The end of an era

I can't help but wax nostalgic tonight as the WB signs off forever. Sure, I know, it's a pathetic network for lovesick teen girls. And yes, I know, most of the programming now lives on the new CW, the WB/UPN conglomerate merger offspring. It's not like all the shows are gone forever. But tonight as the WB aired old pilot episodes of Dawson's Creek, Buffy, Angel and... yes, as you know, my favorite... Felicity in a final-night attempt to pay tribute, I wonder what will happen to the WB part of me I hold so dear.

Somehow this helped the WB's final farewell feel like my final foray into adulthood. Those of us who WERE pathetic tv-addicted teenage girls watching the WB saw Felicity, Joey and Buffy as our peers. They were each a more glamorous, stronger, wiser, incredibly more eloquent version of ourselves. They weren't our role models. They were more like rose-colored mirrors. But the WB's signoff means Buffy, Joey and Felicity are going forever into the annals of TV history with Donna Martin, Jessie Spano and Natalie from the Facts of Life. What makes the WB girls different is their shows aren't just gone -- their entire network is too.

I don't know why this makes me so sad. Believe me, it's not the little frog with the top hat that I'll miss. He was actually kind of obnoxious. And hey, I used to make fun of the WB with the best of 'em. It's not even like I have a huge attachment to shows that are being transferred to CW (except Gilmore Girls and Top Model).

I guess it just feels like the end of an era. Do teen girls these days even have peers on TV like Felicity, Buffy and Joey? Where in the world of television are the lovesick teen girls who are maneuvering through the complications of college, seriously maiming a crapload of vampires or dealing with heavy issues like AIDS and... prom dates... from a front porch in Capeside? (Okay, maybe that last one doesn't sound so meritorious, but you get what I mean.) Today's teens are watching, what, Laguna Beach? The O.C.?

There was something about the girls on the WB that made you feel like you didn't have to take off your clothes or lose all your brains to be a successful, much-adored, well-adjusted teenage girl.

And again, there's something about the WB girls that's part of me now. It sounds really pathetic, I know, I know. But it feels like now that my girls are gone forever, my girlhood is too. And to that, most people would say, "Helloooooo Lisa. Welcome to reality." Well hello reality. The WB is gone. Let's just hope that the spirits of Felicity, Joey and Buffy - yes, as whiny as they were and as much as some of you hated them - don't die forever along with the network that reared them. Cuz I'll tell ya one thing - some of those teenage girls today could stand to take a few lessons from the WB girls I knew and loved.