What age is BTVS and Angel aimed at ??

Well in the UK they rated the DVD's 15 and over cause of violence, scary imagery and sex references. So to be totally honest I really do not think a child under 10 much less even below 15 (IMO) watching Buffy. As someone pointed out, after Season 1 onwards the show gets more and more genre to a much older audience. I think that is one of the reasons I loved Angel, it was obviously more adult especially with the violence which made Buffy seem tamer.
 
I think it depends on the person, and younger audiences (kids) usually take the show at a different level on older viewers (teenagers, adults). The first time I watched a Buffy episode was when I was 10 (episode "School Hard"). I liked it right away, mainly because of the scary aspect of the show (I've always been a fan of horror movies, and films/shows that are out-of-this-world.. involving aliens, the supernatural, etc). But I wasn't a regular viewer then; I got really hooked on the show in the middle of season 5. That's when I started becoming a huge Buffy fan (at 12 or 13), and started watching it regularly & decided to watch all the episodes from season 1 to understand the storyline better. Now looking back, when I was a kid I saw the show more as a horror show with monsters. But later on I realized the deeper meanings in the episodes, like the themes, character developments, metaphors, etc. and appreciated the show more. So I guess BtVS has something for everyone. I've come across 9 and 10-year-olds who love the show (Anthony Head's daughters were fans of the show since the beginning), and adults who still refuse to watch it & simply think it's silly. It all depends on the individual.
 
I've said this many times in many different places, it all depends on the child. Some can understand it, others can't. Simple as that. When I first saw the show, I was like 11-12, watching season six. I understood it, and wasn't frightened or anything. My parents never minded that I watched it, in fact my mom loved it. Sometimes I think people underestimate people in that age group (11-14). A 12 year old doesn't understand that this is only for entertainment? This is 2008, they can learn MUCH worse just going to school. I saw Warren get flayed alive at age 12, and I wasn't bothered by it all; nor were my friends. Sure we didn't like the rape at all, but does that mean we didn't understand? No, we got it. We understood the message.

But once again, it all depends on the individual. I grew up with people who were mostly mature enough to understand these things. My parents weren't very strict on the viewings, but they still cared about what I watched. For example, SAW at 5? Big no-no at my house. But as far as things like Buffy, my folks never minded. They knew I understood.

Some people can handle it, some can't. All depends on the person.
 
DISCLAIMER: I am also a childless libertarian. I don't actually plan on ever having kids. However, my hubby and I do discuss what we think about censorship, spanking, grounding, etc., so I have thought about this.

I want my kids to read everything they can get their hands on. I think TV and movies are a different matter, though. With books, the kid has to imagine. If they don't have the images or concepts for the words in the book, they just won't understand it. With TV and movies, it doesn't matter if they don't have the images--someone's giving them to them. That can be horribly traumatic for kids. At the same time, I don't want to have to hide our horror movies or Buffy or Angel DVDs--cause that just means they're forbidden and the kids will go looking for them and watch them alone, which in my opinion is worse than watching them with my knowledge. If they really think they're ready for adult content (and I think they're ready for adult content) I want to watch it with them so I can explain things that they might feel uncomfortable with. That way, I'M raising them, not the TV.

That said, my hubby and I were raised in extremely different environments, and I think the above plan is kind of the best of both worlds. My parents wouldn't let me watch anything above PG-13 until I was 21 (though once I turned 18, I went to R movies ANYWAY, cause who did they think they were?). They weren't happy with me watching Buffy (it started when I was 16, but I didn't really get into it until I was 18), but didn't really stop me (although watching Buffy and Angel getting it on with my dad in the room was one of the most uncomfortable experiences of my life). My hubby, on the other hand, was given carte blanche to watch pretty much anything he wanted. As a kid, he saw Hellraiser, most of the zombie movies available, Stephen King movies, the Alien and Predator movies, etc. etc.--stuff my parents would have freaked out about. Both of us turned out okay, I think, though when I left my family and got out into the real world, I was kind of culture shocked, while my hubby's fine with anything life throws at him. Of course, his IQ is remarkable, so I think he had the capacity to process those things and understand the difference between fiction and reality at that age. I don't know that most other kids are able to do that.

So that's my $.02.
 
I always thought Buffy was aimed toward young teens.... 13-16 or so. But Angel, to me, was more *adultish* in its characters & storylines. Esp. compared to Seasons 1-3 of Buffy.

However, I've known it to span age groups... the youngest person I know to be Buffatized was 10 when she started watching; the oldest is 62. Go figger. 😀
 
Well I've already tossed about my opinion/rants in this thread so I won't go over all that again, but since we're all currently theorizing the age the show was actually aimed at, I just thought I'd throw in that I came across an old Femme Fatale issue recently (The Buffy themed one) where it states that while people presume it's a teen/young adult audience the age of the average viewer was/is 29. Weird huh? Though I don't deny that there are viewers much younger and much older than that.
 
I think, just to jump off of JoyceSummers' point and say that the critics often had a difficult time trying to jam BtVS into any specific category, and trouble pegging it into one age group. Clearly, this is evident by discussions like this, and by the fact that the average age is 29.
 
So, if the *average age* is 29, they must have asked every single Btvs fan in the world their age, which i really doubt.
I think in Joss's mind the was aimed at teenage girls, at least originaly.
 
Average age demographic is worked out by which houses tuned into the show when it was airing, and who is registered in the house/registered for the television. It's the same way they work out how many viewing ratings they have, only this focuses on the demographic rather than the viewing poll. So it may be off by a few years, but it is a pretty factual average. However averages can be people as young as ten and as old as eighty are involved as such a large difference can cause an average such as the one I stated.

And I don't Joss ever aimed it at anybody, any age group. It was what it was, whoever wished to tune in just had good taste regardless of age. If he had aimed it at teenage girls, he wouldn't have cared about whoever played Giles needed a sexiness for the slightly older viewers 'who would see the sexiness under the stuffiness' and many other contributing factors. I think it was the networks that assumed it was aimed at teenage girls.....
 
I didn't "find" it until my 30's, but my daughter was 4 and she loves it. She doesn't FULLY "get" all of it and there are chunks she's not allowed to see, (like Tara dying and we put off letting her watch Smile Time for a LONG time for fear she'd be scared of Muppets) but she seems to grasp MOST of it.
My son loves Angel and he's 8. He's not seen as much of Buffy as my daughter has, but he was in school when we were watching it on FX, but he likes it.

I think you have to kind of like "fantasy" though. I know lots of "older" people who could be my parents who love it and lots of younger people who don't. But, the people who don't just don't like fantasy situations like that much.

Me? I'm perfectly fine with thinking the Buffyverse really exists. I also believe the Muppets are real, so maybe it takes the kind of loony to like it.
 
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