(Part 5 of 5) In the winter of 2006 CBS and Warner Brothers got together to create a new 5th network . . . The CW. You read right, I said 5th network. That's probably confusing you right now since you thought there were six major broadcast networks on the air last winter: ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, WB, UPN. Yes, that's true, but The CW was to do something unique to make it the 5th network. It was going to combine the programming of both the WB and UPN, eliminating those networks completely.
It sounded like a good idea at first. Take the best programming from both WB and UPN and put it on one network. No more jumping between the two networks to find the show you wanted to watch. No more confusion as to whether Veronica Mars was on WB or UPN. Plus, there was elimination of much of the mediocre crap that filled their weeknight schedules.
Like I said, it sounded like a good idea.
(Part 3 of 5) In our review of the top television stories of 2005 former TV Squad scribe Ryan J. Budke said this about TV on the Internet, "If you think that 2005 was big, wait 'til 2006 -- you ain't seen nothing yet." Boy howdy, was he correct! If 2005 was the year that TV came to the Internet, then 2006 was the year that it bought a home, settled in, and joined the local PTA. From pilots and first-run episodes to classic and canceled shows, television and the World Wide Web took one step closer to being officially married in 2006. And, we have one site on the Internet to thank for this explosion . . .
(Part 2 of 5) Leave it to the networks to take a good idea and copy it so many times, it runs the format into the ground. Remember what happened after the success of Seinfeld and Friends? We got show after show of groups of friends hanging out together, most of which were mediocre at best. The same thing happened this past fall; due to the success of 24, Lost, and Prison Break, viewers were greeted with a slew of serialized shows, supposedly playing out a single plot over a season or seasons. The shows were of every type, from comedies (Big Day) to tense kidnapping dramas (Kidnapped, Vanished).
(Part 1 of 5) It's the time of year when we talk about what happened over the past year, and that unfortunately includes the deaths of many notable personalities. After the jump is a list of the celebrities and other TV-related people we lost in 2006, in no particular order. (Note: it's not easy to compile a list like this and I'm sure I forgot someone. Let me know in the comments and I'll try to add them.)
TV Squad Ten: Top Ten ESPN shows from worst to first
Andy Richter: The TV Squad Interview
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