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Buffy as a template
Buffy the Vampire Slayer series is one of my favourite series. And over the years, I can't help but notice Buffy inspirations in other TV shows, sometimes in characters, relationships, plot, and so on.
For example, (and my sister actually pointed this out to me), Supernatural seems to follow the conflict escalation patterns from Buffy. Both series kind of rollercoaster through the "monster of the week" to "self vs. external" (escalating big bads) to "self vs self" (e.g., addictions).
Note: I'm not saying people are copying Buffy, just that there are certain storytelling tools that are obviously very useful and effective that Buffy shares with other works.
What other shows/movies remain you of Buffy? What does Buffy remind you of?
It wouldn't surprise me at all if Joss Whedon had a formula, and I think Firefly might have followed a similar progression to BtVS if the show had done well enough to get multiple seasons (instead of one plus a movie). And I'm not at all surprised that the Whedon Formula made its way into other shows.
Firefly did feel like it was on the same path.
If Firefly had lasted long enough, Joss Whedon was planning to give Spike a cameo in the sixth season.
Wait, was he going to give the character Spike a cameo or James Marsters?
Spike. Spike the vampire was still around in 500 years, had made the voyage from Earth That Was with the rest of the colonists and was now kicking around the new solar system loving the fact that there's a huge number of people that the powers that be don't care if they go missing.
Was he going to jump a shark?
The Scooby Gang reminds me a bit of Team Avatar, with composition of the chosen one (Buffy/Aang), superpowered sidekicks (Tara and Willow/Katara and Toph), and the one without powers that goes from being a joke to being a badass (Xander/Sokka).
Don't know about Sokka, he's always a jokester and always badass to me. I can see the others. And there's Spike that was against them, then joins them, though he doesn't become super core.
Spike's path is kind of mirrored by Zuko's. Starts as an enemy, ends up being a huge help in the end.
Definitely was thinking that too (and realized I didn't actually write Zuko in my response...oops).
Agents of Shield comes to mind with regards to group dynamics. You have Coulson who is kind of like Giles, Fitz/Simmons is like Willow, Daisy is like Buffy, Ward is like Angel, and Xander is like.... Well I guess there are no useless people on Shield.
I can definitely see that! And yeah...No ones quite like Xander.
Not a main character, but I could see Deke being the (more-likable) Xander of the group.
I forgot about Deke! I haven't seen all of season 5 yet, but I really like him so far. I guess he is closest to being Xander.
Buffy was planned season by season. They ramped up the serialisation as they became more secure, but you don't see any multi-year pipe-laying.
Firefly was clearly done with longer goals in mind (such as Blue Sun). The hospital episode seemed like the first arc story.
The other one is Dollhouse. The structure there is really odd, as the first half-dozen episodes are episodic but then the show rapidly transitions into full serialisation (again, once they felt more secure). But rather than pipe-laying they just had mysteries to be revealed.
The father of TV arcs is Babylon 5, as the first show to be plotted more than a season in advance. That was similar to Dollhouse, where most of the first season is episodic but by the end of the second it's full serial. There the characters start off relatively safe, rebel, find new allies and finally mature. It's very Campbellian. BSG took a similar approach, but collapsed when they tried jumping down the scifi hardness scale.
The alternative is making it up as you go along, which can be a disaster (Lost) or work well (Breaking Bad).
Of course the studio screwed it up by telling J.M.S. that he might not get a fifth season, so he crammed the fifth season storyline into the fourth season. Then, of course, they got their fifth season so Strazynski had to make up some crap to put in after the real story was done with.
Unfortunately no. Season 7, especially could have benefited from planting more ideas earlier on.
Edit to add: However, I do think Buffy did the monster of the week per episode, while moving the overarching plot really well. Each episode (past the first few of season 1) usually added to the over plot or characterization.