Each of the six major television networks has been pegged with a certain generalization about the shows they house. FOX is known for its heavy use of...um...skin and for its uncanny ability to tell whether or not a show will be a hit after only one episode (note the sarcasm in that sentence). CBS is not only the home for the older generation, but also for the now incredibly popular "crime drama" genre. UPN has set its focus on the minorities. But what about the WB? Many people would describe the network as a haven for family dramas and teen angst. And while this is...well, actually kind of true, there is more to the network than the gooey tales of "7th Heaven" or the all-too-obvious plotting of "Dawson’s Creek". The WB has also become the network of choice for supernatural dramas.

It all started with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". The show could not find a home at any of the major networks. It was "too out there" for the likes of NBC or CBS. Finally, after much work, the show was picked up as a mid-season replacement by the tiny, brand new network of the WB. This was a risky gamble for the fledgling network, which so far had only scored a hit with the aforementioned "7th Heaven". However, "Buffy" turned into a critical darling and smash cult hit that pulled in the numbers for the network for five years. Sure, the last two seasons of the show were spent on the "other" small network, UPN, but it was the WB, which had taken the actual risk on the show. UPN picked it up when it already had an audience.

Soon, in addition to the family dramas and overtly sexual teen programming, the WB became fixated on the supernatural drama. If they could score with a blonde fighting vampires, what couldn’t they do? They found success again with both the bewitching "Charmed" in 1998 and the much-anticipated "Buffy" spin-off, "Angel" the following year. If you take a look back over the hits on the WB over the past nine years, the wealth is pretty equally distributed between the mundane and the supernatural. For every "Gilmore Girls" there is a "Smallville".

However, this coming fall marks the first season in a long while that the WB has started without the help of a Joss Whedon created show. "Buffy" has been off the network since 2001 and "Angel" was unceremoniously dumped this past spring. The network hurtles into the 2004-05 television season with eight dramas in tow. Only two of the eight are at all out-of-this-world. "Charmed" heads into its seventh season on the network (a record for the network; only "7th Heaven" has been on for longer), while "Smallville", the tales of Superman’s teenage years, begins its fourth year. And the question lingers in the air...is the WB ready to say goodbye to science fiction and fantasy? It certainly appears that way to these humble eyes.

With the new season being populated by reality shows, crime dramas and scantily clad women, the WB focuses more on the "family drama" portion of their title. "Charmed" and "Smallville" seem to stick out like sore thumbs among such shows as "Everwood", "Gilmore Girls" and the brand-new drama "Jack & Bobby". With "Charmed" nearing its end and "Smallville" easing comfortably into the probable middle of its journey, things don’t look good for the genre on the WB.

The reason for this may have to do with the failures of fantasy shows like "Tarzan", "Roswell" and "Birds of Prey", which seemed like sure things to the network. Why spend extra bundles of cash for the expensive genre when they know that they can make hits out of the tales of ordinary folks? Does this mean that the end of "Charmed" will leave "Smallville" lonely on the network? Or can we expect to see more science fiction in the future? Time can only tell, but in the meantime viewers should catch every moment they can with the supernatural currently on air. Today’s TV audiences seem more interested in tribal councils and bloody crime scenes than magic spells and heat vision.