Are you a die-hard fan of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”? What about “The Gilmore Girls”? Were you one of the millions disappointed when both of these shows reached the end of their respective runs? If so, then you’re in for a pleasant surprise. In August, TheWB.com will launch out of beta with an offering of full episodes of all the old WB programming.

Included in the list of shows scheduled to air on TheWB.com is “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “The Gilmore Girls”, “Veronica Mars”, “One Tree Hill” and “The O.C.” – among a slew of others including original programming that hasn’t hit the beta site yet. While you’re watching episodes of your favorite shows, you can join in games and even do a video mash-up of your favorite scenes. If you like Facebook, they also have a group there and an app you can use on your own website.

I signed up for the beta testing of the site and aside from trouble getting the Flash to work, I found it really exciting. I am one of those die-hard BtVS fans. There are only a few episodes from season one available for now. However, there are plans to expand the selection to include all seven seasons. Most of the shows featured only offer a few episodes from the first season, but that’s ok. Remember the pilot episode of “Friends”? Neither did I, but I was able to watch it recently thanks to this new service.

According to a newsletter sent out by TheWB.com, the network will be producing shows solely for the website. They plan on introducing new episodes once a week starting at their launch on August 27, 2008. Their first series is called “Sorority Girl” which is a thriller set on a college campus where students are dying left and right. TheWB.com is announcing that there are 40 episodes of this series set to go live over 8 weeks- which means that there will be a new episode every single weeknight starting in August.

This could be the future of new television programming. Record numbers of Internet users are connected to high-speed service and are using the web to watch everything from independent production to the daily news to full-length movies. Many users, myself included, log on regularly to watch missed episodes of their favorite shows. CBS, ABC, and NBC all allow viewers to watch their weekly lineup as well as their daytime lineup the day after the episode first airs. TheWB.com is taking advantage of this new trend to relaunch their network- based solely online. So far, their beta site is not disappointing. I look forward to seeing other networks taking this route.