With the success with Fox Broadcasting Company, several other companies started to enter the fray in the 1990s to become the fifth commercial broadcast network that would allow a station to brand itself better and to stand out amongst the increasing number of channels particularly cable.[1]Chris-Craft Industries and Warner Bros. Television Distribution (syndication arm) jointly launched the Prime Time Entertainment Network in September 1993,[2][3] a consortium created in attempt at creating a new "fifth network." PTEN, Spelling Premiere Network, Family Network and the proposed WB Network & Paramount Network were being shopped in January 1994 against syndicated blocks Disney Afternoon and Universal's "Action Pack."[1] Spelling Premiere Network had launched in August 1994.[4] All American Television considered launching a first-run movie network with 22 movies as of November 1994.[5] Chris-Craft subsidiary United Television then partnered with Paramount (by then recently merged with Viacom) to create the United Paramount Network (UPN), which launched in January 1995. Warner Bros. parent Time Warner then formed a partnership with the Tribune Company to create The WB, which also launched less than a week after UPN made its debut.[6] Concurrently, United left PTEN's parent, the Prime Time Consortium, to focus on UPN,[7] leaving PTEN as primarily a syndicator of its remaining programs; the service shared affiliations with its respective parents' own network ventures (in some cases, resulting in PTEN's programming airing in off-peak time slots) until it finally folded in September 1997.
In January 1995, Tribune Broadcasting became a partner in The WB Television Network, in a joint venture with the Warner Bros. Television division of Time Warner.[8] Tribune initially had a 12.5% ownership interest in the network at its launch and later increased its stake to 22%. In addition, partly as a result of a November 1993 affiliation deal with the network, most of Tribune's television properties were WB affiliates. On July 2, 1996, Tribune acquired Renaissance Broadcasting, which owned Fox- and WB-affiliated stations in several large and mid-sized markets.[9]
The Wayans Bros. aired from January 11, 1995, to May 20, 1999. It was the first of the four sitcoms that aired as part of the original Wednesday night two hour lineup that helped launch the network (along with Unhappily Ever After, The Parent 'Hood and the short-lived Muscle). While in development, the series' working title was initially supposed to have been Brother to Brother, before the name of the series changed to The Wayans Bros.[10] The series was cancelled in 1999 due to declining ratings and was not given a proper finale.
The Parent 'Hood aired from January 18, 1995, to July 25, 1999. The series starred Robert Townsend and Suzzanne Douglas. Originally to be titled Father Knows Nothing (a parody of the title of the 1950s sitcom Father Knows Best),[10] the series was one of the four sitcoms that aired as part of the original Wednesday-night two-hour lineup that helped launch The WB network (along with The Wayans Bros., Unhappily Ever After, and the short-lived Muscle).[11]
Unhappily Ever After aired for 100 episodes from January 11, 1995, to May 23, 1999, for a total of five seasons. Unhappily Ever After was one of the four sitcoms that aired as part of the original Wednesday night two-hour lineup that helped launch The WB network (along with The Wayans Bros., The Parent 'Hood and the short-lived Muscle).
Muscle aired from January 11 to May 24, 1995. Muscle was one of the four sitcoms that aired as part of the original Wednesday night two-hour WB lineup, at 9:30/8:30c (with The Wayans Bros., The Parent 'Hood, and Unhappily Ever After being scheduled before it). It was the only one of the four that did not make it past the first season, and was also the first series to get canceled on the brand new WB.[12] Like its inspiration, ABC's Soap from the 1970s, it ended on an unresolved cliffhanger after being canceled due to low ratings.
Sister, Sister was picked up by ABC as a midseason replacement and debuted on April 1, 1994, as part of the network's TGIF comedy lineup.[13] The show later moved to a new timeslot for the 1994–95 season, but ABC announced that it was cancelling the program due to low ratings and its final episode aired April 28, 1995.[14]The WB, which was still in its infancy in 1995, picked up Sister, Sister to replace the cancelled Muscle on its Wednesday night lineup of shows and the third season debuted on September 6, 1995. The program found its niche as part of The WB's lineup and aired for four additional seasons on the network, with the final episode airing on May 23, 1999. After being picked up by The WB in 1995, reruns of the first two seasons of Sister, Sister were broadcast in early primetime as part of the network's then-newly launched Sunday night lineup during the 1995–1996 season, in addition to the first-run episodes of the series that aired on the WB's Wednesday night schedule.
This is the first fall season for The WB and UPN. The schedules of either network would not be constant until fall 1999, when the WB decided to air shows from Sunday through Friday and UPN would air Monday through Friday.
Kirk aired from August 23, 1995, to January 12, 1997. Kirk was one of only two series produced by Bickley-Warren Productions and Jeff Franklin Productions that was not produced by Miller-Boyett Productions (the other being Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, which William Bickley and Michael Warren served as showrunners/executive producers during that series' final three seasons). During the development stage, the series originally went under the working title Life Happens,[15] and was originally conceived as a series for ABC (who had broadcast other series produced by Bickley and Warren, and their production partners Thomas L. Miller and Robert L. Boyett) before the network's decision to move away from family sitcoms, just prior to the network's 1995 purchase by The Walt Disney Company.[16]
On September 9, 1995, Pinky and the Brain were spun off onto their own half-hour series on Kids' WB!, with each episode consisting of one or more segments, including some of the segments from Animaniacs. The first season was scheduled in a prime time slot from September 10, 1995, through July 21, 1996, as part of the new WB network lineup, with episodes also being repeated within the Saturday morning cartoon block. It had been envisioned for the cartoon to be WB network's answer to The Simpsons, at that point in its 7th season, which was running on the FOX network. The series tended to have more jokes and humor aimed at adults rather than children. Due to poor ratings following the first season, primarily due to running against 60 Minutes, subsequent seasons were moved to Saturday mornings as part of the Kids' WB! programming block.
Simon aired from September 10, 1995, to February 25, 1996.
Cleghorne! aired from September 10 to December 17, 1995. The series was put on hiatus by The WB after December 1995 having aired just 12 episodes;[17] the show was later cancelled with three episodes left unaired.
First Time Out premiered on September 10, 1995, and last aired an original episode on December 17, 1995, after which time it was put on hiatus by The WB,[18] leaving four episodes unaired.
Savannah's first season was broadcast between January 21, 1996 and April 7, 1996. The first two episodes were shown together as a two-hour Saturday "sneak preview" of the upcoming series, with the remaining season one episodes shown on Sunday nights[19] (The WB dubbing the evening "Savannah Sunday".[citation needed]) The show was the most successful program on The WB at the time.[20] During its second season, Savannah was moved to Monday nights, the 22 second-season episodes broadcast between August 26, 1996 and February 24, 1997 at 9:00 pm following 7th Heaven.[21] It was cancelled at the end of the season. Garth Ancier, president of the WB's entertainment division, attributed its cancellation to the fact that "serial dramas don't repeat well, making the investment too expensive". Its mid season replacement would be the eventual cult classic Buffy the Vampire Slayer, created by a then unknown Joss Whedon, which would run for seven seasons, becoming a global phenomenon and spawning a multimedia franchise known as the Buffyverse[22]
Brotherly Love ran from September 16, 1995, to April 1, 1996, on NBC, and then moved to The WB, where it aired from September 15, 1996, until May 18, 1997.
Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher aired from August 28, 1996 until May 3, 1998. The series was created and executive produced by Dennis Rinsler and Marc Warren who drew on their own experiences as former teachers in New York City. They based the title character on their elementary school music teacher and friend, John Freno.
The Steve Harvey Show aired from August 25, 1996 to February 17, 2002. In 2001, Harvey decided to pursue other projects. He wished to end the show after the fifth season, but at the insistence of the WB network, reluctantly filmed a 13-episode sixth season.[23]
Life with Roger aired from September 8, 1996 to March 30, 1997, airing twenty episodes, before being canceled in March 1997 due to low ratings.[24]
7th Heaven debuted on August 26, 1996, on The WB, where it aired for ten seasons. Following the shutdown of The WB and its merger with UPN to form The CW, the series aired on the new network on September 25, 2006, for its eleventh and final season, airing its final episode on May 13, 2007. 7th Heaven was the last series to be produced by Spelling Television (later produced by CBS Paramount Network Television for the eleventh and final season) before it was shut down and became an in-name-only unit of CBS Television Studios. Although originally produced for Fox in 1996, the show aired on the WB. It was produced by Spelling Television and distributed for syndication by CBS Television Distribution. Its producers, including Aaron Spelling, considered it wholesome family viewing, incorporating public service announcements into the show. The final season of 7th Heaven was shown on the inaugural season of The CW. The show wrapped production on the final episode March 8, 2007, about one month before most shows film their last episodes of the season. This was due largely to the fact that after ten years of working together, the actors, producers and crew had gotten production down to a steady pace, slashing costs repeatedly and routinely coming in well under budget. This resulted in 7th Heaven filming episodes in shorter time during the final seasons. After much deliberation within the now-defunct WB network, it was made public in November 2005 that the tenth season would be the program's final season because of high costs, which were revealed to be due to a poorly negotiated licensing agreement by the WB network a few years earlier. The program's future was hanging in the balance and it was entirely in the hands of the newly established CW network whether to renew it for an eleventh seasonal run. In March 2006, the main cast of characters were approached about the possibility of returning for an eleventh season. After further consideration by the CW network, it was decided three days after the airing of its "series finale", that 7th Heaven would be picked up for an eleventh season, which would air on their network in the Monday-night slot that had helped make it famous. Originally the show was renewed for thirteen episodes, but on September 18, 2006, the renewal was extended to a full twenty-two episodes. Along with the show's unexpected and last-minute renewal came some changes. The show's already-low budget was moderately trimmed, forcing cuts in the salaries of some cast members and shortened taping schedules (seven days per episode instead of the typical eight). David Gallagher, who played Simon, chose not to return as a regular. Furthermore, Mackenzie Rosman, who played youngest daughter Ruthie, did not appear in the first six episodes. Catherine Hicks missed three episodes in Season 11, as another cost-cutting move. Additionally, George Stults was absent for a few episodes at the beginning of season 11. Also, after airing Monday nights at 8/7c for ten seasons, plus the first two episodes of season 11, the CW unexpectedly moved 7th Heaven to Sunday nights as of October 15, 2006. The Sunday/Monday lineup swap was attributed to mediocre ratings of shows on both nights. While 7th Heaven did improve in numbers over the CW's previous Sunday night programming, it never quite hit its Monday-night momentum again. 7th Heaven was the most watched TV series ever on the WB.[25] It holds the record for the WB's most watched hour at 12.5 million viewers, on February 8, 1999; 19 of the WB's 20 most watched hours were from 7th Heaven. On May 8, 2006, it was watched by 7.56 million viewers, the highest rating for the WB since January 2005. When the show moved to the CW, ratings dropped. Possible reasons for the decline include an aired "Countdown to Goodbye" ad campaign for the last six months of the 2005–06 season, which promoted it as the final season ever; though the CW announced the series' unexpected renewal, it didn't promote the new season strongly via billboards, bus stops, magazine or on-air promos. Lastly, the network moved 7th Heaven from its long-established Monday night slot to Sunday nights, causing ratings to drop further. The series had a season average of just 3.3 million on the new network, losing 36% of the previous year's audience. It was the third most watched scripted show on the CW. Overall, it was the seventh most watched show.
The Jamie Foxx Show aired from August 28, 1996, to January 14, 2001. The series stars Jamie Foxx, Garcelle Beauvais, Christopher B. Duncan, Ellia English, and Garrett Morris. Although the show was not a major success with the ratings due to The WB being a relatively new network, the show did help launch Foxx's acting career while also relaunching Morris' career after his 1994 shooting. It also served as a launch pad for Beauvais who would go on to star in ABC's NYPD Blue.
Three aired from February 2 to March 23, 1998.[33]
Dawson's Creek was created by Kevin Williamson and debuted on The WB on January 20, 1998. It was produced by Columbia TriStar Television (renamed Sony Pictures Television before the sixth and final season) and was filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina. The series ended on May 14, 2003.[34] During the course of the series, 128 episodes of Dawson's Creek aired over six seasons. Following the selling of his spec script for Wes Craven-directed Scream (1996), film assistant Kevin Williamson was taking several meetings with film and television producers before the slasher film began production.[35] In what would be his first television meeting, Williamson met executive Paul Stupin and, when asked if he had ideas for a television production, Williamson came up with the idea of a teen series based on his youth growing up near a North Carolina creek as an aspiring filmmaker who worshipped director Steven Spielberg.[35] Stupin liked his idea and asked him to come back the next day and pitch it to Columbia TriStar Television studios, prompting Williamson to write a 20-page outline for Dawson's Creek that night.[35] Williamson pitched the show "as Some Kind of Wonderful, meets Pump Up the Volume, meets James at 15, meets My So-Called Life, meets Little House on the Prairie",[36] also taking inspiration from teen drama Beverly Hills, 90210 as he "wanted it to speak to the teenage audience of the day."[35] When Columbia requested him to relocate the show to Boston, Massachusetts, he settled with fictional Capeside, and pitched it to Fox.[35] However, commissioned amid the struggling of Party of Five, Fox wondered if they needed another teen drama, and while they were supportive of Williamson's scripts, they eventually passed on it.[35] Left unused, Columbia TriStar sent his scripts to newly founded The WB network who was looking for fresh ideas for their programme after launching supernatural drama series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.[35] Williamson went for a meeting with then-chief programmer Garth Ancier and entertainment president Susanne Daniels who loved his script and picked it up for the network's new Tuesday night lineup.[35]Procter & Gamble Productions joined in as an original co-producer of the series, however, sold its interest in the show three months before the premiere when printed stories surfaced about the racy dialogue and risqué plot lines.[37] While never a huge ratings success among the general television population, Dawson's Creek did very well with the younger demographic it targeted and became a defining show for the WB Network. The pilot episode was watched by 6.8 million viewers and had a 4.8 rating which was the network's highest rating at the time.[38] The first season's highest ranked episode was the finale, which was fifty-ninth, while the second highest rated was the second episode (probably scoring so well partially because the other major networks carried President Clinton's State of the Union address in the midst of the Lewinsky scandal rather than their regular programming).[39] The finale itself was watched by 7.8 million U.S. viewers, which was its largest audience ever.
Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane premiered from January 17, 1999 and ended on June 11, 2000. During development, the show was initially known as Zoe Bean and was later retitled Zoe... during its second season. The series aired a total of 26 episodes over its two seasons. The series centered on four eccentric high school friends in New York City. The foursome attended (fictional) Fielding-Mellish Prep, which gets its name from Woody Allen's character in the movie Bananas. The show also starred Mary Page Keller as Zoe's single mother Iris during the first season. Scott Foley, fresh from Dawson's Creek, appeared in the pilot with the intention of having him star in the series as Zoe's love interest. But once the pilot finally got picked up, Foley had already moved on to Felicity. When the show returned for a second season, it had been heavily retooled. The friendship between the four friends remained intact, but now they were adult college students. Gone was Keller as Zoe's mom, while Omar Gooding joined the cast as the foursome's friend Doug Anderson. The title had also been shortened to simply Zoe... (pronounced on-air as Zoe Dot Dot Dot) out of fear that the former title was turning off potential viewers. After the series was cancelled, Michael Rosenbaum expressed disappointment with the fact that the network had cut his character's name out of the title for the second season.[45]
The Army Show was first shown on September 13 and ended its run on December 13, 1998. The plot follows an army sergeant, played by David Anthony Higgins, who must take charge of a group of soldiers at Fort Bendix, Florida, while hiding his profitable schemes from his higher class officers.
Hyperion Bay ran for one season from September 21, 1998 to March 8, 1999. According to series writer and co-producer Jeffrey Stepakoff, early into Hyperion Bay's run the network told producers to make the show more hip and with a quicker pace. When series producer and creator Joseph Dougherty refused, he was fired by Warner Bros, and former Melrose Place producer Frank South was brought in to retool the series. Carmen Electra was added to the cast as Sarah Hicks, a character modeled after Heather Locklear's character, Amanda Woodward, on Melrose Place.[46][47] The changes did not improve ratings and The WB canceled Hyperion Bay in February 1999, with the last episodes airing in March 1999.[48]
Rescue 77 was created by Gregory Widen and aired from March 15 to May 3, 1999, during Monday nights on The WB network. The creator and executive producer was Gregory Widen, a former Southern California firefighter and paramedic, and the writer of the 1991 firefighting drama Backdraft. His goal for the show was to provide a more realistic depiction of the lives of firefighters and paramedics than previous emergency medical television series such as Emergency!
For Your Love premiered on March 17, 1998, on NBC. The series starred Holly Robinson Peete and James Lesure. It was canceled by NBC after six episodes but was picked up by The WB. It ran for a total of four-and-a-half seasons, with its last episode airing on August 11, 2002.
Felicity ran for four seasons from September 29, 1998, to May 22, 2002, with each season corresponding to the traditional American university divisions of freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior years. In 1999, a publicly hyped young writer for the show, Riley Weston, was disclosed as a fraud for claiming to be much younger than she truly was. At the age of 32, she began marketing herself to television studios as a recent high school graduate, passing off her husband as her older brother. She was soon hired by the WB Network as a writer for Felicity.[49] Hailed as a child prodigy and "wunderkind",[50] she was featured on Entertainment Weekly's October 1998 list of the "100 Most Creative People in Entertainment", which described her as an up-and-coming 19-year-old. Shortly thereafter, she was offered a six-figure screenwriting deal with Disney.[51] Her real identity and age were exposed after a Felicity producer checked her social security number. Soon afterward, her contract with WB expired and was not renewed, and her deal with Disney fell through. In the summer of 1999, after filming the first season,[52]Felicity star Keri Russell—known for what The New York Times described as "[t]hat glorious head of voluminous golden backlit hair"[53]—sent the show's producers a photo wearing a short-haired wig. They panicked before learning that it was a joke but then suggested to the actress that a new hairstyle would be appropriate.[52] After being shifted from Tuesday nights at 9:00 PM Eastern to Sunday nights at 8:00 PM Eastern (WB's weakest night) for the 1999–2000 season, the ratings for Felicity declined immediately. This decline occurred before the hair-style change, but the later hair-style change became conflated by some of the public and by some of the popular press[53] and network executives with this earlier event and thus incorrectly blamed the earlier ratings drop partly on the later new hairstyle. After the negative reaction Russell rejected wearing extensions or a wig while her hair grew back. Although storytelling and time-slot changes had already created a ratings decline, a network executive said WB actors' future hair changes would "be given more thought at the network than it previously would have".[52] In 2010, TV Guide Network listed the hairstyle change at No. 19 on their list of "25 Biggest TV Blunders," with several commentators arguing that it was the reason that the ratings of the show dropped.[54] The haircut incident went on to become a popular culture reference within other television shows, both comedic and dramatic. Despite the controversy, Felicity survived for two more seasons.
Charmed was originally broadcast for eight seasons from October 7, 1998, until May 21, 2006. Charmed achieved a cult following[55] and popularity on The WB with its first episode "Something Wicca This Way Comes" garnering 7.7 million viewers, breaking the record for the network's highest-rated debut episode.[56] The show's ratings, although smaller than rival shows on the "big four" networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox), were a success for the relatively new and smaller WB network. Charmed went through several timeslot changes during its eight-season run. For its first three seasons in the Wednesday/Thursday 9:00 pm timeslot, Charmed was the second-highest rated series on The WB, behind 7th Heaven. During its fifth season, the show moved to the Sunday 8:00 pm timeslot, where it became the highest-rated Sunday night program in The WB's history. At 178 episodes, Charmed was the second-longest drama broadcast by The WB, behind 7th Heaven. In 2006, it became the longest running hour-long television series featuring all female leads, before being surpassed by Desperate Housewives in 2012. In 1998, when The WB began looking for a new drama series for the 1998–99 season, they approached Spelling Television (which had produced the network's then-most successful series, 7th Heaven) to create it. Expanding on the popularity of supernatural-themed dramas such as The Craft (1996)[57][58] and Practical Magic (1998),[59] the production company explored different forms of mythology to find characters they could realize with contemporary storytelling.[60]Constance M. Burge was hired to create the series as she was under contract with 20th Century Fox and Spelling Television after conceiving the drama series Savannah (1996–97).[60] When the theme of witchcraft was first pitched to her, she was aware of stereotypes of witches (flying brooms, black cats, and warts). After researching Wicca, she changed her perspective[61] and aimed at telling a story of good witches who looked and acted like ordinary people. With this, her initial concept was a series set in Boston, Massachusetts[61] about three friends and roommates who were all witches.[60] However, executive producer E. Duke Vincent lacked confidence, asking "Why would anybody want to watch a show about three witches?" He proposed that the series should focus on family values and developed the series-long mantra of it being about "three sisters who happen to be witches, not three witches who happen to be sisters." Spelling warmed to Burge's ideas and, after the concept was re-crafted to be a series about three sisters (now living in San Francisco) descended from a line of witches,[61] it was pitched to The WB's President of Entertainment, Susanne Daniels, who liked it, allowing the series to begin development.[60] The series was retitled Charmed after Spelling's suggestion of House of Sisters was dropped. Burge wrote the pilot script and a 28-minute version of the pilot was filmed (the "unaired pilot," never aired on network television). After original cast member Lori Rom quit the series before its premiere, Alyssa Milano took over her role and a new pilot had to be filmed. Upon its debut, Charmed received the largest audience for a series premiere in The WB's history.[56] The first season of 22 episodes was picked up by The WB after only two episodes had aired. During the seventh season and for the first time in its history, the show had been in limbo as there was no guaranteed renewal for an eighth season.[62]Charmed was ultimately renewed for a final season, but the budget was cut considerably compared to previous seasons due to expensive special effects and props and highly-paid actresses.[63] Executive producer Brad Kern revealed that they had to cut back on special effects and guest stars, and that the entire season was shot only on the Paramount Studios lot as they could not go out on location anymore.[64] These budget cuts also led to cast member Dorian Gregory being written out of the final season and Brian Krause being written out of several episodes as a cost-saving measure.[63] Kern revealed that the show could not afford to have Krause in all 22 episodes of the final season, but he was brought back for the final two episodes to help bring closure to the storylines.<[63][65] In the United States, Charmed premiered on The WB on October 7, 1998 a month after Big Ticket Television's 2nd court show Judge Joe Brown premiered on September 14th of that year and ended on May 21, 2006.[66][67] The first season aired on Wednesday nights at 9:00 pm.[66] For its second, third and fourth seasons, Charmed moved to Thursday nights.[68][69][70] For the fifth season, the series moved to Sunday nights at 8:00 pm and remained there until its eighth and final season.[67][71] By the end of season eight, Charmed had aired a total of 178 episodes and became the longest running hour-long television series in American history, featuring all female leads. Most seasons consisted of 22 episodes, except for the fifth and sixth seasons, which contained 23 episodes, including their double-episode premieres and double-episode finales.
Safe Harbor aired from September 20 to November 28, 1999. The series was created and executive produced by Brenda Hampton, who at the time was best known for work on the fellow WB series 7th Heaven, the series was paired with 7th Heaven on the network's Monday night lineup. Despite 7th Heaven being the No. 1 show on The WB during the 1999-2000 season,[72]Safe Harbor was unable to hold a solid audience after 7th Heaven and was canceled after ten episodes and one season with the show moving to Sunday nights where the last two episodes aired.
Jack & Jill ran from September 26, 1999 to April 15, 2001. Due to the average ratings of the first season, the second season was only 13 episodes long and was aired as a midseason show. The final episode detailed the problems during preparations for the couple's wedding. Jacqueline discovered she was pregnant, but before she could tell David, he decided that their relationship was moving too fast and he wanted to call the wedding off and move things slower. Despite the rallying of fans, the series was not renewed for a third season, so the series ended in a cliffhanger.
Mission Hill ran on The WB from September 24, 1999, to July 16, 2000, and on Adult Swim from July 14 to August 11, 2002.[74] Although 18 episodes were planned, only 13 were produced. The series was put on hiatus by the WB Network after two episodes due to poor ratings. It returned to the WB in the summer of 2000 but was canceled after four additional episodes. The series went on to develop a cult following, thanks to repeated airings of all 13 episodes on Teletoon's Teletoon Unleashed block; Cartoon Network's popular late-night programming block Adult Swim; and Too Funny To Sleep, a late-night programming block on TBS. Mission Hill was formerly known as The Downtowners, although MTV's production of the similarly titled Downtown forced a name change.
Brutally Normal premiered on January 24, 2000 with two back-to-back episodes later airing along with Zoe... A total of eight episodes were produced with only five of those episodes airing with the show being canceled on February 14, 2000.
Angel is a spin-off from the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The series was created by Buffy's creator, Joss Whedon, in collaboration with David Greenwalt. It aired on The WB from October 5, 1999, to May 19, 2004, consisting of five seasons and 110 episodes. Like Buffy, it was produced by Whedon's production company, Mutant Enemy. On February 14, 2004, the WB Network announced that Angel would not be brought back for a sixth season. The one-paragraph statement indicated that the news, which had been reported by an Internet site the previous day, had been leaked well before the network intended to make its announcement.[75] Joss Whedon posted a message on a popular fan site, The Bronze: Beta, in which he expressed his dismay and surprise, saying he was "heartbroken"[76] and described the situation as "Healthy Guy Falls Dead From a Heart Attack."[77] Fan reaction was to organize letter-writing campaigns, online petitions, blood and food drives, advertisements in trade magazines and via mobile billboards, and attempts to lobby other networks (UPN was a favorite target, as it had already picked up Buffy). Outrage for the cancellation focused on Jordan Levin, WB's Head of Entertainment. It was the second highest-rated program to be canceled on the WB.[78] Head writer David Fury "guaranteed" that if Joss Whedon had not requested an early renewal, Angel would have been back for a Season 6, saying Whedon's request for an early pick-up decision put Levin in a corner, forcing him to cancel the show, adding simply waiting would have gotten the show renewed.[79] James Marsters made a similar statement, saying cancellation took the cast and production staff "completely by surprise".[80]Angel's final episode, "Not Fade Away", aired on the WB on May 19, 2004. The ambiguous final moments left some fans hoping for the continuation of Angel and the Buffyverse in the future - hopes that came to fruition in November 2007 with the publication of the first issue of the comic book series Angel: After the Fall. The series is Joss Whedon's official continuation of the Angel television series and follows in the footsteps of the comic book Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, whose first issue was published in March 2007.
Young Americans debuted on July 12, 2000 on The WB network as a summer replacement for, and spin-off from another Columbia TriStar Television production, Dawson's Creek. The series was originally ordered for the 1999–2000 television season with a planned fall debut, but was delayed due to unresolved matters between Columbia TriStar and The WB.[81] The main character, Will Krudski, was introduced late in season three of Dawson's Creek as a childhood friend of the group who has kept in contact with Pacey Witter. Young Americans was originally supposed to be a mid-season show in 2000 but was put on hold until Coca-Cola offered to sponsor the show.[82] The character of Will Krudski was then written into Dawson's Creek to associate Young Americans with one of The WB's established shows.[81] When Dawson's Creek went on hiatus in the summer of 2000, Young Americans occupied its timeslot of Wednesdays at 9 P.M. Repeats were shown at 9 P.M. on Fridays. The Coca-Cola Company paid $6 million[83] to be the primary sponsor, the show being billed as "Coca-Cola Presents Young Americans". Young Americans was profiled by Steve Carell on the August 22, 2000 episode of The Daily Show in the Ad Nauseam segment due to the Coca-Cola tie ins. Carell constantly referred to "The Beginning" as an "hour-long commercial".[84] Some of the scenes also took place in a Friendly's restaurant, which was built from an old pizzeria for the show. Coca-Cola products are seen or mentioned in most episodes. The unaired pilot episode does not contain the product placement. Among the changes to the pilot is a scene that was reshot in order to show the characters drinking Coca-Cola. A scene from the pilot, which was heavily promoted prior to the show's premiere, where the characters and other students at Rawley run in slow motion to the school's lake while stripping off their clothes was parodied in another WB show, Grosse Pointe.
Popular was produced by Touchstone Television and ran for two seasons on The WB from September 29, 1999 to May 18, 2001.
The first eight episodes of Baby Blues originally aired in the United States on The WB between July 28 and August 24, 2000, before being cancelled. The five remaining episodes that had been unaired finally did air on Adult Swim in 2002.[85] A second season consisting of thirteen episodes was produced but never aired. Warner Bros. Animation produced eight of the 13 aired episodes, with overseas animation done by Varga Studio in Hungary for five of them (including the pilot), and Sunwoo Entertainment in Korea for the three others. Rough Draft Studios in Los Angeles did five episodes, which include "Bizzy Moves In", "Rodney Has Two Daddies", "Hurtin' Inside", "Ugly Zoe", and "Wanda Moves Up".[86][87] In another attempt to compete with Fox's popular animated sitcoms, The WB made the series to be more adult-oriented than the comic strip (by having some sexuality, mild swearing, etc.). Because Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott had limited creative control over the animated version, they were not completely pleased about this kind of difference, though Scott said he liked "part of it".[88] The Baby Blues animated series took nearly five years to develop and produce,[89] and what was initially the pilot, "A Baby Blues Christmas Special" was supposed to air in December 1998, but it was postponed more than once,[90] while other episodes were being ordered and completed. The Christmas episode finally aired on Adult Swim on February 24, 2002. In 1999, the series was almost to be retitled Bluesville, without Scott's knowledge but Baby Blues was kept as the title, given how popular the comic strip is with more than 60 million readers.[88] In September 2000, Warner Bros. announced that a second season would be produced.[91] Although a second season was produced, consisting of 13 additional episodes, it never aired.[92] The WB typically aired two episodes each week, thus enabling eight different episodes to be shown in the five-week run, but abandoned plans to air additional episodes which had been completed. Previously unaired episodes were later aired on Cartoon Network's late night programming block, Adult Swim, and on Teletoon in Canada.
The original run of The PJs debuted on Fox on Sunday, January 10, 1999, following the network's coverage of the NFC Divisional Playoffs. Two days later, the second episode aired in its regular Tuesday night time slot, following King of the Hill.[93] 44 episodes aired during the show's run of 2 years and 4 months. Each took over 2 months to produce, owing to the laborious stop-motion process. After two seasons on Fox, the show moved to The WB in 2000. Its high budget and declining ratings led to its cancellation in 2001; the final 2 episodes weren't aired until 2003.
The The Oblongs premiered on April 1, 2001 but failed to find an audience. On May 20, 2001, The WB aired "Disfigured Debbie," the second episode produced, as the season finale, leaving five episodes unaired. Reruns of the first eight episodes, and the five remaining episodes, aired on Cartoon Network's late-night programming block, Adult Swim, in 2002. Reruns of the series continue to air intermittently on Adult Swim.[needs update] In Canada, the series airs on Teletoon as part of "Teletoon Unleashed". A total of 13 episodes were produced.
Hype ran for 17 episodes from October 8, 2000 to February 18, 2001. The series was ordered by the WB after the trio wrote a sketch for MADtv which parodied Felicity, the network's major hit series at the time. On February 8, 2001 the series was canceled after one season,[94] although two of its cast members, Frank Caliendo and Daniele Gaither, subsequently joined MADtv, while Gavin Crawford has had success as a television comedian in Canada, including on The Gavin Crawford Show and This Hour Has 22 Minutes.[95]
Nikki aired from October 9, 2000, to January 27, 2002. Nikki was a starring vehicle for Nikki Cox, who had previously starred in another WB sitcom, Unhappily Ever After, which ran for five seasons. Looking to capitalize on Cox's popularity, Bruce Helford created a sitcom that featured her as the title character.[96] In July 1999, The WB placed a straight-to-order series from The Drew Carey Show co-creator Bruce Helford as a vehicle for Unhappily Ever After and Norm co-star Nikki Cox.[97]Nikki was formally ordered to series in May 2000, and was placed on The WB's fall lineup for a Sunday Night comedy block.[98] On October 31, 2000, The WB ordered a full 22-episode season of Nikki.[99] The network renewed the show for a 22-episode second season at its upfronts in May 2001.[100][101] However, in January 2002, the network pulled the series, and shut down production after only 19 episodes. Six episodes were left unaired in the United States.[102]
Grosse Pointe aired from September 22, 2000 to February 18, 2001, during the 2000–2001 television season. Created by Darren Star, it was a satire depicting the behind-the-scenes drama on the set of a television show, and was inspired in large part by Star's experiences as the creator and producer of the nighttime soapBeverly Hills, 90210. Reportedly, Beverly Hills 90210 producer Aaron Spelling called WB executive Jamie Kellner to complain about Lindsay Sloane's character Marcy Sternfeld, who in the original pilot was a thinly veiled parody of Spelling's daughter, actress Tori Spelling.[103][104]Grosse Pointe was on the WB's Friday line-up in between Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Popular. The show lost much of the lead-in audience, and was moved to Sundays (a joke in the episode "The Opposite of Sex" references this, as the fictional show garners its highest ratings ever but fails to "beat Sabrina"). Grosse Pointe was canceled in February 2001 after 17 episodes.
Gilmore Girls debuted on October 5, 2000, on The WB and became a flagship series for the network. Gilmore Girls originally ran for seven seasons, the final season moving to The CW and ending its run on May 15, 2007. Television critics praised Gilmore Girls for its witty dialogue, cross-generational appeal, and effective mix of humor and drama. It never drew large ratings but was a relative success for The WB, peaking during season five as the network's second most-popular show. The series has been in daily syndication since 2004, while a growing and dedicated fandom has led to its status as a cult classic. Since coming off the air, Gilmore Girls has been cited in TV (The Book) and Time magazine as one of the 100 greatest television shows of all time.[105]Gilmore Girls' first season commenced on The WB in the Thursday 8pm/7pm Central time slot, as a lead in for Charmed.[106] Renewed for a second season, the show was relocated on Tuesdays 8pm/7pm, the time slot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which transferred to UPN, and served as a lead-in for Smallville, which became an instant hit and would always beat Gilmore Girls, its lead-in in the ratings. During seasons 4 and 5, it lead into One Tree Hill, which slowly became a hit. In season 6, it lead into Supernatural, which became another hit for The WB.[107] First-season reruns aired on Monday nights from March 5 until April 9, 2001, during a mid-season hiatus of Roswell lead out of 7th Heaven to spread audience awareness. An additional run of the first season aired in 2002 on Sunday nights under the title Gilmore Girls Beginnings (which featured a modified opening sequence voiced with a monologue detailing the premise from Graham), and was one of two shows on The WB to give the Beginnings in its title for reruns, along with 7th Heaven.
Dead Last aired from August 14 to September 25, 2001. It starred Sara Downing as Jane Cahill, Tyler Labine[108][109] as Scotty Sallback, and Kett Turton as Vaughn Parrish. The series ran for one season with 13 episodes produced, but only 6 episodes were aired by The WB before the series was cancelled.
Sabrina the Teenage Witch's first four seasons aired on ABC from September 27, 1996, to May 5, 2000; the final three seasons ran on The WB from September 22, 2000, to April 24, 2003. During its four-year run on ABC, Sabrina was the highest-rated series among the network's TGIF line-up. In the 2000–2001 season, the show moved to The WB after a negotiation dispute with ABC. While ABC was willing to renew the show for a fifth season, the network was not willing to pay the reported $1.5 million per episode that Viacom Productions, which produced the show, wanted. The WB then picked up the show for a mere $675,000 per episode, but agreed to commit to 66 episodes. When viewership began to wane, the show was canceled after seven seasons.[110]
Off Centre aired from October 14, 2001, to October 31, 2002. Created by Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz, and Danny Zuker, the series was heavily promoted as "from the guys who brought you American Pie". The show aired on The WB network on Sunday nights in its first season, and was renewed for a second season to be part of a new Thursday night comedy block. However, the move to Thursday did not help the lowly-rated show, and it was cancelled seven episodes into the second season, leaving two episodes ("Scary Sitcom" and "Chau's Hard Iced Tea") unfilmed. While it aired, the show was controversial for its raunchy content, as topics addressed included threesomes, circumcision, pornography and masturbation. On March 4, 2002, as the show faced pressure from watchdog groups such as the Parents Television Council (which voted Off Centre the second worst show for family viewing in 2002), The New York Post printed a memo from the WB's Standards and Practices Department to the creators of the show that stated: "It is essential to reduce and/or modify the significant number of uses of 'penis,' 'testicles,' 'foreskin' as well as euphemisms for the same, such as 'your thingie,'" the memo says in part. It also orders the exclusion of such references as "covered wagon", "unit", "turtleneck", "little fella", "anteater", "diddy", "cloaking device" and "my pig is still snuggly, wrapped in his doughy blanket." The episode which dealt with circumcision, "The Unkindest Cut", came under fire because of its treatment of the character Euan, who is British and has not been circumcised (the procedure is not routine and is uncommon in Europe and other parts of the world including Asia and South America), as well as the treatment of uncircumcised men in general.
Smallville initially broadcast by The WB, premiered on October 16, 2001. After Smallville's fifth season, The WB and UPN merged to form The CW, the series' later United States broadcaster. Smallville, which ended its tenth and final season on May 13, 2011, follows Clark Kent (Tom Welling) in the fictional town of Smallville, Kansas, before he becomes The Man of Steel/Superman. Smallville premiered at 9:00 pm on Tuesday,[117] October 16, 2001 on The WB.[118] For the next five seasons the series aired on The WB, moving from Tuesday at 9:00 pm to Wednesday at 8:00 pm and eventually to Thursday at 8:00 pm. In 2006, before the start of Smallville's sixth season, it was announced The WB and UPN would merge into The CW and the network reported that the series would continue in its lineup.[119] During its seventh season, the series aired in Canada a day earlier than it did in the United States.[120] On May 21, 2009 it was announced that Smallville's ninth season would move to Friday at 8:00 pm, considered the "death slot" for television programs.[121][122] By the end of its tenth season it was the longest-running science-fiction TV show in the United States, breaking the record held by Stargate SG-1.[123]Smallville set a WB record as its highest-rated series debut, with 8.4 million viewers tuned in for the pilot.[124] Its premiere set a WB record for adults aged 18–34 and finished first among viewers aged 12–34, with Warner Bros. president Jordan Levin crediting the series with invigorating the network's Tuesday-night lineup. Smallville appeared on the cover of Entertainment Weekly as one of five new shows to watch.[125] After its first season, the series was sixth on the Parents Television Council's 10-best list of broadcast programs.[126] Levin, acknowledging early concerns that Smallville had become a villain of the week series, said that season two would introduce "smaller mini-arcs over three to four episodes" and become less of a "serialized show".[127]
Glory Days was broadcast from January 16 to March 25, 2002. Kevin Williamson originally conceived Glory Days as a drama in the same vein as his first series, Dawson's Creek, and a pilot was produced using this format. After picking up the series, The WB asked Williamson to retool the show and turn it into a mystery series instead. The characters and relationships remained the same but a whodunit spin was added.[128]
A network version of ElimiDate aired concurrently with the syndicated run called ElimiDate Deluxe on the WB for the 2001–2002 season, but was dropped after just a few airings.
Maybe It's Me first aired on October 5, 2001,[131] and ended on May 3, 2002. During the network's upfront presentation that season, the show was originally titled Maybe I'm Adopted,[132] but following negative feedback, the show was re-titled. The show was unique in that it featured pop-up graphics on the screen, a concept originally proposed by Stan Rogow for another Disney-produced comedy series, Lizzie McGuire.
Raising Dad aired from October 5, 2001, to May 10, 2002. The series stars Bob Saget, Kat Dennings, Brie Larson, Riley Smith, Beau Wirick and Jerry Adler.[133] and was produced by Albion Productions in association with Paramount Television. Carole Horst of Variety reviewed the first episode of Raising Dad and wrote: "a family trying to cope with the death of the mother... isn’t funny, but it is touching at times", and added that the cast "is fine, and "Dad" shows some promise. It probably will keep "Reba's" audience tuned in to end a nice family night of TV."[134]
Reba is an American sitcom television series starring Reba McEntire that aired on The WB from October 5, 2001, to May 5, 2006, and on The CW from November 19, 2006, to February 18, 2007. The show was cancelled when The WB and UPN merged into The CW. However, in an 11th hour move on May 17, 2006, The CW renewed Reba with a 13-episode order,[135] reportedly to fulfill a syndication contract worth $20 million.[136] In November 2006, The CW announced that the show would be paired with 7th Heaven, Sundays at 7:00 p.m., beginning later that month.[137]Reba encores were scheduled for Sundays at 7:00 p.m. ET/PT, with a new episode at 7:30 p.m. Reba became the top-rated sitcom on the CW, also surpassing the dramas Supernatural, One Tree Hill, and Veronica Mars.[138] The final episode aired on February 18, 2007. Reba set a new all-time viewership record for any program on the WB's Friday night (best-ever Friday in women 18–49). During its five seasons on the Friday night lineup, it often ranked 4th in its timeslot (ahead of both UPN and Fox), with a few episodes bringing in over 5 million viewers. Reba's premiere on The CW Sunday averaged 4.02 million viewers, including 1.64 million viewers and 40 percent among adults 18–49 more than when Everybody Hates Chris and All of Us premiered in the same time slot, thus making Reba the highest rated sitcom on the network. With Reba as a lead in, 7th Heaven saw a season high of 4.51 million viewers. Reba was averaging 3,630,000 viewers since the beginning of its sixth season, making it the seventh most-watched show and the most-watched sitcom on The CW throughout the 2006–07 television season. The new Reba episodes vary as being either sixth or seventh most-watched program on the network, sometimes ranking as high as #3 for the week. Throughout The CW's inaugural season (2006–07), no other program had higher viewer turnout for repeat airings than Reba. As a result of the lackluster ratings for encores of the summer drama Hidden Palms, repeats of Reba returned to the CW's schedule in June 2007 after being absent for three months, and they immediately became the most-watched program of the night. Later in the summer, repeats of Reba were the most-viewed program on the CW network.
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^Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 103–104. ISBN978-1476665993.
^Josef Adalian (July 21, 1999). "Frog web, WBTV synch on synergy". Variety. Retrieved 2016-08-11. Kellner and WB Entertainment prexy Susanne Daniels backed up the positive words with definitive action, formalizing a 13-episode commitment to a fall 2000 laffer to be created and exec produced by Bruce Helford ("The Drew Carey Show") with Nikki Cox ("Unhappily Ever After") as star.
^Brian Lowry (May 14, 2001). "Networks Fine-Tuning Fall Lineups". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2016-08-11. The WB... Two new sitcoms--"Men, Women and Dogs," with comic Bill Bellamy, and "Off Center," a buddy comedy from the producers of the movie "American Pie"--will join "The Steve Harvey Show" and "Nikki" on Sunday nights.
^Josef Adalian (January 22, 2002). "WB nixes 'Nikki' in its 2nd season". Variety. Retrieved 2016-08-11. Nineteen segs will be produced, down from the 22 the Frog had ordered from Warner Bros. Television... A total of 41 episodes will have been produced when the show wraps.
