"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is "Clueless" with teeth.
The WB network hopes to take a bite out of the competition with its way cooler, way funnier, way scarier weekly version of the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" theatrical movie, memorable mainly for Paul Reubens (the former Pee-wee Herman) in fangs, Donald Sutherland lurking in a slouch hat and Luke Perry just barely avoiding the hickey of his life.
For the Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday March 11, 1997 Home Edition Calendar Part F Page 4 Entertainment Desk 2 inches; 41 words Type of Material: Correction
Local promo--A promo for the new WB television series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" that appeared on a Ventura station during a "Kids' WB!" programming segment was inserted locally by the station, not nationally by the WB network, as was incorrectly reported Monday in Howard Rosenberg's column.
The new series is deliciously funny satirical gore, tracing the exploits of a 16-year-old high school girl (Sarah Michelle Gellar) who has the guile, strength and martial arts skills (to say nothing of an ever-present stake and cross hanging from her neck) to slay blood-guzzling vampires. It's a dirty job, you know, but somebody has to do it.
What's to worry about vampires? Buffy explains the concept: "To make you a vampire, they have to suck your blood, and then you have to suck their blood. It's a whole big sucking thing."
Speaking of that, however, someone also must be sucking brain matter from the WB executives who scheduled this two-hour premiere at 8 p.m. (the regular time slot for the weekly hours is 9 p.m.). Even beyond its considerable violence, its vampires (much more heavily made up and menacing than their au naturel counterparts in the 1992 movie) could be terrifying to younger children.
In another example of TV's new content ratings being much too vague, the potentially frightening nature of the material is not at all clear from the relatively mild TV-PG that WB has applied to initial episodes of this series. TV-PG is shorthand meaning: The program may contain infrequent coarse language, limited violence, some suggestive sexual dialogue and situations.
If that is so, why did WB run a promo for the series (replete with those snarling, ghoulish images) last Thursday afternoon on its Kids' WB! network, between benign cartoons aimed at young children? If WB executives are trying to entice callow young kids to watch "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," then a plague of boils on them. If not, then why deploy the scary promo when WB knows little kids are the predominant audience?
In either case, the offense spells irresponsibility.
The neck suckers in this comic thriller of a series may take themselves seriously, meanwhile, but at least Buffy slays with a sense of humor, thanks to the writing of series creator Joss Whedon and the talented Gellar's easy grasp of parody and effortless execution of his lines. They're more clever than those Whedon wrote for the movie. Moreover, Gellar's Buffy is better and edgier than Kristy Swanson's in the movie.
