Were You Able to Watch Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog?
by
on July 17, 2008,
Joss Whedon and company weren't prepared for the enormous interest in his created-for-the-Web musical Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, which premiered Act I Tuesday online and crashed the servers almost immediately. The online-only musical features several Web 2.0 in-jokes, such as the villain, Dr. Horrible, having a vlog, then being thwarted by police and the superhero Captain Hammer after revealing his plans for a freeze ray on the vlog.
Conceived during the recent writers' strike, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog came with the built-in Whedon cult audience and via a mainly viral campaign, seems to have managed a huge web audience as a result. Even with the server outages on Tuesday, Act I was the most-downloaded TV episode on iTunes on Tuesday, and is still ranked at number two today.
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog combines the low budget of Web productions with the professionalism of a team used to working with a much larger budget, and even with the tight shooting schedule, the episodes have a very different feel than the usual Web-created content that isn't tied to a regular television show (for instance, the Battlestar Galactica Webisodes which were filmed using the same actors and sets as the show itself).
Whedon has said that the goal for the show is to simply make the money back, and with the show's current popularity, it looks like he'll at least meet, if not exceed his goal, which should hopefully lead to more shows like this. Whedon may be changing the way we view Web-created video content, changing the current model where shows that succeed online attempt to cross over to television and just don't make it. With more streaming content made available, it may make more sense to have two parallel markets instead of insisting one kill the other.
Act II is available today, and you can still view Act I as well if you need to catch up.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to profy RSS feed!
Svetlana Gladkova
Bighorn
Opensource 
Michael Fidler 
I watched - I liked it - I downloaded it. I didn’t have any issues with the server or access, but maybe I just hit it at the right time. Surprised Doogie can sing
“See you at the aftermath! Peace!”
Joss obviously wishes he’d been born closer to Broadway. The music is a bit hit-or-miss for me, but it’s leaning toward the hits so far. The line “With my freeze ray I will stop … the pain” earned enough kudos from me to make up for any cliches or cheesy lines throughout the rest of the 40 minutes.
I’m a little surprised that Felicia Day’s character is such the damsel–not exactly in distress, but not the prominent female character that Joss usually writes.
But with regards to the Web video content model, I think they were very wise to make it its own thing. I didn’t go to NBC.com to watch it, or to some sponsor’s Web site. The new “television” model–for me, at least–is to wait until a couple of seasons of a show are out on DVD and then get them from Netflix. Likewise, I love the idea of going to drhorrible.com to find all the currently available episodes of Dr Horrible’s etc.
I know, after Sunday it all comes down and they start charging. And that’s more than fair, in business terms. But I definitely think that they should keep Neil Patrick Harris on call and upload new Dr. Horrible vlogs every once in a while for free viewing. They’re the best part of the mini-series (so far).
Also, can Moist please visit Colorado? It’s unusually dry out here at the moment.
Mr. Horrible
Mr. Horrible
Telephone call for Mr. Horrible
But before he can talk to the ugliness men
There’s some horrible business left
For him to attend to
Something unpleasant has spilled on his brain
As he sponges it off they say
“Is this Horrible?
Is this Horrible?
It’s the ugliness men, Mr. Horrible
We’re just trying to bug you
We thought that our dreadfulness
Might be a thing to annoy you with”
http://tmbw.net/wiki/Lyrics:Someone_Keeps_Moving_My_Chair
I guess he went back to school and got his Doctorate or MD since TMBG knew him…
@Leslie Now, see, if you hadn’t ignored all of us Rentheads, you’d know that one of his big “come back as an adult” roles was a stint on Broadway as Mark.
@Joey Everything has to make money somehow, but I agree. I like this new model better than the networks doing it. I think for original Web video content to succeed, it really needs to do its own thing rather than be part of the network model.
If you’re looking for more good webseries, ‘Cataclysmo and the Time Boys’ is in its second season. Dr. Horrible actually has a lot of similarities, they are both hero-action comedy/dramas, and they both feature crazy evil mad scientists.
You can find it on youtube or at http://www.webserials.com, and if you like Dr. Horrible, you might like Cataclysmo.
I actually bought it on iTunes so I could show my thanks and support to those involved. It is awesome. I have made my wife watch both episodes so far. It was fun.
an obvious, shameful rip-off of Dr. Steel…
http://www.doctorsteel.com/