We're all excited that the too-long writer's strike from the beginning of this year is over. Now we can see what happened to Jim and Pam on “The Office” and find out (in due time) what will happen to the endangered human race in “Battlestar Galactica.” That's right, the entertainment industry got the best news of the year on February 26th, 2008 when the writers finally agreed to pick up their pens again.
I know most people probably didn't care about the strike or didn't pay attention to what was happening, but I can tell you that we all, as a media-driven society, felt the effects. In front of our re-run saturated televisions we thought… dear me, why can't the writers and producers just resolve their differences and work together again?
As reality shows began to infuse the prime-time line up, we silently begged the writers and producers to kiss and make up. “Farmer Needs a Wife,” “When Women Rule the World, and “My Dad is Better than Your Dad” were no match for our contemporary favorites like “Lost,” “30 Rock,” and “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” Reality TV, which has no need for the ingredient of unionized professional writers, failed to satisfy the entertainment appetite of the nation.
So while producers were making shows without writers, what were writers making (besides marching footprints in the snow) without the producers? On July 15th, 2008, writer/director Joss Whedon (“Firefly,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) threw the first online 3-course dinner party with “Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.” Millions of fans report that their hunger for good media has been satiated, and that they can't wait to have more.
“Dr. Horrible” was created during the writers' strike when Whedon and his brother Jed were on strike and “just bored.” With the help of their other brother Zach and Jed's fiancée Maurissa Trancharoen the group self-wrote, directed, and composed the hit 43 minute short film. The made-for-internet tragicomedy musical (starring Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day) scored over 200,000 hits an hour when Act 1 opened on July 15th, causing the site to crash temporarily due to the server's inability to keep up with the overwhelming demand.
The three-act story was made without producer monetary support, as is obvious with scenes shot in someone's living room, the laundromat, or a random street alley. With the release of Dr. Horrible, we remember that it's the story and characters that we fall in love with in television and film, not the production value. Even the silliest, most insignificant stories, if told correctly, can be told through the visual medium for next to nothing. Whedon proved this to the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) with the tremendous success of Dr. Horrible.
Whedon, of course, still plans on paying his cast and crew. After the initial release of Dr. Horrible from July 15-20 (one act every two days), the musical was taken offline to be sold on iTunes ($4 for all 3 acts) and pending a DVD release.
At ComicCon on July 25, Whedon announced plans for a 4th act, which will no doubt skyrocket upon its release.
