Dollhouse to have less in-episode commercials.
According to The Hollywood Reporter when an episode of Dollhouse it will only have half the normal level of commercials in an effort by Fox to "redefine the viewing experience".
There is now also an article at Variety which is a little clearer.
May 15 2008
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ETA: Holy crapola. Five minutes of ads instead of the usual ten or more. That's serious.
[ edited by theonetruebix on 2008-05-15 22:37 ]
@theonetruebix | May 15, 16:36 CET
kasadilla | May 15, 16:40 CET
Frak me, this is amazing news if it pans out.
VaughnOfTheDead | May 15, 16:41 CET
Also, that tentpole comment really gives me hope as to FOX's intentions towards Joss and Dollhouse.
Yay!
Scaniano | May 15, 16:41 CET
[ edited by Leaf on 2008-05-15 22:45 ]
Leaf | May 15, 16:42 CET
Okkay | May 15, 16:44 CET
MattK | May 15, 16:47 CET
swanjun | May 15, 16:49 CET
crazygolfa | May 15, 16:49 CET
Saje | May 15, 16:50 CET
*that is just fine by me*.
KingofCretins | May 15, 16:53 CET
I'm actually wondering if 24 will get the same treatment, cause it does seem like something born out of the real time format.
TychoFlak | May 15, 16:54 CET
Good for Fox. This is a great paradigm shift.
IrrationaliTV | May 15, 16:55 CET
hacksaway | May 15, 16:55 CET
Which better be sold overseas otherwise foreign commercial broadcasters won't be touching the show with a bargepole.
Simon | May 15, 16:55 CET
(it's not enough that the character drives one and that we always see the badge several times per show, she has to keep slipping in entirely crappy dialogue about how great it is too. Hence "intrusive")
Saje | May 15, 16:59 CET
Edit: Or 50 minutes... still not clear if they mean 5 mins total commercials, or if they're simply halving the national commercials. Either way we get more Joss and less interruption so color me pleased.
[ edited by AnotherFireflyfan on 2008-05-15 23:03 ]
AnotherFireflyfan | May 15, 16:59 CET
I like that.
bigsofty | May 15, 17:00 CET
cabri | May 15, 17:10 CET
gossi | May 15, 17:12 CET
And fingers crossed that the product placement isn't too obscene, I saw an episode of Smallville a while back and it was ridiculous and intrusive (the product placement that is).
onthedrift | May 15, 17:12 CET
dnlmglhs | May 15, 17:13 CET
I may be wrong, but I remember hearing quotes about their confidence in Firefly too, and that didn't end up so well.
Okkay | May 15, 17:21 CET
Polter-Cow | May 15, 17:22 CET
Oh, sorry, wrong show.
Caroline | May 15, 17:24 CET
doghouse | May 15, 17:27 CET
cabri | May 15, 17:28 CET
IrrationaliTV | May 15, 17:33 CET
It's going to be a very long eight months or so.
@theonetruebix | May 15, 17:35 CET
Advertisers will have already bought commercial time by then. They're going to want to get what they paid for, or else the network will pay for it. So I doubt they'll change the plan part way through.
hacksaway | May 15, 17:42 CET
Supersymmetrical | May 15, 17:47 CET
Caroline | May 15, 17:52 CET
lax01 | May 15, 17:56 CET
palehorse | May 15, 18:03 CET
Saje | May 15, 18:11 CET
Oh, good, someone went there, sparing me the chore of doing so myself.
@theonetruebix | May 15, 18:13 CET
Caroline | May 15, 18:18 CET
sumogrip | May 15, 18:31 CET
Also lets have a title sequence like Chunk. One where some effort has been put in, not just a bunch of clips stuck together.
Dave B | May 15, 18:44 CET
And yay for palehorse! That was driving me nuts.
jcs | May 15, 18:45 CET
cabri | May 15, 18:47 CET
mister0 | May 15, 19:03 CET
magnus carnage | May 15, 19:18 CET
Chuck seems like a refreshing exception on this, with an fun opening sequence.
And all openings been important and iconic for all Jossverse previous shows.
And, heh, good one Caroline.
Numfar PTB | May 15, 20:59 CET
[ edited by shambleau on 2008-05-16 08:43 ]
shambleau | May 15, 21:47 CET
It's going to be a very long eight months or so.
Did I miss something? Where do I go to read about Reilly's development resume?
electricspacegirl | May 15, 22:10 CET
That does look like a serious resume.
zz9 | May 15, 23:22 CET
Note: That wasn't sarcasm- although I frequently am, and those letters have a certain acidy look to them, that was sincere.
onthedrift | May 16, 00:37 CET
Perseo | May 16, 00:37 CET
dnlmglhs | May 16, 01:17 CET
I am so fed up with seeing shows edited, usually done to edit out naughty and violent content, as it ruins the flow of the episode.
Taking ten minutes out of fifty is a big cut!
zz9 | May 16, 01:28 CET
dnlmglhs | May 16, 01:39 CET
zz9 | May 16, 02:16 CET
Yeah, that's a potential issue if Sky buy it over here since they're already perilously close to a US amount of advertising time in each "hour". If the Beeb get it we should be OK though, 50 minutes fits their schedule nicely, maybe followed by a ten minute behind the scenes bit (yep, we've seen one preliminary trailer 8 months ahead of broadcast and i'm already wanting 'Dollhouse Confidential' ;).
Saje | May 16, 02:17 CET
What does this say about the progression of television itself? VCRs were the first to make advertisers shake in their boots about the state of their commercials, then TiVo, and now with iTunes/Amazon/whatever-comes-next, commercials aren't even included. Streaming video has advertisements basically surrouding the video, as well as one commercial-per-break, but it is still a large amount less. Are we relying so heavily on "new media" that commercials are becoming a thing of the past? "Excuse me, do you have any Grey Poupon" would never happen again.
I hope that we won't see more "banner" ads running along the bottom of the screen. I find those more annoying than commercials themselves (because what would life be without the Pepto Bismol song/dance?). Also, the banner ads take away fromt the show itself by blocking half of what is going on (much like weather alerts, brought to you by Diet Coke).
Okay, I'm done. I was just thinking about the path of television. This is a step to the future, to be sure.
Arabchick | May 16, 02:20 CET
Seeing is believing as usual but they really say the right things, support of creators, less but more valuable commercials, timeslots that make sense, be interesting to see how it pans out.
Odd if the last best hope for network tv would be Fox the 'Idol network', maybe I'm wrong in believing that cable is the only home for scripted drama, Fox prove me wrong, please.
The gods of Nielsen ratings are going to demand some heavy sacrifices for this to go well, hope Joss and Eliza is up on their goat sacrificing rituals.
ETA, Yes the people creating banner ads clearly sold their souls a long time ago.
[ edited by jpr on 2008-05-16 08:27 ]
jpr | May 16, 02:22 CET
Thank you so much.
I was gearing up for some quote involving Amy, but would probably have just regretted it afterwards.
So where are they getting the money to make the shows then?
Have as many ads as you like, I just flick over them anyway!
We're not going back to the fifties are we?
Can't really see Eliza stopping in the middle of kicking arse to tell us how she couldn't do it without a slim panatella.
If it is the case that there's going to be more product placement, that just confirms my belief that broadcasters only get more scummy, not less.
Whatever the reason, you can guarantee it's not concern for the fans.
ZodKneelsFirst | May 16, 06:48 CET
Saje | May 16, 06:51 CET
No getting around the sad fact that someone have to pay a lot of money for the fans to get the shows they want, less commercials sound like an idea we could all get behind.
For product placements there must be a middle ground between the no name products and 'why dont we spend five minutes driving around in your lovely new car with the brand clearly visible for no purpose whatsoever', after all in most shows they actually need to use a computer, phone and car, why not let the companies pay for it ?
I still believe the 'Show XYZ as presented by the car of choice' would be the best way to go, I still dont get why that one isn't used more, probably to expensive, but the critics and viewers would love it and the results should be a lot better than the current model where the annoying ad breaks works very hard to make people hate the products they are trying to sell.
[ edited by jpr on 2008-05-16 15:01 ]
jpr | May 16, 09:01 CET
Clicky! or more generic link.
zeitgeist | May 16, 09:14 CET
So far less advertising but what ads there are are actually seen. If the advertisers find they are getting a better response from these than the'll be keen to go that way, and we get an extra ten minutes of show.
zz9 | May 16, 09:14 CET
zeitgeist | May 16, 09:15 CET
zz9 | May 16, 10:21 CET
Leaf | May 16, 18:20 CET