“Joss Whedon Goes Where No TV Man Has Gone Before”

In the new Rolling Stone, there’s an interview with writer-director Joss Whedon. Not that I’m fixated on Whedon — like Joss Whedon’s 10 writing tips or another interview with him, or this feature on him, or this fawning post — but let’s just say that my entire family has never fully recovered from Fox (bastards!) canceling Whedon’s TV series “Firefly”.

Well, it looks like Whedon is positioning himself so that he never has to deal with doltish TV executives again. How’s he doing that?

In the current issue [of Rolling Stone], Joss Whedon, the George Lucas of television, reveals why working on his triumphant return to the small screen, Dollhouse, has convinced him to abandon TV for good. His alternative medium: Web serials. He began making the sci-fi musical Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (which stars Neil Patrick Harris) during the writers’ strike, streamed a few episodes online for free, and struck it big when they went onsale at iTunes.

For those of you who haven’t enjoyed Dr. Horrible yet, here’s a taste:

A Whedon quote from the Rolling Stone article:

What what was it about Internet series first appealed to you?
I had been very interested in the idea of making things on the cheap with the people that I love and trust — low risk, medium yield kind of stuff where you can just do what you think is right and not have to worry.

Doesn’t it seem like everything is headed the way of the Web? I wonder what we now call “TV” and “movies” will be called 20 years from now when the entire world has wireless Internet and we’ve each got a Web microchip in our frontal lobes?

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