Video of on-set Dollhouse April Fool's joke - Dollhouse

Forget the lame-ass joke....what the HELL did I just watch? I didn't just imagine what I saw, right?

pat32082 | April 01, 13:04 CET

Seriously. What is going ON?

Sigh. Another Facebook-only video. Anyone kind enough to describe what they saw? It'd be much appreciated...

[ edited by phlebotinin on 2009-04-01 22:06 ]

phlebotinin | April 01, 13:06 CET

No, you didn't imagine it. It's so spoilerish it's hard to believe it's real, huh?

phlebotinin: Eliza's shooting a scene and walks through a door and is "attacked" by someone in a bear costume. Sorry you can't see it.

[ edited by Vague That Up on 2009-04-01 22:09 ]

Vague That Up | April 01, 13:07 CET

.

[ edited by gossi on 2009-04-01 23:30 ]

gossi | April 01, 13:07 CET

Sure you wanna be spoiled, phleb?

pat32082 | April 01, 13:07 CET

What did you see? I'm on the train.

gossi | April 01, 13:08 CET

Hmm. Put like that - maybe not. That spoilery, eh? I guess I'll dip out. Thanks, pat32082.

phlebotinin | April 01, 13:08 CET

So was the guy in the bear suit the prank or was the other part the prank?

[ edited by missmuffet on 2009-04-01 22:09 ]

missmuffet | April 01, 13:09 CET

No problemo. :-D Yep, THAT spoilery.

pat32082 | April 01, 13:09 CET

Hmm. I might have totally spoilered myself, or that was just like made up.

I'm not believing anything today unless I've heard about it before, okay? XD

Our newspapers and news on Tv all have gags as well, sooo... Heh.

druzilla | April 01, 13:09 CET

...... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.... That's a huge spoiler.

BrownCoat_Tabz | April 01, 13:10 CET

Maybe the April Fools joke isn't the obvious one, maybe? WTH?

Also, I could see this FB video but not the tribute one. WTH?

Basically, WTH???

Eric_Curtis | April 01, 13:10 CET

gossi, Paul's in the imprint room talking with Topher as Echo's in the chair, then she gets up, speaking a foreign language. He leads her out like he's her handler.

pat32082 | April 01, 13:12 CET

Bloody hell.

Simon | April 01, 13:12 CET

Eric, the tribute one was on Tim Minear's personal videos this is on a Dollhouse fan page - that might be the difference.

BrownCoat_Tabz | April 01, 13:13 CET

To Simon: I know, right?

[ edited by pat32082 on 2009-04-01 22:13 ]

pat32082 | April 01, 13:13 CET

Whoa.

So,uh. FOX is really taking a devil-may-care attitude with Dollhouse spoilers on their Facebook page, huh?

Sunfire | April 01, 13:13 CET

I think what I thought was gonna happen happened.

redeem147 | April 01, 13:14 CET

Now that I've recovered, I added a warning to the entry.

Simon | April 01, 13:16 CET

For those who can't see the video and want to know...

The video shows Echo in the imprinting room, only she's wearing street clothes and Topher asks if she wants a treatment, not Boyd. Then she gets in the chair and we see there's someone else in the room... Ballard. Topher says he's imprinting Echo so that she can speak another language. Ballard says something I can't quite understand, and Topher says Ballard knows what he's doing, which seems to imply that Ballard is undercover as a client, perhaps. But wouldn't Topher know what Ballard looks like? Anyway, then Echo wakes up and speaks a foreign tongue. Topher can't understand her. Then she goes to leave and there's a guy dressed in a bear suit. That's the supposed prank.

bonzob | April 01, 13:16 CET

I'm so angry right now. Oh well.

hitnrun017 | April 01, 13:16 CET

I think maybe we are falling for the real April Fools joke... Could this just be a fake scene?

5X5B | April 01, 13:19 CET

I doubt clients would be allowed in the imprint room, bonzob.

You never know. Now that Paul's more or less booted, Adelle could've offered him a job. Keep your enemies closer, and all.

[ edited by pat32082 on 2009-04-01 22:22 ]

pat32082 | April 01, 13:19 CET

I smell Whedony dream sequence.

Arsenal | April 01, 13:20 CET

Yeah, on rewatching it, it seems clearer that Ballard's not a client, but is working with/for the Dollhouse in some capacity. He seems to be saying to Topher that they are imprinting her with Russian and nothing else, for now, and they can imprint her with skills later after she's infiltrated something. So maybe Ballard ends up teaming up with the Dollhouse to infiltrate the Borodins?

bonzob | April 01, 13:25 CET

Yes, it definitely seems like this is part of the dream episode (which is scheduled to be the last of the season). The shooting schedule matches up too, doesnt it?

NathanG | April 01, 13:27 CET

I dunno, but I kind of love this show, critics and whatever-else be damned. The initial build up, the punch of Man On the Street, the wacky and disturbing revealings of character last week, and now what's coming? Geez, louise.

pat32082 | April 01, 13:32 CET

I just assumed that the entire thing was the joke & that it wasn't a real spoiler at all, although I am aware of that old "ass+u+me" saw...

Colbert would be fuming if he saw that - furious and petrified.

QuoterGal | April 01, 13:34 CET

Oh dear. What the fuck, FOX?

gossi | April 01, 13:40 CET

This is interesting.

Ameer | April 01, 13:40 CET

That's the kind of April Fool's I don't find fun. This would have been better used as a DVD extra after everyone had watched the episodes. But like this? It's an April Fool's for the stars, not for the fans.

Crap.

Emmie | April 01, 13:41 CET

la de da

[ edited by gossi on 2009-04-01 23:02 ]

gossi | April 01, 13:42 CET

Sent off an email about what? Getting it taken down?

pat32082 | April 01, 13:43 CET

I don't have facebook, but from what I've read - What the hell?!
I'm going to go with it being an April Fool's joke until we know more.

Shep | April 01, 13:51 CET

And now it has been removed. Gah! That means it was a spoiler for sure.

IrrationaliTV | April 01, 13:51 CET

The video is gone now, I think. It's listed as unavailable on Facebook and private on Youtube.

Emmie | April 01, 13:52 CET

Any chance we could have this topic pulled?

gossi | April 01, 13:53 CET

An April fools that also works as a mindfuck! Much much better than gmail's auto reply.

eth3er | April 01, 13:59 CET

I second pulling it so as to keep other fans from being spoiled.

Emmie | April 01, 14:04 CET

Unfortunately the spoilers are now out of the bottle. Well done Fox. In regards to the deleting, if this thread stays then the new spoilers don't need to reposted again and again.

And to place this all in context, we're nowhere near as spoiled for Dollhouse as we were for Buffy and Angel back in the day.

Simon | April 01, 14:09 CET

Fox seems to be wasting a lot of time and effort on April Fool's Day jokes that must have been taped some time ago.... WTF?

embers | April 01, 14:11 CET

Well, spoiling a dream sequence (if that's what it was) isn't quite the same as spoiling a concrete plot point, right? Unless someone who saw it understood a great deal more than I did from the descriptions (just missed it on youtube).

dreamlogic | April 01, 14:14 CET

Yes Simon is right, things were way crazier spoiler-wise back in Buffy and Angel days. This would jus sound somewhat typical.

Though I think that Joss woulud be as mad as we are right now with Fox.

Numfar PTB | April 01, 14:15 CET

I think the bear is the new cheese man. I wear the fur, it does not wear me.

Simon | April 01, 14:16 CET

Regarding Fox's April Fool's Day jokes, has anyone seen the Bones one? That was pretty good!

And what was Eliza's reaction to the bear guy?

[ edited by Shep on 2009-04-01 23:19 ]

Shep | April 01, 14:17 CET

She laughed. Dunno what I would have done.

Simon | April 01, 14:20 CET

Now the Bones one was hilarious! I bet Boreanaz had a lot to do with how they played that one since he's a notorious prankster. The House one was funny too. Terminator one was meh, kinda awkward.

I'm still scratching my head at FOX releasing the Dollhouse one. Did they think that would actually play well?

Emmie | April 01, 14:30 CET

Anybody want a treatment?

gossi | April 01, 14:38 CET

Yes. And no. That was too awesome to forget. The story possibilities... I hope it ain't no dream.

pat32082 | April 01, 14:43 CET

Thank god I didn't see the video!

beckyboo | April 01, 14:46 CET

Gossi, just for the spoiler right? Oh and maybe you can wipe away all the seasons of Buffy so I can rewatch them and they'd be all shiny and new? But please leave me a note next to my DVDs so I know how important it is to watch them.

Emmie | April 01, 14:55 CET

Did I fall asleep?

BrownCoat_Tabz | April 01, 14:58 CET

For a little while.

{I feel morally unclean.}

[ edited by pat32082 on 2009-04-02 00:01 ]

pat32082 | April 01, 15:00 CET

For a little while.
ETA Ack! Too slow.

[ edited by m'cookies actual on 2009-04-02 00:01 ]

m'cookies actual | April 01, 15:00 CET

For a little while.

Which, speaking of - bed time!

(ETA: I feel morally unclean and sloppy 3rds).

[ edited by gossi on 2009-04-02 00:02 ]

gossi | April 01, 15:01 CET

It looks like Fox played pranks on a few of their shows for today. The Bones one is pretty funny. And I don't think it's spoilery at all.

mouse | April 01, 15:36 CET

If that airs tonight, it's putting spoilers out. If it doesn't air it's a loss of publicity the other shows are getting.

Can't win for losing.

redeem147 | April 01, 15:57 CET

What if Topher imprinted the bear with baked pasta girl's personality? Could a bear's brain handle it? I envision the bear would follow Paul around like a puppy. At least until someone says "There are three bees in the hive. The third bee is yellow."

fanbuoyant | April 01, 16:07 CET

If that airs tonight, it's putting spoilers out. If it doesn't air it's a loss of publicity the other shows are getting.

Are you saying the Bones one is spoiler? I fail to see how that's true. It's what you'd get from a preview of next weeks' ep that doesn't reveal the big surprises.

For it to be a true Bones spoiler it would have to reveal the murderer of the episode prematurely or some significant plot development between the characters (like a hook-up, break-up, etc). But this one is just like the House one where they're going back 'n forth about an ill patient in front of the elevator. Seen it a hundred times.

Emmie | April 01, 16:19 CET

I think they might have meant the now gone Dollhouse thing, but I might be wrong.

druzilla | April 01, 16:21 CET

I'm with dru. The dollhouse bit is the spoiler and it cuts both ways - cull the spoiler and valuable publicity is lost.

fanbuoyant | April 01, 16:28 CET

Wow, I know it would have spoiled me, but now I wish I had seen the video. Maybe. No, yes. *stabs eyeballs*

korkster | April 01, 16:35 CET

Korkster, you can still find it with a little Googling.

bonzob | April 01, 16:37 CET

The Dollhouse one. I think those clips are supposed to air during tonight's programming, as promos.

redeem147 | April 01, 16:43 CET

Was it Conan's Bear? Because that would make sense.

will.bueche | April 01, 17:09 CET

It aired tonight during Lie to Me. It showed exactly what everyone said it would. That raises many issues for the show, and unless the point of the joke was to fool the audience and make it more than about Eliza's surprise at the bear, they just gave away way too much information.

However, the Bones clip really was funny; the DH one not so much, and the TSCC one not really funny at all.

Dana5140 | April 01, 17:23 CET

Okay, so Fox have gone to a lot of trouble with these videos. The whole marching band on House, the two main stars in a box for Bones and so on. And all they can do for Dollhouse is a lame guy in a bear costume?

Unless.....

They did do a lot for Dollhouse. They wrote a whole "scene" with a "Spoiler" that just happened to be "Leaked" to the net for just long enough for a handful of people to see it and start freaking out.

Which makes me wonder about the photos that were "Leaked" a few days ago, also with a huge "Spoiler" that also were on the net just long enough to be spotted before they were taken down.

Could both these be very clever missleads?

[ edited by zz9 on 2009-04-02 02:28 ]

zz9 | April 01, 17:25 CET

They would know that Whedon fans would parse the promo, of course.

Dana5140 | April 01, 18:20 CET

And I think we're guilty of over-thinking this. Which all of us Whedon fans are known to do. This feels like a real clip that got leaked because they decided to do a April Fool's joke during a spoilerific scene. Would they really create an entire scene where Eliza has to learn Russion just for a prank? And then pull said prank offline?

Emmie | April 01, 18:48 CET

I'm with Emmie on this.

pat32082 | April 01, 18:50 CET

wow haha bear was funny, but holy shizamoly with the spoilers.
How did this happen?

But the cheese man was better.

\±/ Cheese Man Forever! \±/

Chris the Bloody | April 01, 19:29 CET

Sigh, facebook videos. Can we make a rule that if it's a site not visible to everyone that we can't link to it? Or we find a way to mirror or some such?

thatweirdgirl | April 01, 20:02 CET

Facebook is free for everyone to register. I don't see the point of limiting links for something that's free. Especially if it's something relevant.

BrownCoat_Tabz | April 01, 20:27 CET

Ok, am I the only one here who remembers the very few promos we got before the show started to air that showed Echo...doing what is mentioned above? (I don't know how to spoilerfont here, and I don't want to tempt anyone w/weak willpower.)

'cause...I know I remember seeing that, and I know I haven't seen it so far. So...were the promos considered spoilers, or teasers?

As for MySpace & Facebook & all those other "public diary" sites people use - if the creator makes it private, or by invite only, or however else they limit it, then it's not available for everyone to view. Some of those sites, I know, only allow registered users to view the entries. And I have no need nor interest in making an account at any of them just so I can read someone's blog or see their video. I'd love to see the tribute vid about Andy that was linked further down, but 1) dial-up and B) see above re: registering.

Not everyone is "hooked in" these days.

ShadowQuest | April 01, 21:35 CET

So Fox pull the video online but it still gets air last night on their network? That's just spectacular.

Can we make a rule that if it's a site not visible to everyone that we can't link to it?

If it all that's stopping people from seeing it is free registration, then no. We've doing that at Whedonesque since year dot.

Simon | April 01, 22:21 CET

FOX has gotten a little trigger happy on Facebook lately.

John Darc | April 01, 22:29 CET

La de da.

[ edited by gossi on 2009-04-02 17:41 ]

gossi | April 01, 23:24 CET

Awww now gossi's spoiled us by saying that it really IS a spoiler!

missb | April 02, 00:56 CET

I think "Paul in the Dollhouse" was already given away by that LA Times Photo Shoot back then, this just adds a new layer to that development.

But yeah, shouldn't happen.

On the other hand: Judging by the director (David Dolomon), this is probably from episode 9, "Spy in the House of Love", so not that far down the road as it could have been.

wiesengrund | April 02, 01:59 CET

Well did anyone think that it's Paul with an implanted memory i.e. that of a former Handler.

Simon | April 02, 02:29 CET

I found another link to the video.
And although I've read all of the reactions here, I'm going to watch it now.

J.I.G. | April 02, 05:04 CET

Thanks for the link, JIG. I'm glad I got to see it.

I think we're all over-reacting here. Some spoilery stuff is good for the soul. I think it's interesting to see what we saw and makes me even more excited about the remaining episodes for this season.

Simon, I did not think that. I thought something different, but since I don't know how to hide what I'm saying, I'll be quiet.

BuffyGroupie | April 02, 05:39 CET

I thought something else, Simon. What I though is buried elsewhere in other threads, where it shall remain since I don't know how to invisitext.

redeem147 | April 02, 07:01 CET

If you want to make text invisible then have a look at our 'how to' page.

http://whedonesque.com/?read=howto

Simon | April 02, 07:11 CET

Thanks Simon. I knew the instructions were around somewhere.

I think that they've been messing with Ballard to bring him on staff all along and now it's going to work

redeem147 | April 02, 07:21 CET

Thanks, J.I.G.

thatweirdgirl | April 02, 07:54 CET

The more I think about it, the more I think zz9 has the right of it: The spoiler-ish scene is the prank and the bear's just a mislead. It's too lame otherwise.

If that's correct, the payoff's kinda delayed, though. Unless sending us spiralling like this is itself the payoff....

Vague That Up | April 02, 10:52 CET

I really don't know what to make of the clip. Since we don't *know* the circumstances, it feels forced to say that we are now *spoiled*. The bear was funny.

korkster | April 02, 11:53 CET

Um, if we can't post links to sites unless everyone can see them, that rules out Hulu. It also rules out, you know, the internet. ;) Not everyone's online.

QingTing | April 02, 12:31 CET

I can't believe how they can leak THIS :S
What a spoiler!!

Angel TheVampire | April 02, 12:52 CET

I think the fact that they pulled the video from their youtube channel and from facebook are kind of confirmation that the clips is in fact a real scene that is spoilery - sadly.

As to it still airing last night I think the reason for that is that it would have been uploaded to the satellite the night before. Not to say that it couldn't be changed but that it may have required too much of an effort for it to be reasonable.

DaisyButtercup | April 02, 12:55 CET

Eh, nobody watches that show anyway.

*said with snark*

korkster | April 02, 13:09 CET

Daisy, that's exactly what they'd do if it was a hoax. Let it go out and get noticed by one or two sites then pull it. Adds to the hype.

The fact that that's exactly the same thing that happened with the other spoiler just makes it even more suspicious.

zz9 | April 02, 13:26 CET

It's a fuck up - nothing more, nothing less. The clip, IMHO, should not have gone out.

gossi | April 02, 13:46 CET

Except that, gossi, the jokes seemed to have been set-up to air for April Fool's Day. Perhaps the person who set up the scenario for Fox didn't realize that they'd picked a scene they shouldn't have interrupted.

redeem147 | April 02, 14:13 CET

Am I seeing things, or does the clapper board say 1x20?

[ edited by TurnipyOdour on 2009-04-02 23:35 ]

TurnipyOdour | April 02, 14:30 CET

It's 1x10, which is airing next Friday (as episode 9).

gossi | April 02, 14:31 CET

I can't believe we're already at episode 8 tomorrow. It's halfway over! Too soon! OMGZILUVDOLLHOUSE!

..

I'm better now. Just a slight fanic attack.

korkster | April 02, 15:59 CET

Enough with the denial! The bear was the 'prank' and you all know it!
Let's be realistic here: they put a not-funny prank in the middle of a spoiler-rific scene and then put it all over the internet and airwaves.
I've never credited FOX with an overabundance of brains.
And so I'm not going to let it ruin my day. I'm going to continue to enjoy Dollhouse for as long as FOX keeps the show on the air and Joss keeps Paul Ballard shirtless.
That is all.

Linnea1928 | April 03, 00:07 CET

April 01 2009