For the record: The reason the show took so long to get going in the first place was that FOX was demanding script rewrites, trying to push for a more episodic format. Just like they did with
Firefly, they scrapped the pilot and forced him to write a dumbed-down one to avoid scaring off new viewers with the complex themes that the show was supposed to have been exploring since day one.
Mairsil the Pretender said:
Given that he's tried numerous times with fox, I have the feeling that Whedon is somehow blacklisted by every other network for some reason. he wouldnt keep going back to those bastards if there was any other option.
Frank_Sinatra_ said:
Like picking a shitty producer like FOX? I'm sorry, but I have never felt sorry for Joss when he chooses an idiotic producer for his shows.
Don't get me wrong, I like me some Joss Wheadon, but what I don't like is him choosing bad producers and getting his shows cancelled.
Trivun said:
Why the hell does Whedon keep going back to Fox? He comes up with great stuff, most notably Firefly (in my opinion anyway), and then they keep cancelling his shows? Fox obviously don't appreciate him, so why doesn't he just take his work to another big network like ABC, NBC, PBS (no, scratch that last one...), or the like? Somewhere where he's more likely to get some decent support and whatnot...
Joss Whedon did not "choose" FOX, nor is there any obstacle for his shows to be picked up by another network.
The reason
Dollhouse was on FOX was that Eliza Dushku had signed a contract with FOX to have her own show. There was no clue as to what this show would be, they hadn't even brought in any writers yet. Dushku asked Joss to write it, and Joss agreed. They did not go around pitching this show to other networks, the show was created after the contract was already signed.
robrob said:
The show managed to average 3-4 million viewers for it's first season (which isn't great for a fox show) then dropped to around 2 million for the second season. Like the show or not, people weren't watching it and television (fox least of all) has never been about creativity and high production values, it's about profit. I find it hard to be sad for Whedon, just like everyone else in the industry, you have to roll with the punches.
For the Friday Night Death Slot? 3-4m is
fantastic for a TV show on Friday nights.
And SG-1 was never that popular, it peaked around 2.5m viewers. However, that's the advantage of being on a smaller network and having a good plan for the show, they syndicated it everywhere and made enough money to keep it going. I also imagine they had a lower budget than Whedon gets though.
I don't know what SG-1's budget was, I'll have to look that up, but I do know that Dollhouse was one of the lowest-cost sci-fi shows on TV, and it was (and still is) selling great on DVD.
FOX Broadcasting Company are morons. They didn't broadcast Epitaph One (and don't give me that "contractual red tape" bullshit, if they really wanted to run it, they would have), and therefore they had to pay for it (as opposed to the advertisers paying for it).
Meanwhile, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (the DVD division) loves
Dollhouse, because the DVD of season 1 is selling great (NOTE: The first-week DVD sales for a "genre show" are rarely enough to show up on the Billboard Charts.
Dollhouse did so for three weeks, then it continued to sell week-in and week-out, and it's STILL selling great overseas).
And Fox Broadcasting's reaction: "So, we're going to slash the episode budget because you made 'Epitaph One' for half a regular episode's cost ($650k vs. $1.3m), and it was the most popular and best-reviewed episode of the show so far (and you made it without us sticking our big fat fingers in every orifice). Oh, and we're not even going to pay that, we'll only commission season two if 20th Century picks up most of that."
Which 20th Century did. Because the DVDs were selling great and they wanted this 13-hour advert for S2 DVDs to continue (if the numbers weren't there, they wouldn't have done that).
So, they wound up with a show that cost them virtually nothing, that had a small but VERY loyal fanbase, that sold great on DVD.
And they buried it. They slashed the marketing for the show, and decided to yank it for all of November sweeps without warning.
Brilliant, huh?
