The Vampire Diaries

The Vampire Diaries
Genre	Teen drama, supernatural drama, horror, fantasy, romance
Developed by	Julie Plec
Original language	English
No. of seasons	8
No. of Episodes	171
Production
Running time	41-44 minutes
Production company(s)	Outerbanks Productions Alloy Productions CBS Television Studios Warner Bros. Television
Distributor	Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Release
Original network	The CW
Original release	September 10, 2009 – March 10, 2017
Chronology
Related shows	The Originals Legacies

The Vampire Diaries is an American supernatural fantasy horror teen drama television series that aired on The CW from September 10, 2009 to March 10, 2017. It is based on the popular book series of the same name written by L.J. Smith.

The Vampire Diaries has spawned two spin-off series, The Originals and Legacies.

Summary

The series is set in the fictional town of Mystic Falls, Virginia, a town charged with supernatural history since its settlement of migrants from New England in the late 19th century. It follows the life of Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev), a teenage girl who has just lost both parents in a car accident, as she falls in love with a 162-year-old vampire named Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley). Their relationship becomes increasingly complicated as Stefan's mysterious older brother Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) returns, with a plan to bring back their past lover Katherine Pierce, a vampire who looks exactly like Elena. Although Damon is initially the villain and harbors a grudge against his brother for forcing him to become a vampire, he later reconciles with Stefan and falls in love with Elena, creating a love triangle among the three. Both brothers protect Elena as they face various villains and threats to their town, including Katherine. The brothers' history and the town's mythology are revealed through flashbacks as the series goes on.

Additional storylines revolve around the other inhabitants of the town, most notably Elena's younger brother Jeremy Gilbert (Steven R. McQueen), her best friends Bonnie Bennett (Kat Graham) and Caroline Forbes (Candice King) their mutual friends Tyler Lockwood(Michael Trevino) and Matt Donovan (Zach Roerig), Matt's older sister Vicki Donovan (Kayla Ewell), and their history teacher, vampire hunter Alaric Saltzman (Matt Davis). The town's politics are orchestrated by descendants of the original founding families, all comprising a "Founders' Council." The founding families of Mystic Falls includes the Salvatores, the Gilberts, the Fells, the Forbes, and the Lockwoods. They guard the town mainly from vampires, although there are many more supernatural threats such as werewolves, witches, hybrids, ghosts and many more.

Cast

• Nina Dobrev as Elena Gilbert (season 1–6, voice only season 7, special guest season 8), Katerina Petrova/Katherine Pierce (seasons 1-5, special guest season 8) & Amara (season 5)
• Paul Wesley as Stefan Salvatore (seasons 1-8), Silas (seasons 4-5), Tom Avery (season 5) & Ambrose (season 7)
• Ian Somerhalder as Damon Salvatore (seasons 1-8)
• Steven R. McQueen as Jeremy Gilbert (season 1–6, special guest season 8)
• Sara Canning as Jenna Sommers (season 1–2, special guest seasons 3, 5 & 8)
• Kat Graham as Bonnie Bennett (seasons 1-8)
• Candice King as Caroline Forbes (seasons 1-8)
• Zach Roerig as Matt Donovan (seasons 1-8)
• Kayla Ewell as Vicki Donovan (season 1, special guest seasons 2–3, 5 & 8)
• Michael Trevino as Tyler Lockwood (seasons 1–6, special guest seasons 7-8)
• Matt Davis as Alaric Saltzman (seasons 1–3 & 6–8, special guest seasons 4–5)
• Joseph Morgan as Niklaus Mikaelson (seasons 3-4, guest season 2, special guest seasons 5 & 7)
• Michael Malarkey as Lorenzo St. John (seasons 6–8, recurring season 5)

Series overview

Season	No. of episodes	Originally aired		Time slot	Average ratings
		First aired	Last aired		Rating (18-49)	Viewers (millions)
1	22	September 10, 2009	May 13, 2010	Thursdays 8/7c	1.7	3.66
2	22	September 9, 2010	May 12, 2011		1.4	3.16
3	22	September 15, 2011	May 10, 2012		1.3	2.81
4	23	October 11, 2012	May 16, 2013		1.2	2.64
5	22	October 3, 2013	May 15, 2014		1.0	2.23
6	22	October 2, 2014	May 14, 2015		0.7	1.54
7	22	October 8, 2015	May 13, 2016		0.5	1.14
				Fridays 8/7c
8	16	October 21, 2016	March 10, 2017		0.4	0.99

Production

Initially, Kevin Williamson had little interest in developing the series, finding the premise too similar to other vampire tales. However, at the urging of Julie Plec, he began to read the novels and started to become intrigued by the story: "I began to realize that it was a story about a small town, about that town's underbelly and about what lurks under the surface." Williamson has stated the town's story will be the main focus of the series rather than high school.

On February 6, 2009, Variety announced that The CW had green-lit the pilot for The Vampire Diaries with Williamson and Julie Plec set as the head writers and executive producers. On May 19, 2009, the series was officially ordered for the 2009–2010 season.

The pilot episode was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, but the rest of the episodes have been filmed in Covington, Georgia (which doubles as the show's fictional small town of Mystic Falls, Virginia) and various other communities around Greater Atlanta to take advantage of local tax incentives. On the morning of May 10, 2012, a fire broke out in the building on Clark Street in Covington that was used as the setting for Mystic Grill on the show.

The series was given a full 22-episode order on October 21, 2009, after strong ratings for the first half of the season. Now there is a spin-off called The Originals, that goes into depth about the original vampire family from The Vampire Diaries. On February 16, 2010, The CW announced that it had renewed the show for a second season, which premiered on September 9, 2010. On April 26, 2011, The CW renewed the show for a third season. The third season premiered on September 15, 2011. The fourth season premiered October 11, 2012. The CW renewed the show for a fifth season on February 11, 2013. On February 13, 2014, The CW renewed the series for a sixth season. On January 11, 2015, the CW renewed the series for a seventh season.

President of The CW, Mark Pedowitz, said in an interview at the summer TCA's that The Vampire Diaries didn't receive an extra episode order for the second season at the request of Kevin Williamson. Kevin Williamson felt to do the best show possible, he would rather do 22 episodes. "I'd rather have a great 22 than a good 24 if Kevin couldn't do it," he explained. The first writers meeting for the fifth season held on April 15, 2013. Filming began on July 10, 2013, and finished on April 10, 2014. On July 23, 2016, it was announced that show would end after a 16-episode eighth season.

External links

• The Vampire Diaries/The Original on Fandom
• The Vampire Diaries on Wikipedia
• The Vampire Diaries on Facebook