Buffy Summers is 30?

I've been re-watching the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer this week and noticed an interesting detail. According to her records Buffy would turn 30 this year. If she were, like, real.

If that doesn't make you feel old, the rest of Season 1 ought to do the trick. The episode I Robot, You Jane is a delightfully anachronistic look back at the Internet before anybody really knew what the hell it was. It also includes a lot of annoying "type talking." You know, when people read aloud the words they are typing on the screen, even though there's nobody there to hear them. (See also: Jumping Jack Flash starring Whoopi Goldberg.)

Buffy's relationship to the Internet doesn't get much better in later years. The show took frequent writing shortcuts by letting Willow (or whoever) pull pretty much any page from any newspaper off the web with a couple of key strokes. But I digress.

Season 1 is an interesting display of improvisation as Joss Whedon and crew figured out exactly what kind of show they were making. It's one of the best displays of "editing in motion" I've ever seen on television. Some pretty brave decisions were made to jettison characters and story arcs (The Annointed, anyone?) that were most probably dead ends, in favor of exploring new ground. The first few shows were shaky, at least in retrospect, but by the end of the season it's quickly becoming the show people fell in love with. The dialogue isn't quite up to snuff and the characters still lack the layers they developed in the second season ... but from where I am the real show is at least in sight.

UPDATE: A few episodes after I Robot, You Jane, Buffy's birthday seems to have moved ahead a year to 1981. I understand it eventually falls all the way back to 1979 at one point before returning to 1981 at a later date.