AlligatorJuice.com: TV/Films: Goodbye, WB...

So the WB and UPN are merging to create a new, singular network this fall. They’re calling it CW. Two things come to mind when I hear this name... Country-Western and cow. I’m sure this isn’t what they had in mind, but I guess it’s preferable to WC, which invites bathroom jokes or references to dead actor/writers. (Take your pick.)

What half-amuses/half-baffles me is the fact that they’re merging at all. Once, these two networks were rivals. I remember the hatred I felt for UPN when it whisked Buffy away from the WB in 2001. I remember making fun of UPN for being the lamest of all networks, full of dreadful sitcoms and the millionth Star Trek spinoff.

The two networks were born around the same time, but the WB was always the cooler one, the more successful 1995 baby. That is -- until a few years ago. Now the merge makes sense. The WB has faltered in recent years, having canceled good shows to make room for sophomoric crap. UPN has managed to create somewhat of a success with Veronica Mars. One network slumps, the other begins to get liftoff... and suddenly these networks are equals... then partners. Yes, it’s strange, but it makes sense.

This fall, CW will offer viewers the billionth season each of Smallville, Gilmore Girls, and the show that will never die because it’s possessed by the devil, 7th Heaven. Not to mention the soapy dramarama One Tree Hill. We’ll also get a few new shows, a third season of Veronica Mars, and a handful of other things I can’t name because I don’t care.

There once was a time when I did care -- a time when the WB was the place to be almost any given night of the week. From 1998 to 2001, it was the coolest channel that network TV had to offer, or so I thought. Buffy was garnering comic books, yearbooks, games, and T-shirts... Dawson’s Creek was gracing TV Guide covers galore... and shows like Felicity, Roswell and Angel drew an incredible amount of viewers and buzz.

The WB began in the spring of 1995. I didn’t watch it then, just heard about it. It was a starter network that had a few original shows (such as Muscle), and it had rescued Sister, Sister from ABC. And so it went, virtually unnoticed, for about a year and a half, bringing the world Unhappily Ever After, The Parent ‘Hood, The Wayans Bros., a primetime Pinky and the Brain, Kirk, Simon, Cleghorne!, First Time Out, and Savannah.

In the fall of 1996, I watched the WB for the first time, to see the premiere of the animated Superman series, which for some reason debuted during primetime. I also caught the pilot of 7th Heaven, a show with which I would have an odd relationship for the next several years. (Liked it, loathed it, loved it, wanted the characters to die a horrible death, etc.) There was also Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher, a pretty decent sitcom in which Mitch Mullany and Portia de Rossi played middle school teachers to a talented group of child stars. I liked Nick Freno, but in season 2 they revamped the show, fired the junior highers, and gave Nick older students. The show died soon after.

Shows that debuted in 1996 that I didn’t watch included The Steve Harvey Show, Life With Roger, The Jamie Foxx Show, and Brotherly Love (which was rescued from NBC). I did sample Steve Harvey and Jamie Foxx a few years later, during one of those local “hey, we might display YOUR winning number during one of our shows, and you could win big $$$!” contests. I watched everything that spring. I liked Jamie, but Steve was a bore.

In the spring of 1997, a show debuted that would be one of my favorites. It was called Smart Guy... except no, it was called Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I was excited about Buffy from the get-go, because I was a fan of Sarah Michelle Gellar from her days on All My Children. But as we didn’t have cable, the WB reception was fuzzy, and after that one episode with the teacher who turned into an insect, I became disenchanted and didn’t watch the show again until the summer of 1998, despite everyone telling me how awesome it was. I would find out eventually, but it took me a while. And then I fell in love. Specifically with David Boreanaz. Oh yeah, and the plots and stuff, too.

Around June of 1997, I began hearing about Dawson’s Creek. It was supposed to debut that fall, but it got postponed to midseason, debuting in January of 1998. I don’t know what it was about that show, but it connected with a lot of people, myself included. I found myself relating to Dawson, the optimistic dreamer; to Joey, the shy, awkward tomboy; to Pacey, the sweet, goofy town loser. I never related to Jen, though in later seasons I liked her the best. She was the only one I didn’t want to put a hit out on, the only one whose whiny ways didn’t make me want to release a vicious tiger when they just haaappened to be walking past the tiger’s cage at the zoo. Did the Dawsonites ever even go to the zoo? Who knows, who cares. Jen dies on page 596, pass it on.

During the midst of the Dawson’s hype, many people probably missed the other shows that the WB debuted that year -- and trust me, it was for the best. Alright Already, The Tom Show, Kelly Kelly... sitcoms that were mostly cringe-worthy, from my recollection. There was also Significant Others, an early Jennifer Garner vehicle, and For Your Love, yet another NBC refugee.

After the stunning debut of Dawson, the WB could do little wrong -- at least for a while. Like some weird joke, Dawson’s guest stars were popping up all over the WB. Scott Foley, who played Jen’s dorky beau Cliff, went on to co-star on Felicity; Eion Bailey, aka Jen’s bad-boy ex, Billy, was on Significant Others; and Dylan Neal, Pacey’s older brother, was one of the stars of Hyperion Bay. Besides Hyperion and Felicity, Charmed also debuted that fall, and Shannen Dougherty began another life on another series that... she would eventually leave before everyone else. Talk about your deja vu.

1998-1999 was easily the height of my WB fandom. I watched Felicity, even though the characters (who were my age) felt much older than me. I watched Charmed, if only for the Brad Kern-isms and the Jay Gruska music (though Brian Krause was definitely an added bonus.) In the spring, I fell in love with Zoe, Duncan, Jack, and Jane, a comedy starring Selma Blair. It came back in the spring of 2000 revamped, with Zoe and her friends in college. I don’t know if they did this because the actors were all college-age or older and it seemed more natural or what, but season 2 was unfunny and painful. But I will always love season 1. That spring there was also the premiere of Movie Stars, a show most memorable for allowing real-life siblings of movie stars to make cameos.

By the time the fall of 1999 rolled around, the WB knew they wanted to mimic the success of Dawson’s Creek, so they gave us a plethora of teen-oriented shows. Not that they didn’t already have a bunch, but more = good, and so they came... Roswell, the story of alien teenagers trying to fit in; Popular, an hour-long high school social comedy with the world’s biggest cast; and Safe Harbor, one of the many dramas the network would attempt to pair with Monday night ratings powerhouse 7th Heaven (and of course I mean powerhouse by WB standards.) We also got the animated series Mission Hill, the Buffy spinoff Angel, and Jack & Jill, an Ally Mc-Beal-esque drama (at least it felt that way to me) starring up-and-comer Amanda Peet, future My Name Is Earl star Jaime Pressly, and the gorgeous Ivan Sergei.

The spring of 2000 would bring another animated show to the network -- Baby Blues, based on the popular comic strip. Brutally Normal, a sharp comedy, was paired with the now-duddish Zoe. D.C., a series set in Washington, was good, but short-lived. And Young Americans, also short-lived, was a summer favorite. Buffy, Felicity, Charmed, Popular, 7th Heaven, Angel, Roswell, and Dawson’s Creek were all still going strong.

In the fall, Gilmore Girls came along. As a fan of Lauren Graham for quite some time, I was very interested in the show, and soon came to love it. Other shows premiered: Hype, Nikki, Grosse Pointe, The P.J.’s... sitcoms I knew about, but didn’t watch. Midseason brought the animated series The Oblongs, as well as Popstars, a reality show that could best be described as “Making the Band -- with girls” or “American Idol -- without the voting.” Popstars chronicled the auditions for a girl group, and after picking the lucky five, showed them recording songs and dancing and all that. Popstars 2, which showed up in the fall, and introduced the world to some future American Idol rejects, created a boy/girl pop group called Scene 23.

In 2001, The WB lost Buffy to UPN, but many of its popular dramas were still thriving. The fall of 2001 brought Reba, the Bob Saget dud Raising Dad, the overhyped and underwhelming (well, to me) Smallville, and the quickly-canceled Elimidate Deluxe (a show whose title sounded like a Denny’s Special). The WB also snagged Sabrina (the teenage witch, only then not so “teenage”) from ABC that year. Then there was Maybe It’s Me, a deliciously hilarious comedy about a teenage girl living in a very weird family. The following spring, Reba got renewed, Maybe It’s Me didn’t, and I began to lose faith in the WB.

2002 saw the debut of Glory Days, Everwood, What I Like About You, Family Affair, Greetings From Tucson, The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, and Birds of Prey. Grounded For Life was adopted from FOX. Do Over, a show about a guy who is transported back to his high school years with the knowledge of the 21st century, brought me much happiness -- but the WB canceled it within months, leaving a handful of episodes unaired. More and more, I began to distrust the WB.

I continued to watch Gilmore Girls. Everwood had a tendency to hit too close too home, but there was something undeniably special about it. I no longer watched Dawson’s Creek; the kids were in college and everyone had slept with everybody else by that point. The show exited in May 2003, killing off Jen and bringing Pacey and Joey together.

Tarzan came along in the fall of 2003, and while it got a lot of publicity in the beginning, the WB seemed to lose interest in it after the premiere. One Tree Hill debuted at the same time, and the latter got much more promotion on the network itself. I routinely saw promos for OTH while watching other things, but never any for Tarzan. After six episodes, the show was put on hiatus. Episodes seven through nine aired, then no more. Despite a fan campaign, the show was canceled.

I. Was. Enraged.

It wasn’t like I’d never seen a good show get canceled. Three years before, NBC had canned The Pretender in favor of XFL, which was a huge mistake. Three years before that, ABC had taken away Lois & Clark. And on and on. But when the WB did it, it really hurt. They had always been the kind of network that gave shows a chance; they’d nurture a freshman show along, promoting it like crazy, slapping faces onto billboards and standing behind the show with loyalty and gusto. That’s just what they did. They weren’t axe-wielding showkillers like those execs over at NBC, CBS, and ABC... or were they? Something had changed at the WB, and I didn’t like it.

New shows continued to be born -- Steve Harvey’s Big Time, Run of the House, Like Family, All About the Andersons, Summerland, Drew Carey’s Green Screen Show, Just Legal, The Mountain, Jack & Bobby, Living With Fran, Beauty and the Geek, The Surreal Life, Supernatural, Related, Twins, Pepper Dennis, The Bedford Diaries, Modern Men, Survival of the Richest, and on and on.... Nearly 100 shows came and went between 1995 and 2006. Some came and never went. Some should be canceled immediately (hint, 7th Heaven, I’m talking to you... please somebody cancel it before the Camdens stop being TV characters, hop out of the screen, and murder us all. And it will happen... it’s only a matter of time!)

In all seriousness, though, the WB as I loved it -- in the late 90’s -- is no more. It disappeared a long time ago, along with the WB Studio Store. Remember that? Those stores in malls that catered to all things WB? Looney Tunes, Batman, Superman, and, eventually, Buffy, Dawson’s Creek... and, before they died an untimely and mysterious death circa 2001, Harry Potter? I miss those stores.

I still have the WB merchandise; the Buffy backpack, the Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane notebook paper, the binders full of magazine and newspaper clippings. I still have the free T-shirt I got from the local Buffy Blood Drive in February, 1999. It was my first time giving blood, and now the Red Cross won’t leave me alone. Fourteen pints later, I still have the free poster, too. It’s on my ceiling, encouraging me to “Watch Angel this fall on the WB!” Sorry, Angel, I think I’m a little late.

I have dozens of memories of obsessing over Buffy with Sarah, laughing over Maybe It’s Me with Katie, and following the trials and tribulations of Felicity with my mother, who was more into the show than I was.

The WB -- it’s been a part of American pop culture for over a decade. And it’s disappearing, like so many things that I’ve loved over the years. I’m not sad, exactly. I just want to remember. Always...