Joss Whedon’t new show Dollhouse starts tonight and I really want it to live a bit longer than Firefly did.
One of the big reasons that Firefly died so quickly was mismanagement by Fox.
Joss & co. shot an exceptional two hour pilot for the show. It properly introduced viewers to the Universe, its complex character, and the main plot lines. Sadly, Fox decided not to show the pilot until the day it cancelled the show. Instead they showed other episodes. They were great, but viewers never had the chance to properly get to know the characters and were constantly confused even though they enjoyed the show.
To further add to the confusion, Fox’s pre-airing marketing blitz used key footage from the pilot. When viewers started watching the premier, it didn’t look like what they had seen in the commercials and trailers.
Dumb, right?
Well checkout this commercial for Dollhouse and Terminator the Sarah Connor Chronicles:
Seriously, WTF are they thinking?!?!
This is how I imagine the pitch for this playing-out:
“OK, so we have these two modern sci-fi epics. Let’s just ‘Charlie’s Angels‘ them up. I mean make them look really 1970’s cornball! Let’s washout the colors, set it to outdated music, misrepresent the shows, and use quaint marketing language that was abandoned two decades ago for good reason. That ought to appeal to a demographic that will be utterly uninterested in the show while simultaneously pushing away the people who will actually want to watch it!”
Please Fox! You’ve already dug the both of these shows a grave by slotting them for Friday night. Don’t slay them with stupidity.
The Geek Whisperer 