Eliza Dushku stars as Echo on Dollhouse. Image:FOX promo.

We are less than a day away from the premiere of the new series by Buffy the Vampire Slayer mastermind, Joss Whedon. Starring former Buffy alumna, Eliza Dushku, Dollhouse follows a group of people who are called “actives” that get their memories wiped and then re-written for certain tasks. This secret agency hires out their actives to clients that need a certain job performed that requires a specific skill, or they want a fantasy played out for them. Whatever they need, they can get. Dushku stars as Echo, an active that is becoming aware of herself, and wonder why she volunteered to become a “doll” in the first place.

Overall, this is the first series by Joss Whedon since Angel went off the air in May 2004. So it’s good to have a new series by him, but also to keep in mind, he had Firefly on FOX, on Friday also, and that didn’t do so well, despite the acclaim (wonderful show, if you haven’t seen it, I recommend catching the pilot episode on Hulu.com, or better yet, renting/buying the complete series on DVD (now on Blu-Ray)).

But through it all, one thing you have to admit, Joss Whedon’s shows are creative, and among the best you can ask for from television. If you’re not gonna go to the movies (afterall the same movie will be playing on Saturday), and you’re not gonna be on a date (might as well hold for Saturday, being Valentine’s Day), and you love quality scripted programming, then might I suggest tuning to FOX on February 13th (FRIDAY) at 9PM ET for the series premiere of Dollhouse. And then afterwards, tune to CBS at 10PM for a new Numb3rs, with special guest (I say special guest, they may not) James Marsters (Spike from Buffy/Angel and Brainiac from Smallville).

Grailwolf on Dollhouse | TV.Com

Eh, Happy New Year!  What else is there to say.  In 20 days, we’ll have a new president in office.  ER ends in March.  There’s gonna be a 3-D episode of Chuck on NBC on Feb 2.  We’re gonna say goodbye to Stargate Atlantis and hello to Stargate Universe.  We’re gonna protest ABC’s decision on cancelling the fantastic Pushing Daisies. but at same applaud them bringing Scrubs back after NBC treated it like crap.  Reaper comes back for its 2nd season, unfortunately, got to wait all the way to March (boo! CW), but luckily, the whole 13 episode is supposed to air uninterrupted, like with 24 (which will also grace our small screens again, after, I don’t know (let’s see, season 6 ended in May…2007, so, long time between actual seasons, good thing we had the little TV-special, but it was still a long time). For our large screens, the prequel to Underworld arrives January 23rd. We’re gonna see the origins of Wolverine.  Be treated to JJ Abrams Star Trek resurrection.  Speaking of generel geekverse, maybe finally, we’ll see Fanboys hit theaters (what has it been, two years or something?), unfortunately, the recent Fox vs Warner debacle, there may be a delay in Watchmen. Another Transformers. Ratings aren’t high for FOX’s Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, however, we’ll still have the movie franchise continue with Terminator: Salvation. Speaking of FOX, we’ll see the return of Joss Whedon, along with former slayer Eliza Dushku, to television in Dollhouse. Oh, and let’s not forget the death of analog TV, as the digital transition is forced to completion in February. And this is just the first half of the year, there will be more to come.

Okay, probably what would be the best new series for this year has just been announced to premiere in the “death slot” (Friday nights not so well for FOX ever since X-Files left it).  So, maybe things can change.

Here’s a little promo video that SCI-FI Wire posted when announcing the move:

SCI-FI Wire: Dollhouse Friday Debut Set

I couldn’t come up with a better title for this post.  FOX has announced its midseason changes.  The only think staying will pretty much be Fringe (sticking Tues 9pm, getting Shit Idol viewers, whatever), and the return of 24 will stay Mon 9pm, and Sunday will still be “Animation Domination”, and then there’s that Kitchen show on Thurs.  Shit Idol loves to fuck everything up.  Why people watch it is beyond me.  House will not be on Tues 9pm as originally predicted, nope, it’s gonna be Mondays at 8PM (teamed with 24, despite Bones being a better pair for House, IMO).  A new series Lie to Me will be on Wed 8pm.  That makes Bones and Terminator homeless, plus the highly anticipated Whedon show, Dollhouse (which was originally gonna be on Monday).  This is FOX’s dumbass move:

Bones will seek shelter on Thursdays at 8PM, while Friday night will be FOX’s Sci-Fi Fridays (sound familiar?  That’s because the best sci-fi lineup to last is Sci-Fi channel’s Stargates (both of them), Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica), and so on..).  Whedon’s new show, with two former Buffy/Angel alum Eliza Dushku and Amy Acker will have the 9PM timeslot, b/c Terminator’s ratings (starring another Whedon actress, Summer Glau) has been so well to lead off Fridays.

Why is the Friday move so bad?

History.

You know Jessica Alba?  Well before she was a movie star, she starred in this little old series called Dark Angel.  It aired on Fridays and was killed after 2 seasons (I think it only last that long b/c it had, well, Jessica Alba, boobs and butts means something to FOX apparently).  But it was a genuinly good, fantastic, superior show.  It was basically replaced by, guess what, Joss Whedon’s Firefly, and we all know what happened with that.  And the little, much short lived and almost highly as loved, Wonderfalls, started on Fridays.  Guess what, it was canned after 3 or 4 episodes.  What do they all have in common.  They were sci-fi series.

Alone, sci-fi and FOX don’t go well together.  Look at Terminator, enjoying a second season since it’s series premiere had fantastic numbers, and the first season overall did well, the second, well, not too bad, but not the 10+mil it got before.  Take a look at former Eliza Dushku series Tru Calling, with a 1st season that aired against the last season of NBC’s Friends, FOX tried its best to be supportive, even granting a second season (I guess they recoginzed the timeslot it was in to be very challenging).  However, its team-up with the OC was delayed by months, and during that time, they already canned it, after canning both North Shore (which did sound like a better match with the OC) and the other replacement show, (which just happens to be another sci-fi series), Point Pleasant.  Note, those two series, the ratings were lower than Tru‘s (even if slightly lower, they were lower).

FOX itself has a more obvious reputation of being the one to cancel a series, even only after 3-4 airings, as they did with Drive (starring other Whedon actors Nathan Fillion (Firefly) and Amy Acker (Angel).  I think I’m seeing a pattern though, seems like FOX definitely not fond of the Whedonesque series, whether it be former actors from his previous shows, or even those he has worked with on those shows (exec producer of Wonderfalls was Tim Minear (who previously worked on Angel and Firefly.

Most of my examples, I realize, are more recent.  So let’s go back to say, Sliders, which manage to have three years on FOX before moving to SCI-FI Channel for its 4th and 5th seasons.  Sliders was actually canned in the 1st season, but there was enough protest at that time to reverse the decision, I guess.  The show was aired out of order, another thing FOX loves to do, as they did with Firefly, ‘causing errors to the timeline (called continuity, which, with a sci-fi drama, can be very confusing if things are aired in order, very confusing).  Millenium saw 3 seasons (’96-’99), Harsh Realm lasted only 9 episodes in 1999, and the Lone Gunmen had just 1 season (only 13 eps) in 2001, and may I add that these two shows were from Chris Carter, you know, creator of The X-Files which is the only sci-fi series I can think of to last over 5 years on FOX (it had 9 seasons, and is 2nd longest running sci-fi series of all time in the US, after Stargate SG-1‘s 10 seasons).

Also worth noting, the longest lasting live-action scripted series on FOX ever was 11 seasons of Married…with Children, a comedy (That 70s Show‘s 8 seasons make it 2nd behind Children for FOX sitcoms (live-action), and of course, the current longest running series on FOX, 20 seasons (currently airing, BTW), of The Simpsons (an animated comedy).  Compare those to other networks (NBC’s Law and Order I think is 19, NBC’s ER is in its 15th, and NBC also had 10 seasons of Friends, 11 seasons of Cheers and 11 seasons for Frasier (its spinoff) as well).  I think it’s safe to say, sci-fi series don’t fair well on any network, since the longest running series we have, tend to be animations, sitcoms, or dramas (but not of the supernatural variety).

It’s sad really, since sci-fi series are also the ones that tend to be most creative and also have impressive writing and character development, much better than what ER could ever have (I just lost interest in the show).

Amazing how I go from initially being pissed at FOX putting two quality shows in the “Friday-Night” death slots to just generally being pissed at networks being mean to sci-fi (let’s not forget the Emmys being extremely cruel towards sci-fi shows, as they only get technical categories, and nothing major (with exception to Lost (which one for a Drama series) and Heroes (which has been nominated, but never won).

WHY????

I say, to the Emmy people… Smallville and Supernatural make clean sweep, hehe, yeah, even with Smallville dwindling and somewhat repetitive storylines, and annoyances, it’s still better than a lot of shows out there, and Supernatural, well, that show is simply a work of art.