This pilot was directed by Joss Whedon and financed out of his own pocket to sell the show to the networks. The plot is fairly similar to Welcome to the Hellmouth (1997), though Angel, Jesse and the Master don't appear. Also, it's only half an hour long. The main differences from the show as aired are the sets and casting. While most of the principals are in place, Riff Regan plays Willow and Stephen Tobolowsky plays Principal Flutie. They were replaced by Alyson Hannigan and Ken Lerner, respectively in the actual show. The library that appears is not the set from the show, rather it is the actual library from Torrance High School where much of the Sunnydale High material was filmed.
It featured many characters and hints to future story lines like Jonathan appearing being mocked, Harmony, by popular girls and a poster for "Dingoes ate my baby" on the bronze wall. Darla is killed off.
Principal Flutie mistakenly refers to Buffy as "Bunny." Willow's mother Sheila Rosenberg would later do the same thing in Gingerbread (1999).
Nicholas Brendon recalled in the book Into Every Generation a Slayer Is Born that he, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Riff Regan attended a read-through at Joss Whedon's house. The process was interrupted by a phone call from Steven Spielberg, asking Whedon to polish the dialogue in Twister (1996).
Joss Whedon hates the pilot so much that he vowed to keep it from being seen, even not including it on the DVD.