We Miss You, Michigan J. Frog…
One of my absolute favorite television genres (no judgment, please) is the teen drama. It doesn’t matter how old I get, there will always be something comforting about watching characters partake in coming-of-age journeys, young love, and all of the excitement and uncertainties of growing up.
While The WB network (which existed from 1995 to 2006) featured shows of many different genres, it was arguably most well-known for bringing a number of classic teen dramas to our screens. As such, when I set out to make a few graphs celebrating the brilliance of The WB (which I regard with a high degree of 90s / 00s nostalgia), I had to start by taking a look at the dramas that ran on the network (see above graph).
Of all the dramas that ran on The WB, the top three in terms of number of episodes that aired on The WB (not including episodes that aired on other networks like UPN or The CW) were:
7th Heaven (221 episodes aired on The WB)
Charmed (178 episodes aired on The WB)
Gilmore Girls (131 episodes aired on The WB).
If I loosen the criteria to also include episodes that aired on other networks, the top three becomes:
7th Heaven (243 total episodes, spanning The WB and The CW)
Smallville (217 total episodes, spanning The WB and The CW)
One Tree Hill (187 total episodes, spanning The WB and The CW)
Topping both lists, 7th Heaven truly was a powerhouse for The WB. Its highest rated season bested the highest rated season of every other show displayed on the above graph. Unlike a lot of The WB’s programming that was geared toward teens, 7th Heaven was designed to be a family show. The Camden family’s Christian faith anchored many of 7th Heaven’s plotlines, and shows often included lessons for its viewers.
The WB hung onto the show for a bit longer than what was probably in the show’s best interest from a quality standpoint. By the final few seasons of the show, most of the series’ main cast members had moved on to other projects, and the show’s consistency seemed to drop alongside the cast changes. In an interesting move, just after the merger between UPN and The WB (to form the new CW network), The CW chose to renew the show for an eleventh season… after the show had already aired what was marketed as the show’s “series finale.” Did the show really need an eleventh season? Probably not, but it is understandable why The CW would want to try to squeeze a few more droplets of life out of a reliable property. Ratings continued to drop following the move to The CW, and the show’s eleventh season was its last.
There’s a lot that can be said about many of the other shows on the above graph, as they were shows that truly defined The WB network in the 1990s and early 2000s - and in some cases, even could be said to have helped define the generations which they represented. Dawson’s Creek, as an example, was a true cultural phenomenon in its time (and was the show from the above list with the second-highest single season Nielsen rating, behind only 7th Heaven). And Buffy The Vampire Slayer, though never quite reaching the ratings numbers of 7th Heaven and Dawson’s Creek, has carved out its place in TV history as a show that has had one of the biggest lasting impacts on modern pop culture, across multiple eras and genres.
Switching gears to comedies, the graph below takes a look at The WB’s comedy programs that aired the most episodes:
While the WB’s dramas tended to have longer runs compared to its comedies, there are certainly many sitcom gems on the above list that are worth remembering.
From the above list of comedies, the top three in terms of number of episodes that aired on The WB were:
The Steve Harvey Show (122 episodes on The WB)
Reba (114 episodes on The WB)
The Wayans Brothers (101 episodes on The WB)
Including the counts from episodes that aired on other networks, the top three become:
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (163 total episodes, spanning ABC and The WB)
Reba (127 total episodes, spanning The WB and The CW)
The Steve Harvey Show (122 episodes, all on The WB)
The Steve Harvey Show was a staple of The WB’s comedy lineup, running for six seasons and notching a spot on both of the above lists. While the show’s ratings never quite reached the ranks of The WB’s dramas (in its peak season, it nabbed 4.1 million viewers, which would put it in the bottom three if comparing against the dramas on the above graph), it still was one of the network’s flagship programs and won 14 NAACP Image Awards over the course of its run.
Reba also proved to be a huge success for the network, running for six seasons and later airing in syndication on ABC Family, CMT, Lifetime, TV Land, Ion Television, Peachtree TV, Freeform, The CW Plus, and The Hallmark Channel.
Of the thirteen WB comedies in the above graph, more than half (seven out of 13) centered around Black actors, actresses, and/or families. While network TV representation in the late 90s and early 00s wasn’t particularly known for its diversity, The WB provided an important home for Black-led sitcoms and entertainment. On the flip side, The WB’s dramas were not particularly known for their diversity. Hardly any Black actors or actresses played lead roles in the dramas shown in the above graph.
By the time of The WB’s merger with UPN, most of its sitcoms (with the exception of What I Like About You and Reba) and all of its Black-led comedies had already been cancelled years before, as the network’s content had notably shifted more towards teen dramas in the early 00s. Still, many of these beloved Black-led sitcoms paved the way for other shows to come and provided career-accelerating vehicles for the likes of Steve Harvey and Jamie Foxx.
The WB network lasted just over eleven years in total (January 11, 1995 - September 17, 2006). Although sadly retired as the network’s mascot a little over a year before The WB’s final sign-off, Michigan J. Fox (shown below) is arguably a 90s/00s icon in his own right. Perhaps his retirement as mascot was an omen we should have recognized at the time, indicating to us that the network we once knew may not be lasting for much longer.
Michigan J. Fox served as the mascot of The WB from 1995-2005 (though as a Warner Brothers character, he first appeared in 1955 in the animated short “One Froggy Evening.”
Source: YouTube
Watching old promos from The WB network feels in some ways like opening a time capsule from the late 90s / early 00s (for those curious, there are plenty of these promos available on YouTube, including the network’s final sign-off from 2006). You may notice that The WB’s final sign-off actually ends with a silhouette of Michigan J. Frog himself, despite the fact that it had been over a year since he had appeared in any of the network’s promotions. Even The WB execs seemed to realize that this little frog had come to symbolize both its network as a whole, as well as fan appreciation for its eleven years of beloved programming.
Final shot from when The WB network signed off the air in 2006. Farewell and Godspeed, Mr. Frog.
Source: YouTube