Written by Liz Gannes
Posted Friday, May 30, 2008 at 8:49 PM PT

 

TheWB.com Opens for a Peek

The WB private-beta-launched its anticipated new portal of old shows tonight, and I just had a chance to take a look around. The site looks nice enough and promises some interesting features, but there’s a lot left unfinished — like the original online shows we’d been promised. Features are similar to Hulu — you can link to and embed episodes and clips of episodes — but the layout is less clean and clear. One excellent addition is the capability to search within video transcripts for specific words.

I embedded the pilot for Friends, though it seems to be loading rather slowly. I couldn’t find a way to turn off autoplay, so it’s below the jump. Other included series are All Of Us, Blue Water High, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dangerous, Gilmore Girls, One Tree Hill, Smallville, The OC and The Wayans Bros. A few of them are even still on the air and some of Buffy is already available on Hulu. Veronica Mars is mentioned in some of the literature but I don’t see it on the site. But the selection on TheWB.com is quite limited at this point — there appear to be just the first six episodes from the first season of each show. And nowhere on the site or in the videos did I see any advertising (hurry while you can!).

There’s a dummy page for the six original series, which have titles like Sorority 4 Ever, High Drama Despite All Oz, and Rich Girl, Poor Girl. Also coming soon is the option to “mix - mash - blend” using a “WBlender” tool. What is finished are games associated with each series, like a trivia game for Friends and a surfing game for Blue Water High. There’s also gossip about stars from the shows imported from TMZ.

It looks like if you want to get into the private beta you just have to register and should expect to hear back within a week.

 

Sphere
Topic: Networks & Studios
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Comments & Trackbacks

  1. [...] The WB is about ready to give the public a view into its new project. According to Liz Gannes of NewTeeVee, TheWB.com quietly launched last night as a private beta, and it appears that the company has [...]

    The WB on May 31st, 2008 at 7:35 am - Permalink

  2. [...] The WB is about ready to give the public a view into its new project. According to Liz Gannes of NewTeeVee, TheWB.com quietly launched last night as a private beta, and it appears that the company has [...]

    TheWB.com Launched As Private Beta, Plus Facebook App | World News on May 31st, 2008 at 8:54 am - Permalink

  3. [...] is in private beta, but NewTeeVee got a sneek peek of the site, which promises to resurrect many of the old WB shows along with some new original [...]

    Sneek peek of TheWB.com - Lost Remote TV Blog on May 31st, 2008 at 11:59 am - Permalink

  4. [...] NewTeeVee: TheWB.com opens for a peek. [...]

    GigaNET Weekend Edition - GigaOM on June 1st, 2008 at 9:57 am - Permalink

  5. [...] TheWB.com - more persistent content [...]

    Marc’s Voice » Blog Archive » June 1st blogging - '08 on June 1st, 2008 at 9:31 pm - Permalink

  6. [...] Liz Gannes over at NewTeeVee was one of the first to get a look. She wrote a piece detailing her initial impressions of the [...]

    TheWB.com Launches In Beta | Limited Number Of Episodes Currently Available | MyHTPC.TV on June 10th, 2008 at 2:36 pm - Permalink

  7. Help me! I can’t get on the website..I just received an email yesterday saying I was approved and that I could sign in, but I don’t have a username, and when I went on, there was no way to make one. Anyone know what’s going on? Help please =]

    Bridget on June 11th, 2008 at 11:02 am - Permalink

  8. [...] and Veoh. These are the shows like Friends that are available in the beta version of the site we reviewed recently. The distribution channels won’t launch until mid-September, according to a [...]

    Warner Bros. Loves Joost, TiVo, Veoh, More « NewTeeVee on June 12th, 2008 at 9:42 am - Permalink

  9. [...] wasn’t too impressed with the beta site the first go around, but her feedback was amazing and she can expect fantastic [...]

    TheWB Boldly Announces Site Additions « NewTeeVee on July 9th, 2008 at 5:44 pm - Permalink

  10. in the registration what does “company” mean?

    Mary on July 20th, 2008 at 12:05 am - Permalink

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