Everyone knows that genre storytelling can do great things through the power of allegory. The Matrix can hide a message of trans rights, the mutants in X-Men are stand-ins for an oppressed population, and Star Wars originated as a plea for pacifism. But when it comes to television, things get a bit more complicated. With only one episode to communicate a message, what is intended to be a clever metaphor can become about as nuanced as a club to the head.
In 1999, Buffy the Vampire Slayer tried to make an allegorical episode that would speak to the show’s new college setting, but all it managed to do was prove the limitations of the format.
“Beer Bad” was supposed to follow a long tradition of TV shows targeting younger audiences: the Very Special Episode. This term usually refers to an episode of TV that varies from the original structure to tell a darker story focusing on a real-life problem. They can vary from the relatively light-hearted, like the episode of Saved By the Bell where Jessie takes too many caffeine pills, or the episode of Family Ties where Tom Hanks plays a drunk uncle; to incredibly dark, like the episode of Mr. Belvedere where Wesley is scared of his friend who is HIV positive, or the famous episode of Maude where she contemplates having an abortion.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer was in its fourth season, and the series had moved from high school to college. With that shift came a brand new setting for Buffy, and the writers wanted her to have a period of adjustment. “People were saying, ‘We're tired of Buffy being abused and Buffy being wimpy and Buffy being battered about by the forces of college,’” Producer Douglas Petrie told the BBC. “We had to ride that out because we didn't want her to find her strength immediately in this new setting.”
So Buffy had to struggle, and there were plenty of things in college to struggle with, including alcohol. The writers of Buffy saw an opportunity to tell a supernatural allegory about alcohol that would make for an interesting episode and ease the budget. This episode was written in the hopes it could take advantage of an initiative by the Office of National Drug Control Policy that offered funding to shows pushing an anti-drug message.
And “Beer Bad” does that, kind of. The episode follows Buffy after a failed fling with her classmate Parker. She decides to drown her sorrows with beer, only to find the owner of the local watering hole has been tainting the kegs with a potion that turned all who drank it into primal, feral cavemen. It’s up to Xander and Willow to save her, and it all leads to Buffy finally getting closure with her old flame.
But what should have been a Very Special Episode turned out more like a goofy fever dream: Buffy and her crew of frat bros grunting and making fire is neither an accurate reflection of substance abuse nor is it a spooky supernatural threat. This wasn’t just the opinion of the audience: the Office of National Drug Control Policy, who ultimately denied Buffy the funds, agreed. “Drugs were an issue, but it wasn't on-strategy,” someone at the office told Salon.com. “It was otherworldly nonsense, very abstract and not like real-life kids taking drugs. Viewers wouldn't make the link to our message.”
Buffy never shied away from experimenting with its episodes, like the almost-silent episode “Hush” and the musical episode “Once More With Feeling.” But one show can’t be great at everything. This Very Special Episode may have been a flop, but it allowed Buffy the Vampire Slayer to learn its restraints and lean into what works.
