Sarah Michelle Gellar is Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was SUCH a great show (from seasons 1-3 anyway).

I started watching in third grade, when it first premiered in 1997, and even though I didn’t understand half of what was being said or going on, I could tell there was something special about it.

According to Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy, the mission statement of the show was the joy of female power: having it, using it, sharing it. He was tired of the overused Hollywood subplot of “the little blonde girl going into a dark alley and getting killed in every horror movie.” He wanted “to subvert that idea and create someone who was a hero.” Basically, he wanted the girl to fight back and be the one to be feared.

Check out the opening credits of Buffy – yes, it was a violent show, and I’m not sure it was such a great idea for me to watch it at such a young age (9!), but I’m pretty sure Buffy’s strong character was early inspiration for me.

Charmed - Piper, Prue, and Phoebe

Anyone remember Charmed, with Shannon Doherty, Holly Marie Combs, and Alyssa Milano? I only liked the first two seasons, but thought the show was so fantastic. In fact, whenever I think about San Francisco, I think about Charmed (because that’s where the show takes place, even though their famous manor is in Echo Lake, CA, and the show was shot entirely in LA).

I loved how strong, stylish, and beautiful the three sisters were. They had crazy lives – trying to juggle their personal lives while battling demons trying to kill them at every moment – but they did it so well! There really was something utterly “charming” about them, especially Shannon Doherty. I’m a major fan, even to this day.

Check out the opening credits from the second season:

Lucy Lawless is Xena, Warrior Princess

I hope people know what I’m talking about when I say Xena: Warrior Princess. I remember watching the show on and off growing up, and buying the DVD sets in high school, but can’t think of anyone else who was a fan.

I’m pretty sure if you looked up female warrior, or strong Amazon woman, in the dictionary, you’d get a picture of Xena. Tall, beautiful Lucy Lawless was SO perfect in the role, and I loved the strong relationship she had with her sidekick Gabrielle.

According to Cathy Young’s blog entry What We Owe Xena, “Xena is credited by many, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon, with blazing the trail for a wave of female action heroes: Buffy, Max of Dark Angel, Sydney Bristow of Alias, Starbuck in SciFi’s new Battlestar Galactica (in which Lawless guest-starred) and the Bride in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill. (Tarantino is an enthusiastic Xena fan: He talks about his love for this ‘really cool show’ in an interview on the DVD of Double Dare, a recent documentary about Hollywood stuntwomen featuring Xena and Kill Bill double Zoë Bell.)”

Check out the opening credits from the show:

I was in elementary and junior high when I obsessively watched these shows. I don’t think much about them today, but they clearly had a strong impact on my developing mind.