What is the title of the first episode of the series?

The first episode of the series is titled “Welcome to the Hellmouth.” It introduces Buffy Summers as she moves to Sunnydale, California, hoping to leave behind the trouble caused by her earlier life as the Slayer.

The episode establishes the show’s central setting: Sunnydale sits on a Hellmouth, a supernatural convergence point that attracts vampires and other forces of evil. Buffy meets her new Watcher, Rupert Giles, and begins forming the group later known as the Scooby Gang, including Willow Rosenberg and Xander Harris. She also encounters Angel, whose mysterious warnings hint at the larger mythology ahead.

“Welcome to the Hellmouth” was written by series creator Joss Whedon and directed by Charles Martin Smith. It premiered on March 10, 1997, on The WB. In the United States, it aired as part of a two-hour premiere paired with the second episode, “The Harvest.”

A common mix-up is treating “The Harvest” as the first episode because it followed immediately in the premiere broadcast. However, “Welcome to the Hellmouth” is officially episode one, while “The Harvest” is episode two and completes the opening story.