Last week I went on about how I think Dollhouse should be shown the door. Dollhouse fans have their petitions at the ready, and their Twitter avatars changed, in support of the show. Then you’ve got people like me who say the show deserves to be canceled, thinking, “what the hell is FOX thinking, keeping such a low-rated show on the air?” Yet, on the air Dollhouse remains. In fact, FOX has just stated that it will air the full 13 episodes it ordered for the season, despite how awful the ratings have been.
People not digging this season of Dollhouse probably think FOX is out of its mind for allowing it to stay on. Hell, I even think it’s weird. Though I continue to think Dollhouse deserves the ratings it’s getting, I commend FOX for keeping the show on for the fans.
In a way I feel bad for FOX. No, really, I know it sounds like complete lunacy, but I do!
FOX is known for axing cult favorite shows, and the ratings have shown that, from a business standpoint, they did the right thing. Firefly: gone. Terminator: gone. Oh, I know there are more, but those are some of the recent biggies.
Now FOX is actually doing the unthinkable: they’re throwing the fans a bone. Standing by Dollhouse not once (with picking it up for a second season in the first place), but twice, is remarkable. The thing is, people aren’t going to remember that FOX gave the ailing Dollhouse a chance by allowing it to show all 13 episodes; they’re going to remember that FOX canceled it. There will be no blame from the fans toward anyone but FOX, and that’s where I sorta feel sorry for them.
Where I do NOT feel sorry for FOX is that it chose to do this for a show that deserves the plug, from a quality standpoint. T:TSCC and Firefly were good, quality shows, yet they were not chosen to be saved by the network. Now that we have a quality and ratings stinker, FOX decides to let it hang on a bit longer. I sort of wonder if the network is doing this so it can point back and say to us all, “See?! We did throw you guys a bone once, but it didn’t matter — the show still tanked. So Sit Down, Shut Up… SaturdayNightsAtMidnightEasternStandardTimeCheckLocalListings.”
So, to you FOX: thanks for giving the Dollhouse fans more episodes to watch, but next time think about doing it for a show that deserves it at the time you plant the CANCELED stamp on the renewal forms.
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Oct 13, 2009 @ 14:30 EST5EDT
For me, Dollhouse is this season’s Terminator. Terminator didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of being renewed, but FOX aired all the episodes.
I miss Terminator.
I miss TSCC as well. But I WILL remember that FOX let all of the 13 episodes of Dollhouse finish (hopefully it will merit more). That means something to me. I do like it that they understand the street perspective that Dollhouse has latent cache.
I completely disagree with your point about quality — Dollhouse is a far richer and much more interesting show than TSCC (which I also enjoyed). However I definitely agree that FOX has given it more than a fair shake. They have been well within reason to cancel this outright as soon as it was made clear that DVD sales were not going to make up for the poor ratings.
That said, I think it’s a good idea to keep the show on the air to finish the 13 episodes they already ordered. It will likely increase sales of the DVDs somewhat (recall that FOX owns those rights as well) and create the impression both among show creators and television viewers that FOX has mended its ways and won’t kill quality shows before giving them time to maybe find an audience.
And finally– Joss and other talented producers need to get off Network TV. Great shows with character and plot depth just can’t sustain themselves on channels oriented to retreaded crime shows, low budget talk shows, and reality crap. Not just with Joss, the same has happened very recently to shows like Defying Gravity, Kings, and of course TSCC.
People who seek quality are a niche audience, and shows aiming for that need to be on Premium Cable… or maybe even pioneer something new on the Internet. I believe there is a paying audience for that kind of content which can be monetized, just not on the networks.
*POST AUTHOR*
I don’t understand — why would FOX airing the 13 ordered episodes increase DVD sales? I would have thought that them NOT airing them on TV and instead saving them for the DVD would increase DVD sales.
No?
Fox the studio is probably operated by different people than Fox the network and they have different objectives.
The Fox studio probably gave the network a significantly reduced rate for the episodes this season, so it may be worth it to Fox Network to air the episodes in non-sweeps slots. If they show a commitment to letting “genre” shows play out for full seasons and to wrap up their stories, then they might have more success in the future gaining an audience who fears sudden cancellation. The network also probably doesn’t have much to lose on Friday’s anyways.
I completely agree with Keith in every way, especially in regard to the quality of Dollhouse in comparison to, oh… nearly any other genre show, much less Firefly or Terminator.
Keith, you didn’t include an option for “Yes, but I don’t care about Dollhouse in the slightest,” so I was unable to vote in the poll. Another good choice would have been “NBC sucks.”
It’s not really unthinkable, or even original. FOX already threw the fans a whole bag of bones with Arrested Development. Even after all of that though, they’re still vilified for finally giving in to the obvious and cancelling the show. I would expect the same reaction here. Fans will be thankful and appreciate what FOX has done, right up until the moment that they announce the show is cancelled. And then all that good will is flushed and they’ll be the assholes that canceled Dollhouse.
Well put, Brett, and I totally agree. Genre fans, of which I am one, can be the biggest asses of all. I’m going to try and be one of those who remains thankful that FOX aired all the episodes even though I don’t much care for the show.
TSCC suffered from a slow start last season. Many of the early season 2 episodes just plodded along, but by the end it was rocking and I was stoked for more, all the while knowing it wouldn’t come. That bad feeling was made worse knowing Dollhouse made the cut but Sarah Connor didn’t live.
Fox is just going to burn the episodes off because they have nothing better to show. The fact the horrible show with horrible ratings got renewed in the first place should have all the show’s fans kissing Fox’s feet.
If anything, I think FOX is making up for the large number of cult/genre shows that they cancelled early (note, Brett, I did not say too early) including Firefly, Wonderfalls, the Inside, Drive, Standoff, T:SCC, etc.
Does Dollhouse deserve the chance? I dunno … I’m one of those that thinks there’s been very little to be happy with this season, but there’s still so much potential for quality television, its a tough call. In the end, I’m glad that FOX is committed to all 13 episodes, but, frankly, I wish other shows had gotten this treatment in the past.
Arrested Development did get that continued chance, but its the exception to the rule, at least, until now.
Arrested Development also won awards and was talked about by other people. Dollhouse will be largely forgotten.
And the sad thing is the show has so much they could do with it and i feel like they are wasting it.
while i’m still in mourning for TSCC, I’m actually more worry for Fringe, which is losing battle on Thurs. But um, who’s bashing FOX nowadays? i think they are doing just fine, at least they don’t cancel show prematurely anymore. have you guys notice what’s happening with the increasingly embarrassing and slow and painful death of NBC? now Fox is looking good.
You do know that when Fox originally aired Firefly they never gave it a snowball’s chance in hell of making it, right? They aired the whole frigging series out of order. The ratings sucked because of their own lack of advertising and crappy treatment of the program.
I admit the case isn’t the same lately, but more and more people have been watching via Hulu and P2P sites like MegaVideo – so numbers aren’t necessarily indicative of a fanbase.