Whedon's 'Dr. Horrible' could become first scripted Web hit

Joss Whedon and the cast and crew of his new online musical, "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," gathered last night for the first screening of the show, which debuts next week.

The audience loved it, and for good reason. 

The story turns the superhero genre on its head, where the protagonist is the sort-of-but-not-really-evil Dr. Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris), a third-rate villain bent on gaining admission into the Evil League of Evil — but having problems because his crimes aren't heinous enough. 

The good guy is the one we root against. Captain Hammer is a hunky and powerful but ultimately self-obsessed superhero, played to the hilt by Nathan Fillion.

Caught in the middle is Penny (Felicia Day of "Buffy" and "The Guild"), the ordinary gal who falls for Captain Hammer, while Dr. Horrible, who has long pined after her from the other side of the laundromat, looks on impotently.

The story, music and acting are all top-notch, and judging by the laughs, oohs and ahs from the audience, I wouldn't be surprised if this is the Web's first major scripted hit. 

Much more to come ... !

Above: From left, writer Maurissa Tancharoen, Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, Felicia Day and Nathan Fillion; and Neil Patrick Harris, back, in a hat.  Photo by David Sarno.

Comments

[invt2285]

Ok First Off I love Joss, NF,FD,NPH, And The other two in the photo look awesome too!
But How Could This possible Be the First Scripted Internet hit?
Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show, The Guild, Show like Indy Mogul And ThredBanger Though They are DIY and Not Sci-Fi But They Are Scripted.
And Let's Not forget Quarterlife, It made To TV For Crying out loud!
And There are More So Person/s Who Wrote This and Other People who work here I'm not Trying to be an ass Or Telling you that you suck, you clearly do more on the net then I do But If Your just Tryin to hype this To Non Net Users, Ok, but If This is entended for those of us who Live on this little box with the purddy Pictures then Realise We know this will not be the first Scripted hit.
If your talking Hit as in TV Numbers, I don't think the Internet Video will have anything that big(Number wise in a single month or week) till it truely reaches it's Hight, Witch Givin the way things are moving, about two years.
But 15-50 mill on launch, At best Maybe at first around 10 mill(tops) but it will drop off to around 1-2 mill a month in views.
Either way sorry to be an Ass and I can't wait to see the show!
-Corey Allen

[David Sarno]

Corey: I'm definitely talking TV numbers--like, yeah, a few million people. That was an audience range none of the shows you mentioned achieved, let alone sustained. Even quarterlife couldn't break 4 million on network TV -- while 'Fred' gets 4-6 million views an episode. To be a real hit, it has to penetrate into the mainstream culture--that, I think, is the real measure. We shall see...