Comments on: Dollhouse Renewed? Why not Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles?

By: Shruti

Shruti — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:32:09 +0000

Very insightful commentary in this video!
Good work.

By: Julia

Julia — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 21:49:39 +0000

I haven’t watched either of these shows yet, but I looked up a bunch of stuff on Dollhouse after watching your post. It seems to me that Joss Whedon refuses to take responsibility for any sort of interpreted misogyny, claiming that as a writer/director that’s not what he meant. I think I’ll watch season 2 just to see where it goes. But really, if there was going to be some breakthrough episode where on of the “actives” starts remembering their past life and their experiences, and maybe shows emotional outward signs of victimization or something…I don’t know, but I’d think they’d want to put that in the first season somehow!

Will you be watching season 2? Maybe we can skype and watch together!

By: admin

admin — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:58:56 +0000

I think that it’s actually the other way around (if I remember correctly) – Fox produced and aired Dollhouse where Fox only aired TSCC (it was produced by Warner Bros.), which actually means that Fox makes more money with Dollhouse since they own all the rights and can keep the costs lower among, I’m sure may other reasons. I believe this article talks about that briefly: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2009/05/fox_execs_keep_playing_with_do.html

Ya, the way that networks decide to pick up, keep or cancel shows is really telling of how the corporate structure works. It is all about selling us (the viewer) to advertisers… good shows, bad shows… at the end of the day none of it really matters, which is why we keep losing the shows that are even remotely interesting! ACK. Might be a topic for a vlog.

By: Laura Shapiro

Laura Shapiro — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:03:33 +0000

The explanation I have read about these cancellation decisions (and I wish I could find a link!) is that, ratings being more or less equal, the issue is about who produces, owns, and distributes each property.

My understanding is that Dollhouse is a lot cheaper for Fox to retain because they aren’t also producing it, whereas they forked over both production costs and distribution costs for Sarah Connor.

This explanation makes a lot of sense to me. I think Hollywood is driven much more by money than by any other concerns.

By: Erica McGillivray

Erica McGillivray — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 03:45:15 +0000

Thanks for sending me this link on Twitter. I think you really touched on one of the big reasons why Dollhouse is still around and SCC was canceled, in that Dollhouse is the same old formulaic story again, while SCC was trying to do TV differently and tell an actual story.