Primetime Pilot Panic: Fox Gives Joss Whedon’s ‘Dollhouse’ Second Season; And NBC Passes On Adler/Hurwitz Project

COMMENTS (30)

• Did Hurwitz get any of his pilots picked up to series? He sure had a lot of them.

  Comment by BlueIris — Sunday May 17, 2009 @ 4:40pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Dollhouse was failing because it’s a show about the villains victimizing the same young woman every week. The Houston Chronicle TV columnist applied to it the moniker Assassination Brothel (with Eliza Dushku as the Harlot Ninja). There’s no one to root for.

  Comment by Jack Brooks — Monday May 18, 2009 @ 6:26am PDT  Reply to this post

• Dollhouse? Really?

  Absolute garbage. Firefly rocked. Buffy Rocked. I just can’t figure out why networks dump decent shows like LIFE and keep absolute shit like Southland.

  Comment by Tyler Perry is the Anti-Christ — Monday May 18, 2009 @ 11:36pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I am not a Joss Whedon fan, but I liked firefly and I am liking dollhouse (although less so). It is very different and challenging, plus slightly uncomfortable and a lot of people are over-analysing it. Just treat it as a show, impartial of wheather or not Joss made it and give it a chance. Sadly, since fox and most networks are built around profits, a lot of good shows are likely to get cancelled because not enough people ‘get’ them. I just wish that at least one successfull network had the courage to show more interesting programmes and try to educate their audience (Impractical I know but a guy can dream). Oh and if anyone so much as mentions reality tv around me I’ll go all Alpha on you

  Comment by Joe — Wednesday May 20, 2009 @ 7:08am PDT  Reply to this post

• I sincerely doubt the show truly promotes rape, dehumanizing, women and the like. As a fan of Firefly, and an potential fan of Dr. Horrible, I don’t think that is something Mr. Whedon would do. I have not seen Dollhouse, but I suspect that you probably missed to point.

  I am not sure of if I like all of his recent work or not, but I do know why shows like Firefly get horrible reviews, then go on to be hugely successful with DVD sales. Firefly to me is a simple case. Star Trek attracts a very similar crowd. Many people despise Star Trek and see no value in it. I didn’t even know Firefly existed until it was off the air. If Fox had advertised it better, explaining the premise thoroughly I would have watched. And in my opinion most of the episodes stand alone, you can watch many of them without knowing the whole story. Many many people went to see Serenity because of friend’s recommendations, and are now going back to watch Firefly. It has better character development than Star Trek, and has far more humor in each episode. Firefly failed because FOX didn’t promote it correctly, and were too quick to cut it. Mr. Whedon truly can profit from only selling DVD’s and never putting shows on TV. Just look at Dr. Horrible. Regardless of my opinion on Dollhouse, I know that it in large part because Whedon fans would be infuriated with FOX that he was given a second season, regardless of if all Firefly fans like the show or not. It would have been complete bullshit for FOX to do it again, especially because Dollhouse clearly appeals to a slightly different crowd.

  There are very few writers to know how to create a good show for this type of crowd (dorks/nerds), and I know of only three. JJ Abrams, Aaron Sorkin, and Whedon.

  Comment by cupritte — Wednesday May 27, 2009 @ 4:57am PDT  Reply to this post