Buffy back-story (pre- season one)

[LaBelleEtLaBete]

Was there an episode made to accompany season one, i.e. the original film plot but with Sarah Michelle Gellar. I seem to remember seeing one in shops years ago called 'becoming'/ 'awakening' but I can't remember exactly what it was called. Does it exist? (Details please)

[KingofCretins]

What there is is a 20 minute pitch "episode", that's basically a truncated version of "Welcome to the Hellmouth", has a different actress playing Willow. It's what Joss showed the WB to get picked up. It's not "before" Season 1, though.

If you want to know the basic outline of Buffy's story before Sunnydale, the original "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" movie has a very loose explanation (although it's very, very different, with a quasi-immortal Watcher, a different actress, Buffy as a senior and not a freshman, etc).

A few years ago, though, Dark Horse comics, who currently publish the canon Season 8, did an unofficial adaptation of Joss' movie screenplay to comic book form so that there would be a version of that story that fits the series. It's called "Buffy: Origins", and it can be found in the "Buffy Omnibus Vol I" trade paperback from Dark Horse, available at your local comic store.

As far as backstory through the show, there are pre-Sunnydale flashbacks in 2.21 "Becoming, Part I". Also, Buffy describes some relevant events from before Sunnydale in 6.17 "Normal Again".

The basic summary of her pre-Sunnydale life...

Spoiler:

Buffy was called when she was a freshman at Hemery High in L.A., and was approached by her first Watcher, Merrick. He showed her proof that she was the Slayer by taking her to a cemetery to fight her first one. When she accepted her calling, she fought off some serious vampires with the help of a friend/boyfriend named Pike. In the process, she burnt down the Hemery High gym. Following that, for a while, she was institutionalized after she tried to tell her parents about being the Slayer. Her parents got divorced, and after that she and her mother moved to Sunnydale.

[vampmogs]

Has Pike ever been established in Buffy canon though? I don't think his name has ever been mentioned. Personally I always thought Ford should have been Pike, would the name have made such a difference?

[selenspuffy]

Yes, I loved Pike! But if he was Ford..I wouldn't want to see him as a bad and dead person Still, at least there could have been a small hint about Pike in Btvs..

[NileQT87]

oliver pike and billy fordham are definitely separate characters. pike was either a high school drop-out or graduated, working at zef's auto-repair shop. ford was 1 year older, in school, and knew buffy when she was back in 5th grade (when she had a crush on him). pike met buffy at the movie theater when she was 15.

however, tyler and jeffery kramer have to switch places.

there's a comic where buffy (in smg form) and pike (in luke perry form--making him the only actor from the original film to have his likeness become official--it seems luke perry has actually attended a few joss conventions, as well)... well, anyway, they go on the back of his motorcycle (she runs away) and they go to vegas. buffy actually takes up the guise of a skimpy-dressed casino worker for a while. pike ends up leaving because it is too dangerous and much for him (he also seems to note how young buffy is--then, 15). angel's also following buffy around and gets sucked into an alternate dimension for a bit and buffy ends up fighting a siamese twin one vampire/one human combination.

that seems to be the direct post-dance occurrence (it would certainly add up to hank and joyce's problems with her--her burning down the gym and running off to vegas on the back of a motorcycle).

i'm not sure how canon that comic is, but since we have nothing else, it's as good as anything, it's well-written enough (probably one of the best of those early comics) and it doesn't contradict.

then, buffy is stuck in an institution for 2 weeks (?), hank and joyce get divorced and joyce moves buffy to sunnydale... season 1 begins.

i happen to utterly hate "the origin" comic (it's really watered down to fit in the size of a comic), so i prefer to take smg's appearance and that buffy's age 15 and drop it into the movie, with buffy first meeting merrick in front of the school instead of at the gym (i'll let the mall appearance stick) and drop angel into the story. and just imagine the same actors with the show's vampire makeup and rules instead of the movie's. you switch hank and joyce to their series characteristics (rather than clueless yuppies--though joyce probably doesn't contradict that much if you take her persona in season 1 btvs into account--but hank is different), place angel seeing buffy in the bathroom mirror cleaning her clothes as taking place right before buffy dreams of lothos with the red ribbon in her hair... etc... and since richard riehle's merrick is pretty boring in comparison... i still keep donald sutherland, buffy's movie friends, etc... just switch buffys, joyces and hanks, mentally.

similarly, you are asked in the show to pretty much forget that buffy was ever brunette (8 year old brunette-buffy in "killed by death" and her hair in season 1). in later flashbacks, they chose a completely different look for young buffy (skinnier and blonder). i consider a mixing of "the origin" and the movie to be the same thing.

oh, and another change is that she's a football cheerleader and not a basketball cheerleader. the canonical line about cutting off a left tackle vampire's head off with an x-acto knife changes that. i guess that's the new death of grueller.

that's my canon. "the origin" is more or less official... but even joss has problems with it.

[NxD_Slayerette]

where can u see the un aired pilot?

[Weredog]

where can u see the un aired pilot?

You can easily see the unaired pilot on youtube. There are 2 versions out there: one without score, the other with. Needless to say, the one with is a little more enjoyable. There's something about Darla turning around with her vamp face without music that just makes her not frightening at all.

And I think the website buffyworld.com has it under their season 1 page.