"I have three ideas." The third was Dr. Horrible, I knew they wouldn't go for that.

"I have three ideas."

three

Yay! I hope this deal goes through and his other two ideas are huge, epic, years-spanning series.

sumogrip | February 07, 04:26 CET

Joss is such a pioneer! He never ceases to astound me.

ShanshuBugaboo | February 07, 04:39 CET

My favorite Joss quote speaks to this three idea thing - "It's not a question of ideas, it's a question of free time.."

Go Joss!! You make, we'll consume (and possibly pick it apart, but that's another thing).

BrownCoat_Tabz | February 07, 04:42 CET

In a companion piece, Rolling Stone lists The Guild as one of the five best web series

AlanD | February 07, 05:15 CET

"why working on his triumphant return to the small screen, Dollhouse, has convinced him to abandon TV for good."

whoa whoa whoa... what now? :o

blueymcphluey | February 07, 05:57 CET

In the current issue, Joss Whedon, the George Lucas of television....

Ouch. Bang! Zoom! To the Moon, Alice! And No.

Tonya J | February 07, 06:01 CET

Which leaves the burning question- did Mal shoot first?

missb | February 07, 06:23 CET

The difference is that Joss had Jar Jar in the background from the START of the show.

archon | February 07, 06:37 CET

And here, perhaps the more substantial reason why I say Ouch and No (I watch it here and there just to remind myself, as if I need it, why I love the guy so much):

We need Equality. Kinda now

Tonya J | February 07, 06:55 CET

A Joss portal for internet projects ! Man, that would be awesome, with a subscription fee like 5-10 bucks a month and original Whedon series ...
And two ideas that a suit could like seems also kind of awesome. After Firefly, I am more excited by this than Dollhouse, because when I think about 02/13, I get scared of another sad cancellation.

Léo | February 07, 08:47 CET

why working on his triumphant return to the small screen, Dollhouse, has convinced him to abandon TV for good.

Come to a complete stop, and check all mirrors. Is this the real Rolling Stone website? And if so, can they say how it came from a quote?

dreamlogic | February 07, 08:58 CET

There he goes again, all with the good ideas. I love being his fan. He is a veritable font of awesome. I can't wait for Dollhouse... It will be yards beyond anything else that is on the American airwaves, I am sure. I can be so sure, because he has proved to me over and over again that he does not do anything uninteresting. He brings the laughter, the tears, and he does it well every single time. Bring it on, I am yearning for some new Whedon material!

silver81 | February 07, 09:01 CET

There's a pdf link to the magazine article at the bottom of this page. Includes a quote of him saying that he doesn't see himself doing another TV show.

jcs | February 07, 09:16 CET

The pdf is much more interesting and, might I say, really different than what Joss has said until then : he seems less confident in Dollhouse and its treatment by FOX, and much more interested in the internet idea.
And of course, no more Joss TV... I can't say it shocks me, but it still is quite different than what Joss said until then.

Léo | February 07, 09:37 CET

That quote is certainly a buzzkill. =/

Rhodey | February 07, 09:49 CET

There's something off-putting and askew about this article. It feels to me like the author is looking a little too hard for a story. The quotes are fairly compelling, but having read just about every interview with Joss linked through this site in the past several years, the one thing that's stood out more than anything else is his uncanny ability to stay completely on-message without becoming a broken record. A sudden about-face like this seems very uncharacteristic of him.

Could these quotes be statements made off-the-record, and then used without his consent? It's also not unheard of for interviewers to completely misconstrue and extrapolate, especially ones who seem to be trying to sell a story as hard as this article does: Joss as maverick outsider, bucking the system.

I'm also not too happy with the fact-checking. I'm pretty sure it was Universal and not Fox that picked up Serenity, judging by the huge animated logo transition at the front of the movie. And I'm sure most of us Joss-obsessed fanboy geeks are well aware of his longstanding devotion to feminism and women's studies.

zoinkers | February 07, 10:06 CET

End of an era then, and before his new show comes out? Rolling Stone articles can be bullshit, especially lately. I'll wait to hear it from the man here.

dreamlogic | February 07, 10:08 CET

Also: "Whedon tried rewriting and re-shooting, but it was no good." Wait, isn't that the pilot they're airing? What's going on here?

zoinkers | February 07, 10:15 CET

Yeah, it's inaccurate in a few ways (including the oldest of chestnuts, how the fans got 'Serenity' made).

ETA: That's the Rolling Stone print article BTW, not this interview.[/ETA]

A sudden about-face like this seems very uncharacteristic of him.

We've been talking about this in another thread (from about here down) and I really don't think it's a sudden about-face. As I say there, he's hinted his dissatisfaction previously and remember, he didn't actually intend to create 'Dollhouse' in the first place, it just kind of happened.

I'm also slightly sceptical (cos that's my default position ;) BUT if they just made up the quote "I don't see myself creating another TV show," then someone at Rolling Stone is gonna have their arse handed to them, big style (something I did just notice though, there's a ',' at the end of that quote so, assuming it's not some weird US punctuation thing, there could be a lot of stuff not quoted after it e.g. ", at least not until the writers get a fairer deal on internet content" or ", not with a network anyway, i'm looking more at cable in future" etc.). Or as others say over-thread, maybe they just caught him on a bad day when he was knackered and the forces of darkness seemed especially arrayed against him, who knows ?

(here's a link to the PDF scan as linked - slightly bizarrely given the content - from Fox's website)

[ edited by Saje on 2009-02-07 12:12 ]

Saje | February 07, 11:59 CET

dreamlogic, good question. I think the reality is none of us know what Joss will be doing in 5 years. Least of all, you know, him. Which might seem like an odd statement to say, but it appears from watching Joss, he goes where his creative takes him. Which is not a bad thing. Except maybe for his agent.

gossi | February 07, 14:03 CET

I refuse to believe that Joss will never consider doing another TV series. "I don't see myself...." (even if the quote is complete and in context) is not the same as "I will never do another TV series, ever again".
TV is so obviously the medium made for the way Joss tells stories. There is simply no other medium that allows for the long, complex story arcs and character development at which he excels.

He just needs to hook up with Cable, :) and leave the networks behind. Just not the SciFi channel, because with the exception of BSG, their series' all either suck or get canceled.

Shey | February 07, 14:25 CET

Aw, come on... you really so sure Dollhouse won't get renewed, gossi? :)

ETA: And thanks for the (quite important) tweet about the sets staying up! That's a relief.[/ETA]

And I think he meant the original pilot "Echo", zoinkers, which was rewritten and reshot and still didn't make it into the first season. "Ghost", then, was a completely new pilot.

[ edited by wiesengrund on 2009-02-07 15:50 ]

wiesengrund | February 07, 15:41 CET

I can't believe I'll have seen The New Joss Whedon Show in less than a week. That is very cool. Been waiting so long for this.

patxshand | February 07, 16:59 CET

I dunno, I kind of liked the interview. Less jokey, more realistic.

Caroline | February 07, 18:19 CET

I liked this one too. I'm more excited about the possibilities of new media than I am disappointed by Joss's comment here about not wanting to try new things for tv. I'm not surprised. And some kind of deal with an internet company?! That's AWESOME.

Sunfire | February 07, 19:57 CET

I'm not. He's said it before. And then came back. Give it five years and we'll see where we are.

Simon | February 07, 20:19 CET

It can still be TV if I have a laptop, by the time Joss is potentially TV-free, and hook that up to my little LCD TV and watch on my couch. Oh wait, I forgot, I can also sometimes watch the internet on my TV through my dusty neglected Nintendo Wii.

It just might not be longform, but instead another movie (either all-in-one-shot like Serenity or broken up like Dr. Horrible). Although Joss series on the internet might be cool.

I'm excited to see what he might do with more Dr. Horrible-style restraint-free productions (okay, aside from budget, but perhaps he can get financing after the runaway success of the project).

Ideally HBO, Showtime, or FX, yes (I think he'd fit best on HBO), assuming they want to work with him (I can't see how they wouldn't, given how many new subscriptions and how much fan fervor a hot genre property like True Blood provided this past fall) but otherwise internet is fine. Get the heck off Fox after Dollhouse['s hopefully successful complete 5-season] run. Network notes/instances of interference rarely happen, or at least are rarely reported as happening, for creators who ply their trade on HBO (Showtime can be meddlesome). Okay except for cancellations, but HBO is known for sticking with shows as long as they possibly can until it gets to the point where they're losing money (yes, I'm still sore too about Deadwood not getting that fourth and final season Milch had planned, then not getting the one or two TV-movies they said they might do as consolation prizes instead, but that show was damn expensive and Milch's attention wasn't held for very long, so I doubt there's much more HBO could've done to make it happen).

Kris | February 07, 20:21 CET

Aw, come on... you really so sure Dollhouse won't get renewed, gossi?

I'm sure of nothing. Ratings are entirely out of our hands.

gossi | February 07, 20:31 CET

But before Christmas I sat down with this very, very sort of profitable maverick company


deal or agreed to a deal with a company, a Silicon Valley company

did anyone else think google?? I know they're not known for internet video but they're certainly a mavericky profitable company.

dulce_serenidad | February 08, 02:33 CET

My sentence structure choice is made of fail. I'm excited about the possibilities of internet stuff. I'm not really surprised or all that disappointed by the tv comment. A tiny bit disappointed, but honestly I've hoped he was going to bail on the studio system for good ever since he first posted here about scrapping the Dollhouse pilot. The world needs more stuff like Dr. Horrible and less stuff like what's on tv.

Sunfire | February 08, 02:57 CET

People, read the story.
Title: The Revolt of a TV Genius.
Rolling Stone issue 1072 2/19 page 38 - hard copy.

The article ends with Whedon saying "If we don't start building this new system ourselves, the studios will figure it out, and they'll own it", he says. "Then it'll be too late. It'll be another medium where we're not free to do it our way".

This is not about a man who is bitter about the past/present. This is ALL ABOUT a man fighting for the future. It's 100% empowered, and 100% Joss.

ladyhelix | February 08, 03:20 CET