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Fans keep 'Dollhouse' going
Published online on Wednesday, Sep. 23, 2009
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LOS ANGELES -- Joss Whedon's TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Firefly" have loyal followings years after the shows were canceled. Those rabid Whedon fans, worried about the fate of his series "Dollhouse," didn't wait to fight for that show.
In fact, Fox President of Entertainment Kevin Reilly was bombarded by a "Save 'Dollhouse' " campaign before the first episode of "Dollhouse" was even produced last year. Considering the show failed to draw a large audience, the pre-emptive move was smart.
Reilly says it was fan loyalty that led to the second season, set to start at 9 p.m. Friday.
"Those fans were there every week. They nurtured the show. They stuck with it in a way that a lot of television fans don't. They are just there with Joss," Reilly says.
Now it is up to Whedon to adjust the series to get more than Whedon fans to watch.
Echo (Eliza Dushku) and her new husband (guest star Jamie Bamber) have a dangerous honeymoon in the "Dollhouse" season episode "Vows."
Show info
"Dollhouse":9 p.m. Friday on KMPH (Channel 26.1)
"Dollhouse" is about a company where men and women are stripped of their own personalities and then given the traits they need to deal with specific client requests. The central living "doll" is Echo (Eliza Dushku), who is starting to realize she is more than a blank canvas for other personalities.
No one is more surprised about a second season than Whedon. He was so sure the show was going to end that a series finale was shot. It never aired. Whedon thought the network cared so little about the series they wouldn't run the wrap-up show. He didn't realize it was because the show would live on another year.
The first season featured stand-alone episodes where the dolls -- especially Echo -- would be sent on various jobs. That thinking began to change in the middle of the season and Whedon says the move saved the show.
"Defining the show meant getting out of the idea that it was a sort of engagement of the week adventure show only and that ultimately the reason that people were coming back to the show, the reason the show became fascinating, are the people sitting around me," Whedon says during an interview on the show's massive set where he's flanked by cast members. "As soon as the inner workings of the 'Dollhouse' became as important as the engagements then we feel that the show started to work and the network felt the same thing."
Dushku has seen the personal direction grow in early episodes of season two. "Yesterday, full on, I burst into tears in the middle of the take. I was just surprised at my emotion. Everything out on the table and we've already had the first season to sort of have our insecurities and have our guard and little bit of that and now we just get to open it up and search into humanity with you," Dushku says.
If that works, there should be future seasons. If it doesn't -- there's always that season ender that never aired.
TV and movie critic Rick Bentley can be reached at rbentley@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6355. Read his blog at fresnobeehive.com.
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