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: 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]

Good News: Joss Whedon has offered to purchase the rights to the TERMINATOR franchise (Which according to the Financial Times will be put up for auction this month) Bad News: Whedon is probably being facetious, but hey, who not judge for yourself by clicking here. [Source]

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.

Hi guys. Lot going on.

Back to breaking Tim’s episode. Keep the faith, peeps. I’ll bring you news (and hopefully a little humor, I mean would it kill me to punch these up a little?) when I can. -j

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?

After-all, If DOLLHOUSE’s consistently low ratings are any indication, you’ve got at the very least, two million loyal fans devouring everything you touch. Which means, should you ever decide to go THE GUILD route and distribute your own series online for a a mere 99¢ per download, one might expect you to net somewhere in the range of 1.5 to 2 million dollars per episode of [say, for argument sake] FIREFLY: THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES. Which, if we’re to believe TV By The Numbers, is a healthy profit considering the average episode of DOLLHOUSE is said to have cost somewhere in the range of 650,000 to 1.3 million per.

Add to those profits, DVD sales, foreign distribution, product placement, online streaming, merchandising and the one thing money can’t buy — actual ownership of the show affording you the creative freedom to do whatever you choose — and once again, I have to ask, what are you waiting for?

I think you’d agree that FOX tried. The network put their money and marketing muscle behind the show, even going as far as to renew it for an unexpected second season. Unfortunately, the reality of the current television landscape seems to be that if you really want to stick to your own dark and gritty vision, one that asks the difficult questions and challenges viewers with something other than the procedural-of-the-week, you’re probably not going to be able to do it on any of the major networks (just ask the creators of SOUTHLAND). Well, that, or either start sending Echo on more missions that involve either (a) Vampires or (b) Glee Clubs.

DOLLHOUSE’s inevitable cancellation is a sign. A sign that it’s time to continue the pioneering journey you started with DR. HORRIBLE’S SING-A-LONG BLOG by putting your money (or at the very least, some savvy investor’s money) where your mouth is and see what happens.

Rest assured, this TV Addict will be first in line to press ‘Buy it Now’ when you do.

[Update] Read Joss’ response to our Open Letter here!

“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.” 

Fortunately for us, he went on to elaborate beyond that rather coy tease! “We’re trying to do something that’s much more cinematic and visceral and really live inside the story,” he says in previewing the new season, which debuts September 24 at 9PM on FOX (Global in Canada). “This season, I’ve really ratcheted up the way I work. We’re shooting in HD, so we’re able to move faster, do more, and make the second season more like the latter half of the first season.”

In other-words, “Epitaph One’ is just the beginning. “The insane unaired thirteenth episode will inform what we do the whole season. It really helped give us a direction and understanding of what we want from the actors, and what we think the audience wants to see from this ensemble.”

Direction? Understanding? Yes, yes, that’s great and all… but how about some answers dammit!

Not surprisingly, Whedon is somewhat tight-lipped when it comes to how in fact himself and his merry band of writers are going to live up to the ridiculously cool post-apocolyptic future that was painted in “Epitatph One.” But did offer, at a DOLLHOUSE set visit during the recent Television Critics Association Press Tour that the series will pick up exactly three months after the events of last May’s season finale, fans can expect more three-dimensional dolls and — best of all — a special guest appearance by BATTLESTAR GALACTICA’s Jamie Bamber.

Who won’t be the only familiar face this season.

“Last year I had to be careful that it didn’t seem the show was a party for my friends,” explained Whedon, who ultimately changed his tune after a weekend spent at San Diego’s Comic Con, realizing that, yeah, it sort of is a party for his friends (see: Felicia Day, who will be back in the second season premiere) “Ultimately it also saves time if you have someone you know who can get the job done.”

So does that mean CASTLE star Nathan Fillion should be waiting by his phone? “I’m trying to sabotage the show, it’s not working, but I’m trying.” 

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)

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…

The Whedonverse!

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.”

IT PAYS TO HAVE FRIENDS
Or to be more specific, friends in high places — as Joss explained to all you aspiring filmmakers out there, “The head of production at Universal gave us the lot, the run of the whole thing, for a song, just because we worked together on Serenity and he’s a really sweet guy.”

IT ALSO PAYS TO BE A MUSICAL THEATER GEEK
Being raised listening to showtunes may not exactly scream popularity in high school, but as Zack Whedon can attest to, may in fact pave the way for a lucrative career in television and movies, “Definitely a Sondheim influence because it’s unavoidable if you’re writing something that’s good.”

FELICIA ON THE FUTURE
When she’s not starring in DR. HORRIBLE and dropping by popular television shows such as BUFFY, HOUSE and DOLLHOUSE, Felicia Day spends her time writing, directing and producing THE GUILD, one of the web’s most popular online television shows. “I basically got bored and wanted to act, but nobody would hire me,” explained Felicia, semi-seriously backpedaling, “Well, people will hire me… sometimes… whatever, I’m still here. But I got so passionate about it [THE GUILD] because I really had control of it and with DR. HORRIBLE it’s the same thing. Here we are making it, having a great time, putting our heart into it. You just don’t see that in the traditional world of television.”

JOSS’ FELICIA FASCINATION
“THE GUILD was really the first series I watched on the internet, that I was involved in and made me laugh,” explained Joss about his internet viewing habits. “And before we ever talked about Felicia being in it [DOLLHOUSE], I asked her for advice about how do I do this.”

Which as it would turn out, paid off in unexpected ways, when Felicia gave Joss’ agency and their internet gurus a lesson [or two] in online marketing, “Felicia just schooled them. They had no idea what to do with this. It was completely new, even though it was very traditional storytelling and ultimately the exact same length as an episode of TV… It was a great thing to watch. Little Felicia who had been very quiet and then started to speak and everybody else got very quiet. It was quite a BUFFY moment – the woman you aren’t paying attention to is the one who’s getting it done.”

JOSS ON TWITTER
Since it’s virtually impossible to have a conversation these days without the topic of twitter coming up, here is Joss and Jed’s take on the subject. After of course a shameless plug for theTVaddict.com’s own Twitter account (Follow us here!)

Joss: I don’t get twitter, I think it might be dirty.
Jed: You’re going to twitter tonight.
Joss: Buy me a drink first.

Note, you can now follow Joss @drhorrible and Nathan at @nathanfillion on twitter.

MORE FUN WITH FILLION
Not only did Nathan reveal that one of his part time jobs while working through university was as a Karaoke host “I could kill ‘The Rose.” Joss let us in on a little secret about actors. They always want to do whatever they’re not doing. “When we were doing Serenity, we were recording the Reavers and Nathan said, ‘I can take a run’ and of course it was the best vocal track we got.”

DR. EVIL LAB INCLUDED
One of the other ways in which Joss and Co. were able to cut costs for DR. HORRIBLE was in the set department. Where as luck would have it, Dr. Horrible’s lab wasn’t so much of a set as an actual lab, “Our Assistant Director Otto was friends with a guy who had an evil lab,” explained Joss. “All those tubes you see in the background of his blog all dispense Vodka and Jack.”

THE HORSE OF COURSE!
Who’d have thought that the most famous actor aside from Neil Patrick Harris who couldn’t attend tonight’s panel was a four legged-one. Turns out, that the horse who played “Bad Horse” is one of Whedon’s most prolific stock players, having appeared in DR. HORRIBLE, ANGEL and next week’s episode of DOLLHOUSE.

PROOF THAT YES, WHEDON’S ARE HUMAN TOO
In testing the initial DR. HORRIBLE trailer, Jed fessed up to uploading it to Vimeo and then naming it ‘Dr. Horrible,’ “Like I’m a genius…. I mean who’s going to go on the internet and find it!” Joked Nathan, “How ever did they crack your code?” Replied Jed, “Not my finest hour.”

JOSS IS A NPH FANBOY
“I’m a huge fan, I saw him do ASSASSINS. I love his voice and comedic chops,” explained Joss when asked how casting Neil Patrick Harris came about, “I know him through Amy Acker so I’ve known him for a while and actually sung with him and Amy and James Wedding. Which put me in full “Squee” mode, I was geekin’ out so hard!”

FUN WITH FILLION PART 3
“I would wear a darker outfit, to symbolize the darkness,” joked Fillion when asked what he imagines his character would go through in a DR. HORRIBLE sequel. “I would grow my hair out and do more of a pompadour. All heavy hitting character stuff. Layers upon layers of acting challenge.

AKWARD QUESTION OF THE NIGHT
Goes to the fan who asked Joss what would happen if you took all the money FOX is giving you for DOLLHOUSE and made more episodes of FIREFLY, would anyone notice?

MORE FUTURE OF THE WEB WITH FELICIA
“I love doing the web shows, but I’m not rolling in money,” admitted Felicia who it turns out was only slightly embarrassed to have discovered that she is wearing the same shirt that she wore in DR. HORRIBLE. “I haven’t bought new clothes for a year!”

CRINGEWORTHY FAN QUESTION OF THE NIGHT
As much as we cringed when a gentleman in the audience asked Felicia if she would join his World of Warcraft Guild. We kind of want to thank the man for making us feel only slightly better about our unhealthy obsession with television.

BEST QUESTION OF THE NIGHT
What will happen if Wonderflonium is bounced? “It’s too terrible to tell,” Joss says. “But I will tell you that it will cause me to Twitter.”

ACTUAL BEST QUESTION OF THE NIGHT
When one fan asked Joss why he keeps on going back to FOX after the FIREFLY fiasco and now DOLLHOUSE (not to mention, joked Joss, “Let’s not forget ALIEN RESURRECTION”) “The fact is it is eerily similar in some ways [but] very different in other ways. And the reason I went back was because of Eliza [Dushku]. And I don’t care, she’s worth it. There are different people that I’m dealing with [at FOX] and I think they’re pretty decent, honest people. Some of them have left recently but some of them are still there. The relationship has always been equitable. It’s always been [about] trying to find the show. And it’s very different than when it was with FIREFLY. But I will say that probably the worst thing I could have done right before starting DOLLHOUSE was DR. HORRIBLE. Because it just rolled off us, it just came out from our hearts. We sang and bang that was it. I mean five months total between our first sit down to stream. And then to work so hard and get so lost [on DOLLHOUSE] by a process that, you know, it wasn’t being run by bad people or mean people, it’s just that grind after the freedom of DR. HORRIBLE. It made me a much crankier person and a worse boss.”

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…

The way people are watching TV is completely changing.
It’s changing and it’s changed. Being out there with enough satellites that it might bump into one of them is going to be really important.

As an outside observer, it would seem that you’re in the perfect position to be a pioneer in this area thanks to the strength of your fanbase.
I plan to pioneer more territories. Is “pioneer” a verb? I think I just verbed a noun. I’m sorry.

I’m definitely not the person to be coming to for grammar advice (just ask my readers!) Final question, did you have a favorite movie, book, TV show of the year and what’s on your iPod right now?
On my iPod right now is the new Fall Out Boy, Regina Spektor and “Passing Strange” those are things I’m listening to constantly. Movie, probably the last movie that really blew my hair back was “Let the Right One In.” It really astonished me because it’s wicked bleak. A TV show, you know what, I haven’t watched anything that wasn’t THE OFFICE, TERMINATOR, or 30 ROCK in two seasons. So I can’t say. You can either make TV or you can watch it.

I suppose I’ve chosen the latter.
It’s more restful!

You can catch a brand new episode of DOLLHOUSE tonight at 9PM, preceded by a brand new episode of TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES at 8PM on FOX.

RELATED:
Part one of our Interview with Joss Whedon

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.)

Don’t get me wrong, the TV Addict loves Joss Whedon as much as the next Browncoat. But even the most ardent of Whedon supporters would have to concede that awarding his fledging new series DOLLHOUSE a spot among the Paley elite is a wee bit premature. Especially when you consider that Whedon is already being singled out for his ground-breaking new media experiment DR. HORRIBLE’s SING-ALONG BLOG.

In fact, a more cynical TV Addict might speculate that the current trend in Paley programming is to honor shows with a young and vibrant fan base that can handily sell out Hollywood’s Cinerama Dome and simultaneously line the Paley Center for Media’s coffers. Which by the way, I’m not the least bit adverse to considering the countless hours I’ve spent enjoying both the New York and Los Angeles based museums. I just can’t help but feel that there may have been some slightly overlooked and far more deserving shows that could have been included in this year’s festivities.

I mean come’on — 90210? Have the Paley programmers even watched the series?

If I programmed Paley, Julia Louis Dreyfus’ phenomenally underrated NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE would be honored well before relative newcomer THE BIG BANG THEORY. A timely look at the history of late night television featuring a panel of past, current and future hosts would be closing out the Festival rather than the already cancelled and little watched SWINGTOWN. While ABC Family’s GREEK would get some long overdue praise in place of 90210. The latter of which has absolutely no place in any television related festival unless of course it’s headlining a panel entitled, “How NOT to relaunch a cultural icon.”

And don’t even get me started on the inclusion of THE HILLS, because honestly, I’m at a loss for words. Or at the very least, words that are safe for work.

Related Articles of Interest:
The William S. Paley Festival Celebrates “The Hills” And Its Contribution To Television Culture
Has the Paley Festival lost its way?