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Dollhouse; Joss Whedon
Topic Started: Nov 1 2007, 08:04 PM (433 Views)
Jeffrywith1e
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What is Dollhouse?
Written by gossi
Monday, 29 October 2007
Dollhouse is a FOX series created by Joss Whedon (Angel, Firefly) and starring and produced by Eliza Dushku. The concept is change; it follows a top-secret world of people programmed with different personalities, abilities and memories depending on their mission.


The show centers on Echo, as she slowly begins to develop some self-awareness, which impacts her missions. Echo is a young woman who is literally everybody's fantasy. She is one of a group of men and women who can be imprinted with personality packages, including memories, skills, language—even muscle memory—for different assignments. The assignments can be romantic, adventurous, outlandish, uplifting, sexual and/or very illegal. When not imprinted with a personality package, Echo and the others are basically mind-wiped, living like children in a futuristic dorm/lab dubbed the Dollhouse, with no memory of their assignments—or of much else. The show revolves around the childlike Echo's burgeoning self-awareness, and her desire to know who she was before, a desire that begins to seep into her various imprinted personalities and puts her in danger both in the field and in the closely monitored confines of the Dollhouse.

find out all at the Dollverse website

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you see there are three things that spur the mollusk from the sand
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JoshFormerRoomie
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As a quick aside, Joss has been entertaining many of us by directing a few episodes of "The Office" (this past week's episode as one such example) over the past few years.

And Eliza continues to be adorable.
"Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable."

-John Kenneth Galbraith
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Nimrod
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Sounds like the TV shoe 'The Pretender', which ripped off The Manchurian Wahtever
"If you’re not outraged, then you aren’t paying attention!" -- 2009 --
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JoshFormerRoomie
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Since it comes from the mind of the man who gave us "Buffy", & "Firefly" and affords me a bit of gazing at the lovely Ms. Eliza Dushku, I'm on board.

(Although the sourpuss in me assumes that Fox yanks this bitch 5 weeks into it's run.)
"Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable."

-John Kenneth Galbraith
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Jeffrywith1e
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Quote:
 
CCI: Joss Whedon's Guys and Dolls
by Emmett Furey, Staff Writer
Sat, July 26th, 2008 at 5:50PM PST

Updated: Sat, July 26th, 2008 at 5:53PM PST

More than four years since the untimely cancellation of "Firefly," Joss Whedon is returning to TV and to Fox with the new drama "Dollhouse." This Saturday at the "Dollhouse" panel at Comic-Con International in San Diego, "Dollhouse" creator Joss Whedon was joined onstage by stars Eliza Dushku and Tamoh Penikett, and CBR News was there.

The panel launched right into the audience Q&A. The first question was directed at Joss: "Where did you get the idea for 'Dollhouse'?"

"From staring into the eyes of this woman," Joss said, turning to Dushku. Whedon and Dushku had been discussing the actress' career over dinner, all the things that were expected of her and all the different things that she could be. This spawned the idea for "Dollhouse," in which Dushku plays an active named Echo. Actives are brainwashed agents of the underground organization called the Dollhouse, and are dispatched on missions ranging from assassinations to pro-bono acts of philanthropy. But whatever the mission, the actives' memories are erased after completing their task. "Battlestar Galactica," alum Penikett plays Paul Ballard, an FBI Agent who is obsessed with discovering the secrets of the Dollhouse.

One fan commented on Whedon's tendency to re-use actors he's worked with in the past, and asked what new faces we could expect to see on "Dollhouse." "Him," Whedon said, pointing at Penikett. "The first thing I did was say 'Get me Tamoh, nobody else,'" Whedon said. "I've had a man crush on him since the first season of 'Battlestar Galactica. Actually, I've been informed that's not the term anymore, it's known as a 'bromance.'"

"I needed him to be this guy, Paul Ballard," Whedon continued. "He gets closer and closer to Echo, but every time he does, she's somebody else."

One fan noted that there are already several websites dedicated to saving "Dollhouse," months before the pilot has even aired, and asked if Whedon thought that showed pessimism on the part of the fans. "The weariness that has led to it was earned," Whedon said.

When asked what it was about "Dollhouse" that attracted her to the project, Dushku said, "We came up with it talking about life over lunch." And she knew immediately that Whedon was the man to write it. "He f-ing rocks. He makes the words party on the page. He puts me at ease and challenges me at the same time."

"And there are different challenges every day," Whedon added. Dushku then referred to the show as a "personality playground."

Whedon and Penikett commented that Echo was largely inspired by Dushku, who gallivants around the world on a regular basis. She was recently in Peru, and before that, Iran. "I go on these little adventures and I bring them back to Joss," Dushku said.

"I didn't make anything up," Whedon said. "This is a documentary."

"In this business and in our culture, it's a constant struggle, an identity crisis," Duskhu said. "Everyone wants you to be something. Joss is so supportive, he makes me feel smart and sexy. He's just a great fit. He's like a career brazier."

"That's a t-shirt I don't want to see," Whedon joked.

One fan asked how Penikett's role on "Dollhouse" would affect his "Battlestar Galactica" commitments. "I'm done 'Battlestar' now, finished two Fridays ago at 4 a.m.," the actor said. "If you include the two hours of champion drinking we did afterwards, it was 6 a.m." As excited as he is about "Dollhouse," Penikett mourns the ending of the chapter in his career, and said he'd rather not talk about it too much for fear he'd burst into tears on stage.

One fan said the trailer for "Dollhouse" made it look more "mundane" than Whedon's usual fare, and asked why she should be excited about the series. "This is a little bit different," Whedon said. "It is a fantastic premise, but there are no vampires, no spaceships, no superheroes, just people. But, really, everything I do is just people."

"Echo has this removable personality," Whedon continued. "Every relationship in this show is going to be absurdly twisted. It's going to be really exciting."

"Take that, girl, how do you like him now?" a feisty Duskhu said to the skeptical audience member who'd posed the question.

Fox has not always done right by Whedon's television projects, most notably "Firefly," but Whedon said that the trick to dealing with a network is to know what they want, and know that they know what they want. "I've worked with execs who don't know what they want, and they put the show up against baseball and aired it out of order," Whedon said. That said, Whedon insisted that the Fox execs who had done those very things to "Firefly" were no longer in the picture.

One fan asked what other "Buffy" alums they could expect to see on "Dollhouse." 'You'll certainly be seeing Amy Acker," Whedon said (the "Angel" alum plays "Dollhouse's" Dr. Claire Saunders). Whedon said that he expects more old faces to filter in over time, but that at the outset he decided to keep it to Dushku and Acker, and surround them with "great actors with new energy."

"Bring that Nathan Fillion on the show," Dushku said, suggestively. "A Nathan/Tamoh sandwich..."

"I said no spoilers," Whedon reprimanded her.

One fan asked Whedon which "Dollhouse" character would be the first to die. "You," Whedon quipped. But in al seriousness, the writer admitted that he has no deaths planned at the moment. "They're just coming to life. Give me a break, I don't kill everyone."

And how has Penikett's transition been from "Battlestar" to "Dollhouse"?

Penikett said Whedon and Dushku and the rest of the cast and crew made him feel welcome on the "Dollhouse" set. After much chiding, Penikett admitted that he was so taken by Eliza the first day he worked with her, that every time Whedon yelled action, he forgot all of his lines. His first line to her was supposed to be, "How did you hear about the Dollhouse," but Penikett blurted out, "How did you hear about the Wallhouse?" Penikett could only imagine what Joss thought when the actor messed up the title of the show in his first line.

One fan said they'd seen Dushku doing an excellent karaoke rendition of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" on YouTube, and with Whedon's penchant for musicals, they wondered if Dushku would do any singing on "Dollhouse." Whedon said he absolutely plans to have Eliza sing, but he thinks they have to ease into it.

One fan lamented the untimely cancellation of Dushku's more recent series, "Tru Calling." "While 'Tru Calling' was definitely an experience, I think everything happens for a reason," Dushku said. "'Buffy' was my first TV experience, and it was a tough act to follow."

Why does Joss write so many projects featuring strong females? "I was raised by one, I married one, I surround myself with them," Whedon said. "Those are the people that I love, I can't help it."

Whedon said he probably wouldn't do any more live-action "Buffy," because of the ability of the cast and because he gets his Buffy fix with Dark Horse's "Buffy: Season 8."

"You said there aren't any vampires in 'Dollhouse,' yet the actives all sleep in coffins," one fan commented.

"Well, my vampires didn't do that, this is new territory for me," Whedon joked.

"They're cozy," Dushku said. "They're like cozy little pods."

Whedon said there was a common thread, though: the search for the soul. "Vampires are un-people, and so are actives."

One fan asked Penikett if Dushku's spine glowed, ala Cyclons in "Battlestar Galactica." "She's not going to understand that one," Penikett said of his baffled co-star. "And I don't know. Yet." Penikett proceeded to whisper an explanation into Dushku's ear.

Will we be seeing any "Dollhouse" comics? Whedon said the exciting part of the show was watching Dushku embody these different characters, and he didn't necessarily think that would be very interesting as a drawing on a page. "I think it belongs where it is, on TV, specifically on Fox." But fans can expect to see supplementary "Dollhouse" webisodes.

One fan asked what Whedon thought about the many and varied academic discourses on his work. "I make English writing from words good," Whedon said. "Why wouldn't people study me?" He said it was a huge honor for people to be discussing his work in his lifetime, but he was quick to add that it was far from just him. "I have one real talent, it's for finding other people's talents." He said that each show he's worked on owes as much to his writing staff as it did to the showrunner. "If every person in the process doesn't feel a part of it, it's not worth doing. Without them, I'm nothing."

Whedon said that "Dollhouse" is contracted for 13 episodes, but all involved certainly hope they get to do more. With the advertising push, the timeslots, the network and fan support, "we could probably make it to 15," Whedon said.

Look for the premier of "Dollhouse" early in 2009.
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Edited by Jeffrywith1e, Jul 27 2008, 05:25 PM.
you see there are three things that spur the mollusk from the sand
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Jeffrywith1e
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Let me just say this...


Dollhouse was very very good.

and let me also say this...

wow
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Gregums
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You just like it because you are a Whedon-ite...

;)

"A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education." - Teddy Roosevelt
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Jeffrywith1e
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Gregums
Feb 14 2009, 11:21 PM
You just like it because you are a Whedon-ite...
I didn't want to like it. We don't have time for another kick ass show!

Here's what I wrote on Cinema Judge's site...

Jeffrywith1e on Cinema Judge's forum
 
* this review contains spoilers*

We just finished watching Dollhouse this evening. With so little time I didn't want this show to be as good as it was. Foolish of me to doubt Joss Whedon. He is a master storyteller. Fantastic start. Dollhouse, if you noticed, is partially produced by the star, Eliza Dushku. I imagine it's going to be a challenging role for her as she will play many characters throughout the show.

All the standard characters are in place, Eliza plays the empty husk Echo who is programmed with personalities [of previously real existing people] and is sent out on whatever job a client needs. When the gig is done, she returns and is wiped clean, no memories. There is the ruthless and focused Adelle DeWitt (the not-so-hot-as-she-used-to-be Olivia Williams); the savvy computer nerd that explains things for us, Topher Brink; DeWitt's lapdog, Laurence Domonic, loyally do anything she says; Helo from Battlestar Galactica, Paul Ballard, who is an FBI agent on the Dollhouse case. My favorite character so far is the company's moral pillar, Boyd Langton- Echo's handler and ex-cop.

I think this show has so much potential. How many episodes will air before FOX kills it?
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JoshFormerRoomie
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Jeffrywith1e
Feb 14 2009, 11:39 PM
How many episodes will air before FOX kills it?
8. Doesn't help that its lead in "The Sarah Connor Chronicles" is tanking in the ratings. (And last night I saw alot, alot of Shirley Manson.) ....sigh.....

Eliza was on "Conan" a day or two ago. Good lord was she adorable.

Why Joss returns to Fox again and again is beyond me. Why not go to SciFi or FX?


You never got into "Buffy" did you Jeffry?
"Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable."

-John Kenneth Galbraith
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Jeffrywith1e
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JoshFormerRoomie
Feb 15 2009, 12:49 AM
You never got into "Buffy" did you Jeffry?
Right. Never did. So I think that disqualifies me as a Whedonite.
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Jeffrywith1e
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We enjoyed the 2nd episode. But, man! This show is bloody. Not sure if I can stay on board because of all the violence. I'm not connecting with the main character yet, either. I like the older guy that is her handler. I'm connecting with him. But the rest of the 'good guys' aren't so much the good guys.
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