Horrible Online

During the writers strike in Hollywood last year screenwriter and director Joss Whedon began work on an online comedy series called Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

The first episode of the three-act series (written by Joss Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon, and Zack Whedon) debuted yesterday and promptly crashed the servers due to demand. After a couple of hours the show was moved onto servers that could cope with the pressure. The second and third episode will go online this week, also for free. On Sunday night all the episodes will be removed from free viewing, and after that Dr. Horrible will be available for download for a fee, and there will be the perquisite DVD later.

L.A. Times has run an article on Whedon's new show, and questions the writer about the ethos behind how it is being distributed.

Whedon's awareness of the Internet's prevailing mood also played into his decision to make "Dr. Horrible" completely free--and free of advertising--for the entirety of its first week. But really? You've got a show that even with zero paid promotion has generated enough buzz to crash servers during the first hours it was available, and you don't want use all that heat to mint some Whedon Dollars?

"Some brows have furrowed at the idea of putting it out for free," Whedon said. "But that was part of our mission statement from the first: to create an Internet event for the fans (and others) to enjoy because we enjoyed it so much."

Still, even if he takes a small hit in the short term, Whedon said that with merchandising, iTunes sales, and DVDs, he expects that Dr. Horrible "will go into the black within the first year."

On his Dr. Horrible web site Whedon further explains:

The idea was to make it on the fly, on the cheap--but to make it. To turn out a really thrilling, professionalish piece of entertainment specifically for the internet. To show how much could be done with very little. To show the world there is another way.

It will be very interesting to watch how this online programme evolves.