Thursday, April 9, 2009

Dollhouse Death Watch - Special Announcement!

What has been buzzing the last few hours (you look away for 2 seconds!!) is:

DOLLHOUSE HAS BEEN ALL BUT CANCELED

or, er, pretty much...or something.

The facts are these:
TVWeek reported that Prison Break would be airing it's finale a week early and cutting Dollhouse's run a bit short. By 1 full season finale short, that is.

Why they ever confirmed all episodes would air, is a mystery.

Then Felicia Day all but confirmed this via her favorite internets hang out, Twitter.

And then, Jed Whedon via @DrHorrible tweeted and super-confirmed it.

But then Alan Sepinwall, said on his blog:
Day's episode, called "Epitaph One," was apparently filmed by the studio independent of the agreement -- or, at least, independent of what Fox network considers to be in the agreement -- and does not seem to be tied in to the story in "Omega." In other words, if there's a cliffhanger in "Omega" (and I don't know if there is), it's not going to be resolved in "Epitaph One."

Fox network won't decide the fate of "Dollhouse" until Upfront week, near the end of May, and the decision not to air "Epitaph One" has nothing whatsoever to do with renewal. It's unclear whether "Epitaph One" will turn up as a bonus on the season one DVD, or on Hulu, or even if it might be a bonus episode for a hypothetical season two. All I know for now is that it's not going to air on Fox as part of the first season run of "Dollhouse."


Very confusing stuff. So how will this affect the Dollhouse Death Watch you ask?

Hoenstly, if this is all true and episode 12 will be the last episode ever to air, then I think no one will win the DDW. FOX gets the last laugh! The hardcore S&M skeptics kind of won, because it didn't see the whole season (but they were voting for a 7 ep run, or cut very short.) My group, the Realists, kind of won. I always said they'd "do the right thing and not pull a Firefly" but then murder it without the slightest guilt and it wouldn't make a second season. Looks like their not even doing that much, though.

I should add that some hopeful people are still thinking the opposite: that the 13th ep titled "Epitaph One", would actually be a Season 2 Episode 0 bridge-type ep....and that by not airing it they may use it to promote season 2 some time in the Summer.

So how many people actually think Dollhouse will see a second season now?

UPDATE: Tim Minear dropped by Whedonesque to be all informative:
So maybe I can help clarify this somewhat. Because we scrapped the original pilot -- and in fact cannibalized some of its parts for other eps -- we really ended up with 12 episodes. But the studio makes DVD and other deals based on the original 13 number. So we created a standalone kind of coda episode. Which is the mythical new episode 13. The network had already paid for 13 episodes, and this included the one they agreed to let us scrap for parts. It does not include the one we made to bring the number back up to 13 for the studio side and its obligations. We always knew it would be for the DVD for sure, but we also think Fox should air it because it’s awesome.
So that's slightly more clearish. But there were meant to be thirteen episodes aired, right? That was how this had been billed all along until just now. Sounds like Mr. Minear is trying to keep the crowds hopeful but I still think this train just made it's last stop at canceled-ville. Everybody off!

10 comments:

Jgirl said...

Honestly, since Bitsy's group is out I wanna say Tara's group has won so long as Dollhouse doesn't see the light of season 2.

But then, I do so like to win. And anyway, cancelling Dollhouse frees up Whedon for better projects--in which case don't we all win?

Antonio said...

Guys read Tim Minears post on the whole 13 ep thing.

IT WAS ALWAYS MADE AS A DVD EP BUT THEY THOUGHT IT WAS GONNA AIR.

Anonymous said...

You haven't won yet, Bitsy's Group. We delusional optomists may come from behind and win this thing. Don't count us or Dollhouse out just yet.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I meant Tara's group. We have already defeated Bitsy's group.

Mwahahahahaha!

ben said...

I'm with buffygroupie... we may still come out ahead. Tim Minear cleared things up after everyone at Whedonesque was pretty much in a frenzy.

Basically, this whole ordeal has me wanting make shirts that say, "The Whedonverse is fandom set on fire."

Tara said...

Yes, as Bitsy said some time today the fandom (including us) was "in full on insane volcano mode."

But you guys really think that just bc Minear said "we knew" means it's the end of the story? I mean, Joss totally confirmed that Felicia Day would be on Dollhouse. Actually, he first broke that news in a small room of people that included me at the Soho Apple store. Why would he say that if there was a chance she'd never air? Just seems like it would be a bad move.

Something stinks.

nyrk said...

I think when a show's writer/producer has to log on to a fansite to clear up a mess started by the network's own press release, the PR dept. is seriously screwing around.

Anonymous said...

Well, you can't say this didn't generate lots of chatter about Dollhouse, just in time for people to tune in to tonight's ep and push the ratings up a bit.

See, there's always a silver lining.

Tara said...

I guess that's true...nice optimism buffygroupie! I usually fail in that area.

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