People Are Discovering Dolly Parton’s Buffy Connection

Many fans of Buffy The Vampire Slayer have had a startling realisation about a certain member of the show’s behind-the-scenes team.

The hit supernatural fantasy drama ran for seven seasons between 1997 and 2002, with Sarah Michelle Gellar playing the titular slayer alongside a cast that included Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Head and David Boreanaz.

What you might not have realised is that none other than Dolly Parton was an uncredited producer on Buffy, as she co-founded the production company Sandollar that helped the show get made.

In 2024, the country megastar told Business Insider that a reboot of Buffy could be in the works.

“They’re still working on that,” the Jolene singer claimed. “They’re thinking about bringing it back and revamping it.”

But for many people, it wasn’t what Dolly said that stuck out for them, but the news she was quietly involved in Buffy at all:

Sarah Michelle told Jimmy Fallon last year: “The legend Dolly Parton was a producer. You know, we never saw – we would get Christmas gifts in the beginning that would have her name on, and I would think, ‘she doesn’t know who I am’.

“And then one day, somebody asked her about it, and she complimented the show and my performance, and I was like, ‘oh, I can die now! Dolly Parton knows who I am and thinks I’m good!’.”

A Buffy reboot was first rumoured to be in the works back in 2018, however earlier this year Sarah Michelle revealed that the reboot had been staked.

Directed by Chloé Zhao – who was Oscar-nominated this year for Hamnet – the revival would have brought viewers back to Sunnydale, introducing a new slayer played by Ryan Kiera Armstrong, as well as featuring Sarah’s Buffy in more of a mentoring role.

The Cruel Intentions star said that she and her colleagues had been fighting “an uphill battle” since “day one”.