Thanks to my friend Ang (Okulaja Fan) for sending this in.<\/p>\n
U. Maryland likes its WB<\/p>\n
Updated 12:00 PM ET December 1, 2000<\/p>\n
By Leslie Flint
\nThe Diamondback
\nU. Maryland<\/p>\n(U-WIRE) COLLEGE PARK, Md. — The phones stop ringing, the textbooks close
\nand the away messages are put up on AOL Instant Messenger. No, it’s not nap
\ntime, or even dinner time, but rather “Dawson’s Time,” a weekly hour break
\nthat causes college students to scramble up to find the coziest spot in
\nfront of the TV and emerge themselves into the romance and drama of
\nadolescent love.<\/p>\n“Dawson’s Time,” is not merely a sickness shared by a few students; it is a
\nsymptom of a much larger disease: A WB obsession.<\/p>\nMany University of Maryland students said that while they do not watch a lot
\nof TV, they follow at least one show on the Warner Bros. network.<\/p>\nSophomore communication major Lauren Tafflin watches Dawson’s Creek every
\nweek with her roommate. Tafflin, who likes to analyze the show, gets annoyed
\nwhen her roommate talks during the good parts.<\/p>\n“Sometimes she will start talking on the phone right during one of the
\nfeeling moments,” Tafflin said. “You know, during one of those moments’.”<\/p>\nDawson’s Creek is just one of the many shows airing on the WB. Other shows
\npopular among students include Felicity, Popular, 7th Heaven, Roswell, Buffy
\nthe Vampire Slayer and Angel.<\/p>\nSophomore elementary education major Kim Towner said no matter how much work
\nshe and her roommate have, they always find time for their favorite WB
\nshows.<\/p>\n“We call Wednesdays ‘no work Wednesdays’ because all we do is watch Dawson’s
\nand Felicity,” she said.<\/p>\nSophomore neurobiology and physiology major Kieran Coughlin has been
\nwatching Dawson’s Creek since its premiere in 1998. She said when she was in
\nhigh school she used to get together with her friends and have “Dawson’s”
\nparties.<\/p>\n“We all went to someone’s house and ate and talked,” Coughlin said. “It was
\nthe typical slumber party atmosphere.” Now that she’s in college, Coughlin
\ngets together with the girls on her floor in LaPlata Hall every week to
\nwatch the show.<\/p>\nFreshman letters and sciences major Beth Hafer said she watches Dawson’s
\nCreek because the “plot is more interesting.” Her friend, listening to the
\nconversation, raised her eyebrows and looked dubious at Hafer’s use of the
\nword “plot.”<\/p>\nWhile the WB network has a host of shows aimed at a young audience, many
\nstudents realize the shows offer more escapism than reality.<\/p>\nFreshman letters and sciences major Lindsey Urbaniak said she enjoys
\nwatching the show, but she questions how accurate it is.<\/p>\n“I don’t think it’s realistic, it’s just fun to watch. No one’s really like
\nthat,” she said.<\/p>\nSeveral students said the vocabulary of the characters is much more advanced
\nthan that of typical teenagers. Freshman chemical engineering major Zach
\nTillman said that turns him off to the shows.<\/p>\n“I would watch it because it has an interesting story line, but the dialogue
\nis a little too over the edge for me,” he said.<\/p>\nRealism aside, many students expressed appreciation for the network’s
\noffering of programs about people their age.<\/p>\nShaida Shirmohammadi, a senior decision and information technologies major,
\nsaid she regularly watches Dawson’s Creek and Felicity, but she prefers the
\nlatter because it is about college students and the show’s issues are more
\nrealistic than Dawson’s.<\/p>\n“Dawson’s is a little storybook and young,” Shirmohammadi said.<\/p>\n
Men on the campus have failed to embrace the network as passionately as the
\nwomen.<\/p>\nWhen Shirmohammadi and her male friend were asked if they watched any WB
\nprograms, Shirmohammadi immediately offered up Dawson’s Creek and Felicity,
\nwhile her friend simultaneously wondered “what shows are those?”<\/p>\nIt seems the disease may not be infectious.<\/p>\n
Whether it was the advanced vocabulary or not that turned viewers off,
\nDawson’s Creek does not get the highest rating for shows on the WB.
\nAccording to WB Web site statistics, 7th Heaven has the highest ratings for
\npersons 13 to 34, women 12 to 34, teens and female teens.<\/p>\n(C) 2000 The Diamondback via U-WIRE <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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