Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Welcome to the Hellmouth
Season 1, Episode 1 · Aired 1997-03-10
Synopsis
Buffy Summers, a high school sophomore, faces her destiny as a slayer of the undead.
Pilot desk note
From the desk: Buffy the Vampire Slayer opens its catalog run with “Welcome to the Hellmouth” (1997-03-10). Genre TV literacy, found family, and online fan culture acceleration. Set power dynamics and later reckoning with the creator's reputation.
In the series
This episode is part of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003) on WB/UPN.
Hellmouth high school as metaphor engine — and fandom seminary.
Key cast
- Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers
- Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg
- Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris
- Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles
- James Marsters as Spike
- David Boreanaz as Angel