thefifthnetwork

[thefifthnetwork]

Week 27: Back Next Week

This is our last all-rerun week of the summer, and I was also out-of-town for most of it, so no post this week. I'll be back next week for another episode of Legend.

This is part of a project where I watch The WB and UPN on a 30 year delay. This is crossposted from my website, where you can find an interactive schedule for both networks, including where you can watch these shows today.

Monday July 10, 1995 Star Trek: Voyager S1E13: "Cathexis" - 8 PM on UPN Pig Sty E12: "Tess Makes the Man" - 9 PM on UPN Platypus Man E13: "Dying to Live" - 9:30 PM on UPN Tuesday July 11, 1995 Legend E03: "Mr. Pratt Goes to Sheridan" - 8 PM on UPN Marker E08: "Dead Man's Marker" - 9 PM on UPN Wednesday July 12, 1995 The Parent 'Hood S1E11: "Nice Guys Finish Last" - 8 PM on The WB The Parent 'Hood S1E05: "Like Father, Like Hell" - 8:30 PM on The WB The Wayans Bros. S1E12: "Pulp Marlon" - 9 PM on The WB Unhappily Ever After S1E11: "Daddy's Little Girl" - 9:30 PM on The WB

[thefifthnetwork]

Week 26: Mechanical Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Hunters

Legend returns with another strong episode as Pratt and Bartok attempt to protect the local buffalo herd from Pratt's European publisher.

This is part of a project where I watch The WB and UPN on a 30 year delay. This is crossposted from my website, where you can find an interactive schedule for both networks, including where you can watch these shows today.

Monday July 3, 1995 Star Trek: Voyager S1E12: "Heroes and Demons" - 8 PM on UPN Pig Sty E11: "The Maltese Falcone" - 9 PM on UPN Platypus Man E12: "Out of the Mouths of Babes" - 9:30 PM on UPN Tuesday July 4, 1995 Legend E10: "Revenge of the Herd" - 8 PM on UPN

Legend is at its best when Pratt uses his publishing knowledge and narrative-crafting skills to get himself out of a jam, and he's in great form this week.

Forced to take his stereotypically-German [1] European publisher on a buffalo hunt, he needs to protect both the buffalo from the German hunters and the Germans from the Arapaho who are rightfully pissed off about the repeated incursions of white hunters on their land. This proves to be difficult at first as neither the buffalo nor the Germans have the self-preservation instincts necessary to flee for their own safety.

Luckily, Towashie, the Arapaho leader, recognizes Pratt from the Legend books. While he initially laments that the books have only featured the Cheyenne and not the Arapaho [2], Pratt soon comes up with a plan that should please everyone without any buffalo or Germans being killed: he'll use the mythical buffalo spirit "Thunder Hooves" [3] to scare off the Germans (realized with help from Bartok's inventions), write it into his next book, and provide both credit and royalties to the Arapaho.

After some misadventures involving a haywire mechanical buffalo, everything ultimately works out for both our heroes and us as viewers. It's good to see that the mediocre dinosaur adventure from two weeks ago with anomaly quality-wise.

Marker E04: "High & Wild" - 9 PM on UPN Wednesday July 5, 1995 The Parent 'Hood S1E02: "The Rake, the Fake and the Gopher Snake" - 8 PM on The WB The Parent 'Hood S1E08: "Byte Me" - 8:30 PM on The WB The Wayans Bros. S1E09: "ER" - 9 PM on The WB Unhappily Ever After S1E07: "The Descent Of Man" - 9:30 PM on The WB

I'm out of town next week and it's coincidentally the last all-rerun week of the summer, so I'll be back in two weeks for the next episode of Legend.

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To Bartok's Hungarian chagrin ↩

Somewhat echoing the scene in episode 6 where Jack McCall complains about misrepresentations of outlaws in the Legend books ↩

Given nothing comes up from searching this, I'm assuming this is as fictional as all of the Native American stuff in Voyager. ↩

[thefifthnetwork]

Week 25: Season Finale, Chapters 1-3

This week is all reruns again, so I figured I would use this recap to talk about a book I've been reading over the past few weeks that gives some background of what was going on behind the scenes at UPN and The WB.

Season Finale: The Unexpected Rise & Fall of the WB and UPN was written Susanne Daniels, WB's president of entertainment from its launch until 2003, and Cynthia Littleton, an editor at Variety, and traces the histories of both networks from their inception until their end [1]. It's written from Daniels' perspective and likely skews a bit more towards the WB side in its coverage, but it's clearly well-researched enough to provide interesting insights on the UPN side as well.

I've only read through the first three chapters so far, which cover through the end of 1995, but so far I'm really enjoying it. Not only does it provide good background information as I continue this project, it's also just a well-executed work of narrative nonfiction. I'll recap some key things I've learned from the book so far in the rest of this post, but if you're as interested in this stuff as I am, I recommend checking it out. It appears to be out of print physically [2], but remains available on most major ebook platforms.

This is part of a project where I watch The WB and UPN on a 30 year delay. This is crossposted from my website, where you can find an interactive schedule for both networks, including where you can watch these shows today.

The first big thing this book made clear to me is why Paramount and especially Warner Bros were so eager to launch their own networks. I had attributed it mainly to executive hubris following the success of Fox, but the book highlights a much bigger factor: the end of the FCC's financial interest and syndication rules.

These rules, known as "fin-syn" for short, prevented the Big Three [3] networks from owning any of their prime time programming. The FCC established these rules in 1970 to prevent the networks from monopolizing the broadcast schedule. NBC, ABC, and CBS all had to spin off their studio arms which then had to compete with both independent television studios like MTM and Tandem as well as Hollywood studios like Paramount and Warner Bros.

These rules were relaxed somewhat in the 80s and fully eliminated in 1993. Season Finale talks a lot about how Warner executives understood that these new rules would pose a risk to their TV and that establishing their own network would ensure a buyer remained for their studio's projects even if the major networks bought primarily from their own studios.

Some other notable points:

I knew that Fox was an inspiration for the new networks, but I didn't know that Fox's first president, Jamie Kellner, also founded The WB. Several other Fox executives also came to The WB, including Daniels (though she had only been at Fox for two years before she joined The WB in 1994).

Viacom [4] bought Paramount in 1994, and the debt involved in that merger complicated the launch of UPN. While Warner Bros had a controlling interest in The WB from the beginning (with minority stakes for Kellner and Tribune, their major station partner), Paramount's financial situation meant that Chris-Craft (their station partner) was initially solely responsible for funding the network, with Paramount buying in to a 50/50 split later.

Continuing from that, UPN's 50/50 structure meant that an operating committee with 3 Paramount and 3 Chris-Craft members had to approve all major decisions for the network, which hamstrung UPN's senior managers' ability to get anything done as the partners blamed each other for why the network was losing money. An initial deal where Paramount earned all ad revenue on Voyager and could also sell it as a first-run syndicated program in markets without a UPN affiliate further hurt UPN's ability to make money and sign affiliates.

In contrast, Daniels describes a much more sunny atmosphere at The WB. It's a startup environment with long hours, makeshift offices, and a struggle to get the rest of the industry (including Warner's own TV production arm) to take the new network seriously, but it all seems to build a sense of camaraderie among the TV-nerd executives that make up The WB's early team.

The book also confirms what I suspected about this first season of programming. With the exception of Voyager [5], all the other shows both networks launched with were rejects from the other networks. Daniels specifically mentions having been involved with the development of Platypus Man while at Fox the previous year. Interestingly, Muscle was apparently the show the WB execs were most excited about, though Daniels doesn't elaborate on why it was their only cancellation.

Having a buyer for their TV studios' shows was a major motivator for the launch of the new networks, but both networks bought shows from others too. While all of UPN's launch lineup came from Paramount, Unhappily Ever After came from Disney [6] and one of The WB's big shows for this fall, Sister, Sister, was actually a Paramount production that ABC had cancelled.

The third chapter ends roughly at the end of 1995, and the fourth chapter's title references Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so I'm stopping now probably until the end of the year. I plan to continue reading Season Finale alongside this project at the same pace, though it's possible I may just read through the rest of the book at some point.

Monday June 26, 1995 Star Trek: Voyager S1E11: "State of Flux" - 8 PM on UPN Pig Sty E10: "Nightmare in 15C" - 9 PM on UPN Platypus Man E11: "Lower East Side Story" - 9:30 PM on UPN Tuesday June 27, 1995 The Watcher E12: "Apocalypse Now" - 8 PM on UPN The Watcher E13: "Sudden Death" - 9 PM on UPN

The last two episodes of The Watcher were dumped tonight. Season Finale mentions that UPN's first president Lucie Salhany "loathed" it and that it only lasted as long as it did because they had nothing to replace it with. From the two episodes I've been able to watch, I certainly agree, though apparently she also didn't care for Legend, perhaps explaining why it didn't get renewed.

Wednesday June 28, 1995 Special: "The Bugs Bunny Fourth of July" - 8 PM on The WB

The Bugs Bunny special mentioned here appears to be a collection of America-focused shorts, though I can't find any recording or even any specific listing of what they are, so I'm skipping this.

The Parent 'Hood S1E06: "The Paw That Rocks the Cradle" - 8:30 PM on The WB The Wayans Bros. S1E10: "The Poppa-Cabana" - 9 PM on The WB Unhappily Ever After S1E06: "Run" - 9:30 PM on The WB

Next week will be back to normal programming, with a new episode of Legend.

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I haven't yet finished it, so I don't know how far it goes past the CW merger, but it was released in October 2007, so it wouldn't have been long. ↩

I bought the copy pictured above on eBay. ↩

Fox was never subject to fin-syn as it did not truly establish itself as a major network until after the rules were repealed. The Fox broadcast network remained under common ownership with the 20th Century Fox film and television studios until Disney bought 20th Century in 2019. ↩

Going back to fin-syn, Viacom originated as a spin-off of CBS's syndication arm. They would later acquire CBS itself in 1999. ↩

Which, as mentioned above, UPN didn't directly financially benefit from ↩

The book notes that, because Disney doubted its syndication viability, production costs were slashed below even The WB's reduced expectations based on their lower license fees. WB executive Jordan Levin notes that "the craft-services table was one of those variety packs of Frito-Lay chips." ↩

[thefifthnetwork]

Week 24: Dino-so-what?

Another Legend-only week. I wasn't as into this episode, though I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe I'm just not into dinosaurs.

This is part of a project where I watch The WB and UPN on a 30 year delay. This is crossposted from my website, where you can find an interactive schedule for both networks, including where you can watch these shows today.

Monday June 19, 1995 Star Trek: Voyager S1E10: "Prime Factors" - 8 PM on UPN Pig Sty E09: "May I Borrow a Cup of Death" - 9 PM on UPN Platypus Man E10: "Without a Hitch" - 9:30 PM on UPN Tuesday June 20, 1995 Legend E09: "Bone of Contention" - 8 PM on UPN

This week's Legend has Pratt and Bartok investigating the murder of a paleontologist who turns up at Bartok's door. On paper, it's a perfectly fine episode, but I found myself much less interested than usual.

My best guess as to why is that it felt less humorous overall, with possibly the biggest comedic sequence being an extended scene of Pratt dangling from the balloon that went on way to long. I also found Pratt a bit less likeable than usual and I predicted the twist ending too early, but those complaints might just be because I was already feeling down on the episode.

Overall, this was the weakest Legend so far for me and I hope the remaining four episodes we have to watch are better.

Marker E02: "Frank & Mike's" - 9 PM on UPN Wednesday June 21, 1995 The Wayans Bros. S1E05: "My Fair Marlon" - 8 PM on The WB The Parent 'Hood S1E04: "Crappy Anniversary" - 8:30 PM on The WB Unhappily Ever After S1E08: "Boxing Mr. Floppy" - 9 PM on The WB Unhappily Ever After S1E01: "Pilot" - 9:30 PM on The WB

Next week, everything is either a rerun or unavailable, so I'll be talking about the first three chapters of Season Finale as I mentioned previously.

[thefifthnetwork]

Week 23: Legend 1:8

The summer of Legend continues with another solid episode.

This is part of a project where I watch The WB and UPN on a 30 year delay. This is crossposted from my website, where you can find an interactive schedule for both networks, including where you can watch these shows today.

Monday June 12, 1995 Star Trek: Voyager S1E09: "Emanations" - 8 PM on UPN Legend E08: "The Gospel According to Legend" - 9 PM on UPN

A preacher named Mordechai comes through Sheridan, but Pratt immediately recognizes him as con-man Willy Miles. Miles claims to have genuinely reformed, but immediately begins turning the townsfolk against Bartok and his inventions.

Pratt and Bartok are both great here, and I liked that this episode didn't try to both-sides a science vs religion debate, though I think the choice make Miles beliefs insincere in the end weakened the episode as a whole a bit for me. You could still have a Miles/Mordechai who sincerely believed his anti-science rhetoric team up with the businessman who's just trying to discredit Bartok for personal gain.

Tuesday June 13, 1995 Pig Sty E01: "...And This Little Piggy Moved Out" - 8 PM on UPN Pig Sty E08: "Erin Go Barf" - 8:30 PM on UPN Platypus Man E08: "The Crush" - 9 PM on UPN Platypus Man E09: "Both Sides Now" - 9:30 PM on UPN Wednesday June 14, 1995 The Wayans Bros. S1E06: "Pops Moves In" - 8 PM on The WB The Parent 'Hood S1E01: "Ring Around the Nosey" - 8:30 PM on The WB Unhappily Ever After S1E02: "Gift of the Magnovox" - 9 PM on The WB Unhappily Ever After S1E05: "Jack The Ripper" - 9:30 PM on The WB

Next week, Legend continues with another new episode.

[thefifthnetwork]

Week 22: Nothing This Week

I said last week that I'd use this week of all reruns to talk about the book Season Finale: The Unexpected Rise & Fall of the WB and UPN. However, I ran out of time to finish writing that post [1], so I'm going to push it to three weeks from now when there's once again nothing new to watch.

Next week though, Legend returns, so I'm excited to continue watching that.

This is part of a project where I watch The WB and UPN on a 30 year delay. This is crossposted from my website, where you can find an interactive schedule for both networks, including where you can watch these shows today.

Monday June 5, 1995 Star Trek: Voyager S1E08: "Ex Post Facto" - 8 PM on UPN Pig Sty E07: "Party!!!" - 9 PM on UPN Platypus Man E07: "Lou's the Boss" - 9:30 PM on UPN Tuesday June 6, 1995 Legend E04: "Legend on His President's Secret Service" - 8 PM on UPN Marker E06: "From Russia Without Love" - 9 PM on UPN Wednesday June 7, 1995 The Wayans Bros. S1E01: "Goop-Hair-It-Is" - 8 PM on The WB The Parent 'Hood S1E09: "Trial by Jerri" - 8:30 PM on The WB Unhappily Ever After S1E04: "The Bigger They Are, The Harder They Fall" - 9 PM on The WB The Wayans Bros. S1E08: "The Shawn-Shank Redemption" - 9:30 PM on The WB

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Blame the new Mario Kart ↩

[thefifthnetwork]

Week 21: Spring 95 Season Recap

With the exception of six more episodes of Legend that will air throughout the summer, we've reached the end of the first (partial) season for the two startup networks. Since there's nothing new airing this week, I figured I'd use this recap to give my overall opinions on each of the shows from this inaugural season.

Star Trek: Voyager

I've loosely ranked the rest of the shows from worst to best, but I'm leaving Voyager out of the rankings since it doesn't really feel fair to compare it with the rest. This is primarily because it's the only show I've watched before, but it was also clearly set up better to succeed, as the rest of both networks' inaugural schedules were made up of rejects of the established networks that the startup networks produced on short notice.

That all being said, I really enjoyed rewatching this first season of Voyager. I didn't dislike the show when binge watching it, but watching it at its intended pace made me appreciate it a lot more. I hope this trend continues throughout the rest of Voyager's seven season run.

Best Episode: Eye of the Needle

This is part of a project where I watch The WB and UPN on a 30 year delay. This is crossposted from my website, where you can find an interactive schedule for both networks, including where you can watch these shows today.

9. The Watcher

Is it fair to rank this last having seen only two episodes? [1] Not particularly, but something has to come in last place, and every other show had at least one episode I legitimately enjoyed, and this didn't. The premise of Sir Mix-a-lot's "watcher" character channel surfing through multiple Vegas-set anthology stories maybe had some promise if the stories were good and the structure could connect them in interesting ways, but that didn't happen.

The first episode I watched was confusing to follow due to the way the stories were interleaved, and then the second episode (which separated its stories much more) only made it clear how lacking they all were.

I can't find a concrete source actually announcing the cancellation, but I'm pretty sure this was the first show cancelled, at least internally, as they replaced it with Legend before the last two episodes aired [2].

BestBetter Episode: The Human Condition

8. Unhappily Ever After

Unhappily Ever After is a deeply misanthropic show about a couple in the process of divorcing, their three kids, and the stuffed bunny that the dad imagines talking to him.

It's very much in the vein of Married... with Children and shares one of its co-creators. While I haven't seen it, my understanding is that it [3] was one of the first shows to subvert the typical family sitcom structure with a much more dysfunctional family. Married was a success, but I have to imagine this felt like a pale imitation at the time, and in 2025, there's absolutely nothing novel about the family in a sitcom being dysfunctional.

There are moments of promise in this first season that almost read as attempts to parody the dysfunctional family sitcom as opposed to the way Married parodied the traditional form, but Unhappily plays it straight most of the time, which makes me think I might just be giving it more credit than it deserves. This reading tends to be strongest in the scenes of the kids at school.

The conversations between Jack and the bunny are definitely the worst part of the show for me, so episodes with less of that tend to work better for me. When I don't hate spending time with the characters, it's at least competently done as a sitcom.

Unhappily ended up airing a total of five seasons, so maybe it gets better next year?

Best Episode: Boxing Mr. Floppy

7. Pig Sty

Like Unhappily, Pig Sty is populated with a cast of unlikeable characters - this time a group of twenty-somethings sharing a New York City apartment. Unhappily is also generally the better constructed sitcom. However, while Unhappily presents its characters' misanthropy uncritically, Pig Sty usually agrees that these characters suck and wants us to laugh at their misfortune.

Like all of the non-Voyager UPN shows, this was cancelled after one season.

Best Episode: May I Borrow a Cup of Death

6. The Wayans Bros.

The Wayans Bros. has tended to be the most middle-of-the-road sitcom of this first season. It never actively pissed me off, but I didn't tend to find much special about it either. Shawn and Marlon Wayans are clearly talented comedic performers, but the material they got to work with here was mediocre. The show particularly has a tendency to let bits go on for way too long.

Like Unhappily, this got 5 seasons, so I'm hopeful it finds its footing as it continues.

Best Episode: First Class

5. Platypus Man

Platypus Man stars comedian Richard Jeni playing a version of himself that hosts a cooking show in New York City. After watching the first episode, I described this as "we have Seinfeld at home", and that still feels apt after completing the whole season. There's definitely some duds in this season, but I overall found it worthwhile.

I understand the decision to cancel this after one season, especially since UPN wouldn't have another half-hour show to pair it with for the fall, but I feel like this had some promise if given the chance.

Best Episode: Dying to Live

4. Muscle

I was only able to find one complete episode of this show, so this is probably ranked way higher than it deserves, but it really felt like it had potential.

As a parody of prime time soap operas with a bunch of serialized plots, I imagine it really struggled to find an audience on a brand new network in the era before DVR and online catch-up services, so it makes sense that this was the only WB launch show to be cancelled after its inaugural season.

I really was intrigued by the one episode I could find of this, so if anyone knows of any way to watch the rest of it, please let me know!

3. Marker

I'm not sure quite what it is about Marker that I like so much. This cheesy drama about a man redeeming "markers" handed out by his estranged billionaire father after the latter's death just really worked for me. The book I'm reading for next week's post compares it to Magnum, P.I. and my friend @elimgarakdemocrat compared it to MacGyver, so I might need to check those out to get my fix of this sort of show given Marker was obviously cancelled after one season.

Best Episode: Factor X

2. The Parent 'Hood

While every other sitcom from this inaugural season ranged from bad to mediocre, The Parent 'Hood was remarkably strong. This was probably the hardest show on this list to pick a best episode for because almost every one was good. While I can quibble about a few things (Robert's friend Derek tends to be annoying as character [4]; the younger kids don't do much other than say one-liners and look cute), this is just a really good family sitcom that I look forward to enjoying through its remaining four seasons.

Best Episode: Don't Be Alarmed

1. Legend

Legend was primarily a summer show for UPN, so I'm only halfway through it so far, but based on the first seven episodes, I'm really going to miss this excellent sci-fi western. Richard Dean Anderson as writer Ernest Pratt and John de Lancie as inventor Janos Bartok are both great, and the plots have been reliably fun.

My understanding is that UPN's blanket cancellation of everything but Voyager had more to do with chaos at the network than the quality of the shows themselves, and that's really the only way I can understand this only getting one season.

Best Episode: The Life, Death and Life of Wild Bill Hickok (tentative - I'll update this post if one of the remaining six episodes is better)

Monday May 29, 1995 Star Trek: Voyager S1E07: "Eye of the Needle" - 8 PM on UPN Pig Sty E06: "The Ghost and Mr. Evans" - 9 PM on UPN Platypus Man E06: "New York on $2,000 a Day" - 9:30 PM on UPN Tuesday May 30, 1995 Cop Files SP1: "Special 1" - 8 PM on UPN Cop Files SP2: "Special 2" - 8:30 PM on UPN

P.S. If anyone's curious about these specials, they apparently consisted of various police re-enactments hosted by Richard Roundtree. Seven total specials aired between now and August 1996, but I can't find recordings of any of them.

Marker E07: "Spiked Through the Heart" - 9 PM on UPN Wednesday May 31, 1995 The Wayans Bros. S1E03: "I'm Too Sexy for My Brother" - 8 PM on The WB The Parent 'Hood S1E08: "Byte Me" - 8:30 PM on The WB Unhappily Ever After S1E03: "Jack's First Date" - 9 PM on The WB Unhappily Ever After S1E10: "Mistress Jennie" - 9:30 PM on The WB

Next week, there's once again nothing new to watch, so I'll be talking about the first three chapters of the so-far excellent book Season Finale: The Unexpected Rise & Fall of the WB and UPN.

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And a low quality VHS recording of those episodes to boot ↩

Those last two episodes ultimately got burned off in late June. ↩

Alongside fellow early Fox success The Simpsons ↩

From what I can tell from a quick glance at Wikipedia, it looks like Derek is dropped after this first season, so I'm looking forward to that. ↩

[thefifthnetwork]

Week 20: End of the First Season

We've now come to the end of the first season of this project, with two more season finales plus a new episode of Legend.

This is part of a project where I watch The WB and UPN on a 30 year delay. This is crossposted from my website, where you can find an interactive schedule for both networks, including where you can watch these shows today.

Monday May 22, 1995 Star Trek: Voyager S1E16: "Learning Curve" - 8 PM on UPN

Voyager actually produced four more episodes during its first season that ended up airing at the start of season 2, so it makes sense that this isn't much of a season finale. As an episode though, it works quite well, with the plot about Tuvok training some of the Maquis actually bringing that part of the show's premise back up for the first time since episode 3. This episode also features the famous "get the cheese to sickbay" line.

It's not the strongest episode of the season, but it's a solid end to a season that on the whole I enjoyed much more than when I binged through it the first time.

Special: "The Secret Of... (1)" - 9 PM on UPN

UPN filled out the remainder of their schedule this week with two specials titled "The Secret Of...". I can't find any source of them or even any description outside of this page which describes the first special as "Lindsey Wagner and Blair Underwood host a look at though controlled military aircraft, a ghost guarded treasure in the woods of North Carolina, the power of prayer, and nanotechnology." and the second as "Lindsey Wagner and Blair Underwood host a look at Computer simulated evolution, Artificial Intelligence, robots, Biblical History, UFOs, and Mystery Places."

I don't think I'm missing much.

Tuesday May 23, 1995 Legend E07: "Knee-High Noon" - 8 PM on UPN

This week's Legend involves some cattle rustlers and a stage mom who wants to cast her son as Nicodemus Jr. While I didn't like this one quite as much as last week's, it's still a solid entry in what's quickly become one of my favorite shows from this opening season.

We've still got six more episodes sprinkled throughout the summer, but I'm already disappointed that this didn't get renewed.

Special: "The Secret Of... (2)" - 9 PM on UPN Wednesday May 24, 1995 The Wayans Bros. S1E13: "Brazilla vs. Rodney" - 8 PM on The WB

In their final outing of the season, Shawn and Marlon become children's birthday party entertainers. There's enough laughs throughout to make for a solid episode (especially the extended riff on Godzilla at the end), though the core conflict of Marlon wanting to quit never really felt resolved.

The Wayans Bros. S1E02: "First Class" - 8:30 PM on The WB Unhappily Ever After S1E09: "Don Juan De Van Nuys" - 9 PM on The WB Muscle: "Episode 13" - 9:30 PM on The WB

With the end of the season proper, there won't be anything to watch until Legend returns in three weeks. I've been reading this very interesting book on the behind-the-scenes history of The WB and UPN, so I'll probably use my post two weeks from now to talk about it.

For next week though, I'll recap the season as a whole, giving my overall impression of each show's first (or in many cases only) season.

[thefifthnetwork]

Week 19: First Finales

It's the last full week of the season, with three series finales on UPN and two season finales on The WB. It's also probably the best week of the project so far, with episodes ranging from solid to excellent.

This is part of a project where I watch The WB and UPN on a 30 year delay. This is crossposted from my website, where you can find an interactive schedule for both networks, including where you can watch these shows today.

Monday May 15, 1995 Star Trek: Voyager S1E15: "Jetrel" - 8 PM on UPN

I remembered this being a good early Neelix episode that gave him more to do than just comic relief, and it definitely delivered on that.

Pig Sty E13: "Leap into an Open Grave" - 9 PM on UPN

Pig Sty goes out on a high note, at least by its own standards. Nothing particularly special, but both the A plot about P.J. sleeping with a woman who turns out to be his father's fiance and the B plot of Cal trying to win back his job by making a scene at his boss's mother's funeral were solid sitcom plots.

Platypus Man E13: "Dying to Live" - 9:30 PM on UPN

And we're two for two! The final Platypus Man has the gang going to a psychic to find out their futures, and everyone is happy except for Richard, who is told he'll be kissed by a Greek man and then die. As the psychic also tells the group that all of their fortunes are intertwined (with all of them either happening or all not), he gets increasingly worried as everyone else's seem to be coming true. It all comes together as a very strong sitcom plot for the show the end on.

Tuesday May 16, 1995 Legend E06: "The Life, Death, and Life of Wild Bill Hickok" - 8 PM on UPN

This might be my favorite Legend episode so far. Pratt reluctantly teams up with Wild Bill Hickok to go after Jack McCall. My two favorite scenes are probably when seemingly half the town of Sheridan comes into Pratt's room because they expect him to die pursuing McCall, and then when McCall rants about all the things he dislikes about Pratt's books. We also get a nice scene at the end playing on the real life murder of Hickok by McCall.

Marker E13: "Discovery" - 9 PM on UPN

For our final series finale of the week, we get one last solid episode of Marker. Unfortunately, this is also the other episode that's not available on streaming [1], so we're stuck with a low quality VHS recording. The final marker comes from Beth Cole, an amnesiac who Richard and Pipeline help recover her memories through music while protecting her from two assassins.

I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as last week's, but it still works well overall.

Wednesday May 17, 1995 The Wayans Bros. S1E09: "ER" - 8 PM on The WB The Parent 'Hood S1E13: "Trust a Move" - 8:30 PM on The WB

After it's weakest episode yet last week, The Parent Hood finishes its first season strong with an episode about Robert having misgivings about Zaria going to a rap concert.

Unhappily Ever After S1E13: "Hoop Dreams" - 9 PM on The WB

There's definitely plenty of Unhappily's normal misanthropy here, but it all largely worked as a sitcom episode centered around Jennie trying to get Jack to come to a speech she's giving instead of playing basketball. The running gags of Jack forgetting anything Jennie tells him but remembering various basketball minutia combined with Jennie using a tape recorder to contradict him were quite strong.

The weakest part, as usual, is anything involving the bunny, but it's thankfully limited to a single scene.

Muscle: "Episode 12" - 9:30 PM on The WB

That's it for these three weeks of full schedules, along with the curtain calls for Pig Sty, Platypus Man, and Marker. As much as I have a soft spot for Marker, I understand UPN's reasoning in cancelling them all. Apparently they also announced the cancellation of Legend this week as well, which makes less sense to me.

Next week, we get our remaining two spring finales as well as a new episode of Legend.

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Grateful Dead music features prominently, including the studio version of "Scarlet Begonias" and a cover of "Uncle John's Band", so I assume music licensing is once again the reason for the absence. ↩

[thefifthnetwork]

Week 18: Marker's Next to Last Stand

Sorry for the slight delay in this post going up, I normally try to finish my write-up over the weekend so it's queued to go up Monday at noon, but a busy couple of weeks combined with the full sweeps schedule meant I didn't get a chance to finish this until after work today.

This is part of a project where I watch The WB and UPN on a 30 year delay. This is crossposted from my website, where you can find an interactive schedule for both networks, including where you can watch these shows today.

Monday May 8, 1995 Star Trek: Voyager S1E14: "Faces" - 8 PM on UPN

Overall, I found this episode to be better than I remembered it from my first watch-through. There's definitely a lot of weirdness with the idea that B'Elanna could somehow be split into separate human and Klingon parts, but it does enable some interesting character exploration and gives Roxann Dawson a good acting showcase.

Pig Sty E12: "Tess Makes the Man" - 9 PM on UPN

Last week's Pig Sty had nothing much of merit to it, but this week's was actively unpleasant, with the main plot involving Tess getting a sitcom role and being sexually harassed by the 12-year-old star.

The B-plot about Johnny dealing with erectile dysfunction was at least just the show's usual bland. I was a bit confused as to why no one mentioned Viagra in it until I looked it up and learned that it wasn't approved until 1998.

The cold open of Cal stealing food being delivered to the building was nice at least.

Platypus Man E12: "Out of the Mouths of Babes" - 9:30 PM on UPN

Why did both UPN sitcoms this week have 12-year-old boys sexually harassing adult women?

As an episode, this was much stronger than Pig Sty at least, with the B-plot of Lou failing to run the bar while Tommy has a near death experience at the dentist working pretty well. Even the A-plot of Richard being blackmailed by his girlfriend-of-the-week's son mostly worked, weird harassment of Paige aside.

Tuesday May 9, 1995 Legend E05: "Custer's Next to Last Stand" - 8 PM on UPN

Legend remains strong as a television show, and this week the political implications are much less troubling. This episode prominently involves George Custer, which worried me a bit that there would be similar issues as last week, but the narrative seemed to clown on him much more here than it did Steele in the previous episode.

Marker E12: "Factor X" - 9 PM on UPN

Marker has another strong episode. I'm legitimately going to miss it after next week's finale. Richard having to save a musician who put out a hit on himself while on a bender worked really well as a plot and knowing that there's only one more episode left added some actual tension when Pipeline is shot. The assassins also worked well as characters.

Wednesday May 10, 1995 The Wayans Bros. S1E12: "Pulp Marlon" - 8 PM on The WB

A bog-standard Wayans Bros this week as the boys get into trouble when it turns out Marlon's new girlfriend is married to a mob enforcer. Nothing particularly noteworthy.

The Parent 'Hood S1E12: "The Bully Pulpit" - 8:30 PM on The WB

This week's Parent Hood was probably one of the show's weakest so far, but it's still the best sitcom episode of the week from either network.

The core plot of Robert being inspired to confront his childhood bully by Nicholas doing the same was mostly just okay, but the ultimate punchline of the bully turning out to have become a priest worked quite well. I was hoping that the B plot of Zaria and Michael [1] trying out for the cheerleading squad would have received a bit more time, but what's there was good.

Unhappily Ever After S1E12: "The Great Depression" - 9 PM on The WB

The scenes with the kids and their school have generally been the strongest part of Unhappily for me so far [2], so I was hopeful when I saw in the synopsis that this episode involved Tiffany putting on a school dance after losing the money in the stock market. Unfortunately, her solution was to get her parents to do all the work, which is fitting with her character but means the episode is still focused on Jack and Jennie.

We get our first O.J. trial jokes of the project in this episode; I'm sure they won't be the last. I did legitimately laugh at the dance's theme being "O.J. Trial Under the Stars." It feels like a parody of a 90s sitcom joke but made early enough that I don't even think you can call it cliche.

Muscle: "Episode 11" - 9:30 PM on The WB

Next week we get the series finales of most of the UPN shows [3] and the season finales of two of the WB shows.

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Michael initially teases Zaria about trying out, but ultimately decides to try out himself when he realizes it would mean spending a lot of time with the mostly-female squad. ↩

It's over-the-top in a way that feels actually satirical, as opposed to the family elements that are just mean-spirited. ↩

Except for Voyager which has one more episode this season, plus six more seasons and Legend which will continue to run through the summer. ↩

[thefifthnetwork]

Week 17: April Reruns Bring May Sweeps

After a light month that luckily coincided with me being on vacation, I'm now back home just in time for the first May sweeps of the project. We get a packed slate of shows each of the next three weeks, so let's just jump in.

This is part of a project where I watch The WB and UPN on a 30 year delay. This is crossposted from my website, where you can find an interactive schedule for both networks, including where you can watch these shows today.

Monday May 1, 1995 Star Trek: Voyager S1E13: "Cathexis" - 8 PM on UPN

There's some okay stuff in this week's Voyager, but it felt mediocre overall. Maybe I was just subconsciously remembering it from when I watched through the first time, but it felt like it was extremely obvious from the beginning that the presence controlling crew members was Chakotay.

The scene where the Doctor demonstrates knowledge of Native American medical practices would be a good example of the Doctor's programming inclusively drawing from medical knowledge outside the out-of-universe Western norm, but it's undercut by pretty much all of the Native American elements in the show being made up.

Pig Sty E11: "The Maltese Falcone" - 9 PM on UPN

Neither of the two plots on this week's Pig Sty really worked for me. The plot about Johnny babysitting a mob informant felt like it had more potential, but then it never really went anywhere. The plot where P.J. tries to refuse his quarterly $10K check from his father at least had a halfway-decent resolution [1], but it still wasn't anything special.

Platypus Man E11: "Lower East Side Story" - 9:30 PM on UPN

This week's Platypus Man has Richard converting to Judaism first for his girlfriend-of-the-week and then for an attractive rabbi after said girlfriend breaks up with him for becoming too Jewish. It's all as cringeworthy as it sounds.

There was one joke that I really liked, where Tommy suggests that an advantage to Judaism is that you don't have to miss any football games, Paige brings up college football, and then Tommy admits that "no religion has all the answers."

Tuesday May 2, 1995 Legend E04: "Legend on His President's Secret Service" - 8 PM on UPN

Purely as an episode of television, this week's Legend works quite well. Pratt is saved from a mob of Confederates by a young woman named Abigail Steele, who tells him that she's worried her father plans to assassinate President Grant. Pratt ultimately learns that Grant and the elder Steele were rivals prior to the war and that while Steele does not intend to kill Grant, he does plan to kidnap him, to demonstrate supposed negative impacts of Reconstruction on the South.

Pratt and Bartok ultimately engineer a reconciliation between the two men that suggests a parallel reconciliation between North and South. That works fine as the resolution of a TV episode, but when considered more broadly, it makes it seem like Steele has a point about Reconstruction, and he absolutely does not.

It is the firm position of this blog that the United States went far too easy on the Confederates following the end of the war. Reconstruction should have been much stronger and lasted much longer. Steele and the real life traitors like him should have considered themselves lucky to have survived the war and should never have been allowed to wield an ounce of power again for the rest of their miserable lives.

Marker E11: "Snowballs in Hawaii" - 9 PM on UPN

Anyway... Marker was great this week! Pipeline joins Richard as his assistant and is initially disappointed that this week's marker comes from a bickering divorced couple who needs help finding their runaway dog. He ultimately gets more than he asked for when this simple case ends up involving two dead lawyers,

The bickering couple was my favorite part of this episode, particularly the husband speaking almost exclusively in sports analogies, but really the whole episode just worked quite well.

Wednesday May 3, 1995 The Wayans Bros. S1E11: "It's Shawn! It's Marlon! It's Superboys!" - 8 PM on The WB

I really liked this week's Wayans Bros where Shawn and Marlon become their building's superintendents, to predictably disastrous results. "First Class" is probably still my favorite episode so far, but I think this is a close second.

The Parent 'Hood S1E11: "Nice Guys Finish Last" - 8:30 PM on The WB

The Parent 'Hood also returns with an excellent episode, as Zaria is concerned when her new boyfriend gets along with her dad a little too well. It's a very well put together sitcom episode that I thought ended in a really nice way.

Unhappily Ever After S1E01: "Pilot" - 9 PM on The WB Unhappily Ever After S1E11: "Daddy's Little Girl" - 9:30 PM on The WB

Unhappily Ever After similarly deals with a father meeting his daughter's boyfriend. True to form for the show, it's much worse. This is at least an above average episode for Unhappily, and it seems like they're expanding Tiffany's characterization beyond "gold digger" to being concerned with money in a way that codes more positive [2]. Hopefully the show can continue to develop her in the future.

While the Monday shows weren't great, everything else this week ranged from excellent to at least above average for their respective show. We get another new episode of every show next week, so let's see if this continues.

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P.J. plays a song about how he doesn't want to take his father's money, so then his father buys the rights to the song in exchange for the $10K he would have given him anyway. ↩

Most prominently in the diary entry that Jack and Jennifer read where she talks about ↩

[thefifthnetwork]

Week 16: Beowulf, Bank Robbery, and Bon Jovi

It's another short week, with just three UPN dramas on the schedule. While none are the best episodes of their respective series, all three are a solid watch.

This is part of a project where I watch The WB and UPN on a 30 year delay. This is crossposted from my website, where you can find an interactive schedule for both networks, including where you can watch these shows today.

Monday April 24, 1995 Star Trek: Voyager S1E12: "Heroes and Demons" - 8 PM on UPN

I had remembered this episode from my first watch as a mediocre holodeck story, which it is on some level, but on rewatch, the focus on the Doctor doing his first "away" mission makes it work quite well. I'd still consider it a step down from the past few episodes, but Voyager as a whole has been remarkably solid in its first season.

Pig Sty E05: "Five Cards, No Stud" - 9 PM on UPN Platypus Man E05: "Sweet Denial" - 9:30 PM on UPN Tuesday April 25, 1995 Legend E03: "Mr. Pratt Goes to Sheridan" - 8 PM on UPN

The first regular-length episode of Legend opens with Ernest Pratt moving into Sheridan. He has trouble adjusting, as Nicodemus Legend famously does not drink or gamble, which means Pratt finds himself unable to do so as well. The bulk of the episode then focuses on Pratt and Bartok helping Robin Hood-esque bank robber "Gentleman Jim" Siringo (Stephen Baldwin) clear his name from a false murder accusation.

While there's nothing as strong as the scene last week with Pratt and the hired gunman, it's still a fun show overall, and there's a nice connection made with both Siringo and Pratt choosing to live up to a positive reputation that they didn't initially intend.

Marker E10: "Truth, Lies and Rock 'n' Roll" - 9 PM on UPN

Marker returns with another solid episode, as Richard helps Pamela Austin, an independent reporter who's trying to prove the innocence of a man falsely imprisoned for murder by Jack Starnes, a corrupt DA who's running for attorney general [1].

I liked the airport scene, where Pamela tricks Starnes' enforcer into thinking she's left the island, though Richard just being able to drive onto the tarmac and up to a jetway strained credulity even by pre-9/11 standards.

Similar to the medical marijuana episode, it also felt surprisingly progressive for the 90s to see a tough-on-crime politician portrayed as a villain here.

The rock and roll part of the title here refers to a plot thread of Richard having Bon Jovi tickets that Pipeline wants, which felt completely unrelated to the rest of the episode.

Wednesday April 26, 1995 The Wayans Bros. S1E05: "My Fair Marlon" - 8 PM on The WB The Parent 'Hood S1E06: "The Paw That Rocks the Cradle" - 8:30 PM on The WB Unhappily Ever After S1E08: "Boxing Mr. Floppy" - 9 PM on The WB Muscle: "Episode 10" - 9:30 PM on The WB

Next week is the start of May sweeps, so we're back to a full schedule from both networks. I'm also back from my trip, so I'll be watching again at my normal pace.

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Attorney general has always been an appointed position in Hawaii as far as I can tell, so this election could not exist in real life. ↩

[thefifthnetwork]

Week 15: A Legendary Start

Both networks primarily aired reruns this week, as they saved most of their remaining new episodes for May sweeps. The exception is the two-hour premiere of the sole summer show from this first season: UPN's Legend. TLDR, I really liked this pilot movie. It will be the only show I'll have to watch in June and July, so I'm hopeful that the rest of it will be this good as well.

This is part of a project where I watch The WB and UPN on a 30 year delay. This is crossposted from my website, where you can find an interactive schedule for both networks, including where you can watch these shows today.

Monday April 17, 1995 Star Trek: Voyager S1E06: "The Cloud" - 8 PM on UPN Pig Sty E04: "Mr. Nice Guy" - 9 PM on UPN Platypus Man E04: "NYPD Nude" - 9:30 PM on UPN Tuesday April 18, 1995 Legend E01/02: "Birth of a Legend" - 8 PM on UPN

Legend is a sci-fi western that follows Ernest Pratt (Richard Dean Anderson), an author in 1876 who writes dime novels about fictional character Nicodemus Legend, who he also portrays on the book covers and in public appearances.

He starts out this pilot movie drunk in a saloon in San Francisco. His publisher is disappointed with the sales of his latest book and tells him that there's a warrant out for his character's arrest in Sheridan, Colorado for redirecting a river.

Pratt travels to Sheridan and soon discovers that the river was actually redirected by eccentric inventor Janos Bartok, a clear Tesla [1] analogue played by John de Lancie, who's best known for his role as Q [2]. Bartok is a fan of the Legend books and used literal smoke and mirrors to make it appear like the character was responsible for redirecting the river in order to help the local farmers, who are Hungarian immigrants like himself.

Bartok convinces Pratt to help the farmers in character as Legend, using Bartok's inventions to ward off wealthy landowner Vera Slaughter and her son Silas. The rest of the episode is a couple of nice set pieces, the strongest of which is probably when Pratt talks a hired gunman out of killing him by convincing him he could make more money writing books about his past adventures.

Overall, I thought this was a strong introduction to what I think is a neat concept for a show. If the rest of the show follows through on this promising start, I'll be very disappointed that it only got one season.

Wednesday April 19, 1995 The Wayans Bros. S1E07: "Afro Cab" - 8 PM on The WB The Parent 'Hood S1E02: "The Rake, the Fake and the Gopher Snake" - 8:30 PM on The WB Unhappily Ever After S1E06: "Run" - 9 PM on The WB Muscle: "Episode 7" - 9:30 PM on The WB

The sitcoms are all still off for one more week, but we will have new episodes of Voyager, Marker, and Legend next week.

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The inventor, not the fascist car company ↩

The Star Trek character, not the fascist conspiracy theory. de Lancie is not the only Star Trek connection to this show, as Michael Piller, a writer on TNG and the showrunner for the first two seasons of both DS9 and Voyager, is also one of the creators. ↩

[thefifthnetwork]

Week 14: Great Voyager, Not-So-Great Sitcoms

The WB sitcoms and Marker are off the week, but UPN's Monday lineup has all new episodes and I'm also watching the one episode of Muscle that I managed to find.

This is part of a project where I watch The WB and UPN on a 30 year delay. This is crossposted from my website, where you can find an interactive schedule for both networks, including where you can watch these shows today.

Monday April 10, 1995 Star Trek: Voyager S1E11: "State of Flux" - 8 PM on UPN

Yet another great Voyager episode this week. While I certainly didn't dislike it when I first binge-watched it, I'm definitely appreciating the show a lot more when watching at a weekly pace. I'd also forgotten how early the Seska reveal had been.

Pig Sty E10: "Nightmare in 15C" - 9 PM on UPN

After a very good episode a few weeks ago, I thought that Pig Sty might have turned a corner, but this week's was back to being fairly bad. Tess thinks she's landed a major acting job, so she quits her job as super and is replaced by temp Freddi, played by Diane Delano basically doing the same character she did in Platypus Man last month. It's not any better of a plot here than it was there.

The B-plot about P.J. and Iowa chatting with women online doesn't really go anywhere [1]. The C-plot about Johnny caring more about his appearance on TV than the case he's going on TV to talk about is the strongest part of the episode, but it's still not anything special, and certainly not enough to make up for the rest.

Platypus Man E10: "Without a Hitch" - 9:30 PM on UPN

Another Platypus Man where the A-plot (Richard reunites with an ex-girlfriend he left at the altar) is inferior to the Paige-centered B-plot (she breaks up with her know-it-all boyfriend who gets in a car crash and both becomes nicer and forgets that they broke up), but even the B-plot wasn't particularly great here. A pretty bad week for both UPN sitcoms.

Tuesday April 11, 1995 Marker E05: "Spanish Laughter" - 8 PM on UPN The Watcher E11: "Second Chances" - 9 PM on UPN Wednesday April 12, 1995 The Wayans Bros. S1E01: "Goop-Hair-It-Is" - 8 PM on The WB The Parent 'Hood S1E04: "Crappy Anniversary" - 8:30 PM on The WB Unhappily Ever After S1E07: "The Descent Of Man" - 9 PM on The WB Muscle: "Episode 6" - 9:30 PM on The WB

I previously mentioned that I'd found what I thought was episode 6 of Muscle, but after watching it this week I'm pretty sure it's actually episode 3 [2].

The actual episode was at least good enough to make me wish I could find more of the show, at least because I'm curious about where the plot goes. Coming into the various storylines in the middle made me feel similarly to how I feel when I watch an episode of General Hospital with my mom.

There's enough disparate plots that I won't summarize here, but the opening minute of the episode has a nice recap of what's going on. There's one plot that has some interesting similarities to a future Voyager episode, but I'll avoid discussing it here for those who haven't seen Voyager before [3].

If anyone has any source for any other episodes of this show, please let me know. I have to imagine that they exist online somewhere, but the generic one-word title definitely makes it harder to search for.

Next week, most shows off again, but we do get the two-hour premiere of the last show to premiere this season, a sci-fi western UPN aired called Legend.

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Even if it did, I can't imagine it would be better than the solid similar plot The Parent 'Hood did several weeks ago. ↩

The taped episode I found includes previews for the next week of WB shows, and they all line up with the episodes that aired on January 25, which means this episode aired on January 18, making it episode 3. I've updated the where-to-watch info on the interactive schedule accordingly. ↩

I'll make a note of it when we get to the Voyager episode in question, which I believe is sometime next season. ↩

[thefifthnetwork]

Week 13: Nothing to Watch Here

Everything [1] aired reruns this week, so I didn't have anything to watch.

This will happen again multiple times this summer, which I'll likely use to do season recap posts, and then once the schedule fills out enough that I'm not watching every show, I'll use rerun weeks to check out shows I've dropped from weekly viewing.

Since I'll be traveling when this post goes up and I'm writing this ahead of time, I'll just end this here and come back next week when we'll at least have new episodes for all of UPN's Monday shows, plus the one episode of Muscle that I've been able to find [2].

This is part of a project where I watch The WB and UPN on a 30 year delay. This is crossposted from my website, where you can find an interactive schedule for both networks, including where you can watch these shows today.

Monday April 3, 1995 Star Trek: Voyager S1E05: "Phage" - 8 PM on UPN Pig Sty E03: "Iowa vs. New York" - 9 PM on UPN Platypus Man E03: "The Apartment Show" - 9:30 PM on UPN Tuesday April 4, 1995 Marker E03: "Cloud Warriors" - 8 PM on UPN The Watcher E10: "Reversal of Fortune" - 9 PM on UPN Wednesday April 5, 1995 The Wayans Bros. S1E06: "Pops Moves In" - 8 PM on The WB The Parent 'Hood S1E03: "Pizza Man" - 8:30 PM on The WB Unhappily Ever After S1E04: "The Bigger They Are, The Harder They Fall" - 9 PM on The WB Muscle: "Episode 5" - 9:30 PM on The WB

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Except for The Watcher, but I can't find any way to watch this week's episode. ↩

This is what I thought when I wrote this, but after watching it I realized the episode I found was mislabeled - it's actually episode 3. My thoughts on it will still be part of next week's post, but if you're looking for the link to watch it in the interactive schedule, it's linked for episode 3, not episode 6. ↩

[thefifthnetwork]

Week 12: A Stolen Diamond and a Stolen Bicycle

A very light week that I was worried would be even lighter because one of the episodes wasn't available through its normal source, but luckily I was able to find it elsewhere and both it and the other new episode this week were good.

This is part of a project where I watch The WB and UPN on a 30 year delay. This is crossposted from my website, where you can find an interactive schedule for both networks, including where you can watch these shows today.

Monday March 27, 1995 Star Trek: Voyager S1E03: "Parallax" - 8 PM on UPN Pig Sty E02: "Beauty & the Beasts" - 9 PM on UPN Platypus Man E02: "9½ Days" - 9:30 PM on UPN Tuesday March 28, 1995 Marker E09: "The Pink Unicorn" - 8 PM on UPN

I prepared to watch this episode and then realized that it wasn't on Tubi with all of the other Marker episodes. Luckily, it looks like someone put a rip up on YouTube [1]. It weirdly has random segments of the episode repeated after the end of the main run and the quality is pretty bad, which made it hard to follow at times, but at least it's watchable.

The opening scene prominently features the song "Mishale" by Andru Donalds, so I'm guessing that music licensing is the reason this episode is missing from Tubi and the other official sources online.

This week's marker comes from a young girl named Marcie, whose father tells her to take it to the Rose Corporation for help finding a "pink unicorn" [2] from a fairy tale he told her when she was younger right before he is murdered.

Marker has had better episodes, but I did like this one overall.

The Watcher E02: "Resurrection" - 9 PM on UPN Wednesday March 29, 1995 The Wayans Bros. S1E03: "I'm Too Sexy for My Brother" - 8 PM on The WB The Parent 'Hood S1E10: "Don't Be Alarmed" - 8:30 PM on The WB

Another great Parent 'Hood as burglaries lead Robert to buy an alarm system for the house, making the obvious mistake of having Derek and Wendell install it. The build up of increasingly ridiculous alarmed devices works brilliantly, especially as it culminates in Derek and Wendell breaking in themselves to try to fix their mistakes.

Unhappily Ever After S1E03: "Jack's First Date" - 9 PM on The WB Muscle: "Episode 4" - 9:30 PM on The WB

Next week, there's not actually anything new to watch, so the next proper week of viewing will be two weeks from now.

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The same user also uploaded a rip of the finale, which is similarly missing from Tubi. ↩

There's also a Hawaiian name given, but I couldn't make it out without subtitles, and it doesn't seem to match with any real myth from what I can find from a quick search online. ↩

[thefifthnetwork]

Week 11: May I Borrow a Spatial Trajector?

Marker is off this week, but every other UPN show [1] airs a solid episode, including Pig Sty's best outing so far.

This is part of a project where I watch The WB and UPN on a 30 year delay. This is crossposted from my website, where you can find an interactive schedule for both networks, including where you can watch these shows today.

Monday March 20, 1995 Star Trek: Voyager S1E10: "Prime Factors" - 8 PM on UPN

Another good Voyager this week, as we get a taste of what it's like to be on the other side of the Prime Directive. It's also a nice episode for both Tuvok and B'Elanna and our first proper introduction to Seska [2].

Pig Sty E09: "May I Borrow a Cup of Death" - 9 PM on UPN

UPN switched the order of Pig Sty and Platypus Man this week, presumably because they thought Pig Sty would benefit more from the Voyager lead in and their timing was great, because this was the best episode of Pig Sty so far.

The A-plot of Iowa suspecting that one member of the bickering couple next door has killed the other is solid, and the B-plot of the cat-and-mouse game of Cal trying to steal a different neighbor's paper also worked well, with both plots woven together nicely and good jokes throughout.

Platypus Man E09: "Both Sides Now" - 9:30 PM on UPN

An interesting Platypus Man this week, as an A-plot about bisexuality and polyamory is less offensive than I would expect for 1995 while a B-plot about Trekkies is somehow more offensive than I would expect for a show that had been relying on Voyager as its lead-in prior to this week.

Richard is worried that his new girlfriend Nancy is cheating on him, despite her assurances that there is no other man, which turns out to be technically true, as she's actually cheating on him with a woman. While the word "bisexual" is never used, the idea of Nancy being attracted to both men and women is never really questioned or treated as a joke. There's definitely some 90s sexism in Richard's attempt to win over Nancy exclusively by embracing his "feminine side", but it at least didn't do any 90s transphobia, which is where I was worried that plot thread was headed when it was introduced.

The B-plot involves Lou and Tommy attending a Star Trek convention and attempting to win a contest to appear on an episode of Voyager. The way it presents Star Trek fans feels in line with the "Get a Life" SNL sketch from a decade prior, which wouldn't be surprising except for that fact that it aired on UPN.

Tuesday March 21, 1995 Marker E01: "Pilot" - 8 PM on UPN The Watcher E09: "Missing Persons" - 9 PM on UPN Wednesday March 22, 1995 The Wayans Bros. S1E10: "The Poppa-Cabana" - 8 PM on The WB

I didn't particularly care for this week's Wayans Bros. Pops goes to Atlantic City with his brother Leon [3] and reluctantly leaves Marlon in charge of the restaurant. Marlon quickly drives away the regulars and fires the staff and Shawn comes up with a plan to make back the money Marlon lost by turning the restaurant into a nightclub. It's a success, but Pops and Leon return early after losing all their money. All four then decide to return to Atlantic City where they promptly lose all their money again.

This all seems like the makings of a perfectly fine sitcom episode, except there just weren't many jokes that landed, leaving the whole thing feeling kind of pointless.

The Parent 'Hood S1E09: "Trial by Jerri" - 8:30 PM on The WB

This week's Parent 'Hood has a bit of a convoluted setup, but once it gets into the core trial bit, with each of Derek, Robert, Jerri, and Wendell giving their Rashomon-style perspective on the party where Robert and Jerri met, it's quite good.

Unhappily Ever After S1E10: "Mistress Jennie" - 9 PM on The WB

Unhappily Ever After is at its typical level of unpleasantness this week as Jennifer learns that her new boyfriend is married and briefly considers continuing as his mistress.

I will give this episode credit for one good joke in which Jack calls being a mistress "the world's oldest hobby."

Muscle: "Episode 3" - 9:30 PM on The WB

That's all for this week. Next week is very light, with everything but Marker and The Parent Hood airing reruns.

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Excluding The Watcher, which I haven't been able to find any more of. ↩

I believe she also appeared briefly last week, but this was the first episode where she actually had something to do. ↩

Played by Garrett Morris, who previously appeared as himself in the first episode. ↩