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.

Plot summary

The pilot starts off just like Episode 1 of Season 1 "Welcome to the Hellmouth" we watch as an unknowing victim leads Darla and himself to a secluded location of Sunnydale High School. The episode continues without a Opening theme simply rendering a title with very different font over the new school day. We join Buffy already skipping her prophecy dream and her ride to school with Joyce. Buffy is also a brunette and not a blond like in the show we all know and love now. Buffy is then shown around by Principal Flutie played in the pilot by Stephen Tobolowsky. As he does, he calls her by different names.

Buffy assures Flutie that there won't be any problems like at her old school and she is "Here to have fun. But I mean Fun, fun with learning." Flutie tells Buffy not to worry he thinks she will fit in just fine. We then leave Buffy and are introduced to Xander and a VERY different Willow played by Riff Regan. She is a bit overweight and has curly short cropped brown hair. Xander asks Willow to help him in homework and Willow agrees at the reward of a shiny nickel. We then see the first of Cordelia still played by Charisma Carpenter, and her two lackeys Harmony and Cordette. A Jock tries to ask Cordelia out to the Bronze and she declines him. Harmony, ditzy as ever, confirms that they're still going. Cordelia asks who is playing that night and Harmony tells her Dingoes Ate My Baby, which is the band Oz is a part of.

Cordelia continues to down her fellow students when Xander interrupts. But as usual Cordelia gets the best of him. As Cordelia and her lackeys walk off Buffy looking through her bag bumps into Xander dropping her things. She gathers her things apologizing and asks where the library is. Xander helps her out and when she leaves discovers she has left her stake. Out of all the things that were changed from the pilot besides actresses for Willow the Library is the biggest change. The library is deserted and Buffy attempts to leave bumping into Giles. He recognizes her almost instantaneously. In the same fashion as in "Welcome to the Hellmouth" Giles cuts Buffy short when she attempts to tell him what she is looking for placing a different style book before her then in the actual episode but still the same book entitled "Vampyr". Buffy tells Giles that's not whats she's looking for and leaves.

Buffy seems very troubled by what had happened in the Library while sitting in class. The bell rings and Willow introduces herself to Buffy offering by request of Mr. Barns that she help Buffy get caught up. Willow is a bit unsure of herself when talking to Buffy but Buffy accepts her offer. While walking with Willow, Buffy asks about Giles. Willow tells her, almost too happy that the subject has turned to Giles, that he started a couple weeks ago, but before she can get too into detail about him Cordelia, Harmony and Cordette appear before them.

Cordelia introduces herself, as the welcoming committee and practically steals Buffy from Willow. The scene then joins Aphrodesia and Aura talking about Buffy in the Girls' locker room. As Aphrodesia rants on about how Buffy got kicked out of her old school, the body of the boy Darla killed at the beginning falls out of her locker onto her, making Aphrodesia go into a screaming fit.

Joss Whedon on the pilot

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.
• Darla, as played by Julie Benz, also makes her first appearance here, in the opening sequence that almost exactly mirrors the opening of "Welcome to the Hellmouth." (The character is unnamed in this pilot, though.) Darla would appear as late as the episode "The Girl in Question," the third-to-last episode of Angel, making her another one of the Buffyverse's longest running characters.
• 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

• Angel pitch tape