Buffy the Vampire Slayer is widely regarded as one of the most influential television series of the late 1990s and early 2000s, but its impact extends far beyond vampires and supernatural battles. Premiering in 1997, the show was created by Joss Whedon as a response to the horror trope of the helpless blonde victim. Instead, Buffy Summers was designed as a small, seemingly ordinary teenage girl who is also “the Slayer,” destined to fight vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness. Sarah Michel