At this point, we’ve already resigned ourselves to the fact that Dollhouse is going to be canceled. The show’s original pilot got scrapped, the network showed a vote of no confidence when they saddled the show with a Friday-night time slot, and Fox can’t even be bothered to release an interesting promo clip for the show. Still, we remain optimistic; surely Joss will figure out a way to conquer all, won’t he? Possibly! If he has spent as much time working on character arcs and through lines as he has brainstorming ideas for set design with production designer Stuart Blart Blatt, we might be in good shape:
“I asked Joss, ‘What if I could build you a Japanese reflecting pool with a deck over it that our actors could do yoga and tai chi on?’ †Blatt said. “He was immediately sold. Joss had been asking me from the beginning that he wanted to have a water feature that would be silent and yet always be there to look at. Water is a calming influence. It’s sexy and mysterious.â€
Sounds a lot like the magnificent Spa Castle in Queens to us! But really, today’s Los Angeles Times 1,300-word-plus exposé on the intricacies of the set of Dollhouse did little to convince us that the show is going to be anything other than very pretty to look at. It will certainly earn Blatt (who really should consider changing his name to Blart) some recognition in the high-stakes world of production design, but no matter how pretty his set ends up being, it will never be able to hold a candle to the Strattons’ mansion on Silver Spoons. No toy train? No dice!
For ‘Dollhouse’ on Fox, the set is one of the stars [LAT]