Josef Adalian of TV Week has a great article on Joss Whedon's return to TV on Friday the 13th with Dollhouse. It's an interesting article filled with some great quotes, and thoughts from Mr. Whedon about writing for television.
He admits the Friday timeslot “definitely means that what we gave (Fox) is a little more cerebral and unexpected than they thought. They thought it was going to be slam-dunk sexy and fun … and while it has those elements, at the same time, it’s very textured.”
[...]
“I don’t look at it like we’ve been bitch-slapped,” he said. “It feels organic, like it’s the right move for the network. … The idea of giving people a chance to find it instead of just throwing it out there in a big way so that after a few episodes it can live or die—I’m good with that.”
Mr. Whedon thinks that in the less competitive Friday slot “Dollhouse” has a better chance of finding an audience beyond regulars on the Whedonesque or SciFiWire Web forums.
“We need Joe Blow,” he said. “I’ve described my fan base as ‘300.’ They are stronger than they are large. We need to find a way to communicate to people who aren’t already fans, and Friday is a better way to do that. Expectations are different.”
Whedon is a sound bite machine! My sense though is despite the positive spinning, Fridays still isn't a great place to land. While perhaps it's not being bitch-slapped compared to say, never airing at all, it doesn't seem like a great opportunity to lure Joe Blow. But the problem is, the show isn't seemingly set-up to attract the average viewer. That's why it wound up airings on Fridays.
If you want Joe Blow aren't you way better off with just plain old "slam dunk sexy and fun" instead of texturing on a little more cerebral and unexpected? Isn't Joe Blow, by his very (average) nature carrying around an average cerebellum in his skull? Is Joe Blow looking for something more cerebral and unexpected? Unless the skirts are very, very, very short, I'm guessing probably not.
There's a quote in the story from Fox Entertainment President Kevin Reilly that we've already heard talking about not wanting to put pressure on the show to succeed quickly by airing it, say, on a Monday.
“We didn’t want to go through that thing where we had to … either put pressure on Joss or, worse, yank it from the schedule,” Mr. Reilly said. “We’re going to let the show play out for 13 episodes and hopefully catch on.”
I don't see even the faintest of praise or real hope in there, I only see the damning. He didn't hedge much, and while I'm sure there is truth in his words, that's the problem. Basically he's worried the show would've tanked if put anywhere else and they'd have been forced to yank it. On Fridays FOX has been struggling anyway, so in the best case it gets lucky as hell and in the worst case it plays out the string similar to what NBC did with Crusoe, except without the move to Saturdays.
When it comes to Dollhouse, instead of Renew or Cancel, it's Lucky as Hell or Playing Out The String. Fridays are a challenge regardless, but finding Joe Blow with a show not targeted to Joe Blow? On a Friday night? That would be lucky as hell.
I'm rooting for lucky. For '300' reasons and more, I'm rooting for lucky.
I’ll be watching it so it most likely won’t last.
13 episodes and it is done.
cant you guys give the show a chance. no episodes have aired yet and your already saying the show is axed.
I’ll watch the pilot, and if i like it i’ll go on but i doubt it will be back next fall.
No, I wont be watching. Thanks for asking.
Prediction. It wont even do as well as FIREFLY. And we all know how that all ended up.
The woman on the right of Eliza Dushku is a terrible actress!! hated her in Neighbours so hopefully she wont be in this much!
I’m with Robbie. I’ll watch the pilot. If it’s good I will give it a chance. Like a lot of people, I dvr shows on Friday so the ratings may be questionable.
@Name Required, today marks one rare instance where I fully agree with your prediction.
@Robert, you are dead-on with the idea that “Joe Blow” is not really interested in this sci-fi format beyond beautiful women and blowing up stuff. Whedon went “cerebral,” therefore only Whedonesque types will care to watch the show. Friday night was the right decision for Fox, in hopes that they found a new sci-fi-gone-mainstream like “X-Files” did. From what little I’ve read, I’m guessing Dollhouse is nowhere near mainstream enough to garner any more than a few million regular viewers.
Too bad strength doesn’t count for anything in ratings.
Gee, thanks clutz, I feel so much better now.
I wish we could leave discussions of intellect and “Joe Blow” out of this. It’s a question of taste, not intellect. (You get the same thing in theater fandom — how DARE you prefer Andrew Lloyd Webber to Stephen Sondheim, you Philistine!!) And frankly, a significant number of the Whedon uberfans are already contemptuous enough of their fellow man without being egged on.
The plain truth is — I’m not trying to preen myself, just stating facts for purposes of discussion — I have my master’s degree in English, a lifelong love of classic literature, and a “cerebral” kind of a job, but most of Joss Whedon’s shows (“Firefly” excepted) are not to my taste and I doubt I’ll watch this one. Make of it what you will, Professor Whedon.
@ Name Required,
. I know it means the world to you when us Jericho nut cases agre with you 
GRD, thank you for noting that “intellect” and “taste” are not one and the same. Whedon, and similar creatvie forces in TV and movies, tend to believe their work is “too smart” for Joe Blow, and that people who don’t like their series, or their films don’t “get it.” Though I don’t have a masters’ degree, I am a chemist by trade with extensive training in statistical analysis. We science nerds often tend to enjoy science fiction entertainment. Due to personal music preferences, I’m also somwehat familiar with goth-industrial culture. Thus I know a lot of people who are vampire freaks and what-have-you. Yet I had zero interest in Buffy or Angel. Firefly was OK, but I had other life priorities that kept me from hardcore fandom at that time. Does that mean my IQ is lower than Whedon’s? I seriously doubt that.
You know, it doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in the show when you trot out the “most people are too stupid to understand our brilliant tv show” defense before the show even airs. It’s like their setting up their excuses for when it fails.
crap. *It’s like *they’re* setting up their excuses…
Whedon fans have it in their mind that he can’t make a bad show. This is not true. Buffy was brilliant(especially seasons 4-6) and firefly may have been the best ensemble drama ever, but Angel was mediocre at best, and Serenity underwhelmed. (While the TV show felt fresh, Serenity felt like sci-fi rehash, perhaps due to the medium)
Besides for a neat concept, Dollhouse doesn’t have much going for it. Sci-fi is hard to write, the show is taking an unwise turn towards serious, and the TV spots have not impressed.
slick, fun and sexy would have worked. The best episodes of Buffy and Firefly were slick, fun, and sexy. The cerebral nature of the show was buried under that, not suffocating it on top.
buffy and firefly were brilliant as u said and angel was an underrated yet brilliant show.
and btw buffy was best in seasons 2 and 3. though season 6 was also great. buffy season 4 was its weakest but was still better than most things on tv
This is incredibly amusing. You have two sides already arguing and making predictions here and not one of them has seen an episode. They’re already comparing it to his other works saying stupid things like “The cerebral nature of the show was buried under that, not suffocating it on top.” They haven’t watched one episode but they know it. I get to watch the pilot today. So I’ll have an opinion later that would oh, actually matter.
Holly, Joss to my knowledge has never once thought his “show was too smart for viewers,” but he definitely thinks his previous show FIREFLY was too smart for FOX TV Executives. Which he was right about. It has sold more DVD copies than it had viewers (only FAMILY GUY from FOX can also make that claim, and they brought that show back). FOX knows this past issue. So they don’t know what they have. It’s too “different,” for these TV Execs, and they’re not sure about it.
Name Required, that would be pretty hard to do. FIREFLY averaged under 4M viewers. It was however the most watched show in the 18-49 range for its time slot on numerous occasions.
Fox needs to give up and just stretch out AI to every damn night of the week.
For all those auditions they aired, they could’ve aired them every weeknight, and got 26mil+ ratings, and basically destroyed every show against it. Except of course, the invincible NCIS.