"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" At 20

My first job in LA — a virtual blip on the radar or a blink of the eye — was working on Buffy the Vampire Slayer at the start of Season Seven. (This after discovering once we moved into our very first place in LA that our next-door neighbor was a certain Buffy cast member.)

I remember discovering Buffy in college on a little network called The WB and instantly connecting with the show's use of metaphor, its humor and heartbreak, and its deftly emotional handling of the horrors of high school, falling in love, and growing up.

Buffy remains to this day one of my all-time favorite television shows — and one whose message feels even more vital and important these days.