Would Vampires Be Popular Today If

[Joshua]

"Buffy" was cancelled at the end of season 1 and never returned? Would we still have "True Blood", "Twilight"?

 

[Buffy Summers]

Yes, because I don't think Buffy had anything to do with those shows seeing the light - it was more the popularity of the book series, which had built in fans for the shows. These came too long after Buffy ended...

 

[ILLYRIAN]

How many films that feature vampires have been made? The same can be asked for television programmes, and for books.
Buffy the vampire slayer is just one of the 1000 or so vampire related stories. How many of those were made before Buffy ever made it to film.
Now if the question had been, if the book Dracula had never been written, then, maybe the answer might be somewhat different.
However, vampires were part of folklore in many countries long before Dracula, so who knows.

 

[Jodast]

I think so. As has been said above, vampire stories, even ones where vampires and humans have relationships, have been around considerably longer than Buffy. They have been a staple of fiction and folklore for hundreds of years and seem to be one of those tropes that sparks the imagination of each new generation of writers and consumers.

 

[Vamp Jenny]

Probably not Twilight. Because even though Stephenie Meyer claims she never watched or read anything about vampires before writing the Twilight saga, there are clearly (basic) similarities with BTVS and TVD. And I don't think she took the time to read the TVD books.

 

[JCoatsworth]

I don't know about Twilight, but I guess it's possible there wouldn't be True Blood. I think Buffy affected the way the networks think about vampire related shows. Maybe, with Buffy being very successful, the network decided to give the show a shot. I don't know True Blood well enough to say they wouldn't have created the series without Buffy, but I think Buffy changed television's view of vampires.

 

[brinkster130]

Absolutely. Like other have said, a lot of the current popular vampire tv/films are a result of popular vampire books; which had nothing to do with Buffy. Heck, Buffy isn't even the first popular vampire story in pop culture.

 

[white avenger]

Vampires have always been popular romantic figures, even when depicted as monsters. The roles have always been played by handsome men and beautiful women, and a major element in their characters has always been their sensual attraction. Even the idea of heroic vampires was established well before Angel or Spike ever came along, in books like "Interview With A Vampire," "Old Friend Of The Family," and "The Dracula Tapes," in TV series like "Dark Shadows," and "Forever Knight," and in movies like "Dracula: Dead And Loving It," "Love At First Bite ," "My Best Friend Is A Vampire" and "Innocent Blood," all of which were around long before Buffy' series premiered.

Certainly, Buffy contributed to the new trend of vampire popularity, but I seriously doubt that that contribution was of such an importance that, without Joss and his characters, it wouldn't have been just as popular.