Welcome to the Hellmouth
"Welcome to the Hellmouth" | |
---|---|
Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode | |
Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 1 |
Directed by | Charles Martin Smith |
Written by | Joss Whedon |
Featured music | Walter Murphy |
Cinematography by | Michael Gershman |
Editing by | Geoffrey Rowland |
Production code | 4V01 |
Original air date | March 10, 1997 |
Running time | 44 minutes |
Guest appearances | |
| |
"Welcome to the Hellmouth" is the series premiere of the American
The narrative follows Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) on her first day at a new school in a new town. She hopes to live as a normal teenager, but the duties and fate of the Slayer – to fight vampires, demons, witches and other supernatural beings – will not leave her alone; the ancient vampire the Master (Mark Metcalf) threatens to break free, and Buffy must turn for help to her school librarian and Watcher Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), her new classmates, Willow and Xander (Alyson Hannigan and Nicholas Brendon), and a benevolent stranger named Angel (David Boreanaz).
Joss Whedon developed Buffy the Vampire Slayer to invert the Hollywood formula of "the little blonde girl who goes into a dark alley and gets killed in every
Plot
The series premiere begins at Sunnydale High School, where a boy named Chris Boal (Carmine Giovinazzo) breaks into the school during the night with a seemingly reluctant girl named Darla (Julie Benz), promising her mischief and therefore fun. Nervous and on edge, Darla says she thinks she heard something and fears someone is in the school, other than the two of them. Chris calls out but gets no response, leading him to assure her that they "are alone". Darla then turns to face Chris, revealing her facial morph into her true identity: a vampire. She then bites Chris' neck.
Buffy exits the office and bumps into a male student, spilling the contents of her handbag on the floor.
Buffy, Willow,
That night, en route to her first visit to The Bronze, the cool hangout in Sunnydale, Buffy meets a mysterious, handsome stranger (David Boreanaz), who warns her that she is living on a Hellmouth that is about to open, and that "The Harvest" is coming. He also gives her a large silver cross pendant. In The Bronze, Buffy meets Willow and encourages her to seize the moment. She finds Giles and tells him about the stranger. Giles tells her to learn to hone her skills to sense vampires anywhere. Buffy uses her fashion sense to pick out a vampire (J. Patrick Lawlor) in the club and is alarmed to see Willow leave with him. She loses them and is surprised by Cordelia, nearly staking her and scaring her off. While Buffy looks for Willow, Jesse chats up the vampire girl, Darla, at The Bronze. Buffy is stopped by Xander, whom she convinces to help search for Willow.
Meanwhile, under the streets of Sunnydale,
Production
Background and writing
Writer Joss Whedon says that "Rhonda the Immortal Waitress" was really the first incarnation of the Buffy concept, "just the idea of some woman who seems to be completely insignificant who turns out to be extraordinary".[2] This early, unproduced idea evolved into Buffy, an inversion of the Hollywood formula of "the little blonde girl who goes into a dark alley and gets killed in every horror movie".[3] Whedon wanted "to subvert that idea and create someone who was a hero".[3] He explained, "The very first mission statement of the show was the joy of female power: having it, using it, sharing it".[4]
The idea was first visited through Whedon's script for the 1992 movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which featured Kristy Swanson in the title role. The director, Fran Rubel Kuzui, saw it as a "pop culture comedy about what people think about vampires".[5][6] Whedon disagreed: "I had written this scary film about an empowered woman, and they turned it into a broad comedy. It was crushing."[7]
Several years later,
Music
The episode, being the series premiere, features the first usage of the theme song by pop punk band Nerf Herder. Parry Gripp, the band's songwriter, guitarist, and admitted fan of the show explained that the band created the theme song after "fancy pants Hollywood" failed to write a theme song that the producers approved. Eventually, "they [the producers] asked a bunch of local, small time bands who they could pay very little money to come up with some ideas and they liked our idea and they used it."[16] Several songs by the band Sprung Monkey play during the episode. When Buffy is deciding what to wear, the song "Saturated" is playing faintly in the background. At The Bronze, the band plays their songs "Believe", "Swirl", and "Things are Changing". All of the songs featured in the episode can be found on their 1995 album Swirl. The score for the episode, as well as all first season entries, was created by Walter Murphy.[17]
Casting and filming
Whedon explained that several of the characters that appeared in the series were based on real life individuals. Cordelia, for instance, was modeled after a girl with whom Whedon's wife attended high school. Xander was based on Whedon himself.
In the original, non-broadcast pilot, Willow was portrayed by Riff Regan. However, network executives requested that Regan be replaced. Willow's character demanded that she be shy and unsure of herself, and the casting department encountered some difficulty finding actresses who could portray this effectively and still be likable.[20] After seven auditions, Alyson Hannigan was eventually chosen for the role.[21] She was chosen for being able to spin the character's lines with a self-effacing optimism; she stated, "I didn't want to do Willow as someone who's feeling sorry for herself. Especially in the first season, she couldn't talk to guys, and nobody liked her. I was like, 'I don't want to play somebody who's down on herself.'"[22] Whedon conceived the character as introverted, saying "I wanted Willow to have that kind of insanely colorful interior life that truly shy people have. And Alyson has that. She definitely has a loopiness I found creeping into the way Willow talked, which was great. To an extent, all the actors conform to the way I write the character, but it really stands out in Willow's case."[23]
Nicholas Brendon, who had recently been fired from his job as a waiter and was struggling financially, was attracted to the pilot script for Buffy because of how much he had hated high school. Brendon recognized that Xander was based on Joss Whedon when he had attended high school, accounting for why Xander "gets all the good lines".[24]
Julie Benz, who portrayed Darla, originally auditioned for the role of Buffy.[28][29] However, Benz was later offered the minor role of Darla in the pilot episode. Although the character (originally an unnamed minor vampire) was supposed to die in the pilot, Whedon liked her performance so well that he named her and her character appeared in a few more episodes.[29][30] Benz went on to portray Darla in several episodes of Buffy's spin-off television series, Angel. She later went on to say:
For me, I was a new actor to Los Angeles, didn't know the TV business very well so I was just excited to work and play a vampire. I had no clue what I was going to do or how I was going to be scary. Until that is, they put the vampire makeup on me and I went into the trailer and smiled, which I thought was creepy. Joss always said he was intrigued that someone who looked like me and talked like me was like the scariest vampire ever. That's what he wanted, my sweet voice and demeanour until all of a sudden I’m just this vicious vampire."[30]
Veteran character actor
Certain scenes, such as the argument between Giles and Buffy in the library, and Buffy's first meeting with Angel, were re-shot eight months after the first episode was recorded with both Whedon and Gellar feeling that Buffy was too angry in the original takes. Whedon subsequently teased Gellar that they were going to reshoot the scenes a third time.[18] The high school used for external and some internal scenes in the series is Torrance High, the same school used for the series Beverly Hills, 90210.[19]
Vampire effects
Joss Whedon created the idea of "vamp faces," which was to have
Reception
"Welcome to the Hellmouth" first aired in the
The episode received largely positive reviews from critics.
Vox ranked it at #111 of all 144 episodes on their "Every Episode Ranked From Worst to Best" list (to mark the 20th anniversary of the show), writing that it "has to lay the groundwork for Buffy's winding, convoluted mythology and introduce its main cast, and it more or less manages: It’s a little awkward here and there but mostly just fun. And the opening scene, with Darla playing a meek little schoolgirl before she turns on her prey, shows you exactly how funny and scary and subversive Buffy will turn out to be."[38]
Noel Murray of The A.V. Club wrote that the episode was "a good introduction to the show, establishing the characters and the premise quickly and cleanly, before ending on a cliffhanger".[39] Murray, however, did note that it contained a "dialogue that sounds more faux-clever than actually clever" and that there was "an overall flatness to the action/horror sequences" that would continue until the second season.[39] John Levesque, writing for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, called the fledgling series "witty, intelligent and thoroughly entertaining" and dubbed it "the best thing I've seen on The WB".[40] He praised the acting of Sarah Michelle Gellar, noting that she "plays Buffy to perfection".[40] Phil Kloer of The Atlanta Journal and the Atlanta Constitution called the show a "kicky little mix of camp comedy, high school hi-jinks and monsters" and likened its plot to the Fox sci-fi series The X-Files and the Nickelodeon horror-themed anthology series Are You Afraid of the Dark?.[41] He ultimately gave the episode a B.[41]
Nikki Stafford, in her book Bite Me!, called the first episode "excellent" and complimented the strengths of the main cast as well as the show's unique approach. She contrasted it with the earlier movie, noting that "the movie version [...] was like Clueless, but near the end suddenly tried to be a serious film. The television show carries comedy, action, and drama simultaneously and features a far superior ensemble cast."[35]
Footnotes
- ^ a b Holder, p. 54
- A&E Network. 2:15 minutes in – via Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 6 DVD set, disc 6 (region 1release: May 25, 2004).
- ^ a b Billson, pp. 24–25
- ^ Gottlieb, Allie (26 September 2002). "Buffy's Angels". Metroactive. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
- ^ Havens, p. 51
- ^ Golden and Holder, pp. 247–248.
- ^ Havens, p. 23
- ^ Golden and Holder, pp. 249–250
- ^ Said, S.F. "Interview with Joss Whedon by SF Said". Shebytches. Archived from the original on 30 April 2009. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
- ^ Wilcox, et al, p. xix
- ^ Rose, Lacey (9 March 2012). "The Art of Picking TV Titles: 9 Do's and Don'ts". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 21, 2022.
- ^ Topping, p. 7
- ^ Schneider, Michael; Josef Adalian (June 29, 2006). "WB revisits glory days". Variety. Retrieved January 21, 2022.
- ^ Edwards, p. 134
- ^ Ken P. (June 23, 2003). "An Interview with Joss Whedon". IGN. Archived from the original on July 27, 2006. Retrieved March 6, 2006.
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. - ^ "Interview by Jess with Ben, Steve, Parry". Rock Pulse. 17 July 2003. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
- ^ a b Stafford, p. 126
- ^ a b c d e Whedon, Joss (2002). "Welcome to the Hellmouth" Commentary track". Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete First Season (DVD). Fox Home Entertainment.
- ^ a b Golden and Holder, p. 55
- ^ Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Fifth Season; "Casting Buffy" Featurette. (2008) [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ Bonka, Larry (January 12, 1998). Buffymania Sweeps the Land as Ultra-cool Kids Conquer the Un-dead", The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star, (Norfolk, VA), p. E1
- ^ Cox, Ted (May 11, 1999). "Hannigan's Willow becomes a favorite of 'Buffy' fans", Chicago Daily Herald, p. 3.
- ISBN 978-1-55022-807-6
- ^ "Former Buffy star Brendon enters rehab". Whedon.info. April 30, 2004
- ISBN 0-671-02433-7.
- ISBN 0-8195-6758-2.
- 20th Century Fox.
- ^ Havens, Candace, Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy Benbella Books (May 1, 2003), p35–36.
- ^ Rovi Corporation. Retrieved July 3, 2011.
- ^ a b "Live From Toronto's Comic Con 2011: Julie Benz Talks BUFFY, ANGEL, DEXTER and NO ORDINARY FAMILY". TheTVAddict.com. Retrieved July 3, 2011.
- ^ Andrews, Tom (October 28, 2011). 'Animal House' Fan Favorite Metcalf Still Crafting Film and Stage Memories, FoxPoint-Bayside Patch. Retrieved on November 20, 2011.
- ^ Golden and Holder, pp. 213–217.
- 20th Century Fox.
- The WB.)
{{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link - ^ a b Strafford, p. 124
- The McClatchy Company. pp. F7.
- ^ The Associated Press (20 March 1997). "Nielsen ratings". The Tampa Tribune. Media General. p. 6.
- ^ Grady, Constance (March 10, 2017). "In honor of Buffy's 20th anniversary, we ranked it from worst to best episode". Vox. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
- ^ a b Murray, Noel (June 5, 2008). "'Welcome to the Hellmouth,' etc". The A.V. Club. Retrieved January 21, 2022.
- ^ Hearst Corporation. p. C1.
- ^ a b Kloer, Phil (10 March 1997). "Channel Surfer – Evil spirits, beware: Buffy back on the case". The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution. Cox Enterprises. p. C7.
References
- Billson, Anne (2005). ISBN 1-84457-089-4.
- Edwards, Lynne (2008). Buffy Goes Dark: Essays on the Final Two Seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-3676-7.
- Golden, Christopher; Holder, Nancy (1998). ISBN 1-932100-00-8.
- Havens, Candace (2003). Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy. Benbella Books. ISBN 1-932100-00-8.
- Stafford, Nikki (2007). Bite Me!: The 10th Buffyversary Guide to the World of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. ECW Press. ISBN 978-1-55022-807-6.
- Topping, Keith (2004). Slayer, the Next Generation: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Season Six of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Virgin Publishing. ISBN 0-7535-0738-2.
- Wilcox, Rhonda; et al. (2002). Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 0-7425-1681-4.
External links
- "Welcome to the Hellmouth" at IMDb