The first Blade movie came out in 1998 with essentially the same immolation/death effect that the series uses. Buffy first aired in May 1997—I'm not sure if it had aired before the decision to have dying vampires go poof! was made for the movie.

I was channel surfing and caught a few minutes of Blade. The stuntwork seemed good. And that's all that I saw, so. But I've never seen the movies so the show doesn't have much drawing power for me.

I think the, er, poofing is a common part of the mythos. From Dracula:

But, on the instant, came the sweep and flash of Jonathan's great knife. I shrieked as I saw it shear through the throat. Whilst at the same moment Mr. Morris's bowie knife plunged into the heart.

It was like a miracle, but before our very eyes, and almost in the drawing of a breath, the whole body crumbled into dust and passed from our sight.

Though Lucy doesn't turn to dust when she's given the Extraordinarily Freudian Stake. I think the idea is that decomposition makes up for any lost time.

I vaguely remember Joss making comments somewhere about the similarities between some Blade things and some Buffy things and that it was just a weird coincidence because they were both in production at the same time. I thought it was at the Bronze but I looked through the VIP archive and couldn't find it. Maybe it was an interview?

Though I did the find the posts that started the Minearketeers and that made me laugh so not a total waste of time.

I get a bit of cognitive dissonence whenever I see the name "Daniel Craig" because that's the name I used when I was on the radio.

We should discuss Venture Brothers here....

Eureka was originally supposed to be a cartoon?

And at the top of that page is a brief non-spoilery video interview with EJO.

I like the "Made in Eureka" website linked at the bottom of that page.

Re: Blade

I've been enjoying it a lot more than I expected I would. The on-going story arc is interesting, the stunt/fighting/effects are good for a TV series and I love Blade's sidekick (though things don't bode well for him in the previews). Things are kind of fuzzy with vampire physiology both in killing them (they can get shot with normal bullets without effect, but getting stabbed with non-silver blades kills them, apparently. Unless Blade's sword is suddenly silver instead of a titanium alloy or whatever, and one of the vampires on the train was carrying silver knife for some inexplicable reason.) and their ability to heal (Krista required surgery, while Chase is just getting infused with tons of blood) but I just try not to think about it too much.

one of the vampires on the train was carrying silver knife for some inexplicable reason

Wouldn't the inexplicable reason be to kill Blade?

I'm disappointed Chase is alive. Not because I dislike her overly, but just because it was a dumb tease, and ruined by the previews anyway. Now I feel like none of the main characters can die. And that's including Boone.

If I were going to kill off a character, I'd like to try going for a hyped fakeout, then kill the character off for good the next week.

Not saying they are going to do that, just I'd like to see it happen on a show sometime. The big problem would be getting the advertizing people for the network to refrain from telegraphing it.

We should discuss Venture Brothers here....

I'm trying to work "snickerpuss" into my vocabulary. And Jesus Jones.