Sutherland, a fantasy fiction fan who dislikes the horror genre, had recently moved to Hollywood from New York City in 1996 and was not actively looking for acting jobs when her agent called her with the opportunity to play Joyce.

Sutherland auditioned the same day as David Boreanaz, Buffy's romantic interest Angel, and was impressed with how naturally she felt at ease with the material in the readings with the writers and casting agents.

[6] As Buffy establishes herself in school in early episodes, Joyce, who is recently divorced, is preoccupied with setting up their home and running an art gallery.

[7] Initially unwilling to become involved again with her role as the Slayer, Buffy is nevertheless confronted by the school librarian Giles (Anthony Head), her new Watcher, the mentor and teacher assigned to instruct her how to fight vampires and other demons she is destined to face.

When Buffy skips class or stays out late to attend to her Slayer duties, Joyce is left trying to punish her by restricting her to the house.

[9] That the way I as Joyce see Buffy as the Slayer is sort of symbolic, when you look at your child and realize they are a totally different person than you are and that they have different gifts and a different calling.

Joyce is, according to author Lorna Jowett, a typical "teen-horror parent": loving and supporting, but not really facing or knowing the true extent of reality, therefore ineffective at helping her child.

The love Joyce expresses is interpreted by scholars as an attempt to compensate for having failed to understand intuitively that something was going on with her daughter before the revelation that Buffy is the Slayer.

Many scenes showing Joyce giving love and support to Buffy take place in their home, establishing it as center of motherly devotion, stability, and safety.

Shots are usually composed so that the two are not seen in the same frame, or are separated by objects such as tables, or placed in opposite sides of rooms, a visual representation of Joyce's inability to understand her daughter's responsibilities and powers.

The episode marks Joyce's return as a parent; her recognition of her own shortcomings in the error of pushing Buffy away is a measure of nobility common among Joss Whedon's characters.

With "Band Candy" the episode begins with Buffy being petulant and Joyce working with Giles to create a schedule for studying and slaying, but these roles quickly dissolve in the ensuing chaos.

In an attempt to offer a sacrifice to a demon, Sunnydale's shadowy mayor intoxicates the adults of the town with drugged chocolate bars, making them devolve into adolescents.

[15] Joyce descends into the behavior of a 16-year-old, a prospect Kristine Sutherland found not only fun, but painful as it brought back memories she had not faced in years.

[5] Giles is also affected, turning into his adolescent miscreant self, which Joyce finds irresistible (the two have sex on a police car in the middle of downtown Sunnydale).

After Buffy comforts her mother, the Scoobies discover that the children are the manifestation of a demon whose sole purpose is to tear communities apart by sparking moral panics.

[17][18] Joyce takes a leadership role, giving a speech to concerned parents about the unnatural evils in the town, citing the "slayers and witches" among other monsters.

Kristine Sutherland and her family moved to Italy to live, so she starred in only five episodes in the season,[5] including the first one, "The Freshman," when Buffy comes home during her bewildering first week at college to discover that Joyce has filled her room with packing crates from the art gallery.

[20] Consequent to her mother's distance, Buffy must begin to face some of her problems alone, the least of which is cooking Thanksgiving dinner for Giles and the Scooby Gang in "Pangs".

[21] As noted by author Roz Kaveney, Joyce becomes central to the fifth season themes of family and Buffy facing forces she is unable to fight or control.

A new character is introduced to the Summers family: Buffy gets a 14-year-old sister named Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg), who is the mystical embodiment of a "key" which opens portals to all dimensions.

Buffy later admits the truth and tells Joyce of why Dawn is in their lives and that she is protecting her from a powerful hell-god Glory (Clare Kramer).

[22][23][24] Scholar Jes Battis writes that in contrast to the way family members are portrayed throughout the series as absent (Willow's), chaotic (Xander's), or highly disruptive (Anya's), Joyce straddles these extremes.

The ease of her success at mothering a violent superhero and a mystical key while appearing to enjoy a normal life is eroded by a brain tumor, and only then do she and the other characters come to understand what a complex job she has.

He planned to kill Joyce as early as the third season, and he wrote the episode to reflect what he experienced when he lost his own mother to a brain aneurysm.

[27] In a realm where the main adolescent characters, who are becoming adults, must regularly face horrors and evils, Joyce represents a stable and predictable life.

In an earlier episode he had confided in a very sympathetic Joyce about his equally amoral and insane lover Drusilla (Juliet Landau) leaving him.

[30] Joyce appears in four episodes after her death in "The Body", first as a young woman in season 5's "The Weight of the World": Buffy has a recurring but false memory of her parents bringing Dawn home as a newborn.

Her parents, who have remained happily married, visit her in a mental institution and encourage her to fight the seductive world she has imagined and return home with them.

In opposition to Buffy, Joyce never expresses that she has been abandoned by men, and she retains feminine characteristics: she runs an art gallery, has other friends, and dates.