Dr. Horrible Arrives on TV

It's an intriguing illustration of how the multiplication of media delivery channels has rendered television an also-ran: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, which started life as a self-financed three-part 2008 webseries to occupy Joss Whedon's time during the 2007 writer's strike before he could move on to launching Dollhouse, has been available via digital media from the web to iTunes to Netflix to Blu-Ray for nearly half a decade and in that time has won acclaim, a Hugo Award, and even an Emmy. And now, almost as an afterthought, this magical short-form series that's already a classic will be appearing on broadcast television.

The CW has booked Dr. Horrible to air on Tuesday, Oct. 9, presumably as a way of capitalizing on the transcendent fame of Whedon, who had a huge movie hit this year, and stars Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day, all of whom have large contingents of fans testifying to their awesomeness in hit franchises on other networks. Perhaps The CW, which has an audience attracted to the fantastically beautiful stars of its various youth-oriented series but is not so heavy on the geek royalty, is hoping some of that awesomeness will rub off on them.

The CW admits that its airing of Dr. Horrible will be slightly edited as compared with the original online version. Nonetheless, watching Dr. Horrible via the old-fashioned medium of broadcast television should be an interesting and surreal experience, sort of like having the script of Blade Runner performed as a staged reading on NPR.

Tags: Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog Follow me on Twitter  |  Follow me on Facebook