Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Welcome to the Hellmouth

"Into each generation a slayer is born. One girl in all the world, the chosen one..."

- Giles

"Welcome to the Hellmouth" is the pilot episode of the WB Network television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode was directed by Charles Martin Smith and written by series creator Joss Whedon. It first aired on March 10th, 1997. The series is loosely based on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer feature film released in 1992. Aside from the title character Buffy Summers, all other characters are unique to this series. In this episode, high school sophmore Buffy Summers moves to Sunnydale from her home town of Los Angeles, hoping to put her past troubles behind her. She finds that she is in for more than she bargained for when she meets Rupert Giles, a Watcher who is assigned to train Buffy as the Slayer. Buffy befriends fellow classmates Cordelia Chase, Xander Harris and Willow Rosenberg as well as a mysterious, unidentified "friend". What she experienced in the past is nothing compared to what she is in for now as she must now deal with a vampire Master who is seeking to escape imprisonment and bring about the "Harvest".