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Welcome to the Hellmouth

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"Welcome to the Hellmouth"

"Welcome to the Hellmouth" is the series premiere of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This episode and "The Harvest" were originally aired as a two-part series premiere on The WB Television Network on March 10, 1997. The episode was written by the series creator and executive producer Joss Whedon, and directed by Charles Martin Smith. "Welcome to the Hellmouth" received a Nielsen rating of 3.4 upon its original airing and received largely positive reviews from critics.

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, Nicholas Brendon and Eric Balfour), 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 horror movie." The series was created after the 1992 movie, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in an attempt by Whedon to stay truer to his original ideas. Several of the characters that appeared in the series were based on real life individuals and many of the scenes were filmed on location in Los Angeles, California. 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.

Plot

The series premiere begins at Sunnydale High School, where a boy (played Carmine Giovinazzo) breaks into the school during the night with a seemingly reluctant girl (Julie Benz), promising her mischief and therefore fun. Nervous and on edge, the girl thinks she heard something and fears something is there. The boy calls out but gets no response, during which the girl's face morphs into that of a vampire, and bites the boy. She is later revealed to be Darla.

Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Geller) has a nightmare the morning of her first day at school. Her mother, Jorce (Kristine Sutherland) drives her to the school and encourages her to think positive. Inside the building, Principal Flutie (Ken Lerner) tells her she will start with a clean slate. He reconsiders that after realizing that Buffy burned down her previous school's gym because "it was full of vampi—…asbestos."

Buffy exits the office and bumps into another student, spilling the contents of her handbag over the floor. Xander Harris (Nicholas Brendon) sees that and helps Buffy, introducing himself. She leaves without her stake, which Xander pockets because he called out to her, but she had already walked away. In history class, Buffy is helped by popular girl Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), who afterwards tests her "coolness factor," skipping the written as Buffy had just moved to Sunnydale, California from Los Angeles. To Buffy's horror, Cordelia humiliates an awkward Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan) at the water fountain. Inside the library, Rupert Giles (Anthony Head) places a book titled Vampyr in front of Buffy after realizing who she is. A stunned Buffy makes a hasty exit.

Buffy, Willow, Jesse McNally, and Xander meet during a break, and Xander returns the stake. Buffy claims it is standard self-defense in Los Angeles. Cordelia appears and tells Buffy that gym is cancelled due to the "extreme dead guy" in Aura's locker. Buffy asks whether there were marks on the body, freaking out Cordelia. Buffy forces her way into the locker room, examines the body, and finds the characteristic puncture wounds of a vampire on the neck. Buffy returns to the library and confronts Giles, who informs her that he is her Watcher. Buffy refuses to accept her calling as a Slayer, since it had gotten her kicked out of her previous school and robbed her of a social life. After they leave the library, Xander emerges from behind the shelves, having overheard the strange conversation.

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. In The Bronze, Buffy meets Willow and encourages her to seize the moment: "Because tomorrow you might be dead." 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 in the club and is alarmed to see Willow leave with him. She loses them and is surprised by Cordelia, nearly staking her. Cordelia immediately calls her friends to tell them about it. While Buffy looks for Willow, Jesse chats up Darla at The Bronze. Buffy is stopped by Xander, whom she convinces to help search for Willow.

Meanwhile, under the streets of Sunnydale, The Master is woken by lesser vampires from a long sleep to prepare for the Harvest. He sends Luke to fetch young blood. Willow's new acquaintance takes her to a crypt in a cemetery, where they are joined by Darla and Jesse, whom she has bitten. Buffy and Xander arrive. Buffy kills Willow's vampire. Xander and Willow help Jesse, who has been weakened, flee. Luke takes Darla's place in the fight so she can help catch the kids. Luke throws Buffy in a stone coffin and is about to move in for the kill.[1]

Production

Buffy creator Joss Whedon also served as executive producer, head writer, and director on the series.

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, which Whedon developed to invert 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, Gail Berman, a Fox executive, approached Whedon to develop his Buffy concept into a television series.[8] Whedon explained that "They said, 'Do you want to do a show?' And I thought, 'High school as a horror movie'. And so the metaphor became the central concept behind Buffy, and that's how I sold it."[9] The supernatural elements in the series stood as metaphors for personal anxieties associated with adolescence and young adulthood.[10] Early in its development, the series was going to be simply titled Slayer.[11] Whedon went on to write and partly fund a 25-minute non-broadcast pilot that was shown to networks and eventually sold to the WB Network.[12] Buffy the Vampire Slayer first aired on March 10, 1997, as a mid season replacement for the show Savannah on The WB network, and played a key role in the growth of the Warner Bros. television network in its early years.[13][14]

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 up. 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. And the rest is history!"[15] 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.[16]

Casting and filming

Torrance High School stood in for Sunnydale High.

Joss 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 whom Whedon's wife attended high school with. Xander was based on Whedon himself.[16] Creator Joss Whedon hoped to include actor Eric Balfour in the title credits to shock viewers when his character dies. Unfortunately, the show could not afford the extra set of title credits at the time. However, Whedon's wish was granted in the season six episode "Seeing Red", with the character Tara Maclay.[17] Brian Thompson, who plays the vampire Luke, returns to the series in season two as a different character, the Judge, in "Surprise" and "Innocence".[18]

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 Sarah Michelle Gellar that they were going to reshoot the scenes a third time.[17] 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.[18]

Reception

"Welcome to the Hellmouth" first aired in the United States on March 10, 1997 on The WB.[19] On the original airing of this episode, The WB provided a teaser advertisement briefing the history of past Slayers. It revealed horrific events in towns that were halted when a particular woman arrived. This promotional teaser does not appear in syndication or on DVD.[20] "Welcome to the Hellmouth" earned a Nielsen rating of 3.4, meaning that roughly 3.4 percent of all television-equipped households were tuned in to the episode.[21] The episode was the 100th most watched episode of television that aired during the week ending March 16.[22]

The episode received largely positive reviews from critics. Noel Murray from The A.V. Club that the episode was "a good introduction to the show, establishing the characters and the premise quickly and cleanly, before ending on a cliffhanger".[23] Murray, however, did note that the episode contained "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.[23] 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".[24] He praised the acting of Sarah Michelle Gellar, noting that she "plays Buffy to perfection".[24] 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?.[25] He ultimately gave the episode a B.[25] Nikki Stafford, her her book Bite Me! called the first episode "excellent" and complimented the stengths of the main cast as well ast he show's unique approach. She contrasted the episode 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."[20]

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b Holder, p. 54
  2. ^ Buffy: Television with Bite (DVD). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Sixth Season: Fox Home Entertainment. 2003. 2:15 minutes in.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  3. ^ a b Billson, pp. 24–25
  4. ^ Gottlieb, Allie (26 September 2002). "Buffy's Angels". Metroactive. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  5. ^ Havens, p. 51
  6. ^ Golden and Holder, pp. 247–248.
  7. ^ Havens, p. 23
  8. ^ Golden and Holder, pp. 249–250
  9. ^ Said, S.F. "Interview with Joss Whedon by SF Said". Shebytches. Archived from the original on 30 April 2009. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  10. ^ Wilcox, et al, p. xix
  11. ^ Rose, Lacey (9 March 2012). "The Art of Picking TV Titles: 9 Do's and Don'ts". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  12. ^ Topping, p. 7
  13. ^ Schneider, Michael (29 June 2006). "WB revisits glory days". Variety. Retrieved 4 June 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  14. ^ Edwards, p. 134
  15. ^ "Interview by Jess with Ben, Steve, Parry". Rock Pulse. 17 July 2003. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  16. ^ a b Stafford, p. 126
  17. ^ a b Joss Whedon (2002). Welcome to the Hellmouth" Commentary track (DVD). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete First Season: Fox Home Entertainment.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  18. ^ a b Golden and Holder, p. 55
  19. ^ Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete First Season (Media notes). The WB. {{cite AV media notes}}: |format= requires |url= (help); Unknown parameter |director= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |titlelink= ignored (|title-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |titleyear= ignored (help)
  20. ^ a b Strafford, p. 124
  21. ^ Bauder, David (20 March 1997). "NBC is back on top of weekly Nielsen ratings". The Kansas City Star. The McClatchy Company. pp. F7. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  22. ^ The Associated Press (20 March 1997). "Nielsen ratings". The Tampa Tribune. Media General. p. 6. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  23. ^ a b Murray, Noel (5 June 2008). "'Welcome To The Hellmouth,' etc". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 26 May 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  24. ^ a b Levesque, John (10 Marhc 1997). "Finally, The WB Has a Show Worth Sinking Teeth Into". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Hearst Corporation. p. C1. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  25. ^ 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. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
References
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