When did you become a fan?

[Emmie]

I thought it would be interesting to hear how everyone became fans of BUFFY and ANGEL...

The first episode I saw was the original airing of 1.03 the Witch back in '97. My dad was the one who actually drew the show to my attention. I watched it for a bit and thought, "this is weird, i don't get it, plus my dad thinks its cool so whatever" and didn't watch it again for over a year. Then I started seeing all the advertising for the Surprise/Innocence two-parter with the dramatic "buffy will be betrayed" voice-over, which interested me enough to watch and I was hooked. From that point on I watched every episode religiously - Tuesdays became awesome because that was when Buffy aired. I remember feeling devestated when Buffy died in the Gift, bawling and unsure of what was happening to the show (I didn't really follow Buffy news online then). So I've been a huge fan for over 10 years now, wow. I even took a college comm course on Buffy called Interpersonal Relationships in the Buffyverse and wrote a huge term paper on it. Hehe it was always funny when i told people i was going to my buffy class - we watched a bunch of episodes during that course

How'd everyone else get into it?

[Smashed]

I started watching season 5. Also, because of my dad. I loved it, but it moved to UPN and i didnt have it. but then for some odd reason, FOX was playing the UPN episdodes.

and now im obsessed and have been for quite a while!

[matthewblake]

I started watching during season 3, which I think was a perfect time to start! I was quickly hooked, buying everything/anything Buffy I could find. Even though I loved show, my friends never really got into it. Which was fine with me, it was nice to have something that was just "my thing."

[Enisy]

I watched all episodes in order, starting from Welcome to the Hellmouth, but I didn't really get into the series until Prophecy Girl (Joss's writing, Sarah's acting chops) and School Hard (Spike).

[commandercool]

Last June. I've recounted the story several times on the site, but long story short I heard that Joss was taking over Runaways so I watched a few episodes of Buffy to see if he was as awesome as people said he was, and I found out he was better. I watched the entire series that summer. I watched Chosen the very last day of break before I went back to school.

[alycat7]

I started watching after the entire series was over. I saw the reruns of season 6 and i was hooked.
When i realized that it had a spin-off, i bought the entire Angel series on dvd.

[Rachster]

I started watching when i was about six or something i cant quite remember back lol but my mom and my brother used to watch it so i would sit up and watch it to i loved it buffy was like my hero but i only watched it upto season 3 and now i only recently just watched seasons 4 5 6 $ 7 last year same with the angels

[Wyndam]

First episode I saw was the Season 2 episode, Halloween.

[Ethros]

I started watching when it premiered on BBC2 on (I still remember) 30th December 1998. I was 14 at the time

By the time "Witch" had aired I was totally hooked, and by around "Never Kill A Boy on the First Date" I was completley addicted.
BBC2 showed all of Season 1, and about the first third of Season 2 then stopped. But then Sky 1 picked up the rest soon after, showing the rest of Season 2 and staright into Season 3, finishing that in late 1999. Then started showing Season 4 and Angel Season 1 in the first half of 2000.
So in about the space of 18 months I ate up five seasons of Buffyverse goodness, quality

Then every year I'd watch each new season of B/A on Sky 1 until Angel came to an end in 2004, boo! hiss!


I think my obsessiveness peaked circa May 1999 when I went on family holiday to Florida, and been only up to early Season 2 at the time with BBC, wathced some late Season 3 episodes on US TV... it was SO WEIRD seeing how much had changed in the gap!
Around that time I ate a tonne of the spin-off novels, buying nearly all of them that summer. When "Becoming" aired on Sky 1 in Summmer 1999 it just totally blew me away with how amazing the show could be, and remains to this day my favourite episode of anything ever

[henzINNIT]

First episode I remember watching was Consequences on the beeb. I didn't get hooked til season 5 started. I watched about half of the season then bought the second half on video.

[CowboyGuy]

I have been a fan since I saw the original film in the 3rd grade!! Eek! I was enchanted by Buffy. And I liked the campiness of it, and how it wasn't scary.

Emmie, great topic...*gives Slayer Karma*

[Harmony]

Um, well for me I saw my first episode when I was pretty young It was season two... the episode when Buffy was in the hospital and the guy who some what looked like Freddy Crugar was killin the kids? But yeah that was a scary episode, then I noticed my older cousin liked the show so i always watched it with him, And thats how i got into it :-)

[hitnrun017]

I'm pretty sure I was 10 or 11 years old. It was late and I couldn't sleep, and ABC had syndicated episode on at 12:35am. There was nothing else on, so I watched it and it was Earshot. I really enjoyed it, didn't have a clue what was going on, but I liked it. Around that time, I kept seeing the Season 6 "Buffy Lives" promos on UPN. So I started watching and became obsessed, got Season 1 for my birthday and it just got stronger from there.

It's weird, because before I saw Earshot, I remember seeing the Cheerleader Cordelia action figure and thinking, "Who would buy something like that from such a stupid show."

[buffyfan97]

I didnt start watching till midway through the 2nd season. I had a friend of mine bragging about and all I could think of was that god aweful movie. I couldn't possible see how the series would be any better. So one night I promised him I would watch it and if I'm not mistaken it was Surprise. So wen I first saw the season finale it didnt hit me as hard as it did the 2nd time I saw after seeing season 1 and the 1st part of season 2. I was hooked ever since.

[freakfan]

I was lucky enough to be sitting infornt of the tv when the show aired. the name caught my attention, and vampires really interest me. so when Darla changed from this sweet girl into this blood sucking neck bitting vamp i was hooked. season one for me didnt really become something up until the 9th episode. Buffy is awesome!!

[hunter233]

I've already mentioned bits of this here and there on the forum, but I'll put the cohesive whole here.

I watched the very first episode when it premiered because that night my uncle called me up and told me "Hey, you should check out this show, it's being filmed at the high school you're going to next year" (Torrance High). That was enough incentive for me to check it out, and I really enjoyed it. Watched S1 for a few more eps, but then eventually lost track of it, between being busy and losing some interest (Let's face it, S1 was not their greatest).

During the summer between S2 and S3, however, Buffy reruns were on after something else my family would watch. Even though we weren't watching Buffy at the time, we LOVED the theme song, so we'd leave the TV on after whatever the hell that other show was to listen to it. A lot of the time, we'd be too lazy to turn it off after, or the beginning of the ep was interesting enough to hook us for the rest. Eventually, we were watching the reruns religiously. Angelus, particularly, hooked us (He's probably still my favorite Big Bad). So by the time S3 rolled around, we were die-hard fans and watched religiously from then to the end of Angel.

Not to mention, seeing your high school blown up on TV? Priceless, heh. That was a big event in Torrance too. Not that they actually blew up the school, but the clock tower you see in a few eps wasn't actually an original part of the school. They built that up on top of one of our buildings in anticipation of the big boom at the end of the season, giving them something physical to blow up. So when time came around to film that, a lot of people came out to watch it. It was pretty cool.

[dane5by5]

This isn't directed at anyone here, but does anyone else find it hilarious when people say they have been watching and a fan since the series started even though they were only three or four in 1997? I find that funny.

Well I started watching at the beginning of season five after watching some season three (on repeats) at a friends, so that was 2001 (in Australia). Oh how time flies.

[balesthebloody]

I was home sick from school one day and saw a rerun on FX and I was hooked! I think I was in 5th grade so that made it 2003. I remember that summer I went out and bought all the DVDs that had come out so far. The only show I got to watch each week was the last season of Angel.

[Wyndam]

After catching "Halloween" in Season 2 I really enjoyed watching the show, but for some reason I just didn't really start watching it week by week until Season 6 started airing. Even though I had only seen about 1/3 of the episodes at that point, I was still hooked on the show and watched it until it finished in 2003.

I started getting the Seasons on DVD every Christmas in 2002 and that's where most of my viewing has happened.

[Lukee]

I remember seeing the movie when i was like 6 or something vaguely. But i wasn't hooked after the movie.
Until the show aired in UK when i was like 7. I saw the adverts on tv and thought it sounded good, seeing as i was a fan of Dracula and horrors when i was younger then was hooked after the first episode i didn't really become i die hard fan or what ever you call it until around season 6 after Buffy came back.