How was the hype in the old days...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Puffy
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I watched it as it aired in the UK. My friend called me about the advert she had just seen for it and knowing I loved all things vamp she told me to look out for the advert ... so I did. I saw the advert on tv and I got so excited and watched it every week without fail. My bf at the time was a Trek fan so he couldn't say anything lol. As the vhs box sets were released I bought them along with every Buffy magazine. By the time AtS came out I had gotten my mother into it. Like others I didn't really have many to talk about it with, until I came here. The hype was the same as any tv show at the time.
 
another question @all

Whats the reason, that Buffy became "only" a niche product (for DIE HARD Fans), instead of world domination..?
 
When it first aired here (Brazil), I wasn't such a fan; I was an adult already, and I never met anyone who watched it.

I got hooked on the show later, when Season 5 started rerunning on cable TV, Monday-Friday. At the time, Internet had already been invented, so I went online and joined a very busy forum (I think it as a Yahoo! Group actually) - which died soon after the show finished (S7). Only magazines specialized on TV shows used to feature BtVS articles. Nowadays, BtVS and Angel have a few Facebook pages where young fans can talk about the shows - but no forums. Both shows haven't been on TV for years, now. But almost always, when vampire shows are cited in the press, Buffy is remembered. And Angel here was called "Angel, The Vampire Slayer"... I myself stayed away from online BtVS and Angel related sites/forums for about 10 years, and watched the shows just every now and then (on DVD). But then, they became available on my cable TV ("on demand"), I started watching every night (it was easier than reach for the DVDs 😳) and ended up here in the beginning of this year. I still haven't met anyone in person who likes or even watches BtVS or Angel.
 
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white avenger said:
Just about all of the hype was on the internet, and a whole lot of the fans, myself included, didn't discover the Buffyverse until late into the series. One of the things that greatly increased the popularity of the two shows was that they went into syndication about the time that Season 5 was airing, so a lot more people got to see the earlier episodes in the early afternoon. I could come home from work and watch two episodes, back to back, Monday through Friday, then watch the new episode every Tuesday night.
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That's true. I remember starting off with reruns of S3 and then started watching s5 when it was airing. I don't remember any hype. I might have known or heard of the show before I watched it, but nothing that grabbed me enough to want to watch it. Just got bored one day and watched s3 an was hooked.
 
I know that I've told this story several times here already, so feel free to skip it if you want to.

I saw the movie, which I sort of liked, but that's another story, other than to say that that was my previous exposure to "Buffy The Vampire Slayer." With that for reference, I was somewhat underwhelmed when I found out that it was a series, and never bothered to watch it. Then, my nephew, who was a fan, asked me to tape an episode for him, since he was going to be out of town. That episode was "Once More With Feeling," and I was hooked. Not surprisingly, my two favorite characters, and what I saw as the most interesting relationship that I saw, beginning with that episode, and remaining to this day, were Buffy and Spike. To me, they belonged together like bacon and eggs. Later, when I started watching the syndicated series in the afternoons after work, Angel was just "that other vampire hanging around Spike's girl." I saw him that way then, and despite trying to get that image out of my head ever since (honestly!) I still can't see him any other way.

Anyhow, my point is that, the only reason that I ever started watching the show was because of another fan, and I only watched it then as a favor to him. After that, I watched only as a guilty pleasure, and never mentioned it to anyone. That's the closest to "hype" that I can remember being aware of before I started watching. After I became a fan, I discovered that I was only one of many.
 
When it first came on the BBC Buffy was a fairly unique show, and pretty unknown in terms of content. I (and a few friends) knew about it only through the movie and I really only tuned in (to the late-night repeat no less) out of vague curiousity.

At the time I remember that it was very much a cult show that emphasized SMG herself (through lots of promo stuff) and Buffy/Angel. LOTS of emphasis on this particular coupling and all the romantic content.
I remember disliking that slayer/vampire melodrama stuff the first time I watched it, not because of what the series actually showed, but for the perceived emphasis in some of the surrounding media.

Obviously I got over it but I still find the shipping/romance stuff easily the weakest part of a show that's really about family, growing up, belonging/loneliness and a smart, quippy blonde girl fearlessly punching monsters in the face. 🙂
 
I remember a few people at school being into it, but they weren't friends of mine so I never really talked to them about it. I would talk to people online about it and I got the magazines each month as well. When Angel stopped being shown on tv I started buying the box sets on vhs and did lend them to a friend so she could catch up on that.
 
I was mostly made fun of for watching it until I finally convinced my friend to watch one episode for me. I lent her a disc from my season 4 set and that episode was "Fear Itself". She loved it, watched all the other episodes on the disc and then asked if she could borrow season one.

Now Angel on the other hand, I was less alone with. Still not a lot of people, but I knew three or four who watched it. I suppose it was considered more grown up.
 
I completely forgot that it was also on BBC as I watched it straight from Ep 1 on Sky One. I was in my last year of high school when it aired and none of my friends watched it, not many of my Uni mates watched it either. It wasn't until I went online and joined websites that I connected. That is what I will mainly remember Buffy for being revolutional. I've had never seen such a fan presence before and to be honest don't think I have since. I joined BuffyUK and would regularly go to London to Pages Bar (actually a Star Trek themed bar) for Nos nights where we would watch epiosides after they had just aired in the states (which upon recollection i'm sure was highly illegal).

It was the first real sci fi type show I was aware of that crossed more into the mainstream. Over here there was a lot of merchandise and even in supermarkets. Ah the days when you got the easter eggs with mouse mats and mugs and lunch boxes, even chocolate bars for sale in the local shops.

And oi...less of 'the old days'!!
 
Skanky Vamp
Skanky Vamp
poor faithy is getting old and saggy
Faith said:
I completely forgot that it was also on BBC as I watched it straight from Ep 1 on Sky One. I was in my last year of high school when it aired and none of my friends watched it, not many of my Uni mates watched it either. It wasn't until I went online and joined websites that I connected. That is what I will mainly remember Buffy for being revolutional. I've had never seen such a fan presence before and to be honest don't think I have since. I joined BuffyUK and would regularly go to London to Pages Bar (actually a Star Trek themed bar) for Nos nights where we would watch epiosides after they had just aired in the states (which upon recollection i'm sure was highly illegal).

It was the first real sci fi type show I was aware of that crossed more into the mainstream. Over here there was a lot of merchandise and even in supermarkets. Ah the days when you got the easter eggs with mouse mats and mugs and lunch boxes, even chocolate bars for sale in the local shops.

And oi...less of 'the old days'!!
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OMG thats what I used to do. I went to Pages too! Remember watching an episode of Buffy and then didn't they also show Angel? As well as any other kind of video trivia connected to the verse, such as ASH singing Rocky Horror on some MTV TV special.
 
Silverspike said:
OMG thats what I used to do. I went to Pages too! Remember watching an episode of Buffy and then didn't they also show Angel? As well as any other kind of video trivia connected to the verse, such as ASH singing Rocky Horror on some MTV TV special.
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When it started airing yes they did do Angel as well. My memory of afterwards is a bit hazy for obvious reasons, there was always a good party. A few times there would be special guests if certain actors were about and they would come as well. I remember meeting George Hertzberg there and once I could not get down and Robin Sachs was there and my friend George caught him outside and he called me. When I met him later in the year he even remembered the conversation that we had and said he hoped my Mum was feeling better. I was quite taken aback with that. There was a great sense of community. I was saying to BS a few weeks ago that you don't seem to get that now with fandoms, people just tend to comment on Facebook groups and don't seem to really know or connect with each other like we did. That is what i'll take away from all of this and something that was unique.

I've been part of a few different sites/forums for different shows but nothing quite like Buffy/Angel.
 
I was too young to watch the show back when it was on TV, but I have heard of it and knew how Buffy herself looked like back then because I had the DVD's in the house (so I knew based on the covers how Buffy looked like).

Faith said:
regularly go to London to Pages Bar (actually a Star Trek themed bar) for Nos nights where we would watch epiosides after they had just aired in the states (which upon recollection i'm sure was highly illegal).
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It may be super illegal, but die hard fans sometimes do illegal things in order to watch stuff as soon as they can 😛
 
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