It’s no secret that my sister, Allison Jornlin from Milwaukee Ghosts is a Buffy the Vampire Slayer superfan. I had seen the original movie, which I thought was more interesting because it was one of the first Pee-Wee Herman cameos after his “incident” (and he’s hilarious in the film), but I thought the whole thing was silly and way too lightweight, I was into heavier duty horror at the time it came out and didn’t like what I thought was the “Valley Girl” aspect of the whole thing (which also prevented me from truly enjoying   Clueless until I finally read  Emma  a couple of years later.)

So, when the show launched on the WB network in 1997, well, I had trouble caring. They were more known for 7th Heaven  and  Sister, Sister , could they really have a sweet paranormal show or was it ust going to be another cheese-fest. After all,  The X-Files  inspired not-so-great copycat shows like  Baywatch Nights  (David Hasselhoff instead of David Duchovny, for real!) and  Psi-Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal (which couldn’t even be saved by a game Dan Aykroyd.) Why should Buffy be any different?

While I watched a few episodes back in the late 90s and enjoyed them, I took my paranormal much too seriously back then. I didn’t start getting into the Joss Whedon-verse until  Firefly  in 2003, but by then  Buffy the Vampire Slayer had become a phenomenon and I missed the train.

Our amazing Buffy the Vampire Slayer round table today, however, did not. These are Buffy superfans that know the show inside and out. That includes our friends from the Traveling Museum of Paranormal and the Occult, Greg and Dana Newkirk , Paranthropology author Jack Hunter , and Marquette University professor James South, who edited the book,  Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear And Trembling in Sunnydale.

During this conversation to celebrate  Buffy the Vampire Slayer ‘s 20th anniversary, they go into detail on how the show and characters inspired them to take up paranormal missions of their own!