Tonight, Dollhouse gets folded up and put away for keeps. The series finale airs tonight at 8 p.m. on Fox and Global.
Seems only yesterday creator Joss Whedon was taking critics on a tour of the gigantic set for this series. There were two TCA treks out to the Dollhouse sound stage on the Fox lot. The set was truly stunning, a fully realized, hotel-like structure featuring giant slabs of teak and glass, with a cascading waterfall over rocks at the centre. Fully stocked fitness rooms, a sexy, co-ed shower area and cosy built-into-the-floor beds like in “Help” all made you want to move in tomorrow.
And that’s why I knew this show was doomed. Whenever an executive producer starts raving about set design, scenery or lighting, you know the series has almost no chance.
I remember Mike Bullard’s oddball executive producer (Bullard referred to him as Enron because “he hadn’t produced anything yet”) enthusing about how he had secured Madonna’s lighting guy for the Global launch of that talk show. If only he had booked Madonna, I thought at the time.
Whedon snuck into the Fox press tour party earlier this month and told critics he would now throw his efforts behind a new batch of Dr. Horrible webisodes. This was news to the guy who played Dr. Horrible, Neil Patrick Harris, who met with critics a few days later during a How I Met You Mother set visit. “Scheduling becomes the tricky issue,” said Harris, sought after for every second award show these days. “I hope it happens soon. I hope they cast me.” His HIMYM hiatus is coming up in April, too soon, he figures, for a Dr. Horrible turn-a-round. Maybe next year.
If it does happen, look for a lot of teak and glass on the set.
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