Joss Whedon and Writer Strikes

The last time Joss Whedon had a show on Fox, the network and the viewers didn't get it and it only lasted a few episodes. In fact, they got it so little, that they aired the shows out of order.

I was one of the viewers who didn't get that show. It was Firefly. Firefly was a space western, full of grit and glory, thievin' and whor.... well, you get the drift. I had no clue that it would become one of my favourite shows long after it had ceased to exist on the networks. It was Serenity, the movie based on the show that would close out some of the storylines for many fans, that captured my attention. I watched the series from that and now I wish that I had been among the few who trusted Whedon to do something grand with this odd storyline.

Now, Fox has ordered a series from Whedon called Dollhouse. From the information: The scifi project is about a group of men and women used for different assignments and between those assignments their minds and memories are wiped and they live in a dollhouse type environment. One of the women, Echo, played by Eliza Dushku, tries to find out who she was before her memory was wiped. I've been waiting for Joss Whedon to do something else for so long that I hope this one stays on the air... 7 episodes have been ordered.

In other news, news that affect those who write or want to write but should also make the television fans nervous, is that the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have still not come to an agreement about amending the antiquated DVD distribution compensation for writers, that is, raising residual rates for writers based on sales of DVD,  including download sales. That seems to be the roadblock for the AMPTP, who don't want to compensate writers for download sales.

And what's this I hear about NBC pulling out of iTunes, not just because they wanted to vary the prices of shows or bundle shows together, but also because they wanted a piece of Apple's hardware sales? Wow. That took a lot of cojones to even ask for something like that. 

So, what do you think about the strike, or NBC's need of apple hardware sales? Are there any other Joss Whedon fans out there and what do you think of this new show? Do you think Fox will be willing to stick by it for the full seven episodes?