After the 2000 Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) episode "New Moon Rising," in which regular character Willow comes out as a lesbian and chooses to stay with her girlfriend Tara, aired, a group of internet board posters sent "Buffy" creator Joss Whedon an engraved toaster to thank him for the storyline. This was a reference to the "coming-out" episode of "Ellen" (1994), (a show on which longtime Buffy writer Jane Espenson had also worked) in which there had been a running joke about the GLBT movement awarding every newly out person a toaster for "joining."