Trivia / Dollhouse

• Ability over Appearance: Dr. Saunders was originally written to be much older, but Joss Whedon rewrote the character so he could cast Amy Acker.
• Actor-Shared Background: On occasion, Echo's imprints echo Eliza Dushku's real life.
  • Jordan the backup singer/bodyguard is from Boston.
  • The outdoorsy persona from "The Target" had three brothers, and learns to bow hunt.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Ian Anthony Dale audtioned for the role of Victor. He later played Jack Dunston in the Season 1 episode "Haunted."
• Contractual Purity: It's mentioned that Rayna used to sing for "The Mouse". Her stage outfit however suggests she's broken free of this "curse", and into another.
• Descended Creator: Maurissa Tancharoen, who played the Doll "Kilo", is one of the show's screenwriters.
• Executive Veto: The sexual elements of the Dollhouse were more up front originally. The network disliked this, fearing it too similar to prostitution, and pushed Joss Whedon to make it more of a thriller.
• Fake American: Australian Actress Dichen Lachman uses a fluent American accent for Sierra and her imprinted personalities, and her natural accent for Sierra's original personality Priya.
• Friday Night Death Slot: At least Fox had the sense of cutting the commercial breaks in half, letting Whedon have six more minutes per episode. For season 1, anyway. Season 2 seems to have normal-length commercials. To be fair, the network probably had to just to justify not canceling the show. The "remoteless TV" thing was always an experiment. It didn't work, making them less money since very few advertisers were willing to pay the premium price. Note that the other show debuting this approach, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, got axed. Fringe also had a "remoteless" debut season, and has done okay, although it's had a struggle in the ultra-competitive Thursday night slot.
• Making Use of the Twin: Enver Gjokaj's twin brother Demir appears in "The Attic" where Victor has to fight an image of himself.
• Missing Episode: The DVD-only "Epitaph One" (1x13). A few scenes from this episode form the Previously on… introduction to the series finale, which is nice for those of us who didn't get the DVDs. Thankfully not the case for UK viewers — the Sci-Fi Channel aired Epitaph One at the end of the first season.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Felicia Day, usually dorky nerdy girls, plays a bitter Action Survivor in the Season 1 finale. Many fans didn't recognize her.
  • Alan Tudyk likewise was best known as the lovably goofy Wash on Firefly. Turns out he's the homicidal Big Bad Alpha.
• Playing with Character Type:
  • Summer Glau usually plays Woobie-ish hyperintelligent Action Girls who engage in a lot of Waif-Fu. Here she's a Woobie-ish genius who has no combat skills at all.
  • Alan Tudyk is introduced as a very similar character to the one he became famous for in Joss Whedon's earlier Firefly as Wash, and appears to be a harmless dolt. Then it turns out he's actually the rogue active "Alpha", a Serial Killer with a sci-fi version of multiple personality disorder.
• Real-Life Relative: Eliza Dushku's then-boyfriend Rick Fox makes a rather disjointed appearance as an Active in "Getting Closer", the last of the Los Angeles dolls to be freed. Her older brother Nate Dushku is the Big Bad in "Epitaph Two: Return" - as the latest body housing Clive Ambrose. She's the producer of the series, y'know.
• Star-Derailing Role: A show conceived partly to show off Eliza Dushku's versatility ended up demonstrating the opposite as far as many critics were concerned, as they didn't feel there was enough distinction between Echo's various personalities. Since the show ended, she's mostly been doing animation and video-game voice work in roles tailored for her "morally ambiguous, sexy Action Girl" type-casting and core fanboy fanbase. She did get a bit of positive attention for her role in the 2016 indie dramedy Jane Wants a Boyfriend so time will tell.
• Typecasting: Amy Acker plays a scientist once again in a Joss Whedon production.
• Viral Marketing: The Alternate Reality Game Dollplay.
• What Could Have Been: Joss Whedon planned to have five seasons of the show, and had each character's development worked out in advance. Ultimately only two seasons were produced, though fortunately the showrunners knew about the cancellation in time to avoid a cliffhanger.

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