman High and meets new people, Cordelia, Willow, and Xander. Willow is lured by a vampire into a trap at the school. Buffy shows up with Xander and kills all the vampires except one; the surviving vampire reports to The Master.


 * Whedon was asked by IGN Film Force in June 2003 about the unaired presentation:


 * IGNFF: Is the presentation ever going to make it to DVD?
 * WHEDON: Not while there is strength in these bones.
 * IGNFF: Well, I mean, it's one of the most heavily bootlegged things on the Internet.
 * WHEDON: Yeah. It sucks on ass.
 * IGNFF: Yeah, it does, but it's sort of that archival, historical perspective...
 * WHEDON: Yeah, I've got your historical perspective
 * IGNFF: It would take it off the bootleg market...
 * WHEDON: Ah, I don't - what are you going to do?
 * IGNFF: Put it on the DVD.
 * WHEDON: Not me.

Quotes and trivia

 * "Laura Ashley is definitely back... She's back, and this time it's personal. See, they mated her with the Home Depot guy, and that's where you get Martha Stewart." - Buffy


 * The school is called Berryman High School. In the series, it was renamed to Sunnydale High. The school's team is the Bulls, not the Razorbacks like in the series.
 * Harmony mentions that Dingoes Ate My Baby are playing. The band (including guitarist Oz) would not make an appearance until the second season ("Inca Mummy Girl").
 * This marks the first appearance of Harmony Kendall. She appeared in both this unaired pilot and the series finale of Angel. This means she is the longest serving character in the Buffyverse, introduced prior to Angel, and continuing to appear on screen after Buffy Summers.
 * A boy in line at the Bronze asks Buffy, "Are you the new girl?"; he is played by Danny Strong, who appeared in many episodes as Jonathan Levinson.
 * Buffy is brunette (which is Sarah Michelle Gellar's natural color) in the pilot, but she is blonde in the series.

See also the unaired Angel pilot.