49BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER

Aired: WB, 1997-2003

Part of the fun, and influence, of Buffy was in the way it mixed and matched genres while maintaining the integrity of its comedy and its heart. If high school was a peer-pressure fright night, it just might require the figurative jujitsu skills of a vampire slayer. "Buffy really changed the landscape," said Bryan Fuller, creator of the ABC series Pushing Daisies. "It demonstrated to networks and studios that you can meld genres in a unique way and create something that is altogether new yet very powerful and resonant. It's vampires, but it's emotionally honest, and that's what makes it work." Joss Whedon (who became the first third-generation Writers Guild member when he was hired on the sitcom Roseanne) adapted his Buffy the Vampire Slayer screenplay into the series, which became an integral piece in the WB network's brand as a youth-centered network.