Dr. Smith, Meet Dr. Horrible

In case you missed it, last week's Entertainment Weekly carried a story about the phenomenal success of the Dr. Horrible Sing-Along Blog project. As a way to kill time during the writer's strike, Joss Whedon came up with the high-concept, internet-only story, and enticed the likes of Neil Patrick Harris to get involved.

The money quote, provided by Felicia Day, who played Penny in the "series":
"There are a lot of things that Hollywood doesn't understand about the Internet. It's kind of the reverse of mainstream media: You don't want to aim for everybody. You want to aim for the target audience, and that passionate audience is going to spread the word. Clearly, Joss got it. Dr. Horrible was all word of mouth."

This plays on so many levels. Whedon and company proved once again, quality content can go direct to the consumer. No studio. No production house. Just a great concept and solid . Think I'm making it up -- read the master plan. Tell me again, with the right equipment and commitment, an athletic department creates live game content direct to it's fan base -- that's bad why?

Pick up a copy of the Aug. 1 EW issue (Batman's on the cover) and read how the story is presented. It is nothing more than a stream-of-consciousness-meets-chat-room article. Instead of a piece of C2S paper, I can easily imagine the character's back-and-forth with flickering cursors on a flat screen. All that's missing is the comment box.

But wait -- if you read the story on-line it is six pages long (not the one and a half in print) because they have the "expanded oral history" right here. They. Get. It.

And now, who's laughing all the way to the bank? Dr. Horrible DVD with extras. Dr. Horrible movie deal. Dr. Horrible sequel. Let me think, who owns the rights to that . . . . . oh yeah, none of the studios, that would be whedonesque.com.

By the way, when it first launched on its own website, Dr. Horrible racked up 200,000 views per hour and crashed the server farm while it was free. That part ended July 20. If you want to check out the sensation, you'll have to give up a little kwan and purchase the episodes at iTunes. Again, who's profiting by giving it away? That would be Whedon.

What if a major university decided to start it's own production unit . . . .