Dollhouse

Joss Whedon Talks ’Dollhouse’

’I’m feeling really good about it,’ ’Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ creator says of new show.

Joss Whedon’s latest foray into the world of television, "Dollhouse," will finally make its debut Friday night. It’s been famously delayed and many fans wondered if it would even make it to air. It was a concern that Whedon — the man behind the cult TV favorite "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" — also shared.

"When we started out, we really felt strong about the idea. Obviously, as everybody knows, we ran into some problems with production and the network’s vision," he told MTV News while in New York for Comic-Con. "So for a while there I was really kind of lost and struggling to find the show."

But Whedon — who just wrapped up the show’s first season — said that he "just finished production on such a high that the last four episodes, they were amazing to us," and he really thinks that the project has taken a turn for the better.

"The crew and the actors and my extraordinary writing staff, we feel like we really found it," he said. "I’m especially proud of the cast. They’re an extraordinary ensemble — as the show builds the momentum and the weirdness and the pain started increasing exponentially. I’m feeling really good about it."

The show focuses on girls called "dolls," who are given new memories every time they are hired out for a job. One of the dolls, Echo — played by "Buffy" star Eliza Dushku — begins to become aware of the situation.

"The nature of the show for me is really about sort of humanity, identity and the gray area in between everything we assume to be black and white," he said. "What’s exciting is that as Echo becomes more aware of her situation, it becomes more complicated as everybody in the Dollhouse works there or is one of the actives or Paul Ballard [the federal agent investigating the Dollhouse] ... as everybody gets closer towards the end of the season they all show sides of themselves that show them to be more or less compromised than we imagined, and there’s a lot of pain."

Whedon recently told Rolling Stone that "Dollhouse" is probably the last time he’ll work on a network television show. He also revealed that if all works out well for "Dollhouse," he won’t be getting out of the TV business anytime soon. "I pitched the show with a six-year plan and some of that has changed," he explained, adding that he thinks the show is strong enough that he can "throw everything at them" and take it from there. "You want people to be engaged."