The multi hyphenate Dolly Parton had a surprising and uncredited role in Buffy The Vampire Slayers television success and lasting legacy.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer one of the most successful YA teen series of all time, had an unexpected female powerhouse that helped shape it Dolly Parton. For seven seasons Sarah Michelle Gellar played Buffy Summers a young woman who wanted to live a normal life, but accepted her destiny to be a Vampire Slayer and fight evil vampires and demons. The show was produced by Sandollar Productions which appeared in the credits after every episode.
While production credits may not be something viewers pay close attention to in Buffys case the person who founded Sandollar is significant. Sandollar is Dolly Partons production company which she started with her friend and former manager Sandy Gallin. While Partons name does not appear in the shows credits she is recognized as an uncredited producer of the show without whom Buffy the Vampire Slayer would not have existed.
The story of how the Buffy television series came to be starts with Gail Berman, who worked as a producer at Sandollar. Sandollar owned the rights to the original movie version of Buffy The Vampire Slayer that was released in 1992. The screenplay was written by series creator Joss Whedon, but the film went in a completely different direction and Whedon hated it so much that he left the project and does not consider the film to be a part of the Buffy canon.
However, Berman read his original version before the movie came out and revealed that she thought it would make a great tv show (via THR). I had the idea to potentially do this as a syndicated series because it didn’t sound like anybody was interested in picking up the idea for this show as a regular series,” she said. Eventually Sandy Gallin and Dolly Parton in their roles at Sandollar Productions got involved because Sandollar had made the movie with Fran Kazui.
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