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Buffy Season 1 Trivia

• This is the only season of both shows in which there is no vampire among the main characters.
• This is the only seasons of both shows in which there are only 12 episodes as opposed to the normal 22.
• This is the only season of Buffy in which Spike does not appear.
• This is the only season of Buffy in which no members of The Trio appear.
• This season features the fewest vampire deaths of the series.

Welcome To The Hellmouth

• Buffy's prophetic dream features glimpses of several climatic events of the season, including her confrontation with the Master in "Prophecy Girl".
• Cordelia states she would like to live in Los Angeles; she moves there after graduation.
• Joyce drops Buffy off at school and tells her, "Try not to get kicked out." Buffy promises but eventually does get expelled ("Becoming, Part One").
• The girl who finds the dead boy in her locker is Cordelia's friend Aura. She recurs in "Rm w/a Vu", talking to Cordelia on the phone.
• The scene with Buffy and Giles at the Bronze was Anthony Stewart Head's audition scene.
• The high school used for external and some internal scenes in the series is Torrance High, the same school used for the acclaimed series Beverly Hills 90210. The series would feature Buffy alumni Emma Caulfield as a recurring character.
• The Master's real name was never mentioned on screen but in the shooting script for the episode, he was named Heinrich Joseph Nest, and was also said to have been six hundred years old.
• The Master's look originally featured a beard and long hair before actor Mark Metcalf suggested the bald look as a homage to Nosferatu.
• 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 filmed. Joss Whedon decided to make Buffy less angry and more vulnerable, much to Sarah Michelle Gellar's dismay. Whedon jokingly teased her they were going to re-shoot the scenes a third time.
• 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 season six ("Seeing Red") with Amber Benson's character, Tara Maclay.[3]
• On the original airing of this episode, the WB provided a teaser briefing the history of past Slayers. It revealed horrific events in towns that were halted when a particular woman arrived. This teaser, however, does not appear in syndication or on DVD.
• Cordelia mocks Willow's outfit saying, "Good to know you've seen the softer side of Sears" in reference to the well-known commercial jingle.
• When meeting Angel for the first time, Buffy references Turtle Wax, a product commonly given away as a consolation prize on many TV game shows.
• When Angel meets Buffy, he says that he thought she'd be taller, implying that he'd never seen her before. Later, in "Becoming, Part One", we see a flashback of Angel watching Buffy from afar, proving this wrong (or a deceitful statement). Angel also mentions the sighting to Buffy in "Helpless".
• When Buffy is talking to Joyce in her bedroom if you look behind Sarah Michelle Gellar you see a woman holding a piece of paper at the edge of the door frame.
• The scene where Angel warns Buffy about the Harvest was David Boreanaz's audition scene. According to Boreanaz, it was shot at two in the morning in "some god awful street."

The Harvest

• Giles's line "The earth is doomed" will later be spoken again, except later he will say "the earth is definitely doomed" after Buffy, Willow and Xander discuss going to the Mall after destroying The First Evil's army.
• When Willow asks why they could not contact the cops, Buffy replies that they would go in with guns, which are not particularly useful against vampires or demons. In "Flooded," when a security guard tries shooting a demon robbing a bank, Buffy, referring to the gun, tells him "these things, never useful." Similarly in the Angel episode "Inside Out" when Wesley tries to kill the demon Skip with a gun, he taunts Wesley asking if guns ever actually work. Ironically Wesley does manage to kill him with one.
• In all of her scenes at school, Buffy is either wearing a skirt or a dress, but she is always wearing pants during her fight scenes. This pattern is repeated multiple times throughout the show.
• Joss Whedon noted in the commentary for this episode that he felt horrible for giving Eric Balfour so many lines with "s" in them, which he had to recite while in "Vamp-face". He had such a difficult time getting the lines out around the prosthetics that new ones were designed for vampire characters required to speak frequently; the older style ones were given to vampire lackeys with few or no lines in future episodes.
• Additionally, Joss Whedon commented on Buffy flipping onto the Bronze stage, noting that she never did that again as she could've just walked or ran. The 1992 film, on the other hand, featured Buffy flipping towards small distances numerous times.
• Sixteen-year-old Mercedes McNab was the only young cast member to be an actual teenager by the time this episode was filmed, in 1996.
• The Master's line "You're all weak" is a reference to Mark Metcalf's famous line in Animal House.
• When Buffy has thrown Luke away from her, she wears her crucifix necklace, but when she exits the crypt, it has disappeared. When she returns to the library, it's suddenly back on.
• Just after Buffy decapitates the vampire that attacks Xander, Sarah Michelle Gellar can be seen laughing just before Luke grabs Buffy.
• The Master refers to he and Luke sharing a soul even though vampires are supposed to be soulless.

Witch

• This was the first use of witchcraft, pyrokinesis, telekinesis, and body switching.
• Giles is briefly knocked out, for the first of many times to come.
• Xander makes a brief reference to being so embarrassed that he wishes someone would drive a railroad spike through his head, an unintentional reference to the favored murder method of future enemy — and even later ally — Spike.
• Willow casts her first spell to identify the witch.
• This is the first instance of the "black eyes" when strong magic was being used.
• Despite failing and quitting with cheerleading, Buffy is sometimes still mentioned as so. Darla references her as "that cheerleader" in "Dear Boy,"
• Buffy asks her mother if she would like to be sixteen again, and her mother is horrified at the thought; Joyce would, in fact, regress to her teenage years again in the episode "Band Candy."
• Trying to prevent Amy to enter into the Science lab room, Willow use stereotype terms against the witch. Ironically, Willow later becomes also a witch and often criticizes the same stereotypes.
• The German language version of the episode was censored to remove the Nazi references in an exchange between Buffy and Willow. The original English exchange (DVD edition):

Willow: Her mom's kinda ...
Buffy: Nazi-like?
Willow: Heil.
is translated as:
Willow: Ihre Mom ist eine echte…
Buffy: Superfrau?
Willow: So in der Art.
which translated back to English would roughly be:
Willow: Her mom is a real…
Buffy: Superwoman?
Willow: Something like that.

• When Buffy discovers that Amy (actually Catherine) is a witch she says "she's our Sabrina," referring to Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. Coincidentally, the actress who plays Catherine Madison played another witch in the first season of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. Additionally, Sarah Michelle Gellar was friends with Melissa Joan Hart, who portrayed Sabrina in the series.
• Ironically, Gellar was an early choice to play Sabrina for the pilot movie; there were also rumors of her playing the part in a possible reboot after the original series ended.
• Xander references the Human Torch when speculating on Amber's combustion.
• When Buffy wakes up in bed, she is wearing a t-shirt with a black cat on the front, an animal frequently associated with witchcraft.
• Giles says that the reversal spell was his "first casting"; this is revealed to be false in "The Dark Age" (Although, given how Giles's past experience with magic turned out, he may have simply been lying to try and distance himself from that past, never believing that anything from that time of his life would return to haunt him).
• When Cordelia is blinded you can see the white contact lenses which Charisma Carpenter is wearing.
• This is the first episode in which no vampires appear.
• This is the first episode without an appearance by Angel.
• This is the first episode with no deaths, as Catherine technically did not die.

Deleted Scenes
Xander's take:[2]
Xander: "Hey, we've fought vampires. Anything else'll be a walk in the park."
Insight from Giles:[2]
Giles: "If I had the power of the black mass, I'd set my sights a little higher than making the pep squad."
An exchange between Xander and Willow:[2]
Xander: "Wow, you've got a killer streak I've never seen before. Hope I never cross you."
Willow: "I do, too. Then I'd have to carve you up into little pieces."
An oldie but a goodie from Giles:[2]
Giles: "Yes, the ducking stool! We throw her in the pond. If she floats, she's a witch; if she drowns, she's innocent… [then off their looks] …some of my texts are a bit outdated."

Teacher's Pet

• In the library, Willow's comment, "Inquiring minds want to know," is a reference to the slogan used by the tabloid newspaper The National Enquirer.
• The tease at the end of the episode shows one of the Mantis Monster eggs, hidden away in the science lab, beginning to hatch. This could be interpreted as a reference to Creature Feature Cinema, where the monster is frequently shown to have survived in some form, regardless of intent for a sequel. In continuity-based television, however, such a tease is almost always indicative of a follow-up sometime later in the series. In this case, the fate of the creature's offspring is never addressed.
• The real Mrs. French was played by actress Jean Speegle Howard, director Ron Howard's mother. Her husband, Rance Howard, appeared on Angel.
• This episode is Xander-centric and is the first of several episodes of the series to focus on someone other than Buffy.
• Dr. Gregory (a recurring character who also features in The Witch) is the first member of the Sunnydale High faculty to die, but by no means the last.

Deleted Scenes
This scene was cut because of length:[2]
Buffy: "Dr. Gregory didn't chew me out or anything. He was really cool. But Flutie showed him my permanent record. Apparently, I fall somewhere between Charles Manson and a really bad person."
Willow: "And you can't tell Dr. Gregory what really happened at your old school?"
Buffy: "I was fighting vampires? I'm thinking he might not believe me."
Willow: "Yeah, he probably gets that excuse all the time."
Cordelia: (just arriving) "Here lies a problem. What used to be my table occupied by pitiful losers. Of course, we'll have to burn it."
Buffy: "Sad, you have so many memories here. You and Lawrence, you and Mark, you and John. You spent the better part of your 'J' through 'M' here."

[Glad the **** shaming was cut.]

Never Kill a Boy on the First Date

• After throwing a minion across the room, the Master says "Here endeth the lesson", which is later spoken by Spike[1] and Buffy.
• Giles' assertion that he doesn't have an instruction manual is not strictly true: apparently there is a Slayer Handbook, Giles just decided not to use it with Buffy.
• Cordelia's line when she sees Angel, "Hello, salty goodness!", is repeated when she reverts back to her teenage persona and first sees Angel.
• After Buffy learns that she is needed to fight evil at the Sunnydale Funeral Home, she says "Bite Me" in annoyance while glancing at Angel, foreshadowing the fact that Angel is a vampire.
• This episode introduces The Anointed One, who plays a major role in following episodes.
• This episode is the first very explicit illustration of Buffy's struggle to combine her identity as a slayer and her wish to be a normal teenage girl.
• Giles mentions his father and his grandmother were Watchers.
• Giles interest in being a fighter pilot, disrupted by beginning his Watcher studies at the early age of ten, is shown through his great-aunts memories in Women of a Certain Age.
• The Master opens his book in a way similar to the Crypt Keeper from Tales from the Crypt.

The Pack

• Xander's feigned amnesia about his activities while he was possessed is later uncovered in "Phases."
• Buffy is wearing the leather jacket Angel gave her.
• Principal Flutie is killed and eaten in this episode. He is later mentioned in Season Seven's "Beneath You" by Buffy when she asked Robin Wood if he heard about what happened to Mr. Flutie. He is the second member of the Sunnydale High faculty to die in the series.
• Xander assaults Buffy and says to her "you like your men dangerous and mean" referring to Angel, but using the plural "men". This foreshadows a pattern that will be explored throughout the series about Buffy's romantic life, as in season 4 with Parker but most prominently in her relationship with well-known vampire Spike.
• This is the first episode where someone is locked in the library cage and the first where Buffy is sexually assaulted when Xander attempts to force himself upon her. It is also the first story where one of the Scooby gang goes evil.
• This is the first time that possession appears in the Buffyverse.
• Xander being locked in a cage during the time of his possession will be the first time a Scooby Gang member would be imprisoned due to their animalistic tendencies, continuing with Oz in seasons 3 and 4 of Buffy and Angel (due to becoming Angelus again) in season 4 of Angel.
• Despite being credited as a series regular, Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase) is absent from this episode.
• This is the first time that a series regular has been absent.
• All sequences shot at the zoo were filmed at the Santa Ana Zoo.[2]
• This is the second episode where no vampires appear. ("Witch" being the first)
• This episode marks the second time Giles is knocked out, the first being Witch, something which will become a running joke as the series continues.
• In the library, Giles consults the Malleus Maleficarum, an actual historical text on Witchcraft.
• Kyle's line "and therein my friend lies the fun" is paraphrasing the line "and therein lies the rub" from Shakespeare's Hamlet.
• Buffy: "It's safe to say that in his animal state, his idea of wooing doesn't involve a Yanni CD and a bottle of Chianti." Yanni is a monumentally successful Greek New Age keyboardist and composer.
• The picture Giles shows Buffy and Willow as the ultimate result of transpossession is an illustration by Gustave Doré, which he drew for Dante's Inferno, from the Divine Comedy.
• Willow refers to the sitcom 'Three's Company'. John Ritter, its' star would later appear in 'Ted'.
• The majority of the hyena documentary footage shown in the episode is actually about African Wild Dogs, not hyenas.
• During the dodgeball game, the pack defeats the opposing team easily, leaving Buffy as the last one standing. But, instead of attacking her, they turn on Lance, their own teammate, showing how hyenas will generally avoid confronting powerful animals and prey on the weak instead.
• The hyena lore featured is possibly based on the crocotta of Ethiopian legend. It's a wolf-like creature whose name was used for the scientific name of the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta). It is said to imitate human voices and call out to people, like the hyenas in the episode call Willow's name.
• Just before he is eaten Principal Flutie has his first genuinely friendly moment with Buffy, joking with her over the nature of nostalgia. This would be a trend in the Buffyverse, characters being killed off just as they take Buffy's side.

Deleted Scenes
One line was cut
Xander - "Welcome to the jungle."

Angel

• Buffy invites Angel into her house for the first time, an invitation she revokes in episode "Passion".
• This episode reveals two consistent aspects of Buffyverse vampires; that they need an invitation to enter private residences and their lack of a soul.
• Angel told Darla, "the last time I saw you, it was kimonos." The last time he saw her was in China, during The Boxer Rebellion ("Darla").
• Buffy found out that Angel is a vampire with a soul who was named Angelus (The One with the Angelic Face) and killed his own family when he first became a vampire. She also learned that he is 240 years old and has a tattoo on his right shoulder blade.
• Darla dies (for the second of four times). This is the first kill we see Angel make onscreen although we later learn he has made others in the past.
• Joyce meets Giles, Angel, and Darla for the first time. It's also her first interaction with Xander and Willow.
• The first half of the episode contains heavy foreshadowing of Angel's true nature including Buffy not wanting to "get Angel dead" despite him already being so, references to Angel's age and Buffy giving Angel food.
• The Master says "out of the mouths of babes" after a comment made by the Anointed One and in the season 6 episode "Two to Go," Xander repeats the line after a comment by Dawn, both of which relate to murder.
• In the library, Willow talks to Buffy about what would happen if Angel and her had children, while Darla is listening in the dark. Actually, although it looks impossible after this episode (with Darla killed by Angel and the simple fact that vampires can't procreate), it is Darla who will have a child with Angel.
• Season 7's "Beneath You" parallels this one. In this episode after Buffy finds out Angel is a vampire with a soul, they kiss and we see the cross Angel gave her searing his chest. In "Beneath You" after Buffy realizes Spike has a soul, he drapes his body on a large cross as it burns him. Angel tells her: "I wanted to kill you" and Spike uses the words "I dreamt of killing you".
• Joyce becomes the first major character to be bitten by a vampire.
• Angel being a vampire with a soul will be a major plot point for both Buffy and the spin-off show Angel where Angel moves to Los Angeles and works to find redemption there by fighting evil. In "Surprise" Angel loses his soul after a night of passion with Buffy, becoming Angelus again for the rest of season 2 before Willow restores his soul once more, an act that propels her into an interest in witchcraft. She later restores Angel's soul again in the Angel episode "Orpheus".
• The gypsies cursing Angel with his soul is seen in "Becoming, Part One".
• When Buffy call urgency for to rescue her mother, it foreshadow Joyce's death into Season Five.
• In this episode, it was demonstrated that Buffy is not a good History student. Joyce talk with Giles on this fact. However, into Season Five, Buffy will be more studious on this disciplinary.
• During the production of this episode, it took the makeup department 60 to 90 minutes to apply the vampire prosthetic on David Boreanaz.[1]
• Angel's Hugo Boss duster is worth over $1,000.[1]
• Producer and writer Marti Noxon, who reportedly first thought the series was going to be a "failed TV show" after a "failed movie," had her original impression changed after watching this episode, particularly the scene Buffy offers her neck to Angel.
• The Master says to Collin The Anointed One that "With great power comes great responsibility" shortly before ordering Darla kill The Three. The phrase is a quote taken from the origin story of Spider-Man, and was said by Peter Parker's Uncle Ben shortly before his death.
• When Buffy and Angel are being chased by "The Three," one of the vampires manages to get his hand into Buffy's house as she's closing the door, despite not having an invitation to enter. This is inconsistent with the vampire barriers on people's homes in later episodes, where no part of a vampire can enter a home uninvited. (An alternate perspective is that the Three are so strong as vampires that they are able to force at least a hand through the protective barrier surrounding an individual's home. Seeing it this way makes The Three far scarier. It also explains why the Three did not force their way into the open door.)
• When speaking of Angel, the Master uses fond language and actually says he "misses" Angel. However, in Angel season 3 flashbacks, it is shown that their first encounter was a violent one and nearly resulted in Angelus being killed on the spot. In a flashback in "Destiny," Angelus explains disdainfully that Darla's "precious Master called for [her]." These scenes do not engender the idea of any kind of fondness between the two. (An alternate perspective is that that, in "missing" Angel, the Master was referring to missing the destruction and terror Angel caused when he was Angelus.)
• When Darla is spying on Willow and Buffy's conversation in the library, her reflection can be seen on the bookshelf next to her, despite the fact that vampires don't have reflections.
• During the whole fight between Darla and Buffy, Darla never needs to reload her pistols.
• This episode first aired on Sarah Michelle Gellar's twentieth birthday.
• This is the first episode to feature the show's opening prologue used to explain the Slayer mythology.
• This is the first instance in the show in which a vampire kills another vampire.

Deleted Scenes
One exchange was cut:
Xander: "Love sucks. Ever since I was in grammar school, it's the same old dance...you dig someone, they dig someone else. And then that someone else digs someone else."
Willow: "That's the dance."
Xander: "I mean, I'm right for her. I'm the guy. I know it. She's so stupid! She's not stupid. But...it's too much. We're such good buds, I'm this close to her, and she doesn't have a clue how I feel. And wouldn't care if she did. It's killing me." [He exits and Willow stands alone for a moment]
Willow: "Gee, what's that like?"

[Ew. Glad this was cut too.]

Original Promo:



TBC. Part 2 to be posted later...
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