<Tr> <Th> Classification </Th> <Td> Human </Td> </Tr> <P> Joyce Summers is a fictional character in the action - horror television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997--2003). Played by Kristine Sutherland, Joyce is the mother of the main character, Buffy Summers, and appears in 58 of the 144 episodes . </P> <P> The premise of the series is that Buffy is the latest Slayer, a young woman endowed by mystical forces with superhuman powers to fight and defeat vampires, demons, and other evil forces in the fictional town of Sunnydale . Like every Slayer before her, she was chosen and informed of her destiny when she was 15 years old . Her mother is unaware of her daughter's powers and responsibilities until Buffy is forced to tell her at the end of the second season of the television series . Although Joyce is shocked at this revelation, she recovers quickly and remains a source of stability for Buffy and Buffy's small circle of friends who assist her, dubbed the Scooby Gang . Eventually Joyce is able to take Buffy's dangerous demon - fighting in stride and even become proud and respectful of her daughter's abilities . Her natural death from an illness in the fifth season forces Buffy to face becoming an adult . </P> <P> The television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (often simplified as Buffy) was created by Joss Whedon, who originally used the concept of a teenage girl who is given superhuman powers to fight evil, in a screenplay that became a film in 1992 . Unhappy with the outcome of the film, Whedon created the series, which picks up shortly after the events of the film and is loosely based on its ending . At the end of the film, which was set in Los Angeles, Buffy fights and defeats a gang of vampires in her school's gymnasium . At the start of the television series Buffy and her mother Joyce, who has divorced Buffy's father, move to a new town named Sunnydale where Buffy is to attend Sunnydale High School, which, unknown to her, is situated on a portal to hell, called a Hellmouth . The series explains that she has relocated from Los Angeles after burning down the gymnasium, marking her as a trouble - making student and a worrisome daughter . The series regularly employs the elements of dark fantasy and horror to represent the real problems regularly encountered by adolescents, with many situations also reflecting adult fears and anxieties . </P>

Does buffy's mom know she's a slayer