NYC Comic Con 2009: FOX's "Dollhouse"

• In a clip shown, Eliza Dushku's character Echo is introduced pre-induction into the personality-replacement program. It was kind of vague, but it seems like she's always been trying to help people like a female person told her she should. But in order to get rid of the problem she presently has, she'll have to serve a 5-year term. Then the woman she's discussing this with offers her an alternative, which is to join the program.
• Everyone who joins the program goes into it knowing that they're going to do something illegal.
• Brett Claywell, who played Tim on "One Tree Hill," is a guy she dates for one weekend of no-strings-attached fun. (He's surprisingly attractive these days. lol)
• The head of the organization Boyd (Harry Lennix) seems like he's second-guessing his profession, but the scientist Topher (Fran Kranz from "Welcome to the Captain"), whose job it is to remove and input personalities, fully believes in what he was doing and is indifferent to the immorality of it. Creator Joss Whedon says had and Topher are the same. They create characters and have no morals.
• Tahmoh Penikett (Helo on "Battlestar Galactica") plays an FBI agent trying to expose the Dollhouse. No one has confidence in him or in the existence of the Dollhouse. But he believes it exists and thinks what they do is immoral. He won't be in the first 3-4 episodes a lot. However, the plus side is that he can meet Echo for the first time repeatedly all season, and she won't catch on to his true agenda. She is the face of the Dollhouse for him. He wants to save her. According to Whedon, there's a connection he has to her even before he meets her in person.

Joss Whedon's writing process:
• He tries to "take the premise and unravel the people in it."
• In regards to the ethics of the series: "The audience comes away as unclean as the show. Everybody is compromised."
• Defending rumors that it has no continuity: "I never knew what 'Angel' was, but it did fine for five years."
• Dushku will sing in the third episode as a backup singer to a pop star.
• With Echo's several personalities, she meets a lot of people, which allows for countless guest stars.

WATCH the premiere this FRIDAY on FOX at 9PM.