If you’ve been following along at home — and if you count yourself as a Whedon fan, you have — you must be aware of the guest cast that is coming for season two of Dollhouse. We had already heard about Jamie Bamber (Battlestar Galactica), Michael Hogan (Battlestar Galactica), and Alexis Denisof (Angel). The latest news is that Summer Glau (Terminator: TSCC) will be joining the show in a recurring role. That’s all great and I’m looking forward to seeing all of them. But then, I’m a Whedon fan from way back, and already sold on the show. The more troubling question is whether or not this list of guest stars is going to do anything to increase awareness of the show for those that don’t already watch.
Of that, I’m really not sure. It seems to me that Whedon is preaching to the choir. Sure, his fans were thrilled to see him working with Eliza Dushku again. Even more so with Amy Acker joining the fold. The problem is that Whedon’s fans being thrilled didn’t really translate to ratings success. When everyone is shocked that the show was actually renewed, something needs to be done.
Casting people from Battlestar isn’t the something. That’s not meant to slag the show, or Bamber and Hogan. As I said, I’m looking forward to both of their episodes. But Battlestar, while a huge success for SciFi, had even less viewers than Dollhouse. I’m sure they’ll be great, but I don’t see promotions for their episode catching the eye of the House fan that has never watched Dollhouse. The same goes for Denisof. With the exception of a couple guest spots, he’s been sadly absent from our televisions since Angel went off the air. And Glau? I know, “It’s River!” That’s just ducky, but “River” is available to play in the Dollhouse because nobody watched her on Terminator. Again, great for Whedon fans….
The best bit of casting news is that Keith Carradine (Dexter) has signed on. He’s a much more recognizable name, and has had a few really great guest spots over the past few years. His turn as Frank on Criminal Minds is a particular favorite. It should be very cool. Still, it’s still not the big splash I’m waiting for. What Dollhouse really needs is a guest star that they can promote the hell out of. Something that gets the attention of fans watching House, Glee, and Bones.
I’m not ready to give up on the show. I think there is enough there for it to find an audience and finally start to take off. But that is going to require eyeballs. And to bring those eyeballs to the sets, it’s time to start casting some actors with actual name recognition, as opposed to those with geek recognition.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Aug 27, 2009 @ 15:00 EST5EDT
I wonder if mainstream guest stars would work on such a genre show though. Even if some big name guested, say… Ellen Pompeo (because the sheer impossibilty of that is comical), do you think that the type of person to tune in to see her would stick around for other episodes?
In order to attract scifi fans (which are the only people that this show is going to appeal to. I like the show, but I think we can agree that the crossover appeal is not high), it’s best to cast scifi actors.
I sort of equate it to what Veronica Mars did. Casting people to guest (Alyson Hannigan, Charisma Carpenter, etc) who had previously been on shows with similar target audiences.
I guess the point I am (weakly) trying to make is that the type of person tuning in to see Bamber would be more likely to tune in for another episode than someone tuning in to see a Jerry Seinfeld cameo.
Are you asking if Ellen Pompeo guest starred on DollHouse if the viewers would keep watching with her there? Absolutely! Ellen has a huge and loyal fanbase and would love to see her guest star on any show. :)
Right. But if she were just a guest star for one week how many Ellen Pompeo fans would then become Dollhouse fans? I’m guessing that there would be a one week spike in ratings and that’s it.
I guess my question would be are there any sci-fi fans that hadn’t heard about this show and given it a try (streaming/torrents, not live obviously) in the first season. I don’t think more genre guest stars will help now, as most of those prospective viewers decided yea or nay back then.
(I’m not going back to this show, but I find the fan/ratings side of it fascinating.)
Besides, even if 99% of the viewers who tuned in only for the mainstream guest star dropped out the next week, that’s still a growth of a few thousand or so outside of the genre box that they wouldn’t otherwise receive.
Yes, preaching to the choir, but that’s o.k. – I’m totally grateful the show is trying to please me. As to whether the cast will bring new people to the fold, I guess we’ll see.
Why does a show have to live or die based on its guest stars? The regular cast (with the exception of the lead) is great, and the stories are what makes “Dollhouse” work. Promoting a show based on guest stars leads to “Will & Grace”/”Love Boat” syndrome. That has nothing to do with Whedon’s type of show. He’s getting great actors who are known in the genre, because they’ll do great work.
*POST AUTHOR*
I don’t think a show has to live or die based on its guest stars, but Dollhouse is a special case. It needs viewers, and a lot of them. I’m not proposing that it takes on a Love Boat, big name of the week approach, but right now a couple big name guest stars could go a long way.
The viewer numbers are a problem, but the silver lining in that cloud is that the show started off with a low viewer number, meaning a “lot” of people haven’t seen it at all yet. The idea here is to do something that will get those people that haven’t seen it to take a look. With any luck, they’ll like what they see and stick around, after the big name guest star is gone, when Michael Hogan comes in to do the great work you spoke of.
Well, Whedon’s entire fanbase from DVDs etc is obviously much larger than the base of people watching Dollhouse on TV.
If the guest stars get those people to start watching, that would be something at least.
I don’t think that there’s any way this show is going to attract the audience that only watches medical and reality shows. Period. I suspect that pleasing the target audience is probably a better thing rather than pandering to the people who wouldn’t watch Dollhouse if a gun was held to their heads.
Also: hey, at least there’s no Paris Hilton :P
*POST AUTHOR*
I don’t think it has to be one or the other. A guest star with name recognition doesn’t mean the show is going to automatically be horrible for the core audience. In fact, it could make for a great episode for the core audience. So, I wouldn’t agree that it’s somehow pandering to anyone. It’s just taking advantage of the fact that you do have guest stars every week to try and grow the audience.
Also: Supernatural might have Paris Hilton guesting, but she’s guesting in Season 5. Care to place some odds on Dollhouse getting to Season 5? :P
I would have never guessed SN would make it five seasons, so I tend to doubt my prognostications about show’s longevity.
(Further evidenced by the list of shows I loved canceled before the saw the what a 22nd episode looked like)
The payment situation is also conducive to spending more than you’d planned, because rather than seeing what you’ve bought all in one cart and, at the last minute, removing that one container of berries or piece of cheese that would really put things over the top, it’s only at the end of the trip, when you compare how much money you had on you with how much you’ve spent, that you get your total ‘receipt’ for the day. ,