The WB Fall Lineup (May 14, 2002)

The WB's likely fall 2002 schedule follows:

MONDAY
8 p.m. "7th Heaven"
9 p.m. "Everwood"*

TUESDAY
8 p.m. "Gilmore Girls"
9 p.m. "Smallville"

WEDNESDAY
8 p.m. "Dawson's Creek"
9 p.m. "Birds of Prey"*

THURSDAY
8 p.m. "Family Affair"*
8:30 p.m. "Do Over"*
9 p.m. "The Jamie Kennedy Experiment"**
9:30-10 p.m. "Off Centre"**

FRIDAY
8 p.m. "What I Like About You"
8:30 p.m. "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch"**
9 p.m. "Reba"
9:30 p.m. "Greetings From Tucson"*

SUNDAY
5 p.m. "Everwood" (second airings)
6 p.m. "Smallville" (second airings)
7 p.m. "Gilmore Beginnings"**
8 p.m. "Charmed"**
9 p.m. "Angel"

* new show
** new time period

WB FALL SHOW NEWS

Fall 2001 frosh series graduating to a second season are "Smallville" and "Off-Centre."

ABOUT THE NEW SHOWS

"Family Affair" -- Tim Curry stars as Mr. French (Tim Curry) in this modern update of the classic half-hour.

"Do Over" -- One of several period pieces slated to bow this fall, this half-hour lets a man (Penn Badgley) relive his 1980s life. Gigi Rice, Michael Milhoan and Angela Goethals also star.

"What I Like About You" -- a family laffer starring Amanda Bynes and former "Beverly Hills, 90210" resident Jennie Garth as two sisters living together in New York City.

"Greetings from Tucson" -- a Latino-based family comedy starring Pablo Santos and Julio Oscar Mechoso. A comedy about a Mexican-American husband and Irish-American wife, seen through the eyes of their 15-year-old son.

"Birds of Prey" -- They're young, they're hot and they've got super powers. Set in a futuristic city, "Birds" is inspired by the DC Comics offshoot of the Batman comics. Dina Meyer, Ashley Scott and Rachel Skarsten star as the femme crimefighters.

"Everwood," a drama about a neurosurgeon who leaves New York City to set up a general practice in a small Colorado town. Treat Williams stars.

As for midseason, the only official pickup is "The O'Keefes," a half-hour comedy about an old-fashioned family trying to make it in a pop culture kind of world.

The WB Will Target NBC on Thursdays... After four years of programming dramas and a failed reality series or two on Thursday nights, the WB is going after NBC's huge, adult-skewing and aging Must See franchise with a lineup of more family-friendly programming.

Kicking off the 8pm hour is an updated version of the 1960's and 70's CBS hit "Family Affair", opposite Warner Brothers' produced and adult aimed "Friends" airing on NBC. The WB expects the show to reach an older audience, in addition to its traditional 12-34 target.

The family comedy strategy is to woo some teen and young-adult viewers away from NBC with shows that are less racy than the Peacock's lineup of sitcoms.

"Family Affair leading off Thursday nights is as total a counterprogramming piece to Friends as you can put on," said Jordan Levin, the WB's entertainment president. "It's a real safe harbor for advertisers and will produce a multientry level of audience." Family Affair, starring Tim Curry as Mr. French, is a new product of the Family Friendly Programming Forum, which also gave its seal of approval to the WB's hit drama The Gilmore Girls, which aired opposite "Friends" in its first season.

The WB will follow Family Affair at 8:30 p.m. Thursday with another new family-oriented sitcom -- Do Over, about a 34-year-old man who returns to live in his hometown as a 14 year old (executive produced by former NBC entertainment president Warren Littlefield).

At 9 p.m. Thursdays, the WB will relocate Sunday night variety/reality program "The Jamie Kennedy Experiment", followed by "Off Centre"

While turning Thursday into a comedy night, the WB will also continue to air sitcoms on Friday. The aging "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" in its final season will be shuffled back from 8 to 8:30 p.m., replaced as the night's lead-off show by "What I Like About You," starring Amanda Bynes and Jennie Garth. This season's freshman hit Reba will keep its 9 p.m. slot, followed by Greetings From Tucson, a family sitcom with a Mexican American father and an Irish American mother.

The WB will do an about-face on Sundays, converting it from an all-sitcom night to a drama night. In the network's new 5 to 7 p.m. block on Sundays, the WB will air repeats of one new drama and one veteran drama each week. From 7 to 8 p.m., the network will rebroadcast the first season of one of its more popular veteran shows, The Gilmore Girls. Levin noted that the WB a few years ago picked up new viewers for 7th Heaven by airing repeats of that show's first season on Sunday nights, helping to make 7th the network's top-rated show.

The Batman spinoff Birds of Prey, about three young female crime-fighters in Gotham City, follows "Dawson's Creek" at 9pm Wednesdays. Monday's at 9pm will have "Everwood," starring Treat Williams as a big-city surgeon who moves his family to a small Western town following the death of his wife.

Charmed, displaced from its Thursday 9 p.m. slot, moves to the "dead man's slot" Sunday's at 8pm, opposite "The Simpsons", followed by "Angel" at 9pm.

The WB's Tuesday night will remain intact, with hits Gilmore Girls at 8 p.m. and Smallville at 9 p.m.