Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

Question: Just as I was about to hit "send" on an email to your Ask Matt column asking what you thought about Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, I got a MySpace Bulletin from the Dr. Horrible page heralding your Dispatch. Thanks for doing a review! Not only to whet the appetites of those of us who’ve been waiting for this Internet musical for months and months now (I’m sure it’s not only me!), but also for spreading the word to everyone who reads your columns, many of whom wouldn’t have heard of it otherwise. Felicia Day blogged that there is little to no money for publicity for this venture, so until now it’s all been word-of-mouth. Personally, I spent four hours this weekend letting everyone I know that they had to watch this. But you get a lot more readers than I do. I’m looking forward to Dr. Horrible even more than my own birthday! So thanks for the well-written and thought-provoking piece. I was going to ask you whether you thought this sort of Internet series venture could be successful in the long term. But maybe that would be better posed to Stephen Battaglio? — Famin

Matt Roush: Thanks for the feedback. Getting the early look at Dr. Horrible was one of the highlights of my year, especially when you consider how I worship the "Once More With Feeling" episode of Buffy, which still ranks in my top tier of best TV episodes ever. When I was invited into the room for the sneak peek, I know it wasn’t merely for my own enjoyment but also to help get the word out. We’ll have an item in the upcoming Sci-Fi edition of TV Guide as well, so that ought to help, too. Anything to bring eyeballs to this experiment in fun-fun-fun. (And by the way, Felicia Day is quite the discovery as Penny.) While I defer to Steve Battaglio in all matters concerning the business of TV, I’ll wrap by saying that I hope this is successful, but that as in all things creative, it may not be all that easy to duplicate, although I bet it will inspire others to try. Not everyone has the creative relationships of a Joss Whedon, and pulling off something of this scale in the brave new world of Internet production is pretty awesome. I’m just glad they’re pushing forward with an eventual DVD release. The idea of a completely original musical commentary track still makes me smile a week after I first heard of it.