The non-broadcast pilot episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was produced by 20th Century Fox in 1996 to pitch a series to networks. The twenty-five-and-a-half-minute production was written and directed by Buffy creator Joss Whedon, and was expanded upon and re-shot for the first episode of the series. It is notable for featuring a different actress in the role of Willow, Sunnydale High is Berryman High and a different actor as Principal Flutie.

After having burned down her school gym and been expelled from a school in L.A., Buffy Summers has moved to Sunnydale with her mother. Buffy goes to school for the first time at Sunnydale High and meets new people: Cordelia, Willow, and Xander. Willow is lured by a vampire into a trap. Buffy shows up with Xander and kills all the vampires except one; the surviving vampire reports the incident back to The Master.

Buffy and her friends encounter a powerful vampire bent on opening a portal to a dimension inhabited by demons.

When an invisible menace starts attacking students and faculty at Sunnydale High, the Scooby Gang traces the problem back to Cordelia.

As Valentine's Day approaches, Xander tries to improve his love life through witchcraft and finds himself with too much of a good thing.

Cordelia's wish for a Buffy-free Sunnydale comes true, plunging her into a world where vampires have control of the town.

After Angel breaks off their relationship, Buffy single-handedly battles three fearsome hell hounds so that her classmates can enjoy their senior prom.

In an effort to distract Buffy from the Ascension, the mayor instructs Faith to poison Angel.

As Buffy gets to know a charming student named Parker, Spike searches for a ring that, according to legend, makes the wearer invincible.

Spike finds himself targeted by a group of commandos after he escapes from a military lab underneath the Sunnydale campus.

On Thanksgiving, Buffy encounters the spirit of a Native American warrior whose people were wiped out by settlers.

Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles experience dreams in which they are pursued by a mysterious figure.

As Harmony and her vampire gang plot Buffy's demise, Dawn adjusts to life with a Slayer.

While Riley's health begins to deteriorate, Spike and Harmony force a surgeon to remove the behavior modification chip embedded in Spike's brain.

When relatives arrive in Sunnydale, to celebrate her birthday, Tara uses a magic spell on her friends to keep them from learning her "secret." Meanwhile, Glory unleashes a hoard of demons to hunt down Buffy.

After being bested in a fight by an ordinary vampire, Buffy asks Spike to explain how he killed two Slayers many years earlier.

Buffy learns that Spike has a crush on her - a situation made all the more dangerous by Drusilla's return to Sunnydale.