Joss Whedon's Dollhouse

Zaelath · Post by **Zaelath** » May 10, 2009, 9:46 pm

Hesten wrote:Yeah, Tudyk was bloody brilliant in that role .

And while were talking Tudyk, he is in the latest episode of PG Porn, check it out at http://www.spike.com/video/pg-porn-high-poon/3157900 (MIGHT not be safe for work, depending on your work).

The money shot was awesome.

Lalanae · Post by **Lalanae** » May 13, 2009, 2:07 pm

OK, after that episode I am now a fan

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » May 15, 2009, 8:19 pm

Alan Tudyk was brilliant. I really liked the character development for Amy Acker. I used to love her in Angel and it'll be interesting to see where they take her in this.

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » May 15, 2009, 9:35 pm

Well I'll be.

Surprise: Fox RENEWS 'Dollhouse'

UPDATED: In an underdog comeback that blows away NBC’s will-they-or-won’t-they hand-wringing over “Chuck” (psst, they almost certainly will), sources say Fox will renew Joss Whedon’s “Dollhouse” for next fall.

The official announcement will not be made until Monday, but sources say this is happening.

The low-rated Friday night show was last seen given up for dead by the media in a field somewhere.

But its DVR numbers are strong, online streaming is strong. It’s a sci-fi show, which tend to bring in nice ancillary revenue such as DVD sales for sister-company studio 20th TV. And it’s said that Fox execs rather like the series, especially the latter half of the season. Besides, a show airing in the fall on Fox is a bit like running in midseason on most networks -- it’s not their strongest part of the year and maybe ... maybe ...

All right, fine.

A “Dollhouse” pickup is stunning, and tough to explain based on the show's ratings, which concluded at a 1.0 among adults 18-49. Maybe Fox executives are just sick of being vilified on Whedonesque.com. Perhaps Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly, who wisely renewed “The Office” at NBC after a disastrous first season, knows something we don’t.

Either way, to paraphrase Hannibal Lecter: The broadcast world is a more interesting place with Joss Whedon's show in it.

For Fox, this means the network gets to brag that it's bringing back all three of its new dramas this season -- "Fringe," "Lie to Me" and "Dollhouse." And along with NBC renewing "Friday Night Lights" and strongly considering "Chuck," and the CW stations considering bringing back "Reaper," there's a shift this season toward networks looking beyond live viewing ratings when considering shows with passionate fanbases.

Sources say Fox received some budget concessions from 20th TV and Whedon to continue the show.

Which night "Dollhouse" would air on is unclear, though a return to Fridays now seems likely.

To say I'm surprised is an understatement, but it's good news!

As for Amy Acker, I dunno what we'll see from her in the future. From what I remember she's signed on for another show and is just in a guest starring role atm. I'd love for her to keep going on Dollhouse, her characters great, and she's totally awesome. Loved her on Angel, up until the Illyria twist :/

valryte · Post by **valryte** » May 16, 2009, 1:02 am

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » May 16, 2009, 7:48 am

Excellent! I'm happy. I really hope this is a sign of the networks finally looking at something else than the Nielson as a deciding factor for a TV show.

Ransure · Post by **Ransure** » May 16, 2009, 8:30 am

yipeee!

Now, cancel heroes and bring back pushing daisies!

Lalanae · Post by **Lalanae** » May 22, 2009, 6:53 pm

Yay!!!

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » May 22, 2009, 11:12 pm

Animalor wrote:Excellent! I'm happy. I really hope this is a sign of the networks finally looking at something else than the Nielson as a deciding factor for a TV show.

I wouldn't bet on it. It didn't save Terminator. Which if I read right actually had higher ratings than this show. They got lucky really. I wouldn't read any more into it than that.

Keverian FireCry · Post by **Keverian FireCry** » May 23, 2009, 2:57 am

Awesome. I just caught up on this show and ended up enjoying it a lot. Wasn't too impressed at first, but it just got better and better as the season went on. Can't wait for next season!

Gonzoie - Luclin · Post by **Gonzoie - Luclin** » July 18, 2009, 3:20 am

There are currently 2 un-aired episodes floating on the interwebs right now. One appears to be the pilot, and the other is Epitaph One. I haven't been able to find a working copy of the pilot one, but Epitaph One was awesome!

valryte · Post by **valryte** » July 19, 2009, 1:55 am

I saw the pilot today. It sort of has unaired material as well as bits and pieces of various episodes of the regular series, some are even variations of what they actually used in the regular season. For anyone who has not watched this show yet, do NOT watch the pilot first. Watch the regular season first if your interested in watching the pilot.

Neroon · Post by **Neroon** » September 12, 2009, 11:10 am

Just read something about Joss maybe bringing Summer Glau onto the show (since she is out of a job!). He said not as a doll though, she has done too many roles like that (his words). He wants to do something totally different with her.

Anyone else hear this?

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » September 15, 2009, 2:17 am

Yeah, she's playing an employee of the Dollhouse or something.

masteen · Post by **masteen** » September 15, 2009, 9:55 pm

This news makes my nervis HUGE!

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » November 13, 2009, 10:26 am

Cancelled. Why do I even bother watching anything on Fox. Firefly, Terminator and now Dollhouse. *sigh*

http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/11/dollhouse-canceled.html

miir · Post by **miir** » November 13, 2009, 11:25 am

Bottom line is the networks don't really make any advertising money when people download and DVR shows.
If a show bleeds money, it gets cancelled.

I know Joss Whedon has a sizeable cult following but it's obviously not loyal enough to actually watch his shows when it actually matters.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 13, 2009, 1:35 pm

Whedon needs to go the internet route and come up with new distribution method for his shows. Dr Horrible was great as well but didn't make any money, or little. (that was internet so something new needs to be thought up for good directors that appeal to non slug reality fags TV show people)

miir · Post by **miir** » November 13, 2009, 1:50 pm

I think the majority of Whedon's fans are cheap motherfuckers.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » November 13, 2009, 1:59 pm

I don't know that I would classify myself as a Whedon fan, but I own every season of Buffy, Angel, and Firefly. I don't see myself buying Dollhouse though.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 13, 2009, 2:35 pm

miir wrote:I think the majority of Whedon's fans are cheap motherfuckers.

lol

If Whedon made some hardware I'd buy it!

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » November 13, 2009, 4:53 pm

I never watched it.. But it looked dumb from the commercials. And based on how close it came to being canceled after the first season it doesn't seem like a huge surprise it got the axe this time. Not really sure you can blame Fox though.

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » November 13, 2009, 4:55 pm

I'll blame Fox! I'm still butthurt over Firefly.

That said, I have never seen Whedon's other shows.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 13, 2009, 6:04 pm

I stopped watching Dollhouse after the first episode but I heard it got better! Premise sounded dumb and the first episode didn't help much.

Whedon still rocks though.

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » November 13, 2009, 8:09 pm

The problem with Dollhouse was that the excellent, overarching story got way too buried under the "random event of the week" serial story. I personally enjoyed the show and am sad to see it canned. the 2nd hakf if the first season was good as was a lot of season 2 thus far. At least the remaining episodes will apparently tie up loose ends nicely.

Aardor · Post by **Aardor** » November 16, 2009, 1:02 am

He should really start having Syfy pick up his shows. They never cancel anything.

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » November 16, 2009, 8:50 pm

Dushku had a development deal with Fox, so they had to take it there. I hope he stays fucking clear of Fox from now on tho. Fuck Fox.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » November 16, 2009, 9:19 pm

They gave it another chance. Blame the viewers for preferring to watch stupid shit like reality TV.

miir · Post by **miir** » November 17, 2009, 10:02 am

Dregor Thule wrote:Dushku had a development deal with Fox, so they had to take it there. I hope he stays fucking clear of Fox from now on tho. Fuck Fox.

I'm not sure how you can blame it on Fox.

The ratings for the show were total shit.
Nobody watched it on TV.
Fox doesn't make money from people downloading the show.

He should really start having Syfy pick up his shows

I'm guessing that with his string of flops, he's gonna have a hard time convincing anyone to put any money into anything he does... and I doubt that he's got enough cash to fund a show himself.

Gonzoie - Luclin · Post by **Gonzoie - Luclin** » December 1, 2009, 5:14 pm

Define string of flops for me please.

FireFly was aired out of order because of Fox and that's what caused that to flop. How many seasons did Buffy and Angel run for? I believe Buffy was about 6 years and Angel was 5.

Yes. String of flops indeed.

miir · Post by **miir** » December 2, 2009, 10:44 am

3 in a row.

Firefly, Serenity, Dollhouse.

FireFly was aired out of order because of Fox and that's what caused that to flop.

Keep telling yourself that.

His shows flop because his fanboys spend more time defending his honor on the internet than they do actually watching his shows.

Gonzoie - Luclin · Post by **Gonzoie - Luclin** » December 2, 2009, 12:16 pm

You're saying that you would watch a show where the character development pilot is never aired and throughout the series the episodes are aired out of order? I could see that working with shows like Two and a Half Men, but on a character driven drama/action, there is NO way that would work.

They also promoted the show as a comedy.. Which it is not.

Serenity made 11mil profit from domestic sales of DVD and box office tickets alone, not counting international sales.

Ill let Dollhouse be classified as a flop, although I do enjoy the show most of the time.

I do see your point that because a show failed its a flop, but FireFly failed solely because of Fox. No other reason.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » December 2, 2009, 12:21 pm

Regardless of why Firefly, which was awesome by the way, 'flopped' it can still be considered a commercial failure. Which is why he's dumb to keep going to Fox regardless of who has what contract or production deal.

Gonzoie - Luclin · Post by **Gonzoie - Luclin** » December 2, 2009, 1:11 pm

I know its a commercial failure, which makes me sad. I just don't think it can be classified as a flop of a show.

miir · Post by **miir** » December 2, 2009, 1:49 pm

Gonzoie - Luclin wrote:Serenity made 11mil profit from domestic sales of DVD and box office tickets alone, not counting international sales.

You're seriously trying to say that Serenity wasn't a flop?
You're nothing but a fucking delusional fanboy.

miir · Post by **miir** » December 2, 2009, 1:51 pm

Aslanna wrote:Which is why he's dumb to keep going to Fox regardless of who has what contract or production deal.

Maybe because Fox is the only network stupid enough to keep throwing cash down the joss whedon money pit.

Psyloche · Post by **Psyloche** » December 2, 2009, 1:55 pm

miir wrote:
Aslanna wrote:Which is why he's dumb to keep going to Fox regardless of who has what contract or production deal.
Maybe because Fox is the only network stupid enough to keep throwing cash down the joss whedon money pit.

I can't really deny that they weren't commercial flops, but I really did enjoy the hell out of Firefly and wish it had continued instead of ending in Serenity (which I still liked).

miir · Post by **miir** » December 2, 2009, 2:01 pm

I enjoy the hell out of a lot of things (games/music/movies) that are not commercially successful.
I think maybe I enjoy them more because they aren't.

Gonzoie - Luclin · Post by **Gonzoie - Luclin** » December 2, 2009, 3:33 pm

miir wrote:
Gonzoie - Luclin wrote:Serenity made 11mil profit from domestic sales of DVD and box office tickets alone, not counting international sales.
You're seriously trying to say that Serenity wasn't a flop?
You're nothing but a fucking delusional fanboy.

Serenity was made for the fans. Not a flop in my opinion since it was the only way to end the story. I look at the movie as a continuation of the series, not a stand-alone. That's why I don't classify that as a flop.

In total movie retrospect, yes it is a "flop" of a movie. To anyone who watched the series, it was a much needed movie, and not a flop.

miir · Post by **miir** » December 2, 2009, 4:06 pm

Whedon's projects have become more and more 'fan service' ans less about broad appeal.
It's fine to make niche products just for your fans... but if that's all you're making your commercial appeal will diminish and investors are going to stop throwing money at you.

Kevin Smith is starting to fall into the same rut, but luckily (for us) his films don't have large budgets and have little problem making a (modest) profit.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » December 2, 2009, 6:33 pm

NASA's budget doesn't appeal to a lot of people but I still say screw the general population and encourage pumping as much money as possible into NASA. I feel the same about Whedon movies! There should be a Canadian tax that funds Whedon projects. (not all TV series, Dollhouse still doesn't appeal to me)

Psyloche · Post by **Psyloche** » December 7, 2009, 12:30 pm

I wanted to come back to this thread after Friday's double episode and say:

[Show]: Victor as Topher was fucking awesome. I love the actor who plays Victor and really hope he gets on something else because I think he's gr8.

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » December 7, 2009, 4:39 pm

Yeah, he had the impression down pat.

Firefly, and Dollhouse, flopped because they're quirky sci-fi shows on Fox. Has a sci-fi show succeeded on Fox since the X-Files? Only other I can think of at the moment is Fringe, which I haven't watched, but sounds like it's skirting the edge of the ratings flop too. Like I've said before, he went with Fox because Dushku had a development deal. I hope he never does so again tho. Should be on *gag* SyFy!

Psyloche · Post by **Psyloche** » December 19, 2009, 12:42 am

Oh my goodness, I'm loving how this is going. I'm sad to see it go, but it seems to be tying things up, or rather going in a very interesting direction which could eventually have decent closure. Unlike Firefly/Serenity did for me.

Zaelath · Post by **Zaelath** » December 20, 2009, 7:55 am

^ Yeah that.

Typically, Joss has some excellent ideas of how a show will end, but the buildup is too slow because he's trying to get more than 1 season out of it.

The last few episodes though, have been amongst his best TV, period.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » December 20, 2009, 1:51 pm

Don't forget Whedon wrote some of the best comics ever in Astonishing X-Men 1-18 (19-24 no as good). He's got talent and had quite a range in what he can write about.

Firefly's lack of success was Fox's not Whedon's. And Serenity had more story and character development in it than ten Avatar movies combined.

Post by **Sylvus** » December 21, 2009, 11:32 am

Winnow wrote:And Serenity had more story and character development in it than ten Avatar movies combined.

I disagree with that. Granted, I'm not really a Whedon fanboy (I never watched Firefly or Buffy; I watched several episodes of Dollhouse last season and I loved Dr. Horrible), but I saw Serenity and Avatar and while I thought Serenity was good, Avatar was way better on every level (except maybe humor).

miir · Post by **miir** » December 21, 2009, 11:54 am

The difference between fans of James Cameron and Joss Whedon.

James Cameron fans actually go out and pay money to watch James Cameron movies.
Joss Whedon fans prefer to talk about how great Joss Whedon is and call eveyone who isn't a card carrying member of the 'cult of joss' a moron... then they illegally download his TV shows and movies.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » December 21, 2009, 1:06 pm

If you're interested only in the bottom line, you'd hang out at Wal Mart all day long because that's where the most people shop!

OK, Serenity was only nine times as good as Avatar on 10X less budget and 100X less advertising (200M advertising for Avatar? Are you serious!?)

I guess I'm a character driven viewer. Avatar had very little of that. I do appreciate bright flashy visuals, but always enjoy movies/TV more when I have a reason to care or hate the characters involved.

Update: Time has added the following to its article: “The original version of this story misstated the cost of the film Avatar as being in excess of $300 million. The correct figure is in excess of $200 million.”

When James Cameron’s Avatar was announced a couple years back, we wondered if it would be the most expensive movie of all time. There have been a few films since the initial announcement that topped Fox’s proposed $200 million budget. Spider-Man 3 producers insisted that the film’s budget didn’t exceed $270 million, but some reports claimed a number closer to $350 million. But like most films, and especially films made on the cutting edge, the initial budget and the budget after all is said and done, are vastly different.

Time Magazine mentions in their latest 3D article that the budget for Avatar has ballooned to a “cost in excess of $300 million”, and I’m pretty sure they mean before press and advertising. To this day, the highest estimated film budget was $300 million for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. So If Time Magazine is correct, Avatar is now the most expensive movie of all time. The article has a bunch of cool tidbits. For instance, Steven Spielberg predicts Avatar will be the biggest 3-D live-action film ever. Cameron says that “every film I’m planning to do will be in 3-D.” Peter Jackson makes the claim that he believes “that almost any movie benefits from 3-D.”

And best of all, the reporter got to see some footage from Avatar and claims that he “couldn’t tell what was real and what was animated”. John Quittner writes: “Even knowing that the 9-ft.-tall blue, dappled dude couldn’t possibly be real. The scenes were so startling and absorbing that the following morning, I had the peculiar sensation of wanting to return there, as if Pandora were real.”

Read more: Avatar’s Budget Exceeds $300 Million? Most Expensive Movie of All Time? | /Film http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/03/19/ava ... z0aL977pcP

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » December 22, 2009, 8:28 pm

The recent Victor episode was forgettable junk, but the Attic episode was great