The WB, which merged with UPN to become The CW in 2006, has been revived — this time online. Our regular readers and my friends (OK, same thing), know I’m a big fan of a lot of old WB shows and like to reference which obscure WB show various actors have starred or guested on, so imagine my joy that I don’t have to spend money on DVDs to watch some of these guilty pleasures. The site actually launched back in the spring, but made its official debut Wednesday.

TheWB.com features a mix of new shows made for the Web and old favorites, such as Buffy, Angel, Gilmore Girls, Smallville, The O.C. and others (though oddly missing is Charmed). The streaming occasionally stutters, but is good quality overall.

I can’t say any of the new offerings, such as Sorority Forever or A Boy Wearing Makeup appeal to me, but they might to other people in the demo that the WB is trying to hit. And regardless of whether the new shows are any good, it’s nice to be able to view the WB classics online, anytime, for free.

In an attempt to appeal to today’s ADD youth, you can also do video mashups because what the world needs is more Smallville montages on YouTube about Clark and Lana’s doomed love story set to Josh Groban.

On the other hand, you can also set up viewing parties where people can watch the same video simultaneously and online chat at the same time, which is kind of cool and a nice chance to collectively groan at how badly some of the shows have aged.

Now if we can just get some of those not-so-classic WB shows (e.g. Black Sash), I’ll be in guilty pleasure heaven.