After the tragic treatment Firefly received on FOX a few years ago, it would be understandable if creator and all-around genius Joss Whedon was a bit skittish about working with the network again. But Whedon, whose new series Dollhouse will air on FOX next year, says that what happened with Firefly is all water under the bridge.
“These are different people,” Whedon said. “They didn’t do to me what was done to Firefly.”
“The understanding that I reached was with myself,” Whedon explained about his change of heart. “That I had to be realistic about what the network expected of me and about what the chances for the show would be. Like, I fell in love with Firefly in a very blind and adolescent way. And I tried to meet the network halfway. But at the same time, you know, it was agony. Everything was agony for me. … And now I come at it with a little distance. Not artistic distance. But just, you know, the grown-up attitude of, you go through certain steps. You do your best. You work with them. And you pick the people you’re working with. You look for sanity and you look for intelligence. So far, I have found a great deal of both in the executives at Fox. If I had gone there and pitched to them, and they had not understood what I was telling them, I think I would have known.”
And it appears the new suits at FOX are just as eager to work with Whedon.
“Joss was a gift,” said FOX excutive Kevin Reilly.
Reilly said he never dreamed he would get to work with Whedon because he thought too many bridges had been burned with the network’s bungling of Firefly.
“The only reason Joss wasn’t on my list is because I thought there was no way he was coming back,” he said.
What remains to be seen is if Dollhouse will get a better chance that Firefly did. Firefly’s history on FOX is well-documented, including airing episodes out of order, having multiple pre-emptions due to baseball and only airing 11 of the 14 produced episodes.
Time will tell if FOX has learned its lesson.
Dollhouse will debut early next year.
Well, nice of FOX to admit they made a mistake with Firefly. Too bad it isn’t coming back. Looking forward to the new series.
I have hope that the current batch of FOX execs have learned from their predecessors’ mistakes. I’m glad that they’re waiting until after the World Series to start airing Dollhouse. (Even though that didn’t save Drive. Poor Tim Minear. Maybe he’ll be next?)
And in the meantime, they’re bringing us more Sarah Connor and Bones, both starring Whedon alums, plus JJ Abrams’s new genre show. It looks like a new era of quality scripted drama has begun. Cross your fingers and watch what happens. 🙂
Will see if Whedon “understanding” of himself was a selling out (“realistic about what the network expected of me”…okay whatever that means) or a true maturing process. I guess the answer would be in quality of the new series and how long it last.
If canceling Firefly was a mistake…
And Whedon is able to make this show a big hit…
Is it logical to hope that they might support a continuation??
Guess my old Browncoat is showing. *Sigh
It would have been nice to see what Joss could make on a cable network instead of a tv network, but it’s better than nothing. think I’ll watch doctor horrible again.
Come ON! Please don’t tell me that if Dollhouse does well Joss would give up on his beloved Firefly. He’s biding his time, ready to strike and pounce on the opportunity when Fox comes to him and says, “Hey Joss, Dollhouse is doing great, you’ve given over the reigns in writing and directing… do you have any other ideas you wanna put into a TV show?”
Hmm… does he? Let me think…