The BUFFY guide to the web, circa 1997

Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered on the WB in 1997. Maybe that doesn't sound like that long ago, but a lot has changed since then. After seven successful seasons, Buffy went off the air in 2003. The WB went under, merging with UPN to form the CW network. Sarah Michelle Gellar went from "hot, young, notoriously difficult talent" to "aging, underemployed actress who would probably be pretty thrilled to star in a Buffy movie at this point". And the internet took over the planet.

In an interesting article, Martin Belam looks at the Internet as it was depicted in the 1st-season Buffy episode I Robot, You Jane. The plot concerns a demon that lives inside the internet, and Belam uses the episode as a kind of time capsule to explore the tech and technophobia of the Clinton era. (As Belam points out, that's actually the most interesting aspect of the episode. I, Robot is kind of rough going, even for Buffy's first season.)

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