AirLockAlpha.com

It's deja vu all over again.

A year ago, when Joss Whedon announced that he was starting production on a new show called "Dollhouse," fans all over the world were ecstatic.

When wary fans learned that the creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" had made a deal with Fox, the immediate reaction was "How can you trust them after what they did to 'Firefly'?"

The unlikely space western, rich with colorful, well-defined characters and a riveting narrative, was banished to the Friday night death spot in Fox's schedule before it premiered. There, it languished with little promotion, episodes played out of order, and often delayed or pre-empted by sports programming.

Whedon suffered through constant interference by network executives who never quite understood the show. They didn't like the original pilot, and insisted that a new one be written and produced, requiring Whedon and co-writer Tim Minear to come up with something over one weekend. That was six years ago.

Six years later, the much-anticipated "Dollhouse" seems to be running a parallel course to Whedon's last outing with Fox with "Firefly" back in 2002. At first, president of Fox Entertainment Kevin Reilly was so taken with Whedon's pitch for "Dollhouse" that he later told a Los Angeles Times reporter, "He had me at 'hello.' I was kinda drunk with the surprise of it all. He laid out the whole concept but I think it was one of those things where I heard every other word of it."

In the course of the post-writers' strike year, it seems Riley and other Fox honchos have lost their enthusiasm for "Dollhouse," and have been in constant haggle-mode with Whedon. He shut down production in September for more than two weeks to rewrite scripts and re-shoot the pilot. More recently, he announced that an entirely new pilot had to be made.

Still, on Oct. 26, Whedon posted a message on Whedonesque that he was happy with the results and that "The show is really coming together now, in a way that I believe excites us and satisfies the network."

Then the announcement came last week that "Dollhouse" would premiere on Friday, Feb. 13 at 9 p.m., causing a panic among Whedon's fans. It was "Firefly" all over again.

On top of that, many fans noted the irony of the premiere date. That was the day in 2005 that The WB announced that another Whedon show, "Angel," was canceled, despite a rise in viewership and across-the-board critical acclaim.

Still, Fox's scheduling executive Preston Beckman contends that pairing "Dollhouse" with "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" on Friday nights is a positive move.

"If we put it on Monday and it didn't do well, we might have to yank it," Beckman said. But because Fox's midseason lineup is considered to be strong on Saturday through Thursday nights, "We can afford to let these shows run their course. We can give them 12 or 13 weeks to find an audience."

While Beckman acknowledges that "Dollhouse" and "Terminator" don't have an easy path ahead of them, he contends that the less competitive Friday night will give the show a better chance to build an audience than a more competitive night.

Josh Friedman, executive producer of "Sarah Connor Chronicles," had his own take on the news of the move of his show.

"I'm happy to be with Joss Whedon, and now we'll see how fervent our fans are. Which is to say: Will you stay home?" Friedman said.

Feeling a little horrific? Get your daily dose of horror news straight from The Doll, Rabid Doll that is at www.RabidDoll.com.

Hear Michael Hinman on SyFy Radio every Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT at www.BlogTalkRadio.com/SyFyRadio.