Why The Network 'Begged' Joss Whedon To Change Buffy's Name
From 1997 through 2003, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" had fans riveted. Even if they'd missed the 1992 film of the same name, also written by Joss Whedon, this was a different version of the unlikely heroine who took down supernatural baddies with her special slayer powers. Well, it was unlikely at the time when most horror films had young women like Buffy as the victims, not the ones doing the saving.
While some of the show doesn't hold up, particularly in light of Whedon's problematic behavior coming to light, many fans are still fascinated by and greatly enjoy a show that meant a lot to them. We certainly did get to see a group of high school kids do things that we hadn't gotten from network television before. I can't speak for everyone, but it was definitely a big part of my own life, and I freely admit that the name of the show was what made me watch it in the first place. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" just sounded so weird. I mean, "Buffy" was a name used in jokes about really stuck-up rich people in the 1980s. It was all part of Whedon's plan, and not everyone got it, according to a 2003 interview with IGN Film Force.
A slayer by any other name ...
While that show probably caused many a parent to name their child "Buffy" in the years since, it wasn't exactly a name that inspired anything other than a sort of contemptuous snort back then. Not that I mean to name-shame. That's just the impression that name gave. Whedon said it was "the name that I could think of that I took the least seriously." He explained:
"There is no way you could hear the name Buffy and think, 'This is an important person.' To juxtapose that with Vampire Slayer, just felt like that kind of thing — a B-movie. But a B-movie that had something more going on. That was my dream. The network begged me to change the title. I was like, 'You don't understand. It has to be this. This is what it is.' To this day, everyone says, 'Oh, the title kept it from being taken seriously.' I'm like, 'Well, f*** them. It's a B-movie, and if you don't love B-movies, then I won't let you play in my clubhouse.'"
It never did strike me as a B-movie name, personally, but that might be because I was around in the '80s when, if you joked about someone being "a Buffy," you were talking about a wealthy person who didn't care about anything but the sweater tied around their neck and the diamond tennis bracelet on their wrist. Fair or not, that was the deal.
I guess it's understandable that the network didn't want to take any chances, but her weird name and the fact that she was anything but what that name implied got people's attention.
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is currently streaming on Hulu.