More ‘Dollhouse’ Woes

by Robert Greenberger on November 8th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Posted In: News

Joss Whedon’s new series Dollhouse cannot seem to avoid being examined in great depth.  Yesterday, Fox consigned it to the dreaded Friday night at 9 p.m. slot and then the Los Angeles Times ran a report on continuing production delays and concerns.

The show shut down production for two and a half weeks in September as Whedon and his team rewrote scripts and refocused the direction. The initial pilot was scrapped in favor of an all new introductory episode.

The Times wrote, “On Thursday, it became obvious that the problems persist. Production on the seventh episode, which is supposed to begin Monday, is being delayed at least a day because the script was in such bad shape, according to a source who requested anonymity. The script for the sixth episode also had big problems, causing production delays that left the cast and crew very frustrated, the source said.”

The article went on to note that Whedon is rarely seen on the set, instead spending his time with the writers. "We have yet to gain any momentum," an inside source told the Times. "The network wants to tone things, and Joss is trying to figure out how to give them that and still do the show he wants to do."

Fox President of Entertainment Kevin Reilly  was an early supporter of the series, telling the Times,  "He had me at ‘hello’ I was kinda drunk with the surprise of it all. He laid out the whole concept but I think it was one of those things where I heard every other word of it."

That ardor may have cooled given the time slot.  Meantime, a new teaser ad went live earlier this week so you can get a feel for the premise for yourself.