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Fox Execs Explain Why Joss Whedon's Dollhouse Is Built On Sand
San Francisco, 1:26 PM
Tue Dec 8
28 posts in the last 24 hours
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12/27/08
12/26/08
I find myself wondering how long a premise like this can be interesting. It might make for a good film, or perhaps even a short series, but something that is supposed to span multiple seasons?
Wait and see I suppose, but I'm just sayin'...
12/26/08
Differences abound, obviously, but we already know that Dollhouse has a better creative team behind it than The Pretender did. If it had the same kind of network support behind it (which would probably require a network what didn't make a pastime out of screwing good shows), it might do just fine.
12/26/08
Also, if I recall, it came out on like, UPN or something, which at the time was desperate for ratings, so being medicore on a network that was freaking awful is a whole other matter.
12/26/08
These are really hard to pull off actually and you don't see too many of these type of shows anymore. I think that's because most of the writers and producers that worked on these type of shows have gotten older and retired.
12/26/08
Actually, it will be awesome if the show turns out to be great. It's always exciting to see the buzz turn out to be wrong. I don't think the show will work and I will be in awe of Whedon and Fox if it does.
12/26/08
12/26/08
Let's count off the number of shows that star zany wacky investigators played by British actors who pretend to be Merrkikan....
-the mentalist
-eleventh hour ( a remake of a british show starrting Jean Luc Picard..)
-lie to me (hey get a soapbox for Tim)
what else?
the mentalist is goofy but I enjoy it anyway. 11th hour is a bit too wannabe CSI meets X files, and all of these shows wrap shit up too fast. But at least Mentalist has a long term story that if done right would be cool. Of course it's on CBS which means it has to be safe safe safe for the easily scared.
ah well.
News flash to Joss: WHAT THE FRAK ARE YOU DOING WITH FOX? COULDN'T YOU HAVE SOLD THIS AT LEAST TO FX WHO DID THE SHIELD? I MEAN, WHAT DID YOU EXPECT.
end of dollhouse yappin.
12/26/08
12/28/08
Why all the Mentalist hate? It's not the best television show in the world, but Baker makes it enjoyable, and Heller's two episodes are by far the best, and he's admitted that it's not exactly where he'd like it to be, which I hope means he'll get it there yet.
I guess maybe I just like "vapid" TV told with style. A lot of these plot heavy shows everyone raves about quickly(Lost) or slowly(Connor) get annoying before they get boring, at least the "vapid" shows get boring before they get annoying(House).
If you want good solid television storytelling, stop watching shows with 20 episodes produced a year. It just doesn't work.
12/26/08
12/26/08
Dollhouse has been a troubled production from the beginning, created by a show runner who has been screwed by Fox multiple times and did another show with them anyway.
This is not the best example for "victim of executives who don't like science fiction."
12/26/08
12/26/08
"Well, in this case, it's Fox execs *talking about* Dollhouse in particular."
I see your point.
"Plus... the reason why Dollhouse has been "troubled" is that Fox execs have been making trouble for it, since day one."
I don't think that's true. This was a high concept idea that immediately had trouble transitioning into a viable hour long. Let's face it - a character that has her mind wiped every week is not - it's not a good idea. At least not for network. At least not for American television. That's why they've had script problems. In every way, this was troubled. Not the least of which that it's dubious that Eliza Dushku can headline her own series.
Put it this way, even the great David Milch could not make John from Cincinnati work. On HBO. And that channel would do anything for Milch. I just bring up that show because it's an example of a difficult abstract idea that had a hard time finding traction as an ongoing TV product.
Don't get me wrong. I think TV should be all BSG and The Wire. At least, a lot of it. But to me, this has always been a very unlikely show to work.
Sheesh. Blah blah blah. I guess you and I disagree about this, which is weird since normally I think I agree with you on most stuff.
12/26/08
12/26/08
the memo just hasn't been posted yet. (it's already written on the exec's desk and was before they even started filming.)
12/26/08
You know, it probably started out as a memo authorizing them to greenlight this show specifically so they _could_ cancel it. If someone else picked it up, they wouldn't have that "privelege".
12/26/08
it's twisted enough to be true!
12/26/08
12/26/08
It's even more specific to Fox. They're the network that inspired the term "Friday Night Death Slot", after a rather impressive string of series that never managed to last more than one season on Friday nights. Sadly, X-Files (and not Brisco County Jr.) was the one show that managed to survive the fray.