TV: Dollhouse’s Friday Death; Graysons Canceled; Aylesworth is Lost; McDermott in Line

Posted on Friday, November 7th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta

There has been a bunch of television news today, so I thought I’d do a tv news wrap-up.

Bad news for Joss Whedon fans, Fox has given Dollhouse a Friday night slot, which is notoriously bad for television shows. AICN notes that at least thirteen other sci-fi shows (including Whedon’s own Firefly) were put in the Friday night time slot before they were cancelled. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles will also be moved into the Friday block. Doesn’t sound good.

Thankfully, The CW and Warner Bros Television have been forced to cancel plans for The Graysons, a Smallville-like look at Batman’s sidekick Dick Grayson in his pre-Robin days. Jeff Robinov changed his mind because “the concept doesn’t fit the current strategy for the Batman franchise”. A Variety insider says that Christopher Nolan never signed off on the concept and was uncomfortable with the show being sold based off the film franchise. Either way, I think they dodged a huge bullet. As much as Smallville now sucks, at least Superman has powers (even if he can’t “fly with a cape”). I never understood what would be the appeal of a powerless pre-Robin television series.

THR reports that Reiko Aylesworth (who played Michelle Dessler on 24) has been cast in at least four episodes of the next season of LOST. Aylesworth will play Amy, a smart and successful professional woman with a love for the outdoors, and is currently looking for the right man.

Dylan McDermott (The Practice) has been hired to star in Jerry Bruckheimer’s character-based police drama for TNT titled The Line. McDermott will play a veteran officer who “created and is running the secret unit, trying to strike a balance in his personal and professional relationships with his underlings.” [THR]

Comments

Justin

Wow, Fox just doesn't like the idea of Joss Whedon having a successful TV series. I don't know why they keep pestering him to make a TV series for them if they're just going to just spit on it.

reed

I would like to point out that Smallville does not suck. Season seven sucked, but season 8 has been pretty solid so far. Much more than the turned to s*** Heroes... They've done nothing right since season 1

J

not to be picky, but your picture of Robin is Tim Drake not Dick Grayson

orange cinema

@ peter

i know you lost interest in smallville, but i gotta tell you last night's episode 'bloodline' was the best of this current season (8), and it stands up there with the best episodes the show has ever put out. halfway through the episode i found myself saying, "holy crap, this is a really exciting episode of smallville!"

season 8 has had it's bad moments, but i feel they are toeing the edge of re-capturing the greatness of smallville, and even surpassing what it once was. the problem is that they 'tease' E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G.!!! there are so many great things they could do, but for some reason they never have the balls to just go ahead and take a chance. the lois and clark stuff in particular is frustrating as hell, and i just know it'd be great television if they'd push the relationship rather than beat around the bush.

i could go on for another five pages, but i think you guys would kill me! in closing i will add that i don't miss lana or lex at all, and the way they have decided to put their own spin on 'doomsday' is really fun. please believe me when i say season 8 is pretty damn cool.

orange cinema

oh and by the way - why the f-ck are they moving the sarah connor chronicles?!?! that show is really f-ing good! i feel if people gave it an honest and regular viewing, they would fall for the show. i never thought i'd find myself thinking that brian austin green is a badass, but dammit if he ain't!! solid cast, and for the most part it's a solid series, with only a few filler/throwaway episodes that i could do without. this is too bad because that friday slot can be the kiss of death. damn, damn, damn.

Michael

@Justin

To be fair to Fox we have heard nothing but bad news come out from Dollhouse; production stopping, recasting, re-shooting the pilot. Maybe the show sucks.

HBK

To be fair, this season of Smallville has actually been kicking a ton of ass.

Rosario

Well im hapy its on Fridays, I have nothing else to watch that night.

And like HBK said, this season is looking really promising. Especially now that the producers said they might break the whole No Flight, No Tights rule, at least the flight part.

J

Yeah thats not good that DOLLHOUSE is going to be on fridays, I can already smell cancellation. Also I hate it when TV Shows are on FRIDAY night, I remember they did that to The Bernie Mac Show and Friday Night Lights, well I am really glad I have DVR now!

J

Also Sarah Connor sucks so, no suprise that it will get axed soon.

J

And I am glad to hear they are not doing The Graysons, such a terrible idea.

Mikey M

I question why Josh is even working with FOX again after what they did with Firefly.
This is not a good sign if they are putting it on Fridays. Terminator I do not care about because it is pretty unwatchable. I gave up about two episodes again

Mikey M

Smallville does not suck now. It has actually been much better this year without Lex and Lana. Have you watched it recently?

Alex

I wouldn't mind a Gotham Central police procedural.

prophecy_projectz

Smallville is still smallville and this season has been more of the same. A few decent episodes here or there but terrible overall. People dont even have any excuses like before about certain characters ruin the show.
But anyway, the news about Graysons being cancelled for those reasons kinda suprises me. Why would Nolan have any say in it? I'm suprise he has that much power on all things Batman related to film and TV. This almost implies to me that Robinov is holding out hope to put the character in the movie franchise.
Im kinda indifferent to it being scraped, but some of the reasons given here are curious. I would lived with them just saying it wasnt good enough.

Dan

I just can't see Eliza carrying a show. She's not a strong enough actress, especially in this character.

James

ever since they got rid of Lana on Smallville the show has been way better this season so far than the last 3 turds..

Megan

This season, I'm happier with Smallville than I've ever been. Ever. I've been pretty indifferent to the show in the past, but this season has been stellar. It's kicking all kinds of ass.

I'm looking forward to Joss' return to TV even though the behind-the-scenes stuff sounds worrisome. FOX never seems to have any faith in their shows if it is not an instant hit from day 1.

blueberry

Wow. I guess Dollhouse is probably a shit show, what with all the delays in productions and re-writes.

With Battlestar Galactica ending its run, and Heroes being a huge turd, I'm only going to get my sci-fi fix through Lost.

Time to Netflix "The Lost Room".

krackajap

Wow. Fox never fails. Fox just sets up these shows for failure it seems. It's bad enough that they force Joss to change his show to be more in line with what they want but to then just throw it in a shit timeslot is pretty messed up. But hey, if all else fails at least we might have a Dollhouse movie sometime in the future.

Selayna

I like most of Joss' work, but so far Dollhouse has been disappointing. The early episodes had little or no humor (one of his usual strengths), and the very concept of memory wipes and artificial personalitys makes it difficult to grow fond of the main character.

The most recent episode (episode 5) was a little better on both counts, and perhaps given time the show will find it's stride, but I doubt it will survive that long, and unlike firefly, I'm not sure that it's death is tragic and undeserved.

/Film

Blogging the Reel World

TV: Dollhouse’s Friday Death; Graysons Canceled; Aylesworth is Lost; McDermott in Line

/Film

/Film

Blogging the Reel World

TV: Dollhouse’s Friday Death; Graysons Canceled; Aylesworth is Lost; McDermott in Line

Related Posts

Tags

/Film