Here are some Q & A from a Joss Whedon conference call he did with the Fox publicity folks today. Questions are in bold, answers are all from Whedon. Generally paraphrased except exact quotes are in quotation marks. 
= Joss clearly being sarcastic.
How will Echo come into her own this year?
Through force of will. All her new personalities will begin to effect her. Will even change in her “doll” state.
How many seasons to you see Dollhouse lasting?
Limited, by season 17 it will be repeating itself.
How do you approach the potential for new viewers to watch the show?
The first episode this season attempts to make it easier for new viewers to understand the premise, but at some point you need to connect to the characters or not.
How can we get new viewers to watch the show?
Buy the DVD for yourself, buy lots for your friends!
When might we see Ray Wise?
Episode 6. He will play the head of another dollhouse.
How “arc’y” is the show going to be this season?
It’s going to be pretty “arc’y”. People reacted very well to the arcs of the characters lives in season 1.
What convinced Fox to renew the show?
Nature of the business, nature of the fanbase. The fanbase is in it for the long haul, they will see it through even after it is cancelled and Fox realizes that. “I don’t make hit shows, I make shows that stick around.”
What is it going to be like for the characters this season?
Victor and Sierra can’t keep their hands off each other. Echo is building herself and she wants allies and wants to put together a team to help her. She is looking for a sense of family.
Are there plans to get the rest of Firefly cast on this season?
There’s a “death match” between Firefly and Battlestar actors to get themselves on the show . He has no fear of adding any past actors he knows to the show.
Does Summer Glau’s character work at Ray Wise’s dollhouse?
Yes.
awesome. Cant wait! I hope this show sticks around for a good, long while!
I really loved that sentence “I don’t make Hit Shows .I make shows that stick around”. I was a big Buffy fan . The show was part of my life during my High School years and later my college ones. Back then , I was not aware about the importance of TV ratings so I never worried about those. I remember the end of each season and getting excited when the New season started. It was a great experience.I still remember the last Buffy episode.
Something sadly I cannot say right now , that you start a show and then suddenly is canceled leaving you with no closure at all. While the network cares absolutely nothing…Moonlight???…Jericho???
But well , you always learn something from bad experiences. That’s why now I watch all my shows in cable.
I’m bracing myself, as I usually do when Dollhouse is mentioned, for all the nasty things people will have to say about this, or should I say feel the need to take the time out of their day to have something negative to say about something they shouldn’t worry about. Thank you for the article!
Am I the only one who gets the ‘whistling in the graveyard’ feeling to this interview? I don’t make Hit Shows. I make shows that stick around.” sounds like a decent epitaph for a show he doesn’t think will stick around the full season. However, maybe it’ll really take off this time around.
Cimmer, all, this was the first time I’d listened in on an “artist” conference call like this and I admit to finding 90% of it utterly boring, but that one answer was somewhat interesting. Unfortunately, by the time he said that it was too late to get into the question queue, because I wanted to ask “Hmm, since Fox really wants to air hit shows and makes almost all of their money on the broadcast advertising revenue from them, how exactly does that work with you not making hit shows?”
I hate the whole other Dollhouses thing. My suspension of disbelief can only go so far. Plus it makes Topher even more ridiculous, when he was seemingly ‘the doll guy’ I could accept and like him. But with other houses and that he obviously isn’t the smartest when it comes to doll tech, he would have been fired ages ago.
I will be amazed if it lasts past this season. They canceled Terminator, they will cancel this too. Fox just seems to love raping amazing sci-fi franchises.
Fox has barely promoted this show. I don’t think there was 1 mention of this show in the commercials the whole time I was watching SYTYCD during the summer and even last night. We get bombarded with the House, Bones, Glee, and Fringe (sometimes Lie to Me) but nothing for Dollhouse.
Anyways this show lost me after episode 3 last season. No matter how much I loved Buffy, Angel, and Firefly, I don’t think Eliza Dushku has the acting capablity to show the range of personas her lead role requires. I figure I’ll just Netflix the DVDs for this show sometime in the future.
Is that you smirking or Joss? Hard to tell from the write up.
buffywrestling, it was Joss. I will edit for clarity.
lol thanks for that. I thought it was kinda funny, “Why is Bill trolling his own write-up?”
Where the heck is Jossbiggestfan these days? I miss that guy or girl
Robert, no JBF sightings since August 26 (I just checked). If he/she doesn’t reappear by next Saturday (when Dollhouse’s season premiere ratings come out) I will be officially worried!
Epitaph 1, for those who’ve seen it, was great, but it also lets us know what happens to each character and basically how they got to that point. I wonder how Whedon expects to tell compelling multi-episode arcs with that hanging over his head.
“Plus it makes Topher even more ridiculous, when he was seemingly ‘the doll guy’ I could accept and like him. But with other houses and that he obviously isn’t the smartest when it comes to doll tech, he would have been fired ages ago.”
Actually, in Epitaph 1 we learn that he really is the smartest… without going into details, it’s simply true.
Audiovore says:
“I hate the whole other Dollhouses thing. My suspension of disbelief can only go so far.”
We all gotta draw the line somewhere, man.
Look Epitah 1 was good but not a great episode. Yes it was a improvement on most of the horrible episodes he made but still not that good.
And i just realised What about Buffy and Angel? does he not consider these hit shows?
Robert, I think what Joss always means when he doesn’t lump Buffy and Angel as hits, they were on the WB & CW so they were hits relative to those networks but in the greater scheme of the Big Four, his shows numbers wouldn’t be considered good.
BRING BACK FIREFLY!!!
Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.
Well they were hits for the WB yes but still they are hits still.