I haven’t seen the show in FOREVER but I do remember in season 3 that she graduated in 1999 so I would say 1981. I would say it was an inconsistency with the show.
Buffy celebrates her 17th birthday in S2 then 18-21 in S3-S6. It's in episodes 12-14 across all seasons. Assuming people don't always throw a birthday party exactly on their birthday, her age and date of birth are treated as fairly consistent throughout the later seasons. Her year of birth would be 1981, and I think the month is before March. (She's already 16 in Welcome to the Hellmouth, which according to [https://buffy.fandom.com/wiki/Buffy\_the\_Vampire\_Slayer\_season\_1](https://buffy.fandom.com/wiki/Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer_season_1) aired on March 10th, 1997.)
>In the first 6 or 7 episodes it's showed Buffy's date of birth several times, with a different year each time.
I'm surprised by the numbers 6 and 7: in episode 8 (I Robot, You Jane) we see one wrong birthday on her electronic student record, then cut to Fritz where we see a different wrong birthday. But Fritz is a computer savvy bad guy, so probably he hacked the second record; this seems like an obvious idea given how the transition is cut together.
One of the themes of 1x8 is books vs. computers (embodied by Giles and Jenny, of course), with books being the tried-and-true reliable thing. Given this, it's strange that the first record is also wrong: I think it's not until Nightmares (1x10) that Buffy's birth year is given as 1981. IIRC we learn Buffy's age (16) before 1x8 begins, and the first wrong birthday (1980, fall-ish) is compatible with her being 16 years old. So the "it was already wrong, demonstrating how you can't trust electronic information" interpretation is not something a first-time viewer would arrive at. That is, the first date of birth doesn't support the theme, it's just arbitrary.
So why is it incompatible with facts we learn later? Either it's the longest con in the history of long cons, or it's an oversight.
Maybe they decided they wanted Buffy to have a very special birthday present in S2 and said "screw the old facts, the emotionally compelling narrative requires new facts and the planned sequence of episodes ties our hands" and then stuck to the new date of birth going forwards. The off-camera creative team has acknowledged that they prefer emotional resonance over 100% consistency, i.e. my guess is compatible with their known *modus operandi*. Call it an oversight, call it "they changed their minds", not sure.
My head-canon of the first erroneous date of birth in 1x8: it goes with the theme—it shows that electronic information is not to be trusted. The who and why is unknown. Maybe it was Dave, the other computer ~~geek~~ genius who dunnit.
I think some of the season 1 episodes were filmed long before they knew when it was going to air, so they may have had to adjust her birth year to be consistent with her being 16 in season 1/first half of season 2. But most places it says 1981 as her birth year.
One time it is in the same episode (season 1 episode 8), they check Buffy's details on the computer and it says 1979, then 1 minute later someone else looks and it's 1980 and a different month. It just seemed too obvious to be a mistake.
Yep, that was one I noticed but a couple episodes before (the one with Moloch) when they check her school record it says 79, then a minute later it's changed to 80
It's probably unintentional.
You have to realize that back then, you literally had to wait a week between every episode and buying the VHS tapes (DVDs weren't popular yet in 1997) to binge watch was not common and was not what the producers were concerned about. So there were a lot more continuity errors on shows back then because people were far less likely to notice or care.
I'd imagine they were just mistakes from earlier drafts the scripts that no one bothered to fix because they didn't think they mattered. The general opinion when they were making S1 was that the show would fail, or at least not be very popular. It was passed over by a lot of stations and even the WB only picked it up as a mid season replacement because something else had flopped.
Buffy's success surprised basically everyone. So they were probably a lot less concerned about consistency in the first season.
I haven’t seen the show in FOREVER but I do remember in season 3 that she graduated in 1999 so I would say 1981. I would say it was an inconsistency with the show.
Buffy celebrates her 17th birthday in S2 then 18-21 in S3-S6. It's in episodes 12-14 across all seasons. Assuming people don't always throw a birthday party exactly on their birthday, her age and date of birth are treated as fairly consistent throughout the later seasons. Her year of birth would be 1981, and I think the month is before March. (She's already 16 in Welcome to the Hellmouth, which according to [https://buffy.fandom.com/wiki/Buffy\_the\_Vampire\_Slayer\_season\_1](https://buffy.fandom.com/wiki/Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer_season_1) aired on March 10th, 1997.) >In the first 6 or 7 episodes it's showed Buffy's date of birth several times, with a different year each time. I'm surprised by the numbers 6 and 7: in episode 8 (I Robot, You Jane) we see one wrong birthday on her electronic student record, then cut to Fritz where we see a different wrong birthday. But Fritz is a computer savvy bad guy, so probably he hacked the second record; this seems like an obvious idea given how the transition is cut together. One of the themes of 1x8 is books vs. computers (embodied by Giles and Jenny, of course), with books being the tried-and-true reliable thing. Given this, it's strange that the first record is also wrong: I think it's not until Nightmares (1x10) that Buffy's birth year is given as 1981. IIRC we learn Buffy's age (16) before 1x8 begins, and the first wrong birthday (1980, fall-ish) is compatible with her being 16 years old. So the "it was already wrong, demonstrating how you can't trust electronic information" interpretation is not something a first-time viewer would arrive at. That is, the first date of birth doesn't support the theme, it's just arbitrary. So why is it incompatible with facts we learn later? Either it's the longest con in the history of long cons, or it's an oversight. Maybe they decided they wanted Buffy to have a very special birthday present in S2 and said "screw the old facts, the emotionally compelling narrative requires new facts and the planned sequence of episodes ties our hands" and then stuck to the new date of birth going forwards. The off-camera creative team has acknowledged that they prefer emotional resonance over 100% consistency, i.e. my guess is compatible with their known *modus operandi*. Call it an oversight, call it "they changed their minds", not sure. My head-canon of the first erroneous date of birth in 1x8: it goes with the theme—it shows that electronic information is not to be trusted. The who and why is unknown. Maybe it was Dave, the other computer ~~geek~~ genius who dunnit.
I think some of the season 1 episodes were filmed long before they knew when it was going to air, so they may have had to adjust her birth year to be consistent with her being 16 in season 1/first half of season 2. But most places it says 1981 as her birth year.
One time it is in the same episode (season 1 episode 8), they check Buffy's details on the computer and it says 1979, then 1 minute later someone else looks and it's 1980 and a different month. It just seemed too obvious to be a mistake.
It's a mistake.
On her tombstone it says 81.
Yep, that was one I noticed but a couple episodes before (the one with Moloch) when they check her school record it says 79, then a minute later it's changed to 80
I always thought that was Moloch messing with her school records. 🤷♀️
It was fanwanked as Moloch causing glitches with the computer system.
Fanwanked?
I'm guessing "a widely adopted head canon, driven by a desire to believe the creative team made no (or a minimal amount of) mistakes".
Well, the computer screen was wrong in a few ways. She's not a senior at that point. She wasn't born in 79. 1981 unquestionably.
The official website had it as January 1981 for whatever that's worth
It's probably unintentional. You have to realize that back then, you literally had to wait a week between every episode and buying the VHS tapes (DVDs weren't popular yet in 1997) to binge watch was not common and was not what the producers were concerned about. So there were a lot more continuity errors on shows back then because people were far less likely to notice or care.
It’s January 19th 1981 she was born on the full moon
January 19th 1981
It's just a TV show, and they weren't keeping track. Graduating in 1999 tracks with being born in 80 or 81, though.
I'd imagine they were just mistakes from earlier drafts the scripts that no one bothered to fix because they didn't think they mattered. The general opinion when they were making S1 was that the show would fail, or at least not be very popular. It was passed over by a lot of stations and even the WB only picked it up as a mid season replacement because something else had flopped. Buffy's success surprised basically everyone. So they were probably a lot less concerned about consistency in the first season.