Customer Reviews

Season Finale: The Unexpected Rise and Fall of the WB and UPN

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Still, it left me skeptical. This book purports to be an expose of both "netlets," but it's really more a valentine to one. How much you like it will depend a lot upon your stomach for network politics.

I can see a lot of television executives, or would-be examples of the same, finding it valuable. But as someone who's just a fan of good television drama and comedy, I found it a quick yet staid read.

It's worth a skim, especially for those with a keen interest in the whys and wherefores of deals and deal breakers like the severing of Buffy from the WB.

Still, you'll get better entertainment from an episode of your favorite UPN or WB series.

Though I usually don't enjoy books about TV shows I don't watch, I was quite pleasantly surprised in reading Season Finale.
The authors strike just the right balance between 'breezy' and 'hard facts' to make this a fascinating and fun read.
The story of UPN's launch party in New York alone is worth the time! Highly recommended!

As someone who watched the birth and death of both UPN and The WB, and who really enjoyed a few of the shows along the way, this was a book I was dying for someone to write. From the second I saw it listed on Amazon, it took me about 2 minutes to buy it... download it to my Kindle... and start reading. And who better to have written this history than an executive from within one of the networks?

This is a fascinating story for anyone with an interest in television, tv history or the media in general. Would give this one 6 stars if it were allowed.

This book provides a really interesting look into television's recent history, from the beginning of UPN and the WB to their merger to create the CW. Some people may find it a little dry about the making of the sausage that is network programming, but if you're curious how network TV is made, this is the book for you.

I only found two things that really bug me about this book. The first is nothing the author could have gotten around: it's a lot more about the WB than UPN, since she worked at the WB. The second is that the book ended a little bit early. It could have stood to go into just a little bit about the first couple of months for the CW. It also completely glosses over MyNetworkTV, but that network is so much different than the others that it could be a book of its own.

Finally, I believe I can answer one question that might really stick out near the end of the book: why one Acme Communications station didn't go with the CW. The answer is quite simple: all but one of those stations was a WB affiliate, including one in Albuquerque. The other station, Acme's UPN affiliate, is also in Albuquerque, so it would have made no sense to make two Albuquerque CW affiliates. That UPN affiliate went with MyNetworkTV instead.

This is no objective journalistic piece written about the WB and UPN networks--it's a puff piece on the WB network written by a former WB programming executive who makes excuses galore for her co-workers, yet slams UPN at every opportunity.

Instead of an objective look at how the two minor networks failed royally, WB program executive Susanne Daniels spends page after page praising herself, praising her bosses, praising her former network (FOX) and trying to spin the WB as a ground-breaking, well-loved success. At the same time it appears her co-writer did the UPN research and most of it makes the Paramount-based network look like an idiotic failure. In truth both networks were low-rated bombs that had a couple of cult hits but could not sustain an audience of more than a couple million and lost a lot of money.

That truth is not in this book. It is instead filled with names and bios that only those involved would care about. It paints certain people as geniuses who in truth stumbled into minimal successes. For all that the author wants to claim Fox (her former employer) to be a success before 1994, in truth Fox was a laughing stock until after they got NFL rights and bought decent affiliates in 1994. So to claim the people who worked at Fox in the early days (like her) were brilliant ignores history and refuses to acknowledge the gigantic mistakes made.

That is the same with how the authors approach the WB. And, yes, they explain the "the WB" was meant to sound like "the BBC." (Seriously.) They somehow claim the logo of the frog was well-accepted by almost all at the network--only Garth Ancier was smart enough to know that it was one of the worst TV logos in history.

The book is way too long at 360 pages and the first fourth of it drags along as they try to introduce all the different executives. If someone is from UPN or a rival, they are painted as bad. This remains true until the end when the WB/UPN merge takes place (with UPN taking control). Les Moonves (CBS exec who oversees the new CW), however, gets cautious praise--probably because Daniels may end up working for him one day and doesn't want to cross him.

One thing that's obvious is that there are way too many people involved in decisions about what TV shows get on the air--and almost none of them know what they are talking about. They premiered the WB with the Wayans brothers flop--who thought that was a good idea? Oh, ya, the author--who was under 30 and had developed the minority comedies at Fox! She thought the same would work at WB and finds it "ironic" that her biggest "hits" were her hour-long dramas, which she knew nothing about.

This is no Bill Carter expose of what really went on behind the scenes--instead it's an insider's attempt to turn her failures into fantasy successes, and a way to kiss up to industry people who will still be hiring her in the future.