Whedonesque Mobile : Comments on 17021 : Joss has plans to do Dollhouse webisodes.

July 23 2008

Joss has plans to do Dollhouse webisodes. According to The Live Feed, Joss plans to, "do a series of webisodes -- literally a full season of them. We're planning to do one for every episode produced. Whether we pull that off remains to be seen."

Sorry if this has been posted. I just found out about it, and did a brief search (with both eyes and the search function) that turned up nothing.

Jobo | 06:55 CET | 28 comments total | tags: dollhouse, joss, webisodes

This looks cool.

korkster | July 23, 07:03 CET

Joss is taking over the internet these days ain't he? :)

Rhodey | July 23, 07:05 CET

The previous blog entry on that site has video of Joss discussing the "second pilot" issue. (And I don't mean, "Oh look, River's flying the ship now.")

ETA that the video is actually pretty good.

[ edited by theonetruebix on 2008-07-23 07:11 ]

theonetruebix | July 23, 07:08 CET

Three times thirteen is thirty-nine more minutes of Dollhouse. That, along with the extra minutes included in each tv episode means that we're gonna get close to fifteen episodes worth.

Pretty damn cool.

shambleau | July 23, 07:31 CET

Wow, this is great news. They'll be little short stories

Btw, is it confirmed as 13 episodes now?

Let Down | July 23, 07:59 CET

Thank the Gods for Dr. Horrible and future issues of Buffy, Angel, and Spike. For a spoiled brat (and we truly are a spoiled bunch), I'm dying here!!!

I would literally sell myself to start the first season of Dollhouse already.

Am I a true fan, or a whore?

Maybe I'm just a whore for Whedon.

Probably just a whore.

...

Yay Dollhouse webisodes!

CowboyCliche | July 23, 08:02 CET

I'll second your yay and raise you some jazz hands.

onthedrift | July 23, 08:10 CET

Will they be musical webisodes? XD

Anyway it all sounds very interesting and exciting.

Joss is truly innovative and taking things to new levels.

@CowboyClithe. I agreee, we Whedon fans are completely and wonderfully spoiled rotten. Also, I'd do pretty much anything for a sequel to DHSAB.

[ edited by Hee on 2008-07-23 08:51 ]

Hee | July 23, 08:44 CET

Whedon will one day become the ruler of the universe, and it will be legen... wait for it!... .... ... (keep waiting for the day to happen :-D)

Valentyn | July 23, 09:15 CET

It'd be really nice if they had some quirky narration, perhaps a discussion between two different characters each week or something.

MattK | July 23, 11:09 CET

Oh very cool. Y'know what (bizarrely) comes to mind hearing stuff like this and seeing Dr Horrible ? Neo at the end of 'The Matrix' just after he comes back to life and stops the bullets. It's like Joss is flexing - just wait until he can see the code ;).

And because Santa totally didn't bring me the moon on a stick that time, even though i'd been a good boy and grizzly-ly murdered almost nobody that year, I would crap rainbow coloured bricks if Joss took a leaf out of Ron Moore's book and did podcasts for each episode. Seriously, Roy G Biv. I kid not.

Saje | July 23, 11:17 CET

A bit concerned here. It's nice to have extra content, but Dollhouse already has an extra ten minutes. That's already an added strain on production & writing duties. I hope these webisodes don't affect the quality of the main show.

Dym | July 23, 11:22 CET

I don't see why it would. Joss and co aren't bound to make the webisodes so if they don't have the time they can just not make them that week / few weeks. Besides, there are a bunch of writers on the show so one can write a short 3 minute internet thing without that meaning less time is spent writing Dollhous scripts.

Let Down | July 23, 11:45 CET

And they do have a head-start on the writing cycle. If (when, dammit, when ;) they get to a second (presumably full) season running on the normal production schedule, the webisodes might become fewer and farther between.

Saje | July 23, 11:48 CET

Spake Rhodey:

Joss is taking over the internet these days ain't he? :)

Well, considering that Jonathan invented the Internet, it's hardly surprising that Joss has pretty high-level access... ;-)

crystalsinger | July 23, 13:12 CET

Oh, this is exciting. I hope there's music. Someone could hire Echo for an assignment in a karaoke bar.

Podcasts would be great, too, though I'm little disturbed by the potential effect on Saje's digestive system.

jcs | July 23, 13:33 CET

Well, this news is pretty much made of awesome. And podcasts? That'd be amazing. Although, possibly, it might hurt the whedonesque threads if they clear up a lot of the ambiguities straight away ;)

GVH | July 23, 13:40 CET

He could devise code words for certain topics to retain the ambiguity. E.g. "the confirmed existence of Echo's soul" could be "flawdy-flawdy-flawwwwdy, picune, neighhhh !".

... though I'm little disturbed by the potential effect on Saje's digestive system.

Yeah but think of the financial benefits. My bowel would become a veritable gold mine. Well, "gold" anyway.

(cos seriously, who isn't gonna pay to see a rainbow coloured, err, brick ?)

Saje | July 23, 13:52 CET

it might hurt the whedonesque threads if they clear up a lot of the ambiguities straight away

Never fear! We'll find much to discuss. (Did you see that model of Serenity in the gym? I think the guy behind Echo in the bar is David Boreanaz in dark glasses..., etc.)

jcs | July 23, 14:06 CET

Woo hoo! Now we get to crash the FOX site with a ridiculous number of hits!

montresor | July 23, 14:07 CET

Are these episodes going to be the same vein as the Heroes, Lost and BSG ones i.e. nice to watch but not important to the main plot?

Simon | July 23, 14:09 CET

This is a great way to help shift focus from TV to Internet viewing while pulling TV viewers over as well. Rather than have off-season webisodes when interest is typically lower, this should keep the concept in front of the audience when the interest is the highest. This could generate enough interest that technology will be made to adapt for feasible and profitable Internet viewing.

I suspect, though, that Nielsen will have the hardest time to prevent spoofed hits. (I doubt that IPv6 will have any effect [especially since it'll probably never happen worldwide in our lifetimes and someone will find a way to abuse it regardless -- there's a reason the FCC disallows anyone to guaranty the security of any electronic transmission].)

TheGamut | July 23, 14:21 CET

Simon: According to the quote from Joss, it sounds like they're going to be extras "surrounding" Dollhouse and not part of the mainstream show. But that's just how it sounds to me.

TheGamut | July 23, 14:22 CET

I suspect, though, that Nielsen will have the hardest time to prevent spoofed hits.

I dunno, they could just have a two-way preamble before the actual streaming (even a simple confirmation that you want to watch would surely ensure a valid IP ?). Spoofing when you're engaging in two way communication (as opposed to the actual stream itself which, AFAIK, is still over UDP or some sort of encapsulated UDP) is, to say the very least, non-trivial.

Depending on how they do it of course, internet ratings could still be gamed, that's the nature of any system (including the current one with boxes in homes).

(and i'd be surprised if the webisodes were essential to the plot, they'll presumably just flesh it out a bit, fill in some blanks. Again though, just my take, not anything i've read from Joss/Fox)

Saje | July 23, 14:42 CET

To those concerned about the extra strain... bear in mind, Joss is only working on one show now, not like at one point where he was working on Buffy, Angel and Firefly at the same time (if I remember rightly).

"(I doubt that IPv6 will have any effect [especially since it'll probably never happen worldwide in our lifetimes" ...

I can't see why you'd say that. IPv6 is practically right around the corner, it'll probably happen worldwide within a decade. Unless there's an impending apocalypse of which I'm not aware, I think that qualifies as our collective lifetimes.

MattK | July 23, 14:48 CET

And even then it depends how you define "our lifetimes". I mean, if you added them all together ? No problem I reckon ;-).

Thinking about it, one way to game internet ratings would be 'botnets programmed to "watch" specific shows. That'd certainly add a dimension to "ratings wars" ;).

Saje | July 23, 14:56 CET

Simon, I can't imagine you'd need to watch the webisodes to get the main plot. It's probably all gravy.

dollrific | July 23, 17:12 CET

I like gravy!

(cos seriously, who isn't gonna pay to see a rainbow coloured, err, brick ?)
Saje | July 23, 13:52 CET

I like rainbows!

I like flesh too! No, seriously, my non-question is why haven't they done this before?? This is a great bridge to get viewers to check out thier website, get hits, and have advertisers on there as well. Plus, wouldn't it be global as well? With every Whedon/Dollhouse fan checking out the webisodes on a weekly, dissecting each and inadvertantly sucking the life out of them by re-watching, it's a great move to get in promo's.

Fox's website now plays episodes of those that just aired for a week with 4, 15-20 second commercials in between, and it's great! More exposure = good, in my book.

korkster | July 23, 19:25 CET

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