Anney Reese and Lauren Vogelbaum are big fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. So on this episode of Savor, they get into all the food and drink featured in the series – with the caveat that when it comes to vampires, humans are the food. “Part of the horror of vampires is that they’re higher on the food chain than humans,” Lauren points out; a vampire named Spike even describes us as “Happy Meals with legs.” But there are plenty of other storylines that rely on food, from Buffy’s first job at the Doublemeat Palace to the Thanksgiving dinner that goes terribly awry when the spirits of Native Americans return to wreak retribution on the citizens of Sunnydale for disturbing a sacred burial ground.
One of the episodes they cover is the controversial “Beer Bad” episode of season four. In it, Buffy, upset from a breakup, goes to a bar where her friend Xander works and gets drunk on a beer called Black Frost with a bunch of college kids. The college kids start regressing into cavemen, along with Buffy, and it turns out the bar owner has brewed this beer to revenge himself upon the college kids. Many Buffy viewers say this is the worst episode of the series. Anney reveals that it was actually written as part of a government program, which was providing subsidies to television shows to write episodes with anti-drug messaging. Millions of dollars were paid out to television shows through this program, including The Drew Carey Show and The Wayans Bros, but come to find out, Buffy wasn’t one of them; “Beer Bad” was rejected for being “otherworldly nonsense.”
Food is often used as a humanizing element in the show: When Buffy defeats a robot version of herself, she makes stacks of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to feel normal again; when Willow feels guilty, she bakes cookies for everyone, saying, “Look at the very not-evil thing I did!” It works for the vampires, too, who in this series are able to eat human food; Spike, a vampire who is toeing the line between human and demon, drinks hot chocolate, makes requests for buffalo wings, and is especially fond of deep-fried onion blossoms. But just as frequently, the food is the problem, as when a chocolate bar makes Buffy’s mentor Giles beat up a cop and steal his car, or when a robot drugs everyone with mini-pizzas. And there’s still the everlasting mystery of the Cheeseman to deal with, too. If you’re a fan of Buffy, you’re in for a treat; grab yourself a snack and enjoy this food-centered trip down memory lane on this episode of Savor.
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