thefifthnetwork

[thefifthnetwork]

Week 5: Motorcycles and Thefts

This week we've got stolen lungs, a stolen TV, and two different stories involving motorcycles.

This is part of a project where I watch The WB and UPN on a 30 year delay. This is crossposted from my website, where you can find an interactive schedule for both networks, including where you can watch these shows today.

Monday February 6, 1995 Star Trek: Voyager S1E05: "Phage" - 8 PM on UPN

Don't you just hate it when an alien steals your lungs? This week's Voyager introduces the Vidiians, an alien species that's restored to stealing organs to try to combat a deadly disease (the titular phage).

The Vidiians will return at some point, but the focus here was really more on the Doctor starting to stretch the bounds of his programmed duties by creatively finding a stopgap solution to save Neelix, and then on Neelix himself dealing with the possibility of living indefinitely with holographic lungs. I'll link my friend @elimgarakdemocrat's recent post on Neelix here that was sparked by rewatching this episode with me [1].

Platypus Man E03: "The Apartment Show" - 9 PM on UPN

I generally liked the A plot of this episode about Paige wanting a baby and trying to find a sperm donor. The B plot about Richard trying to keep his rent controlled apartment when his ex-girlfriend's name is on the lease was more meh. The quality of the recording I was watching was also awful, with static-y audio throughout and occasional skips, so as an actual viewing experience, this was kind of unpleasant. Speaking of unpleasant...

Pig Sty E03: "Iowa vs. New York" - 9:30 PM on UPN

Actually, this week's Pig Sty was fine. The A plot about Iowa's misadventures in attempting to get cable legally was a perfectly okay sitcom story. The B plot about Cal stealing socks from an old man was weird but a pretty small part of the episode as a whole.

One bone to pick: the boys apparently need cable to watch Tess play a minor character in an episode of Voyager, but UPN should have been available over-the-air for free like other broadcast networks. Both new networks certainly had issues with getting affiliates to cover the whole country, but New York had UPN flagship station WWOR-TV for the network's entire existence. Am I misunderstanding something here, or was this just a plot contrivance that I'm reading too much into?

Tuesday February 7, 1995 Marker E04: "High & Wild" - 8 PM on UPN

In this week's Marker, Richard helps an up and coming baseball pitcher and the wife he's in the process of divorcing. The pitcher is attacked by someone on a motorcycle, and his wife's recent interest in them makes her a prime suspect.

I don't know what it is about this show, but I find myself fully engaged with pretty much every episode, even though I can't really find anything special about the show as a whole.

The Watcher E04: "A Change of Heart" - 9 PM on UPN

Wednesday February 8, 1995 The Wayans Bros. S1E05: "My Fair Marlon" - 8 PM on The WB

I was lukewarm on this week's Wayans Bros at first, where Shawn plays Cyrano to help Marlon woo a girl, but I thought the ending in the restaurant was really strong. Sidenote, but I loved Lisa's outfit in the scene where she discovers the love letter Shawn wrote on behalf of Marlon [2].

The Parent 'Hood S1E04: "Crappy Anniversary" - 8:30 PM on The WB

This week's episode of The Parent 'Hood felt a bit disjointed, though I think some of that might be some poorly timed ad breaks from Tubi. The A plot has Robert unwisely pretending to forget his and Jerri's anniversary [3], which backfires when a blizzard cancels his elaborate actual plans. The B-plot here involves Zaria loaning Michael the money to buy a 3DO [4] and making him earn back the money in increasingly embarrassing ways.

Definitely the weakest episode so far, but the cast and overall writing quality keeps even a meh episode of The Parent 'Hood enjoyable.

Unhappily Ever After S1E05: "Jack The Ripper" - 9 PM on The WB

Unhappily Ever After continues to have the occasional decent joke buried under mountains of misanthropy, sexism, and just general mean-spiritedness. This week's episode revolves around Jennifer's mother, who everyone in the family hates [5]. Jack accidentally(?) hits her with his new motorcycle. There's then an extended sequence of Jack's various fantasies of killing her, which honestly might be the episode's strongest part? Anyway, this show remains at the top of my list to drop when the schedule gets busier in the fall.

Muscle: "Episode 6" - 9:30 PM on The WB

Next week, we get one more new show from this first season, as there's actually an episode of The Watcher that I've been able to find a source for.

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It refers specifically to the events of the fourth season episode "Mortal Coil", but it definitely applies more broadly. I'd forgotten an episode this early was so dark for Neelix, since I know there's another dark Neelix episode coming up towards the end of this season. ↩

See the header image for this post ↩

At the suggestion of his friends Wendell (Faizon Love) and Derek (Bobby McGee), who have appeared previously, but I don't think I've mentioned them, probably because they're the weakest part of the show. ↩

It really tightly dates this episode that the 3DO could have been the hot new game console, since it was released in late 1993 and was pretty much immediately obsoleted by the PlayStation, which released in September 1995 in North America. ↩

Seemingly even more than they all hate each other. ↩

[thefifthnetwork]

Week 4: Let's Do the Causal Loop Again

We're settling into a groove here with all of this season's shows now premiered and I feel like I'm starting to get enough of a feel of each to decide which I like and which I don't beyond the context of an individual episode.

This is part of a project where I watch The WB and UPN on a 30 year delay. This is crossposted from my website, where you can find an interactive schedule for both networks, including where you can watch these shows today.

Monday January 30, 1995 Star Trek: Voyager S1E04: "Time and Again" - 8 PM on UPN

Voyager is in some ways to more difficult to write about here since I've seen it before. Unless an episode is particularly good or particularly bad, it feels like there's not a whole lot to say except for "that's a Voyager episode."

I think this week's was decent, though I do find it interesting that two of Voyager's first three episodes involve a causal loop. I think the loop here is somewhat more interesting than last week's, but there's much less character work here, so the episode as a whole is probably weaker.

Platypus Man E02: "9½ Days" - 9 PM on UPN

After being criticized in the bedroom as "conventional" by the new woman he's dating, Richard has a lot of the kinkiest sex 90s broadcast television can depict. Meanwhile, Paige's overbearing parents are in town, and she pretends to be engaged to Richard to get them off her back about marriage. The two plots combine for a lot of Paige's parents finding Richard in compromising situations.

Overall, a better episode than last week, but this still feels like a replacement-level sitcom. Last week, I thought this felt like Kirkland-brand Seinfeld, but based on the scenes of Richard in the confession booth, I guess that makes this [1] Wegman's-brand Seinfeld?

Pig Sty E02: "Beauty & the Beasts" - 9:30 PM on UPN

Tess's apartment is broken into, and while the boys are checking it out, Randy finds what he thinks is her diary. He attempts to use it to get with her, but it turns out it's her twelve-year-old sister's. My main feeling on this show so far is that I find pretty much all of the boys unpleasant and annoying.

Tuesday January 31, 1995 Marker E03: "Cloud Warriors" - 8 PM on UPN

After Pipeline finds a dead body while surfing, his grandmother tasks him with finding the killer [2] and enlists Richard's help via a marker given to her late husband. [3] Another decent episode and it's nice to see Gates McFadden actually get something to do.

The Watcher E03: "Heartburned" - 9 PM on UPN

Wednesday February 1, 1995 The Wayans Bros. S1E04: "Free Wally" - 8 PM on The WB

The Parent 'Hood S1E03: "Pizza Man" - 8:30 PM on The WB

Unhappily Ever After S1E04: "The Bigger They Are, The Harder They Fall" - 9 PM on The WB

The WB sitcoms all continued along their respective trajectories this week. The Wayans Bros is decent as Shawn and Lisa try and fail to get away from Marlon by spending an evening on a boat. While not quite as good as last week's episode, The Parent 'Hood remains the strongest of the bunch as Robert tries to teach Michael a lesson by working his job at a military-themed pizza parlor [4]. Unhappily Ever After remains my least favorite as Jennifer's quest to get money for a boob job causes her to find out her engagement ring is fake.

Muscle: "Episode 5" - 9:30 PM on The WB

That's it for this week!

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*googles for grocery stores owned by catholics* ↩

There's a lot here about the spiritual beliefs of Pipeline's family, but I'm not sure whether any of it is authentic to any actual Native Hawaiian beliefs, or if this is a situation similar to Chakotay ↩

Apparently the very first marker Richard's father gave out ↩

The assistant manager (Gilbert Gottfried) turns out to be a former student of Robert's who he had failed ↩

[thefifthnetwork]

Week 3: Don't Upset Luau Tony

We're fully into the swing of things this week, as UPN's last two launch shows premiere.

This is part of a project where I watch The WB and UPN on a 30 year delay. This is crossposted from my website, where you can find an interactive schedule for both networks, including where you can watch these shows today.

Monday January 23, 1995 Star Trek: Voyager S1E03: "Parallax" - 8 PM on UPN

Voyager is a show where I tend to find the characters much more interesting than the episodes they appear in [1], and I think that this episode is a good example. The space-anomaly-of-the-week here is just fine, but we get some great character moments, particularly for B'Elanna, who's probably my favorite Voyager character.

Platypus Man E01: "Pilot" - 9 PM on UPN

For UPN's first sitcom, we get something that feels like "we have Seinfeld at home" to me. Platypus Man follows Richard Jeni playing a fictionalized version of himself, along with his best friend Lou Golembiewski (Ron Orbach), brother Tommy (David Dundara), and sportswriter neighbor Paige McAllister (Denise Miller).

There's a frame story where Richard hosts a cooking show for single men [2], and then the bulk of the episode focuses on his relationship with Wendy, a masseuse. Richard becomes jealous when Lou, Tommy, and Paige [3] each in turn receive a massage from her, and then the story ends when Wendy decides to move back to Seattle for better coffee.

Pig Sty E01: "...And This Little Piggy Moved Out" - 9:30 PM on UPN

Pig Sty follows five men sharing an apartment in New York City. The main cast here is:

Randy Fitzgerald (Brian McNamara) - a struggling writer/bartender

Johnny Barzano (Matthew Borlenghi) - an assistant DA who moves out at the start of this episode, but returns after being a terrible fiancé

P.J. Morris (Timothy Fall) - a trust fund kid who plays the guitar and lives off of his family's tobacco fortune

Cal Evans (David Arnott) - a slovenly and corrupt ad executive

Joe "Iowa" Dantley (Sean O'Bryan) - a medical resident from Iowa who moves in when Johnny initially moves out

Tess Gallaway (Liz Vassey) - a struggling actress and the building super who Randy sexually harasses in a way that the show seems to think is charming

The action of this episode is mainly just setup for how all five men end up sharing an apartment, but so far it's not great.

Overall, if these episodes are representative of what the rest of the season is like for UPN's sitcoms, I see why they were both cancelled.

Tuesday January 24, 1995 Marker E02: "Frank & Mike's" - 8 PM on UPN

I thought this was a solid episode. The marker this week comes from Stan Wheeler (Guy Boyd), a former employee of Richard's dad who may or may not have taken a fall for him and is now in prison. He asks Richard to check in on his daughter Courtney (Jennifer Bransford), who's gotten involved with mobster Frank (Nick Corello).

There's a definite cheesiness to this show, and while I'm not sure how intentional it was at the time, with the distance of thirty years, I think it ultimately works well as a fun, cheesy show. Shoutout to the mob boss in this episode Luau Tony (Joe Viterelli), who is pretty much exactly what you'd picture if you transplanted a stock mafioso character into a Hawaiian setting.

The Watcher E02: "Resurrection" - 9 PM on UPN

Wednesday January 25, 1995 The Wayans Bros. S1E03: "I'm Too Sexy for My Brother" - 8 PM on The WB

This episode's plot (Marlon and Shawn start modeling) is nothing particularly special, but the general joke writing and delivery is strong, so great episode!

The Parent 'Hood S1E02: "The Rake, the Fake and the Gopher Snake" - 8:30 PM on The WB

This one is excellent! Michael's womanizing friend Troy (Deon Richmond) takes an interest in Zaria to the dismay of Michael and Robert. Zaria dislikes Troy, but feigns interest in him to mess with her brother and father. Younger son Nicholas (Curtis Williams) gets a pet snake, but loses it and replaces it with a rubber one to keep Jerri from finding out. She then sees the fake, thinks it's dead, and attempts to replace it with a new, real snake.

Everything comes together nicely and I was laughing throughout. Definitely the best thing I've watched for this project so far, and I recommend checking it out.

Unhappily Ever After S1E03: "Jack's First Date" - 9 PM on The WB

Another one I didn't particularly care for. Jack goes on a date with Ryan's teacher, but Jennifer won't let him borrow the car. Seemed like there was even more sexism than the past two episodes, and there was also a pretty awful racist joke about Jack's neighbor. Unless there's some significant improvement as this season goes on, this is probably first on the list to drop when the total weekly schedule expands to four days in the fall.

Muscle: "Episode 4" - 9:30 PM on The WB

Both networks now have their schedules set for the rest of the season, so the next few weeks should follow the same format.

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Which is probably why I tend to read more Voyager fanfic than, say DS9 ↩

With a sidekick played by Voyager's Ethan Phillips. ↩

The other characters imply that Paige might be gay in this episode, but I'm pretty sure it's all just part of Richard's jealousy and that it won't be brought up again. We're still two years from "The Puppy Episode", so I doubt a network sitcom would introduce a queer main character in its pilot. ↩

[thefifthnetwork]

Week 2: UPN Signs On

We're on Week 2 of this project, but it's the first week where we actually get programming from both networks. Unlike The WB, which started with only one night of programming (all sitcoms), UPN launched with two nights of primarily dramas [1].

This is part of a project where I watch The WB and UPN on a 30 year delay. This is crossposted from my website, where you can find an interactive schedule for both networks, including where you can watch these shows today.

Monday January 16, 1995 Star Trek: Voyager S1E01/02: "Caretaker" - 8 PM on UPN

As I mentioned in my introduction post, Star Trek: Voyager is one of the only shows on either of these networks that I had seen before prior to starting this project. However, I initially watched it in a binge in February and March of 2020, so it will be interesting to see how it fares watching it more slowly.

Star Trek pilots tend to get a bad rap, but I'm now wondering if that's just "Encounter at Farpoint" [2], since I thought this worked really well [3]. It did a good job of establishing the main characters, and the episode's story was also pretty solid [4].

Tuesday January 17, 1995 Marker E01: "Pilot" - 8 PM on UPN

While three of the four shows The WB launched with ended up lasting five seasons, UPN's launch titles were far less lucky. Aside from Voyager, every show that premiered on UPN in 1995 was cancelled after one season.

Marker is fine, I guess. It follows Richard DeMorra (Richard Grieco), a carpenter who travels to Hawaii to attend his estranged billionaire father's funeral. After helping a friend of his father's find her sister, he decides to stay and fulfill "markers" that his father had given to people he owed favors, in part to learn more about his father. Rounding out the main cast are Gates McFadden [5] as Kimba, Richard's father's widow and Andy Bumatai as Danny "Pipeline" Kahala, a surfer living on the land Richard's father left to him.

Overall, this was fine, at least as a pilot. It will be interesting to see how it does next week when it's not doing a marker-of-the-week story and all of the pilot setup.

The Watcher E01: "Pilot" - 9 PM on UPN

The other UPN show to premiere this week was The Watcher, but I've only managed to find two episodes of it online, and neither is the pilot, so I'll have to wait until next month to watch it.

Wednesday January 18, 1995 The Wayans Bros. S1E02: "First Class" - 8 PM on The WB

And now we get our first non-premiere of the project, as well as our first experience dealing with the whims of streaming services. When I put the data for this site together a few months ago, The Wayans Bros was streaming on both Hulu and Max, both of which I have. Hulu lost the rights at the beginning of the year, but Max still had it when I watched the pilot last week. Unfortunately, now it's gone from Max too, so I might need to become the world's whitest person with a BET+ subscription to watch this show [6].

As for the episode itself, I quite liked this one. Shawn and Marlon take Pops to the airport where Marlon is mistaken for Knicks player John Starks by an airline employee. The boys end up in first class and hijinks ensue with the flight crew and the first class passengers. My favorite gag was on the ground though when Marlon has some trouble with a metal detector.

The Parent 'Hood S1E01: "Ring Around the Nosey" - 8:30 PM on The WB

This week, we also get the first episode of the last of the four sitcoms that The WB launched with. The Parent 'Hood follows Robert Peterson (Robert Townsend) and his wife Jerri (Suzzanne Douglas) as they raise their four kids in Manhattan.

This episode jumped right into its A-plot, Michael (Kenny Blank) and Zaria (Reagan Gomez-Preston), the two older kids, scheme to try to get their grandmother's old car. Their plan to trick their parents by first asking for a nose ring and a tattoo goes well at first, until Robert and Jerri overhear them gloating and decide to call their bluff.

The B-plot about the sex life of elderly neighbor Mrs. Wilcox (Carol Woods) is weaker, but this felt like a very strong premiere for a family sitcom. The characters all play off of each other well, so I think I'll enjoy watching this over its five seasons.

I did notice a few cuts that felt very abrupt, so I hope there wasn't anything cut out from the version I watched on Tubi.

Unhappily Ever After S1E02: "Gift of the Magnovox" - 9 PM on The WB

I didn't care for this one. I mentioned last week that the first episode felt like it was playing a bit with its tropes, but this didn't, and the gags mostly fell flat for me. Jennifer refuses to give Jack one of the VCRs (even the broken one), so Jack buys a new one for his plays. He forgets their anniversary, so decides to give the new VCR as a gift. Jennifer also has one wrapped for Jack, but when it gets it back home, it's the broken one.

The kids were much less present in this one, but Jennifer's mom Maureen (Joyce Van Patten) was a bit more so. Apparently she killed Jennifer's childhood pets and also maybe her brother?

Muscle: "Episode 3" - 9:30 PM on The WB

Still no way to watch Muscle, so that's it for this week. Next week, with Voyager back to a normal one-hour timeslot, we get the premieres of UPN's first two sitcoms.

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This week it's all dramas, since UPN's 9 PM Monday comedy block was preempted by the two hour Voyager premiere. ↩

The TNG pilot ↩

Separate from this project, I recently started a DS9 rewatch with some friends, and its pilot is also pretty great. ↩

Aside from the weird anti-welfare aspect. I guess it is the 90s. ↩

I wonder if there was any cross-promotion to TNG fans that tuned into UPN for Voyager. John de Lancie also starred in an early UPN show that we'll get to this summer. ↩

I got a free trial for this week. Despite The WB and UPN both having a large number of Black sitcoms, this seems to be the only one that's on BET+ right now, so I don't think I can justify the expense for five years of just one show. Once the trial ends, I'll need to decide whether to buy episodes digitally, try to track down DVDs, or look into other ways that might exist. ↩

[thefifthnetwork]

Week 1: Flammable Hair Gel and a Talking Rabbit

For this first week, we only have one night of programming from The WB, as UPN didn't start until the 16th. Additionally, the second hour of The WB block was devoted to the first two episodes of Muscle, a short-lived soap opera parody that I'm unable to find any episodes of online, so we just have two sitcoms to start us off.

This is part of a project where I watch The WB and UPN on a 30 year delay. This is crossposted from my website, where you can find an interactive schedule for both networks, including where you can watch these shows today.

Wednesday January 11, 1995 The Wayans Bros. S1E01: "Goop-Hair-It-Is" - 8 PM on The WB

The first show to air on The WB was with The Wayans Bros., a sitcom about Shawn and Marlon Williams (played by the titular Shawn and Marlon Wayans), two brothers living in New York City. Also in the main cast are their diner-owning father (John Witherspoon) and Shawn's girlfriend Lisa (Lela Rochon).

The plot of this episode involves the brothers hosting an infomercial on public-access TV to sell a hair product called "Goop, Hair-It-Is" that Marlon created. They recruit Gary Coleman (appearing as himself) to be a celebrity endorsement [1] things seem to be going well until everyone's hair begins smoking [2] live on the air. Hijinks ensue.

Overall, a replacement-level sitcom episode, but it will be interesting to see how the show develops over its five seasons.

Unhappily Ever After S1E01: "Pilot" - 8:30 PM on The WB

Ron Leavitt co-created Married... with Children, which helped launch the Fox network, so it makes sense that The WB would go to him for one of their launch shows.

Unhappily Ever After is about Jack and Jennifer Malloy (Geoff Pierson and Stephanie Hodge), a couple in the process of divorcing, and their kids Ryan (Kevin Connolly), Tiffany (Nikki Cox), and Ross (Justin Berfield [3]). There's also a talking stuffed rabbit, Mr. Floppy [4].

I enjoyed this one more, though that may be partly due to this pilot better establishing its show's premise. There's a very 90s-misogyny/I-hate-my-wife vibe to it, but it also kinda felt like it was parodying those tropes? Maybe I'm giving it too much credit, but, overall the jokes landed with me. [5]

I did notice a prominent use of the r-slur by the rabbit in the end credits scene. I feel like that's the sort of thing I could keep a running counter for as I enter this world of nineties and aughts TV [6].

Muscle: "Episode 1" - 9 PM on The WB

Muscle: "Episode 2" - 9:30 PM on The WB

As I mentioned in the opening, I haven't been able to find any full episodes of this show online, so I'm not able to watch it. I did find the opening credits at least [7]. If anyone reading this knows of some source for it, please let me know.

That it for this week. UPN starts next week with programming on both Mondays and Tuesdays, and most of it is actually available in some form, plus we get one more WB sitcom added to the mix, so next week's schedule has a bit more for us to watch. See you then!

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After Marlon kidnaps and then fails to recruit SNL-star Garrett Morris, also appearing as himself. ↩

Marlon reveals that the ingredients were Vaseline, bacon fat, and Drano. ↩

Didn't recognize him during the show, but he played Reese on Malcolm in the Middle ↩

Voiced by Bobcat Goldthwait and puppeted by Allan Trautman ↩

I particularly liked the bit where the kids are at school and Ryan asks whether "all the girls are lesbians" because he can't get a date. Having each girl he points at immediately cling to the girl next to her made it clear that the joke is that Ryan is an asshole, not anything homophobic. ↩

Transphobic jokes would be the other big one, but I didn't catch any in either sitcom episode I watched this week, so that's nice, I guess. ↩

Huh, Alan Ruck was in this ↩

[thefifthnetwork]

About This Project

The Fifth Network is a project where I watch The WB and UPN on a 30 year delay. The WB and UPN were both attempts to launch a fifth broadcast television network in the United States in 1995 following the success of Fox (the fourth broadcast network) in the prior decade.

While a single fifth broadcast network might have been successful given the TV landscape of the late 90s, the two simultaneously-launched fledgling networks largely ended up competing with each other rather than challenging the Big 3 or Fox. While both networks had some successful shows, they constantly lost money, and both threw in the towel in 2006 after 11.5 years, replaced with The CW, a new single fifth network co-owned by Time Warner and CBS (the final owners of The WB and UPN, respectively).

The Project

Who are you?

My name is Jen Lastnameredacted (she/her). You can follow me on Tumblr @nullpointerintime or on Bluesky @nullptrintime.bsky.social.

Is this a nostalgia thing?

Nope! I was only 10 when The WB and UPN ended, and I didn't watch anything on either network while they were actually on the air. Prior to starting this project, the only UPN shows I had watched were Voyager and Enterprise [1] and the only WB show I had watched was the first season of Supernatural [2].

Why then?

I find this period of TV history fascinating. It's a transitional period where there was clearly more demand for TV shows than the Big 3 could fulfill (as demonstrated by the success of Fox and various first-run syndicated shows), but TV itself was also changing as you started seeing more serialization in stories and eventually fully serialized shows.

Maybe a single fifth network could have found a sustainable place in the TV ecosystem, but the hubris of media executives launching two new networks ultimately doomed them both. By the time they got their act together and merged in 2006, the broadcast landscape was firmly established as a Big 4 (now including Fox) and cable networks were now also producing their own series.

Like its parents, The CW found modest success with niche audiences [3] but continued to constantly lose money. Sports seem to be the only thing people are willing to watch live these days, so maybe pivot to live sports that The CW's new ownership is making will pay off? [4].

Meanwhile, the whole cycle has repeated with streaming, as Netflix became the Fox that demonstrated the new market and then every other media company assumed they could replicate that success with their own streaming service even if they all launched at the same time.

Anyway... another goal of this project is to force myself to watch shows without bingeing them. In August 2023, I started watching Survivor, and by the end of the year I had watched all of Survivor. Shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer have been on my list for forever, but I don't want to just watch all seven seasons in a blur. This project forces me to slow down while also giving me a sampler of a wide variety of other shows I might not otherwise watch.

Will you watch everything that aired on these two networks then?

Definitely not. For one, it's literally impossible, as there are some shows where I'm unable to find a source to watch them today. Aside from that, I do expect to end up watching most of what aired for the first year or so while both networks were limited to just a day or two of programming each week. As the schedules expand to more days, I'll probably continue watching roughly the same amount each week and be more willing to drop shows that I'm not feeling.

These are the rules I'll generally try to keep myself to:

I should watch a least a couple hours of programming each week, unless everything scheduled is either unavailable or a rerun of something I've already seen.

I should watch at least one episode of each show that aired on The WB or UPN and is available in some form. This will typically be the pilot, unless the pilot is unavailable and some other episode(s) are.

For shows that last more than one season, I should generally check in with them at least once per season, even if I'm not watching otherwise. This rule is relaxed for reality shows.

This whole project is supposed to be fun though, so I reserve the right to change these rules if they become too restrictive. No guarantees that I actually finish all 11.5 years either. If I finish this project I'll literally be 40 when it's done. Even if I'm still fully enjoying it, it's possible that it becomes too much work to continue depending on what else is going on in my life. If this project becomes a chore rather than something I enjoy...

When are new recaps posted?

A recap post of what I watched in the preceding week will be posted when it's Saturday thirty years ago, since neither network ever scheduled anything in primetime on Saturdays (even The CW only started scheduling Saturdays in the past few years).

This means that recaps will initially go out on Tuesdays in the present day. Due to leap years and 30 not being a multiple of 4, this will switch between Mondays and Tuesdays in March of every even year.

The new networks didn't expand to Thursdays and Fridays until Fall 1998, so posts may occasionally go up earlier if I finish a week's writeup early.

How strict are you about watching week-by-week?

I won't watch any episodes from beyond the week I'm currently on. A large part of the motivation for this project was to avoid binge watching, so I plan to be fairly strict on this.

That being said, I may occasionally watch ahead of the actual 30-year gap in order to build up a buffer before some weeks where I know I'll be traveling or otherwise too busy. Posts will still go up 30 years later, and I'll make sure to finish one week's watching completely before moving on to the next one. I expect this to be particularly common with summer reruns where there is less to watch and it's easier to just batch weeks together in my actual watching.

Within each week, I'm giving myself flexibility to watch in whatever order works best to allow for things like coordinating watching a particular show with friends, or leaving shows I'm marginal on/have already seen until the end of the week if I have time.

What's your spoiler policy?

Since I'm watching week-by-week anyway, I won't even know any spoilers for future episodes of most shows, but for the few shows I have watched before, I'll try to avoid any explicit spoilers. I may discuss vague spoilers around the direction of shows to the extent I'm aware of them. How long each show actually runs is obvious from the embedded schedules, so that's completely fair game.

I'm watching 30-year-old shows here, so I don't expect to completely avoid spoilers, but I'd appreciate it if you don't send explicit spoilers for something I'm watching directly to me. Things like "you'll really like where this show ends up going" or "you should definitely make sure to watch this episode" are great though! I'd prefer if you don't tell me bad things about the future direction of shows I'm enjoying though. Let me be disappointed when I get to the bad stuff rather than preemptively telling me something sucks.

The Website

While I'm cross-posting on Tumblr, my posts about this project primarily go up on my website, which includes interactive schedule elements that can't be included in Tumblr posts.

In addition to the specific elements embedded in these posts, the site also contains a fully interactive schedule for the entire runs of both networks, which you can browse here.

The Tumblr versions of each recap post will include text-based versions of the relative schedule entries, with links to the interactive versions on the site.

What's included and what's not?

Every primetime schedule slot for The WB and UPN should be filled, and I also filled The CW's schedule for the rest of 2006, as well as most airings of most WB/UPN shows that continued on The CW for the rest of their run. Initial airings of episodes that premiered on another network and later re-ran on The WB or UPN are included in infoboxes, but won't appear on the calendar.

The following is not included:

anything that aired outside of primetime (8-10 PM on weekdays; 7-10 PM on Sundays)

any shows or specials that premiered on The CW in 2007 or later

any continuations of WB/UPN shows on other networks, including airings of episodes that were ordered for WB/UPN, but never aired on them

new episodes of WB/UPN reality shows on The CW in 2007 or later

Supernatural season 6 and later (I didn't feel like adding all 15 seasons, especially given only one season aired on The WB, and season 5 seemed like a decent stopping point).

some reruns of other WB/UPN shows in 2007 or later

Where-to-watch info is added on an ad-hoc basis. I did a cursory search for streaming and DVD availability of all shows, but I've only searched more extensively for shows that I will be watching soon. All streaming info is for the United States; if you live outside the US, you'll need to look up availability on your own. If a given show is available on multiple services of the same type (paid, subscription, and free), I may not include all of them, especially for shows that I won't get to for a while, given availability changes regularly.

Links to taped episodes on YouTube or the Internet Archive are only included when I'm unable to find a legal streaming service or in-print DVD. I don't host pirated content on this site, but I don't have any qualms about linking to it when it's the only way to watch it.

Where did the data come from?

All schedule data was manually compiled by me from a variety of online sources, particularly TV Tango, IMDb, TheTVDB, and Wikipedia. These webpages by Aaron Greenhouse were also useful references.

When sources conflicted, I made judgement calls/guessed to decide what to include. I'm fairly confident that I got the airdates and times for most first-run episodes right, but reruns may be less accurate. Some reruns only list a show rather than a specific episode. If you have evidence that I got something wrong, please send it to me here.

What do the different colors and indicators mean?

Purple schedule entries are for UPN. Yellow schedule entries are for The WB. Green schedule entries are for The CW. Most reruns will use faded versions of the network's color [5].

The interactive schedules on the website include additional indicators, such as when a given schedule entry is the last known airing of a given episode. See the website version of this post for more details.

Example schedule that demonstrates these elements:

Monday January 18, 1999 Malcolm & Eddie S3E05: "Dream Girl" - 8 PM on UPN 7th Heaven S3E12: "All That Jazz" - 8 PM on The WB Guys Like Us E12: "Good Old Days" - 8:30 PM on UPN The Sentinel S1E01: "The Switchman" - 9 PM on UPN Buffy the Vampire Slayer S3E06: "Band Candy" - 9 PM on The WB

Can I browse the calendar if I don't have JavaScript enabled?

Clicking on a schedule entry relies on JavaScript to dynamically generate the infobox, but you can see pre-rendered calendars for each year here and pre-rendered infoboxes for each show here.

How can I follow you to see when new recaps are posted?

You can follow this blog on Tumblr, where I post auto-generated conversions of each new post here. You don't get the interactivity of the embedded schedule, but each post will appear on your dashboard. I also post a link to each new post on the site's Bluesky account.

At some point, I'll try to get an RSS feed up on this site directly. If that's something you're interested in, let me know so I can prioritize it.

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Both binge-watched in 2020 ↩

Binge-watched during high school, because I was active enough on Tumblr back then that of course I did. ↩

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend my beloved ↩

Hearing about college football on The CW was one of the sparks that got the idea for this project going in my mind. ↩

The exception is when an episode premiered on a different network. In that case, the first time that episode is aired on WB/UPN, it will be colored like a first-run episode. ↩