I totally feel you on the dawn thing, when I was 11 or 12 at the end of the second season, I had an entire storyline written out about how angel would come back and I was going to play Buffy's little sister.
My family for the first season or so had family Buffy nights and after that my best friend in middle/high school watched it, and we still do, we just finished season one together.
I could get into some serious discussion on the Faith/Mayor relationship but I'll save that for season three :]