A few weeks ago, I noticed a seemingly Anne Rice-inspired episode of Buffy. There are some parallels between Spike's story and Lestat's. Both are very close to their sick mothers, and both turn their mothers into vampires, and both mothers wind up shunning their sons.

In the latest episode of Angel, we discover via Skip that the Big Bad has been orchestrating things for a very, very long time. That it has manipulated all sorts of events so we can get to the point of Cordie being pregnant and giving birth to itself.

In Anne Rice's The Witching Hour, we learn that the spirit Lasher has been manipulating events for generations in order to create the circumstances that lead to Rowan Mayfair basically giving birth to itself.

It makes me wonder how much is homage and how much is rip-off...

Fantasy, sci-fi, horror and high romance (As in romaticism) has always prided itself on shared themes and ideas. I mean, Vampires aren't the most original idea in the world, for crying out loud. Anne Rice is the Tolkien of the Gothic Horror/romance genre, and her mythology is just as rich as his. When you write ream after ream about vampires, don't be surprised if you influence other writters.

Although, if Anne Rice can suffer with Queen of the Damned, Spike vamping his mother should prove a nice tribute.

(Oh, and Tolkien did write about Vampires, but mostly as a form of transportation of the ancient world)

The Official Watcher's Guide vol. 1 as a section about vampires and other monsters that appear on the show where it describes Joss Whedon's take on the entire vampire issue.