BTVS is #3 in Msn.com All-time Best Midseason Replacement Shows

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3. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1997)

Rarely does a TV version of a movie live up to the quality of its big-screen counterpart, let alone surpass it. Surely that was on the minds of whoever scheduled a small-screen edition of the mildly successful and comically preposterous "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" as a midseason replacement in 1997, five years after the original film was released. Expectations couldn’t have been any lower. But the series ended up being truer to creator Joss Whedon’s original, darker, more nuanced vision of the story, and TV’s "Buffy" earned a fanatical following. Goes to show that TV adaptations can produce fantastic shows, that the supernatural can be implemented in a completely human and believable way, that comedy and drama can exist simultaneously, and that cheerleaders kicking vampire booty is totally freaking awesome.

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