“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” star Sarah Michelle Gellar recently shared a secret about Dolly Parton and her role in the hit television series. On “The Tonight Show,” Gellar told Jimmy Fallon that Parton was a producer for the show through Sandollar Productions, a company she co-owned with former manager Sandy Gallin.

The company produced the “Buffy” series and the spinoff, “Angel.” Gellar also shared that those on the show rarely saw Parton. Gellar said about Parton, “We’d get Christmas gifts in the beginning that would have our name, and I would think, ‘She doesn’t know who I am.’ And then, one day, somebody asked her about it, and she complimented the show and my performance. And I was like, ‘Oh, I can die now. Dolly Parton knows who I am and thinks I’m good.'”

Gellar’s story isn’t the only one about Parton’s connection to the show. In 2016, “Buffy” executive producer Gail Berman told The New York Times that Parton invited her to lunch in the late 1990s. The iconic country star said she wasn’t happy to hear that Berman’s “male counterparts” made more royalties than she did.

The Times reported, “With that, Ms. Parton gave a startled Ms. Berman a check.” In 2021, Parton briefly discussed “Buffy” on “Watch What Happens Live” with Andy Cohen. She said, “I thought ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ was a wonderful little show. Sandollar was a small part of that, and I was very, very proud to be part of that.”

The series premiered on The WB on March 10, 1997,  and concluded on May 20, 2003, on UPN. The series narrative follows Buffy Summers, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, the latest in a line of young women known as “Vampire Slayers,” or simply “Slayers.” In the story, Slayers, or the “Chosen Ones,” are chosen by fate to battle vampires, demons and other forces of darkness. Buffy wants to live a normal life, but as the series progresses, she learns to embrace her destiny.

Like previous Slayers, Buffy is aided by a Watcher, who guides, teaches and trains her. Unlike her predecessors, Buffy surrounds herself with a circle of loyal friends who become known as the “Scooby Gang,” a reference to the animated franchise Scooby-Doo that features a group of friends solving mysteries together.

The series received critical and widespread acclaim and usually reached between four and six million viewers on original airings. Although such ratings are lower than successful shows on the “big four” networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox), they were a success for the relatively new and smaller WB Television Network.

Despite the fact that Buffy the Vampire Slayer was almost entirely ignored by major award shows during its run, the series was nominated for the American Film Institute Award for Drama Series of the Year, Gellar was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama for her performance in the show and the series was nominated five times for Television Critics Association Awards, winning once in 2003 for the Television Critics Association Heritage Award.