Much like the original Star Trek series, Buffy The Vampire Slayer is an original before its time. Kirk and Spock didn't truly find an audience until the show hit syndication in the 1970, and once it did, Star Trek became the primary model to build a science fiction series upon. Battlestar Galactica, V, and even Star Wars owe a huge debt to Gene Roddenberry's yarn about a future utopia. In essence, the network audience wasn't ready for this unique take on space fantasy ... but a few years later, legions of fans, who were catching the repeats locally, were eager for more.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer has seen the beginning of this trend. Rarely getting a sizeable audience on the small networks (WB, UPN) which aired it, Buffy has nonetheless built a huge fan base in repeats on the FX cable network, in addition to traditional syndication. Frequently over the past two seasons, the two-hour Buffy blocks on FX met or out-rated the new episodes airing on UPN. (I didn't even tune in until midway through their sixth season ... and now, I'm hooked.) Plus, Buffy The Vampire Slayer has already been used as the archetype for a fantasy-based series. Dark Angel was Buffy-as-Brunette. Smallville is Buffy-as-Superman. Alias is Buffy-meets-Bond. Charmed is Buffy-With-Babes. And, much like the Trek knock-offs, most of these series will fade into Buffy's background, resurfacing on the Sci-Fi Channel, or as a question in a game of Trivial Pursuit.
