Joss Whedon on "Dollhouse"

There were no vacant stares or soft-spoken childlike retorts when Joss Whedon fans congregated Wednesday night at the Paley Fest's event honoring Whedon's new series Dollhouse. In its fifth night, the Paley Fest shone a light on Whedon's troubled new thriller that has garnered small ratings, but has a rich life on DVR, downloads, and with its target audience.

In attendance were showrunners Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain, actors Miracle Laurie ("Mellie/November"), Dichen Lachman ("Sierra"), Fran Kranz ("Topher"), star Eliza Dushku ("Echo") and creator Joss Whedon.

The question on everyone's minds was in regards to the latest report that the infamous "13th Episode" of Season One would not be airing, but instead be offered only on the forthcoming DVD set. This speculation also worried fans as to whether the show would go the way of Whedon's "Firefly," a series also relegated to Friday nights and that was cancelled after just six episodes.

While Episode 12 (dubbed "Omega") is indeed the season finale, Joss Whedon pleaded with the studio for his "strange" thirteenth episode to air, and at this time "the jury is out." As for whether the show would return for another season, Whedon was hopeful. "The show is not cancelled, the numbers are solid.... and (the studio) are big fans."

Joss discussed the difficulties of doing the series under the studio system after having free reign on his self-produced Internet sensation, Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog. "It made it much harder for me." His frustration led him to exclaim, "Just love it. Why can't you just love it like I do?"

It is legendary that the "Dollhouse" pilot had to be reshot, and the original concept of the series was taken in a new direction at the request of the network, but Whedon offered, "the thing that should really be called legend, is the tolerance and patience of our cast. We did not shoot a single episode in the order that they aired."

Whedon and company have a great fondness for their star Eliza Dushku who worked with Whedon on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" as the popular and iconic character, Faith. The two came together to discuss the series, which allowed Dushku to help create her character and eventually came on as a producer.

When asked what kind of character she wanted to play, she responded, "I first and foremost enjoy the guy (Whedon). He gets woman and likes woman." She added, "He saw sides of me that a lot of people don't see. And everyone kind of just painted me into black leather pants and put me in a push-up bra and made me kick ass, and he was like 'Oh, we can put you in a floral dress and have daddy/daughter issues,' and I was like... really? Wow!"

Eliza's character of Echo is a blank slate when living in the mysterious Dollhouse which is populated by spacey, beautiful men and women who are programmed to take on different personas depending on whom has rented them out. She was questioned on the difficulties and joys of playing new and different characters every week, while also maintaining a persona that will grow and evolve on top of that. "I have multiple personalities," she joked. "My whole family has ADHD so he wanted to explore that."

One of the controversial aspects of the show is the treatment of women, which on the surface appears to portray them as objects used for other people's whims and desires. As Whedon is known to be a feminist, the show-runners are both women. The question was poised as to whether that was done purposely to protect his vision, which is more about empowerment than seeing women as subservient objects. "If you look at it very superficially, I can see where that [anti-feminism] criticism comes from," stated Sarah Fain. "But if you actually look at what's going on in the show, if you look at the layers, if you look at the complexity, I think it's quite the opposite."

To make the show really connect with audiences, and to ensure that the network would become invested, Whedon said he pulled out the tricks and twists of the series earlier than he had planned. With a smirk Whedon said, "Dude. Just wait."