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The Gentleviewer’s Obsessive Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Written for students and fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the book is an exhaustive listing of the cultural references that pop up throughout the show, peppered with trivia, music, episode cross-references, and more. It provides hours of trivia-obsession for fans of Buffy, Willow, Xander, Spike, Angel, and the rest of the Sunnydale residents.

The second edition adds a section on the unaired “Pitch Pilot,” episode arcs for character relationships, and about 30% more cultural references. Inside this book are 314 pages of:

  • 13 pages of Episode arcs showing viewing maps of the minimum episodes to watch to get the stories for Buffy, Xander, Willow, Giles, Angel, Spike, Anya, and various relationships.
  • Overviews of each season plus brief overviews of each episode.
  • More than 1000 cultural references.
  • 190 Cross references to other episodes, including references to “Angel.”
  • 140 listings of Music heard in the episodes and performed in The Bronze (Here are some links to Buffy Music MP3s).
  • 70 trivia listed with their respective episodes..
  • 7 Tables (1 for each season) of character involvement in each season, showing in which episodes characters are introduced, appear, or leave the series.
  • Tables for Writers and Directors.
  • Table of Characters and Actors alphabetized together in a table with over 200 entries.
  • 43-page Index: Topping off this guide is a robust, academic-quality index with more than 2,500 entries on episodes, bands, cultural references, episode cross references, and more.

This book gives you all the answers to questions like:

  • In which episode is Xander’s reference to the film Cannibal: the Musical (Shpadoinkle!)?
  • In which episode does Spike first come to Sunnydale?
  • In which episode does Buffy finally tells the Watcher’s Council that without her, they might as well be watching Masterpiece Theater?

New in the second edition is a listing of the music heard in the show — the music performed in the Bronze and the background music. There were a few attempts at soundtracks for the show, but there’s no single source for all the music. Visit the next best thing to a soundtrack: my page of links to Buffy Music MP3s available from Amazon and iTunes.

 

There be spoilers ahead!

The Gentleviewer’s Obsessive Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer should provide hours of fun for Trivial Pursuit enthusiasts as well as fans of Buffy, the other residents of Sunnydale, and the genius of Joss Whedon. But be warned that this book is basically comprised entirely of spoilers.

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Published by Paisley Publications,  March 2014,  314 pages,  Paperback binding,  US$18.00,  ISBN: 978-0-9851600-1-2

The first edition of this book included these color illustrations. These are not included in later editions.