WB relaunches online
As much as Warner Bros. would like the Web-resurrected WB to represent its own name, the network's new incarnation brings to mind a different WB: Weekend at Bernie's. Never before has a dead brand been so convincingly reanimated.
Fitting for the network that gave us "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" that the WB is now the undead, opening the coffin on a slew of teen-targeted TV series including "The O.C.," "One Tree Hill" and "Dawson's Creek." Its a pretty potent cache of VOD options that rivals only Hulu in its selection of full-length episodes. And there's even some original material on the way, including McG's "Sorority Forever."
But what may be more notable about WB.com, which premieres Wednesday, isn't so much what shows it has to offer, but what it allows viewers to do with this content beyond passive watching. There's a slew of added features including a nifty search engine that allows you to search the archives by dialogue snippets to a not-quite-nifty mash-up tool that allows you to blend scenes from different shows for god knows what reason.
WB.com is a very shrewd move by Warner Bros., which wasn't about to stuff Michigan J. Frog and mount his head over WB Televsion Group president Bruce Rosenblum's fireplace given the vitality still to be unlocked in this brand. Had WB tried a savvier Web strategy 10 years ago, it could have avoided its conjoined fate with UPN as CW, the most frightening crossbreed since the puggle.
(Andrew Wallenstein)
