Biography - 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - As we have come to know, one doesn't necessarily need to be a person to get the "Biography" treatment from A&E's signature series.

You can be a thing, too. So it is that the WB's and UPN's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer (news - Y! TV)" is being sent into that gory night for good after seven seasons of campy horror fun and serious soap opera -- and it's "Biography" that gets to put the exclamation point on the show's shockingly successful run.

Indeed, as this final slay-ride for Buffy makes clear, this show was never really supposed to lift off of the ground, much less grow into a wildly popular (with fans and critics alike) franchise.

This entertaining, informative hour features liberal doses of creator/executive producer Joss Whedon (intelligent and disarming as always), fellow exec producer Marti Noxon and lengthy interviews with the cast members headed by Buffy herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar, along with Angel (David Boreanaz), Spike (James Marsters) , Willow (Alyson Hannigan), Xander (Nicholas Brendon), Rupert (Anthony Stewart Head), Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg) and Anya (Emma Caulfield) . Behind-the-scenes footage and liberal sprinklings of show clips round out the well-constructed package.

Made clear in the "Bio" (titled "Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Television With a Bite") is that the show never would have happened if not for the belief of now-Fox Entertainment chief Gail Berman in developing what was essentially a failed 1992 film (starring Kristy Swanson (news) in the lead) into a small-screen blend of wit and wisdom. That it not only survived the process but went on to become a memorable show is a credit to the vision of Whedon, who took chances with things like a 28-minute stretch without dialogue in the December 1999 episode "Hush" and the memorable musical episode "Once More, With Feeling" in November 2001. As this special makes clear, "Buffy" may not have changed television as we know it, but it surely made it a lot more fun.