Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Old shows will sing swan song for Frog

LOS ANGELES — The WB will end its life with a look back at some of its biggest hits, re-airing the pilots of several of its signature shows one last time before ending its 11-year existence.

The network, which along with UPN will be folded into The CW in the fall, will treat viewers to showings of the first episodes of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Dawson’s Creek," "Felicity" and "Angel" on Sunday, Sept. 17, its final night on the air, Variety reports. The CW is scheduled to sign on the next night.

"How do you end a network? This will be an homage to our shows," WB Chairman Garth Ancier tells the trade paper.

WB affiliates cede five hours of airtime, from 5 to 10 p.m. ET, to the network on Sunday nights, so airing the four pilots ("Buffy’s" first installment ran two hours) won’t be a problem. The night will begin with the first episode of "Felicity," followed by "Angel" and the two-hour "Buffy" debut. The premiere of "Dawson’s Creek," which had the longest run on The WB of any of the four shows — six seasons — will end things at 9 p.m.

("Buffy" ran for seven seasons, but the final two aired on UPN after The WB and 20th Century Fox, which produced the series, came to an impasse over the show’s license fee.)

Shows like "Gilmore Girls" and "7th Heaven," which have also enjoyed long runs on The WB, won’t be part of the look back since they’re continuing on The CW in the fall.

The final night, which will also include a look back at the network’s promotional history — including the resurrection of long-time network mascot Michigan J. Frog — was a little tricky to put together, since rights to most of the shows currently rest in the hands of other networks. Ancier tells Variety that The WB will air promos for the cable airings of the shows, along with spots hawking the DVD sets for each series to appease the studios that made them.