Neue Gastrollen gibt's bei Spoiler TV:

[MARGARET BASHFORD]
FEMALE, 50's. She is a gracefully aging Beauty who comes from old money. Possible One day Guest STAR. PLEASE SUBMIT ALL ETHNICITIES

[JACK DUNSTAN]
MALE, 30's. Extremely good looking. Margaret's much younger husband. GUEST STAR. PLEASE SUBMIT ALL ETHNICITIES

[NICOLAS BASHFORD]
MALE, 30'S. A good looking blue blood. Margaret's ne'er-do-well son. GUEST STAR. PLEASE SUBMIT ALL ETHNICITIES

[JOCELYN BASHFORD]
FEMALE, Late 20's. Margaret's very pretty but arrogant daughter. GUEST STAR. PLEASE SUBMIT ALL ETHNICITES

[WILLIAM BASHFORD III]
MALE, 40's. Margaret's estranged brother. A former playboy with a bit of a drinking problem. GUEST STAR. PLEASE SUBMIT ALL ETHNICITIES

Which is why, this TV Addict is about to make a very bold and some might say fool-hearted prediction: Not only will TERMINATOR and DOLLHOUSE thrive on Friday nights, but each will be around when the 2009 fall season is rolled out.

Link

Find out.

Ich bin nach etwa einer Woche Stress-bedingter Pause wieder da. Der Joss Whedon-Abend, den ich dank Internetausfall nicht mal hier anwerben konnte, war sensationell. Jetzt bin ich froh, wieder in den üblichen Dollhouse-Dschungel unterzutauchen.

Und da gab es eh so manches in der Zwischenzeit. 3 coole neue Promobildchen, z.B. Alle von Eliza, ich tippe sogar auf so manchen Shot aus 1x03 "The Target" und eins dürfte aus 1x02 "Gray Hour" sein.

Und Liza Lapira, die mir grad in der dritten Dexter-Staffel seeehr gefällt hat scheinbar eine Recurring Role für Dollhouse erschnappt! Interview gibt's hier.

Ich glaube eigentlich, schon vor Monaten das bereits gepostet zu haben, aber derzeit wird das allerorts gehypt und verlinkt, also hier nochmal: Ein kurzes Interview mit Joss über das Drehbuchschreiben an sich, serialisiertes und prozedurales TV, und kurz auch Dollhouse:


(Direktlink)

Spoiler TV, yay:

[MIKE]
20’S MALE, Caucasian Blond. Extremely Handsome. Another active in the Dollhouse. GUEST STAR.

Edit: Und noch 3 dazu:

[JIMMY]
40'S MALE. A tough owner of an army surplus store. ONE DAY GUEST STAR. PLEASE SUBMIT ALL ETHNICITIES

[NOLAN]
40's MALE. He is very handsome and respectable, with a touch of something not right. ONE DAY GUEST STAR. PLEASE SUBMIT ALL ETHNICITIES

[SOPHIE]
30's FEMALE. A handler in the Dollhouse. She is attractive but tough. POSSIBLE GUEST STAR. PLEASE SUBMIT ALL ETHNICITIES

Oh yeah, endlich kommt mal wieder was jubelndes, langes, tolles über Dollhouse: io9 macht sich die Mühe zu argumentieren, warum dies Whedons bestes Werk sein wird, und hat dabei an einigen Stellen gar nicht so unrecht.

Is Joss Whedon's edgy new show Dollhouse doomed before it starts? I know as much as you do. I do know one thing, though: it's going to be the best thing he's ever done. Don't let the nay-sayers weigh you down — Joss' tale of a woman whose mind has been erased (to make way for whatever personality a paying client wants) is going to be better than Firefly or Buffy. And I'll tell you exactly why, but you'll have to read some spoilers to get there.

It's a much cooler concept.

Let's face it: Firefly and Buffy had weak concepts, and they soared thanks to masterful execution. A gun-slinging crew of Western frontier bandits in space? A teenage girl who fights vampires and demons in between running for homecoming queen? Neither of those ideas particularly screams "masterwork" to me.

Meanwhile, Dollhouse? It has one of the most intriguing concepts I've ever come across, right off the bat. In a sea of "ordinary person gets brainchip/spy computer in brain/mutant powers/introduced to a mad scientist" shows, Dollhouse instantly stands out.

It's the story of Echo (Eliza Duskhu), who's basically the property of the eponymous Dollhouse. For a fee, you can have Echo imprinted with any personality, any memories, any skills, you require. (And she does pro bono work sometimes.) But Echo, who's supposed to be a blank slate, is starting to gain self-awareness, and remember who she really is. She has to fight for her identity, but the Dollhouse stands ready to destroy her if she shows any signs of self-awareness.

Yes, that's a high-concept premise, and it's hard to make it work as a weekly TV show. Luckily — see above — Joss Whedon's strong suit is execution. He's actually much better at making things work than he is at coming up with intriguing concepts in the first place. So, if he starts out with an intriguing concept and then brings his mastery of execution to it? It will rule. Automatically. Which brings me to...

Each episode is twisty and thriller-ish.

I've read a ton of script pages from various episodes of Dollhouse, and one thing is pretty clear to me: This show is not a slow, cerebral dystopia where people look at their hands and say things like, "Why are these hands not free?" Or whatever. At their best, the Dollhouse scripts remind me of season-two Buffy: there are bad guys, and weird, horrible schemes, and every week nothing is quite what you think.

For example, the person who's hired Echo doesn't always have the motives you think he or she does. The person that Echo has been programmed to be isn't always who you expect at first. There are always more layers, and it's wrapped up in an action-adventure framework. (I also believe Joss when he says Fox's interference made it better and more exciting this time around, because it seems like the more recent scripts I've seen have been punchier.) Think Alias, except that it all makes sense in the end. Cracks are wised, faces are punched, explosions are exploded. It's a thrill-ride.

And then laid on top of that are the show's ongoing plots and themes about Echo discovering herself. Which leads me to...

Echo's not just a tool, week after week.

That was the danger with this show — that Echo would just be carrying out missions, week in and week out, without any real self-awareness or free will. That would be hard to identify with, and even harder to root for. I asked Joss Whedon about this, when I got to interview him briefly at Comic-Con, and he had clearly thought this through. His answer: it's not just about Echo being whoever she's programmed to be, from week to week. It's about her fighting to be a person, in spite of all the forces wanting her to be a tool. And meanwhile...

It has a pretty great supporting cast.

I would pretty much watch Tahmoh Penikett try to refinance his mortgage. As Paul Ballard, the FBI agent who keeps investigating the Dollhouse even though everybody insists it's a myth, he's bound to be a compelling character — even if they don't keep in the scene where he does Thai kick-boxing while brooding about his tough case. And from what I've seen from clips and trailers, the rest of the cast is equally strong, delivering the trademark Whedon quips and knife-edge dialogue with panache.

They're all going to have subplots and backstories, and I'm kind of fascinated to see it all unfolde. Like, just where did Amy Acker's Dr. Claire Saunders get her scars? Why does Boyd, the handler of the mind-wiped "Actives," keep doing his job even though he has moral qualms about it? And why is Topher, the computer geek who programs the "Actives," such a sadistic weirdo? All questions I'm going to be obsessing about for months, and hopefully years.

You can read a lot of stuff into its underlying metaphor.

That's really the litmus test of great art: can you see different messages in it, depending on what you bring to it? Or is it going to hit you with a sledgehammer until you accept the message it wants you to have?

Firefly passed that test with flying Adam Baldwins, and so will Dollhouse. (Without the Baldwin part.) Are you a Conservative who believes in rugged individualism? Dollhouse is about someone fighting for her individuality, who can't be suppressed or destroyed by oppressive forces. Hate our orgiastic, hedonistic society, that turns people into pieces of meat? Dollhouse is right there with you. Do you think corporations are the devil, with better shoes? Dollhouse is about an evil corporation. Do you fear technology? Come on in. Etc. etc.

Basically, we won't know until Dollhouse airs quite how well the whole shebang comes together. But I'm already predicting, based on what I've seen so far, that it'll be Whedon's masterwork. Whether it'll be his doomed masterwork or his triumphant return is up to the sadistic gods of television, of course.

Link

Erinnert ihr euch noch an den NBC-Action-Neuling My Own Worst Enemy mit Christian Slater und programmierbaren Agenten? Well, der Dollhouse-"Konkurrent" scheint wohl keiner mehr zu sein, NBC setzt (zusammen mit Lipstick Jungle) ab, und Kristin Dos Santos sieht ... irgendeine Verbindung zu Dollhouse:

Despite a promising premise, Enemy never got off the ground in the Nielsens. Lipstick too, struggled to find a wide audience, despite a small but devoted fanbase and having received a second chance for a sophomore season. (Lipstick's first season was cut short by the writers strike.)

One upside to these cuts?

This clears the way for more appreciation of Joss Whedon's upcoming series Dollhouse, which has a somewhat similar premise to Enemy (agents who have implanted and wholly fabricated personas).

In USA ist es schon raus, bei uns kommt es am 21. November. Offenbar gibt es auch eine very sweet Reunion zwischen Joss Whedon, Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk und Ron Glass, von der es ein 20MB, Quicktime-Preview hier gibt. Es geht um Monster Cows und Bad Horses.

Zwar noch unklar, aus welcher Folge, aber ich tippe mal auf "Ghost". Spoiler TV hat sie:

Der Showrunner von Terminator, der schon früher lustige Joss-Erlebnisse zu berichten hatte, ist natürlich "froh" über seinen Freitag-Partner, und wünscht, und träumt, und hofft... naja, ihr wisst schon.

On Terminator's Midseason Move to Fridays, Leading into Dollhouse
"I'm happy to be with Joss Whedon," said Friedman, "and now we'll see how fervent our fans are. Which is to say: Will you stay home?"

On Sarah Connor Possibly Visiting the Dollhouse
"The crossover I'd like... is for Joss to come over and write my show for a week, so I can go to Hawaii," Friedman joked.

Der Rest des Artikels hat Spoiler für die grad gelaufene Folge von Terminator, also beware, if you are aware. Mehr lustiges von Josh über Joss gibt's auf seinem Blog.

Im Interview:

JB: (...) We just actually wrote a theme song for a new TV show on Fox.

PD: Oh! Which show?

JB: It’s a Joss Whedon show called Dollhouse…

PD: Oh, absolutely! I actually got to tour the set this summer!

JB: Nice! Yeah, well, we wrote the theme song, and I hope it runs for ten million years!

PD: I’m sure you do!

JB: Like the new sci-fi Friends!

Und später dann:

PD: And as far as the Joss Whedon connection …. “Inconsolable” was also on Buffy …

JB: I know! That’s when I found out that he was a fan of mine! So when he was doing Dollhouse, he told the people at Fox, “Okay, my fantasy would be to have Jonatha Brooke singing a mixture of ‘Careful What You Wish For’ and ‘The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies.’”

PD: (Laughs)

JB: So they hooked us up on a conference call, and we totally hit it off, so Eric and I wrote him a theme song.

Hier ist ein Interview mit dem scheduler von Fox, und was er zu Dollhouse zu sagen hat:

—Having all but abandoned scripted programming on Friday nights of late, Fox is jumping back onto the night in a very big (and expensive) way. Starting in February, the network will pair Joss Whedon’s lush new drama “Dollhouse” with the network’s big-budget action hour “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.”

While “Dollhouse” has been plagued by production shutdowns and rumors that Fox executives are uncertain about its commercial appeal, Mr. Beckman said scheduling the show on Friday is simply a byproduct of trying to design the strongest possible schedule for the network.

Mr. Beckman doesn’t pretend that “Dollhouse” and “Terminator” have an easy path ahead of them. But, particularly in the case of “Dollhouse,” Mr. Beckman thinks the less competitive Friday night will give the show a better chance to build an audience than a more high-profile night.

“If we put it on Monday and it didn’t do well, we might have to yank it,” he said. But because Fox’s winter lineup should be solid on Saturday through Thursday nights, “We can afford to let these shows run their course. We can give them 12 or 13 weeks to find an audience.”

Overall, Mr. Beckman said his goal coming out of the 2008-09 season is “to have four tentpoles for next year, and if we surprise ourselves, a Friday night,” he said. “If these moves work, it sets us up nicely for next fall. And with a little luck from our development, I think that for the first time we can put together a schedule that could actually let us be No. 1 in the fall.”

"If we surprise ourselves" klingt zwar nicht sehr enthusiaistisch, aber an sich scheint sich die Entscheidung wirklich in Richtung jener Überlegungen entwickelt zu haben. Good thing.