Good News: Plans for the sequel to DR. HORRIBLE’s SING-A-LONG BLOG may have just kicked into high gear. Bad News: With FOX officially cancelling DOLLHOUSE after it finishes airing its initial 13-episode order in January. [Source]
Good News: Lindsay Price has officially removed herself from ‘Mother’ contention. Bad News: After breaking up (in real-life) with HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER’s Josh Radnor over what sources are calling ‘lifestyle’ differences. [Source]
Good News: Execs at ABC, CBS, CW and FOX can rest easy. Bad News: For NBC, who according to Silicon Valley Insider will (inexplicably) keep Jeff Zucker at the helm following Comcast’s deal to purchase 51% of NBC Universal from General Electric. [Source]
Good News: According to a Nielsen report, DVR owners aren’t killing television. Bad News: They are though giving new meaning to the term couch potato, with the Atlantic pointing out that “many people’s laziness outweighs their hatred for ads.” [Source]
Good News: TNT has given SOUTHLAND a new home by agreeing to broadcast all thirteen episodes starting January 12, 2010. Bad News: TNT has not agreed to produce any new episodes. [Source]
Good News: The cast of ALLY MCBEAL reunited on this morning’s GOOD MORNING AMERICA. Bad News: Gil Bellows hairline didn’t get the memo. [Video]
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When this TV Addict takes the time to pen an ‘Open Letter’ to the likes of Ronald D. Moore, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, the Winchester Brothers and Chace Crawford, we don’t really do so with the expectation that we’ll actually get a response from the subject. So you can imagine our surprise when Joss Whedon (via Whedonesque.com, the web’s undisputed source for all thing Whedon) not only took some time out of his busy schedule to post a response to yesterday’s Open Letter to Joss Whedon. But in doing so, proved once again — thanks to his innate ability to connect with his fandom on a personal level — why he is in fact destined to become the man to pioneer the first-ever hour-long web-only production.
Of course until that day comes, the auteur himself would really appreciate if you don’t lose hope and tune into DOLLHOUSE (TV Guide Magazine’s Matt Roush calls tonight’s installment “a dark powerhouse”). See for yourself after the jump.
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With Michael Ausiello breaking the somewhat expected news that FOX is benching DOLLHOUSE for November Sweeps and in the process, virtually guaranteeing your availability to direct that episode of GLEE, I couldn’t help but wonder….
Is it not time to take a page from Felicia Day and her GUILD by cutting the network out of the equation?
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If the TV Addict Ran Entertainment Weekly
“We just wanted something extraordinary.”
Those are the words creator Joss Whedon used to sum up what the DOLLHOUSE team set out to do in the season’s thirteenth episode “Epitaph One which was just recently released exclusively on DVD and on iTunes.
Now comes the tricky part: What exactly does one do for an encore after the series virtually everyone had written off gets a renewal so unexpected that Whedon called it “the biggest surprise of my career”… and you’ve already revealed how it’s all going to end.
“Had I known episode thirteen wouldn’t be our last, would I have done something different?” he pondered during our recent chat with him. “Maybe. Because we really did tease out a lot. But I didn’t think we were necessarily done, I just thought the best thing we could do is just take a baseball bat, swing as hard as we can and leave nothing to for the ride back, because who knows?”
That said, Wheton assures us that, “What happens next is really exciting.”
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When asked to describe the thought process behind his universally adored thirteenth episode of DOLLHOUSE, Joss Whedon simply said, “We took a baseball bat, swung as hard as we could and left nothing for the ride back because who knew?” Unfortunately, the one thing we do know is that nothing in the world of television ever works out as initially planned (just ask fans of FIREFLY fans). Which is why the auteur (alongside a team of talented writers) now finds themselves summer vacation-less and entrenched in a writer’s room — all in an effort to live up to the (Spoiler Alert!) mind-blowing post-apocalyptic world that was set up in “Epitaph One.” Thankfully, Team Whedon has a plan. Step one, don’t presume what you’ve seen [in the thirteenth episode] is necessarily the whole truth (”Every flashback answers something about where people are heading but brings up a lot more questions about where they end up or how they got there,” teased Whedon to EW.com) Step two, enjoy the ride. Especially now that Whedon is perfectly at home on Friday nights (Joked the writer, “There are no expectations! They [FOX] gives me a note, I say, ‘Nobody’s watching! So I don’t have to do this right?’”) and is no longer afraid to call on a little help from his [really cool] friends. “Last year I was careful that the show didn’t seem like it was a party for my friends,” said Whedon in a recent interview with theTVaddict.com. “But looking at those people at the Con today [referring to the San Diego Comic Con] I realized it is a party for my friends, these are my friends.” Which means come season two, fans can expect special guest stars galore! Including a bevy of fan/genre favorites including Jamie Bamber, Felicia Day, Summer Glau and Michael Hogan. 
DOLLHOUSE returns to FOX on Friday September 25th at 9PM (Global TV in Canada)
First, the obligatory full disclosure.
Not only is Entertainment Weekly this TV Addict’s bible. It’s also partially to blame for what some might call an unhealthy obsession with television.
That said, the magazine’s continued insistence on shoving the incredibly-mediocre vampire series that is Twilight down its loyal subscribers throats must stop. And not just because my mailman has started to give me weird looks now that I seemed to have subscribed to a magazine that features Robert Pattinson and jail-bait Taylor Lautner on its cover every-other week.
Seriously I get it, I really do. Twilight sells issues. Something that the print edition of Entertainment Weekly, not to mention the print industry as a whole desperately needs right now. But you know what? It’s not the only thing that sells.
Which is why — in lieu of what I’m fairly certain is Entertainment Weekly’s 47th Twilight cover reference over the past year — this TV Addict has decided to put his money mad design skills where his mouth is by offering up, once again, an alternate cover suggestion for that I’m fairly confident would sell just as well.
Because before there were Twihards, there was…
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Knowing full well that the story of how a ridiculously talented family band together during last year’s WGA strike to create what would become the most buzzed about internet sensation of last year has been told ad nauseam, this TV Addict thought we’d take a different approach in recapping last night’s DR. HORRIBLE’S SING-ALONG BLOG panel from Paley Festival 2009. So here it goes, one or two (or fifteen) things that you may not have known about DR. HORRIBLE. Including but not limited to Nathan Fillion’s true feelings about Neil Patrick Harris, the power of Sondheim and the true power of Wonderflonium… but more on that later.
FAMILY MATTERS
Aside from changing the whole landscape of television and becoming the accidental poster-boy for do-it-yourself content on the web, one of the major driving forces behind DR. HORRIBLE was to give Joss an excuse to work with his brothers. Or as Joss explained, as only he can, “DR. HORRIBLE will bond us or break the family apart forever. It’s worth the risk.”
LITTLE KNOWN PALEY TIE-IN
If you were one of the hundreds of fans lucky enough to attend last year’s Paley Fest BUFFY reunion and was curious as to why exactly Joss was out of breath and looked like he had just run a marathon prior to the event, well… mystery solved. “The very last night of the very last shot [shooting DR. HORRIBLE] was when I snuck in the bathroom of the laundromat, changed into a suit and came here to talk to you about BUFFY,” revealed Joss.
FILLION=FUNNY
Okay, so not exactly shocking news, but when asked by the event’s fantastic moderator Matt Roush (Part-Time Whedon Fanboy, full-time critic for TVGuide Magazine) as to what his favorite part of the experience was, Fillion dead-panned, “You [looking at the Whedon Bros. and Felicia Day] did all the heavy lifting…. I’m just so happy now…. I can’t even tell you guys how much joy it brings to my heart that… Neil [Patrick Harris] couldn’t make it.”
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Is television a dying medium? Will fans get to see more of DR. HORRIBLE’s SING-A-LONG BLOG? What favorite movie of 2008 did Joss Whedon call “wicked bleak!” All these answers and more in part two of theTVaddict.com’s exclusive interview with Joss Whedon.
I love the fact that you created DR. HORRIBLE’s SING-A-LONG BLOG completely outside of the studio system. Is that something you’re planning on returning to anytime soon?
Joss Whedon: Absolutely. Right now I’ve got DOLLHOUSE going and Cabin in the Woods in March. So it’s kind of a crazy year for me. But expanding the idea of what can be done on the internet is something that I have just begun to explore.
I mean DR. HORRIBLE aside, the event itself was so exciting for me. I think it’s really important right now, whether it’s me or not, but I’d like it to me because I’m fascinated by it and and I don’t get any notes.
It’s funny because that was my next question. Getting DOLLHOUSE off the ground has seemed like such an enormous endeavor whereas DR. HORRIBLE was your — alongside your creative team’s — vision. No notes, no network interference, you just put it out there and see if the audience responds. Without of course going into the financials, DVD and tshirt sales, is the DR. HORRIBLE model a feasible way in which to make a living?
We are in profit, it’s not the kind of profit networks are looking to make. But I’m not a network. The experiment has been as success for us in that respect as well. It’s still a question as to how do you create business models. As I was talking to my brother Jed about it, we were talking about Radiohead. They were first. If they were second they probably would have made half as much money. But being first buys you an enormous amount of goodwill.
But I think there are so many things that still have to be defined about how things can be rolled out on the internet but there are also a lot to define about how you can monetize it and ultimately that is really tough. Monetize it on a level where you can make it viable and that’s the part of the exploring that’s homework and vegetables. It’s not like, “Oh I have this cool idea that we can make with our friends and it goes online and everybody loves it.” The question is, how do you really make this work so that you don’t becoming a money pit or promising people something you can’t return. Because we need to figure out ways to do it because ultimately the networks you know, this is… It feels like a declining era. Not in quality, because there are some amazing shows and I think people are taking more chances. But…
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First let’s be clear. The William S. Paley Television Festival is this TV Addict’s Super Bowl equivalent. So much so that for three out of the past four years, I’ve shelled out far too much money than I care to think about for the privilege of spending one week in Los Angeles amidst some of my favorite television show’s casts and creative teams (click here for coverage.)
That said, Daniel Fienberg’s recent column asking, “Has the Paley Festival lost its way?” really got me thinking. And not just about how I can legally change my last name so that it fits into a clever blog title like “The Fien Print.”
Rather, I’ve been thinking about what I would do if I programmed Paley. And how for every show that is worth honoring this year (see: BIG LOVE and DR. HORRIBLE’s SING-ALONG BLOG) there seems to be an equal number of shows that have yet to prove themselves worthy of sharing the same stage with the likes of past honourees including DEXTER, THE SOPRANOS and ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT (see: 90210 and DOLLHOUSE.)
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