December 10, 2019: "Crisis On Infinite Earths" Occurs On The CW

Left to right: David Harewood as J'onn J'onzz, the Martin Manhunter;

Ruby Rose as Kate Kane, Batwoman;

Caity Lotz as Sara Lance, the White Canary,

Melissa Benoist as Kara Zor-El/Kara Danvers, Supergirl;

Grant Gustin as Barry Allen, the Flash,

Cress Williams as Jefferson Pierce, Black Lightning;

and Tyler Hoechlin as Kal-El/Clark Kent, Superman.

December 10, 2019: Crisis On Infinite Earths occurs on television.

The CW Network, which had been airing the "Arrowverse" series of superhero TV shows since 2012, has its biggest event ever, an adaptation of the 1985 DC Comics series Crisis On Infinite Earths, which consolidated "Earth-One," "Earth-Two," and all the other Earths that had appeared in their stories onto a single Earth.

The TV version did the same. It was a "crossover" between 5 shows, bringing back many actors who had previously played DC superheroes in movies and on TV shows:

* Part 1: Supergirl, airing on December 8. Mar Novu, the Monitor, warns that the Anti-Monitor (both characters played by LaMonica Garrett), is using antimatter waves to destroy the Earth in "parallel universes." He warns that seven "Paragons" must be found, who can save the "Multiverse."

Guest stars include Burt Ward, the Dick Grayson/Robin of the 1966-68 ABC Batman series, said to live, naturally, on Earth-66; and Robert Wuhl, one of the stars of the 1989 Batman film, said to live on Earth-89. Both were shown only briefly. Neither of the Batmen then knew were: 1966's Adam West had died in 2017, and 1989's Michael Keaton was unavailable. He has since filmed a return to the role for the film The Flash, which has been delayed to 2023.

Supergirl (Melissa Benoist), known on her homeworld of Krypton as Kara Zor-El and on Earth-38 as journalist Kara Danvers, is found to be the Paragon of Hope. J'onn J'onzz (David Harewood), known as the Martian Manhunter, is the Paragon of Honor. Barry Allen (Grant Gustin), known as The Flash on Earth-1, is the Paragon of Love.

In this episode, Oliver Queen of Earth-1 (Stephen Amell), known as the Green Arrow, sacrifices his life to evacuate people from the doomed Earth-38. A former girlfriend of his, Sara Lance (Caity Lotz), known as the White Canary, and leader of the time-traveling team known as the Legends of Tomorrow, is found to be the Paragon of Destiny.

(For those of you familiar with the comic books but not the shows, Sarah is a character created for Arrow. There have been characters on the show called the Black Canary, who, in the comics, is Dinah Lance, and eventually marries Queen. On the show, his wife was Felicity Smoak; in the comics, Felicity is more identified with the hero Firestorm, who existed on the shows but had no connection to her.)

* Part 2: Batwoman, airing on December 9. It is believed that another Paragon is a version of Batman. For legal reasons, in DC-themed productions outside the DC Extended Universe, Batman can be mentioned, the Batsuit can be shown, and Bruce Wayne can be portrayed out of costume, but Bruce cannot be shown wearing the Batsuit.

Batwoman is Kate Kane (Ruby Rose), Bruce's cousin, who, on Earth-1, took up "the mantle of the Bat" after Bruce disappeared. The show didn't definitively say what happened to Batman, or any version of Robin, or Commissioner Jim Gordon, or his daughter, Barbara Gordon, a.k.a. Batgirl. It did mention that Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce's butler and closest ally in Bat-operating, is alive, but has moved back to London.

Kevin Conroy, who had long voiced Batman in the DC Animated Universe, finally portrays a live-action version of Bruce. But his Earth-99 Bruce is based on the 1986 comic miniseries The Dark Knight Returns, except he took it a step further: He used Kryptonite to not just defeat Superman in a fight, but kill him.

And when Kate and Kara find this out, they confront Bruce. Bruce uses the same Kryptonite in an attempt to kill Kara. (According to comic book canon, this should not work: It has been established that Kryptonite only affects Kryptonians from its own universe, not any other. This carries over into Marvel Comics: Each set of Infinity Stones can only work in its own universe.) Kate defends her, and Bruce, weakened from his decades of combat, loses the fight, and falls onto his Batcomputer, his exoskeleton combining with the computer circuits to electrocute him.

Upon returning to the orbiting Waverider, Kara repeats what she told Kate: "This guy's not a paragon of anything." The Monitor now understands his mistake: No version of Bruce is the Paragon of Courage: Kate is.

This episode also features the Earth-38 versions of Clark Kent (Tyler Hoechlin), known as Superman; and his wife, Lois Lane (Elizabeth "Bitsie" Tulloch), both reporters for the Metropolis Daily Planet; and the Earth-1 Flash's wife, Iris West Allen (Candice Patton), also a journalist, in the Allens' hometown of Central City. (Apparently, there were no Kryptonians on the Arrowverse's Earth-1.) Clark, Lois and Iris go off to search alternate Earths to find another version of Superman, who would be the Paragon of Truth.

But the Earth-38 Lex Luthor (Jon Cryer), Superman's arch-enemy, now has the means to kill not just the Superman he knows, but all Supermen on all Earths. And every time Clark, Lois and Iris get to a new Earth, they're too late to save that Earth's Superman. When they get to Earth-75, the Kents even see a TV screen showing Hoechlin and Tulloch copying the scene, complete with Superman's cape hanging like a flag from a steel pole, from the 1992 comic issue The Death of Superman. (Which turned out to be temporary.)

Finally, they get to another Clark Kent in time, on Earth-167. This one is played by Tom Welling, who played Clark in the 2001-11 WB/CW series Smallville. But they can't recruit him, because Luthor arrives and sends them away.

Turns out, Luthor can't kill this Superman: In this universe, unlike the one that is home to Hoechlin's and Tulloch's counterparts and their infant son Jon, this Superman had to give up his powers to have children with Lois (Erica Durance also reprising her role in Smallville), and Kryptonite has no effect on humans, which this Clark now is. (That's not quite true: In the comics, prolonged exposure to Kryptonite, which is radioactive, can cause cancer.) Clark is still stronger than Lex, though, and manages to deck him, before he escapes to another Earth.

On Earth-96, the main Clark and Lois, and Iris, find a Clark. This one is played by Brandon Routh, who played Clark/Superman in the 2006 film Superman Returns, and this episode makes canon what that movie had implied: He is the same Superman played by Christopher Reeve in 4 movies from 1978 to 1987.

(How the 2006 film, which definitively displays dates from that year, can take place only 5 years after Superman II, released in 1981, with the scenery definitely showing a late Disco Period aesthetic, is never explained. Nor is the fact that Superman III, released in 1983, definitively states that their Clark and Lana Lang graduated from Smallville High in 1965.)

But he's also based on the 1996 comic miniseries Kingdom Come, in which Superman lost all the people who mattered to him, including his Lois. There's also an element from the 2013 video game Injustice: Gods Amongst Us, in that the attack was launched by Batman's arch-nemesis, the Joker (who couldn't be named, again for legal reasons, but the reference was clear.) Unlike in Injustice, this Superman didn't take over the world to rid it of crime, but retained his humanity, proving himself to be a paragon (Upper- or lower-case). And he agrees to help.

Luthor intervenes, and turns him against Hoechlin's character, deciding that it would be more fun to watch Superman kill Superman. Iris knocks Luthor out, and Lois reminds the older Superman of all that he stood for, which snaps him out of it. It may be Lois Lane's finest moment, in any medium. He drops a reference to the Clark Kent vs. Superman fight in Superman III: "This is the second time I've gone nuts and fought myself."

* Part 3: The Flash, airing on December 10. Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams), known as Black Lightning, is brought into the story, having been saved from the destruction of Earth-4. So is the title character from the 1990-91 CBS series The Flash (John Wesley Shipp). This version of Barry Allen, from Earth-90, much as the comics' Earth-One version did in 1985, sacrifices himself, telling the younger one of Earth-1, "The prophecy said the Flash had to die. It didn't say which one."

(Shipp has also played that Barry's father, Henry Allen; and Jay Garrick, another alternate-Earth Flash, reflective of the original DC Flash, the Earth-Two or "Golden Age" Flash.)

The 7th and last Paragon is identified: Dr. Ryan Choi, a scientist on Earth-1, is the Paragon of Humanity. In the comics, Choi takes over for Dr. Ray Palmer as The Atom. At this point in the Arrowverse, Palmer, of Earth-1, is still The Atom -- and is also played by Routh, causing some confusion within the show, when people who know Ray see the older Superman, especially when the two men are together. Supergirl even tells him he's "looking jacked," while Superman tells him, "That's your cousin, sort of."

But all is lost: The heroes can't stop the antimatter wave from destroying the last Earth, and the Waverider. Just before that can happen, Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanaugh), a member of the Earth-1 Flash's tech team, and temporarily granted powers, transports the Paragons to the Vanishing Point, which exists outside time and space, where the Anti-Monitor can't reach them, buying them time to come up with a last-ditch plan.

In Part 2, Conroy's Bruce Wayne said there was no hope. But in Part 3, Routh's Superman said, "Even in the darkest times, hope cuts through. Hope is the light that lifts us out of the darkness." Something that DCEU director Zack Snyder, based on the films he's made, cannot possibly understand. Hoechlin's Superman backs this up: Just as the antimatter wave hits the Waverider, he nods to everyone, giving them his quiet confidence that, somehow, in a way that even he cannot yet imagine, everything is going to be okay.

But for the Paragons, who now appear to be the only 7 living things in the entire Multiverse, it's not okay. And, just when you think things literally can't get any worse, Routh's Superman fades away -- replaced by Luthor and his Book of Destiny. Talk about a cliffhanger: Part 4 won't air for another month. Those of us watching it first-run had to go through the rest of the holiday season, including Christmas and New Year's Eve and Day, before finding out what happens.

* Part 4: Arrow, airing on January 14, 2020. There is hope. Oliver Queen comes back, as The Spectre. He shows the Paragons how to build their power. In the process, the Flash meets another Flash, the one played by Ezra Miller in the DCEU, the 1st indication that the Arrowverse acknowledges the DCEU's existence, and vice versa.

Oliver takes the Paragons to "the Dawn of Time" to battle the Anti-Monitor. He tells them, "I'll light the spark, you fan the flames." While they -- 6 heroes and Luthor, who wants to restart the universe so he can rule it -- fight the Anti-Monitor's "parademons," Oliver, as The Spectre, fights the Anti-Monitor himself.

He delivers a variation of his old line to use on criminals in Star City: "You have failed this city!" He tells the Anti-Monitor, "You have failed this universe!" He looks up into the sky, and beams shoot out of his eyes, breaking through the cloud cover. The Anti-Monitor and his parademons disappear, and a new universe is created, at the cost of Oliver's life. (One more episode of Arrow aired, closing the 1st Arrowverse show after 8 seasons, showing Oliver's funeral, and his place in the afterlife.)

* Part 5: DC's Legends of Tomorrow, also airing on January 14. If you've never seen LoT, let me put it this way: It was the silliest show on television, but that made it fun.

Kara wakes up, and the month they spent at Vanishing Point has, well, vanished. It's January 14, 2020, and Earth is back to normal, with no one acting as if anything had ever been wrong. It's as if the Crisis had never happened. At least they got to celebrate Christmas and New Year's.

But then Kara sees that Luthor has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Everybody, even her adoptive sister Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh), thinks Luthor is a wonderful guy. Luthor had used his place as "the Paragon of Truth" to change people's perception of him.

And then the Flash shows up, and he and Supergirl each wonder, "What are you doing on my Earth?" Each had assumed that Oliver's act had restored all the Earths. But this is not the case. An old man walks up to them and asks them for their autographs, and he explains that they've always existed on the same Earth. He's played by Marv Wolfman, who, 35 years earlier, had written the original Crisis miniseries. (It was drawn by George Pérez, who was also, referenced, as the site of the final battle was said to be Perez Landing. He died on May 6, 2022, at which point Marv Wolfman was still alive.)

J'onn J'onzz uses his psionic abilities to show every superhero who wasn't a paragon what had happened, because they're still needed: The Anti-Monitor was returning for a rematch. At S.T.A.R. Labs in Central City, the home base for Team Flash, Harrison Wells, Ray Palmer and Ryan Choi design a "shrink bomb," based on Palmer's Atom technology, to send the Anti-Monitor to "the microverse," where he can do no harm to the larger multiverse. But the fight starts, and it looks like they won't have time to finish it.

Fortunately, The Flash is the fastest man alive, and a certified scientific genius in his own right. He runs to S.T.A.R. Labs, and is shown the blueprints and the parts for the bomb. He puts it together in 5 seconds. Ray puts on his Atom suit and flies back with him.

In the 1985 comic miniseries, Supergirl was one of the characters who sacrificed their lives to stop the Anti-Monitor. Just as it looks like Kara is in the process of doing it, Ray arrives, gives her the bomb, and says, "Throw it like a girl!" She does, and it hits the Anti-Monitor point-blank, and he and his parademons are now gone -- apparently forever.

The miniseries concludes with Barry using an old S.T.A.R. Labs building as the headquarters for a new team, the Justice League. There is a round table, as in King Arthur's Camelot (and in the DCEU's version of Wayne Manor at the end of the Justice League film). Oliver's costume is set up in a glass case, fronted by an eternal flame, as at President John F. Kennedy's grave, lit by Kara's heat vision. And a seat at the table is kept empty in Oliver's memory.

The 7 founding members are Superman, Supergirl, Batwoman, the Flash, the Martian Manhunter, Black Lightning and the White Canary. Clark, Kara, Kate, Barry, J'onn, Jefferson and Sara. Five of the seven Paragons, all but Ryan and the older Superman, with this Earth's Superman in his place.

A postscript showed that, contrary to what these heroes believe at this point, there are other Earths, including Earth-96, the one on which Routh's Superman lived. He's shown recreating the flying-over-Earth scene at the end of every Superman movie between 1978 and 2006, showing that he's still alive -- but also that the background of his S-crest, black in honor of those he lost, is now yellow again, suggesting that everyone he lost has been restored.

But no mention was made of Earth-66, on which Adam West's Batman and Burt Ward's Robin lived -- Ward wasn't shown in this sequence as he was in the earlier one, and, as I said, West was already dead. 

And nowhere in the miniseries was any mention made of the Earth on which Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman lived in her 1975-79 series (1975-77 on ABC, 1977-79 on CBS). Carter has appeared in the Arrowverse, but not as Princess Diana/Diana Prince/Wonder Woman. I'd like to believe that Ward's Dick Grayson and Carter's Diana Prince are alive and well. (A non-canon comic book series would combine the stories, titled Batman '66 Meets Wonder Woman '77, suggesting that, in her World War II adventures, Wonder Woman met Bruce as a boy, before his parents were killed.)

In the Arrowverse, hints have been dropped at the existence of Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and the Green Lantern Corps, but none of them have ever appeared. Hawkman and Hawkwoman have, but, unlike in the comics, were not shown with this Justice League.

But while this version of Crisis On Infinite Earths was far from perfect, it was a true gift to so many fans of the DC superheroes, myself included. Something that Snyder and the people working with him refuse to accept.

In hindsight, it is interesting that the greatest crisis in each brand's live-action history was set in 2019: For Marvel, "The Snap" by Thanos in the film Avengers: Infinity War, on May 31 in their continuity, though the film was released on April 27, 2018; and for DC, the titular event in their miniseries Crisis On Infinite Earths, on December 10, the day it aired on The CW Network. And, in both cases, the man who was then President in real life, Donald Trump, couldn't save anyone.

In "The Marvel Cinematic Universe," the heroes had to restore half the life in the universe, and they did. In the Arrowverse, the heroes had to restore all the life in all the universes, and they had to do it without a Superman, a Batman or a Wonder Woman. And they did.

DC > Marvel. All day. Any day.

One last note: Whatever the real reason was, Ruby Rose left Batwoman after one season. A new character, Ryan Wilder, played by Javicia Leslie, was given "the mantle of the Bat," and became the new Batwoman. The character of Kate Kane was recast with Wallis Day, and she appeared only briefly, letting Wilder continue as Batman until the show's cancellation.

*

December 10, 2019 was a Tuesday. On our Earth, where a three-game losing streak is considered a "crisis," there were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Portland Trail Blazers, 115-87 at the Moda Center in Portland. Damian Lillard scored 31 points for the Blazers.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Denver Nuggets, 97-92 at the Wells Fargo Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Washington Wizards, 114-107 at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte. Dāvis Bertāns scored 32 for the Wizards, but Devonte' Graham scored 29 for the Hornets.

* And the Miami Heat beat the Atlanta Hawks, 135-121 in overtime at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami. Kendrick Nunn scored 36 for the Heat, Duncan Robinson 34, and Bam Adebayo 30.

There were 12 games played in the NHL:

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Dallas Stars, 2-0 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The New York Rangers lost to the Los Angeles Kings, 3-1 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat their arch-rivals, the Florida Panthers, 2-1 at the BB&T Center (now the Amerant Bank Arena) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.

* The Nashville Predators beat the San Jose Sharks, 3-1 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-2 at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-1 at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Anaheim Ducks beat the Minnesota Wild, 3-2 in a shootout at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-1 at the Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg.

* The Calgary Flames beat the Arizona Coyotes, 5-2 at the Gila River Arena (now the Desert Diamond Arena) in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona.

* The Vegas Golden Knights beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 5-1 at the T-Mobile Arena outside Las Vegas in Paradise, Nevada.

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Edmonton Oilers, 6-3 at Rogers Place in Edmonton.

* And the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-1 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

October 10, 2012: The "Arrowverse" Begins

October 10, 2012: Arrow premieres on The CW. Stephen Amell plays Oliver Queen, who becomes the costumed vigilante Green Arrow.

The character had debuted in DC Comics in November 1941, in More Fun Comics #73. He had usually been portrayed as an upbeat character, with his Robin Hood-inspired costume and archery ability, and his tendency toward witty quips, a trait also common to Batman's sidekick Robin, and later to the Marvel superhero Spider-Man. But his Van Dyke beard, debuting in 1969, made keeping his secret identity problematic.

In 2006, Justin Hartley began playing the character on an episode of Smallville, and became a recurring character on that show, a re-imagining of the Superman story. His darker, Batman-like take on the character carried over into Amell's portrayal, which began The CW's "shared universe" franchise of superhero-themed dramas, which became known as the Arrowverse.

Each episode was introduced by Amell, usually with a variation on the following:

My name is Oliver Queen. For five years, I was stranded on an island with only one goal: Survive. Now I will fulfill my father's dying wish: To use the list of names he left me, and bring down those who are poisoning my city. To do this, I must become someone else. I must become something else.

The show ran for 8 years, with Oliver telling the bad guys, "You have failed this city!" until he died in the Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover.

The Arrowverse has also included The Flash, starring Grant Gustin as the Scarlet Speedster, which began in 2014 and will wrap up in 2023; Supergirl, starring Melissa Benoist as Superman's cousin, which ran from 2015 to 2021; DC's Legends of Tomorrow, about half of whose characters had previously appeared in DC, from 2016 to 2022; Black Lightning, starring Cress Williams, from 2018 to 2021; Swamp Thing, starring Derek Mears as the slimy but noble hero, in 2019; and Batwoman, from 2019 to 2022, first with Ruby Rose as Kate Kane, cousin of Bruce Wayne, a.k.a. Batman, for a season, and then Javicia Leslie as Ryan Wilder, a new character created for the series after Rose left the show.

There are also the current series Titans, starring Brenton Thwaites as Dick Grayson, Batman's original Robin, now leading a team of younger heroes as Nightwing, premiering in 2018; Doom Patrol, about a team of celebrities-turned-experiments-gone-wrong-turned-heroes, premiering in 2019; Stargirl, starring Brec Bassinger as the leader of a teenage team of "legacy heroes" using the codenames and equipment of previous heroes, premiering in 2020; and Superman & Lois, starring Tyler Hoechlin as Clark and Elizabeth "Bitsie" Tulloch as the Mrs., premiering in 2021.

The Arrowverse is not the only TV franchise born on this day: Chicago Fire premieres on NBC. It begins the One Chicago franchise, created by Derek Haas, Michael Brandt and Dick Wolf. Wolf had previously created the Law & Order franchise.

Chicago P.D. premiered on January 8, 2014. Chicago Med, a hospital-based series, premiered on November 17, 2015. All are still running. Chicago Justice, focusing on Cook County prosecutors, only ran from March 1 to May 14, 2017.

In 2020, to accommodate the maternity leave of Missy Peregrym, who played Special Agent Maggie Bell, Tracy Spiridakos appeared on FBI, a CBS series created by Wolf and Craig Turk, as her Chicago P.D. character, Detective Hailey Upton. This crossover, despite involving 2 different networks, confirmed that FBI, and its spinoff FBI: Most Wanted, take place in the same universe as the One Chicago shows. In 2021, FBI: International premiered.

While not yet confirmed, it implies that these shows all take place in the same universe as Wolf's Law & Order shows -- which, due to the crossing over of Richard Belzer's Detective John Munch, would also put them in the same universe as Homicide: Life On the Street, The X-Files, The Lone Gunmen, Arrested Development, The Wire and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. And the use of the fictional newspaper the New York Ledger on "The FBIs" suggests a link to another series, the ABC police comedy-drama Castle. Never mind "The Tommy Westphall Universe": It's John Munch's world, we're just watching it.

However, as of 2022, there has been no indication of a crossover between the Wolfverse and the Arrowverse.

UPDATE: The Arrowverse came to an end on December 2, 2024, with the final episode of the last remaining series, Superman & Lois. The sale of The CW had led to the new owners having different priorities, and bringing the shows to conclusions. It had been 12 years, 1 month and 22 days, and the franchise had redefined how superheroes are shown on television.

CBS canceled both FBI: International and FBI: Most Wanted in 2025. They have promised a series about the CIA, taking place in the same universe, but have pushed it back to 2026 due to casting issues.

*

October 10, 2012 was a Wednesday. Game 3 of the American League Division Series was played at the new Yankee Stadium. The New York Yankees trailed the Baltimore Orioles, 2-1 in the bottom of the 9th, when Raúl Ibañez hit a home run. He hit another in the 12th, and the Yankees won, 3-2. I have a separate entry for this event.

In Game 4 of the other ALDS, the Oakland Athletics beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-3 at the O.co Coliseum (as the Oakland Coliseum was then officially named). But the next day, the Tigers won Game 5 to eliminate the A's. Then they swept the Yanks in 4 straight to take the AL Pennant.

In the National League Division Series, the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Washington Nationals, 8-0 in Game 3 at Nationals Park in Washington; while the San Francisco Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 8-3 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. The Giants went on to beat the Reds, the Cards beat the Nats, the Giants beat the Cards for the Pennant, and the Giants swept the Tigers in the World Series.

Football was in midweek. The NBA season didn't start until October 30. The NHL team owners had locked the players out, so the season was delayed until January 19, 2013.

September 11, 2000: "Girlfriends" Premieres

Left to right: Jill Marie Jones, Persia White,

Golden Brooks, Tracee Ellis Ross

September 11, 2000: Girlfriends premieres on UPN, later moving to The CW, and running for 8 years. It stars Tracee Ellis Ross, daughter of music legend Diana Ross, as lawyer Joan Clayton; Golden Brooks as her secretary, Maya Wilkes; Jill Marie Jones as real estate agent Toni Childs, Joan's best friend from childhood; Persia White as artist Lynn Searcy, Joan's college roommate; and Reggie Hayes as William Dent, a partner at Joan's law firm, who spends so much time with them he gets called "The Fifth Girlfriend." He briefly ends up as a boyfriend of Lynn, and later Joan.

I'm not saying Girlfriends is a Los Angeles-based ripoff of the New York-based Living Single of the previous decade. I am saying there were a few similarities:

* It was an almost all-black, female-led cast.

* There was a boss lady, raised by a single mother after her father walked out: Magazine publisher Khadijah and lawyer Joan.

* There was a secretary to the boss lady: Synclaire and Maya.

* There was a high-strung lady lawyer: Max and Joan.

* There was a weirdo: Synclaire and Lynn.

* There was a freeloader who, or so it would seem, would sleep with pretty much any man: Max and Lynn.

* There was a self-centered career woman who wanted you to forget she was ever poor: East Orange, New Jersey native Regine; and Fresno, California native Toni.

* There was a self-centered career man who wanted you to forget he was descended from country folk: Cleveland-born stockbroker Kyle and Kansas City-born lawyer William.

* One of the big four ended up leaving, resulting in a lackluster last season, again pairing up Regine and Toni.

* And Michael Warren, best known as Officer Bobby Hill on Hill Street Blues, played the fathers of both Khadijah and Joan. Did you think I would overlook that? As Maya would say, "Oh, hell, no!"  

There were, however, some significant differences:

* Living Single was recorded on videotape; Girlfriends, on film.

* On Girlfriends, one of the 4 women started out married with a child -- ironically, Maya, the youngest of them.

* None of the Living Single ladies lied about their ages, not even the very vain Regine. On Girlfriends, Joan used to tell people she was 4 years younger than she really was, while Toni said she was 1 year younger, to the point where even Joan, her childhood best friend, didn't know until she was 31 years old that Toni was 32. (Even a Season 1 fantasy sequence where Joan imagined Toni dead showed her tombstone giving her birth year as 1972, instead of 1971, which turned out to be correct.)

* None of the Living Single ladies was the child of a mixed-race couple, or adopted. On Girlfriends, Lynn was both. (Her birth father was played by Demond Wilson of Sanford and Son.)

* Living Single had Overton Jones, Kyle's best friend from Cleveland and roommate in New York, as the building's handyman, who dated and eventually married Synclaire. Girlfriends had no corresponding character.

Living Single lasted 5 seasons, 118 episodes; Girlfriends, 8 seasons, 172 episodes.

*

September 11, 2000 was a Monday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 4-0 at Yankee Stadium. Rolando Arrojo (7 2/3rds innings) and Derek Lowe combined on a 5-hit shutout, to outpitch Orlando "El Duque" Hernández. The 5 hits were a double by Jorge Posada, and singles by Derek Jeter, Paul O'Neill and Tino Martinez.

* The New York Mets lost to the Milwaukee Brewers, 8-2 at Shea Stadium.

* A doubleheader was split at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Phillies won the opener, 5-2. The Montreal Expos won the nightcap, 7-6.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-4 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Three Rivers was in its last year: The following April, the Pirates moved into PNC Park; the following September, the Steelers moved into Heinz Field (now Acrisure Stadium). In this game, Mark McGwire hit his 31st home run of the season, and the 553rd of his career.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-6 at Cinergy Field, formerly known as Riverfront Stadium, in Cincinnati. Sammy Sosa hit his 49th home run of the season, and the 389th of his career. Mark Grace went 4-for-5. For the Reds, Ken Griffey Jr. went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 10-3 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Houston Astros, 8-7 at Enron Field (soon to be renamed Minute Maid Park, now Daikin Park) in Houston. Bill Mueller tripled Ramón Martinez home with the winning run in the top of the 10th inning. Barry Bonds hit his 45th home run of the season, and the 490th of his career. Jeff Kent hit his 32nd home run of the season, and the 204th of his career. J.T. Snow hit his 17th home run of the season, and the 149th of his career. For the Astros, Jeff Bagwell hit his 42nd home run of the season, and the 305th of his career. And Moisés Alou hit his 28th home run of the season, and the 173rd of his career.

Respectively, they finished their careers with 762*, 377, 189, 449 and 332.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 6-3 at Bank One Ballpark (now Chase Field) in Phoenix.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Colorado Rockies, 7-2 at Qualcomm Stadium (formerly San Diego Stadium and Jack Murphy Stadium). Tony Gwynn did not play.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Anaheim Angels, 3-1 at Edison International Field of Anaheim (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Cal Ripken went 1-for-4.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 5-1 at the Oakland Athletics.

* And the Kansas City Royals beat the Seattle Mariners, 6-3 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle. Rickey Henderson, running out the string with the M's, went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* And the Cleveland Indians, the Minnesota Twins, the Texas Rangers, the Toronto Blue Jays, the Atlanta Braves and the Florida Marlins were not scheduled.

And on ABC Monday Night Football, the New York Jets beat their arch-rivals, the New England Patriots, 20-19 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands. As the new 21st Century wore on, Jet wins over the Pats would become rare.

January 11, 1995: Warner Brothers Launches the WB Television Network

January 11, 1995: Warner Brothers launches the WB Television Network. It aired on many of the former Tribune Broadcasting stations, including WPIX-Channel 11 in New York and WGN-Channel 9 in Chicago.

In Philadelphia, it aired on WPHL-Channel 17; in Baltimore, WNUV-Channel 54; in Washington, WBCD-Channel 50 (now WDCW); in Boston, WLVI-Channel 56; in Los Angeles, KTLA-Channel 5; and in San Francisco, KBCW-Channel 44.

The 1st shows are The Wayans Brothers (not Damon and Keenen, but the next-youngest brothers, Shawn and Marlon), The Parent 'Hood (also with a mostly-black cast), Unhappily Ever After (an even trashier version of Fox's Married... With Children, if you can believe that), and Muscle (in which Adam West doesn't play Batman, and dies 3 minutes into the show).

Paramount Pictures launched UPN a few days later. Both Warners and Paramount thought that a 5th major non-cable network could thrive. But their timing was awful: Not only did they both try at essentially the same time, but the growth of cable TV meant that ratings that would have been considered pathetic in the 1970s were accepted as great in the 1990s.

In 2006, both gave up the ghost, and merged, forming The CW. The more successful stations became CW stations, while the less successful ones became part of a CW subsidiary, "MyNetwork TV." In New York, for example, WPIX-Channel 11 went from WB to CW, while WWOR-Channel 9 went from "UPN9" to "My9."

*

January 11, 1995 was a Tuesday. Baseball was out of season. The NFL was in the middle of its Playoffs. And the NHL had just settled a labor dispute with the players, ending the lockout, and the preseason was underway, with the regular season getting started on January 20.

There were 10 games in the NBA:

* The Boston Celtics beat the Indiana Pacers, 100-97 at the Boston Garden.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 115-77 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 100-91 at the Charlotte Coliseum.

* The Orlando Magic beat the Detroit Pistons, 124-107 at the Orlando Arena. Shaquille O'Neal led all scorers on the night with 37 points.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 98-93 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Miami Heat, 108-97 at The Summit in Houston. (It's now the Central Campus of televangelist Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.)

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Sacramento Kings, 97-88 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.

* The Utah Jazz beat their arch-rivals, the Denver Nuggets, 114-88 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 118-108 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Golden State Warriors, 104-92 at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon.