Paley Center's Dr. Horrible Event

Got to attend night #4 of the Paley Center Festival, celebrating Dr. Horrible, last night at the Cinerama Dome. It should be noted - this is the first ever web series to be honored by the Paley Center!

The evening began with an introduction to this year's festival - a montage featuring bits from each show with a panel this year. Our particular audience threw some cheers/applause to Dr. Horrible, Dollhouse, Pushing Daisies, Battlestar, plus lesser, but still existent cheers for Fringe, Big Love, Big Bang Theory & Swingtown. Boos for The Hills. Right on.

We then got treated to a clip chosen especially for us from an episode of the animated Superfriends that featured the Justice League & Legion of Doom battling it out in space.

Then Joss came up and said hi and we all watched Dr. Horrible together. In the DOME! Badass. It was AMAZING watching it with an audience on that ginormous screen. When it finished, the panel, featuring Felicia Day, Nathan Fillion, Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed, Joss & Zack Whedon began!

I tweeted throughout the event, but in case you missed it, all the highlights from the panel after the jump! And click here for photos from the event.

-Would Dr. Horrible exist if there were no writer's strike? Joss - "I doubt it"

-Shot the whole thing in six days & got run of the Universal lot because of Joss' good relationship with Universal's head of production after Serenity

-The same horse that played Bad Horse appeared on Angel and will appear in the next episode of Dollhouse! Bad Horse was created by Ben Edlund who had first pitched the character for Angel.

-Right after shooting Dr. Horrible's final shot, Joss went into a bathroom, put on a suit, and came to the Paley Center's 10 year Buffy reunion

-Nathan Fillion - "I can't tell you how much joy it brings to my heart that Neil couldn't make it"

-Nathan makes a mean 7 layer bean dip. And Neil does not!

-Nathan wouldn't mind having "The Hammer is my Penis" on his headstone

-Felicia Day had tonsillitis during the first read thru. The first read thru which Neil, Nathan and Simon Helberg all forgot about

Video of Nathan on his singing/acting ability

-Despite four years of opera training, Felicia was incredibly intimidated and didn't think she was good enough to be in Dr. Horrible

-All you really need to pull something like this off, says Joss, is the "spirit to do it"

-Sondheim is an "unavoidable influence if you are writing something that's good" - Jed

-Considering a sequel to Dr. Horrible that may appear on the stage

-Whedon brothers grew up listening to showtunes. Jed says this accounts for their popularity in high school.

-Zack wrote the Cap Hammer penis line and is "very proud" of it

-Felicia: "Dr. Horrible will be looked back on as the turning point for web content" & a "seminal work"

-The Guild was the first series Joss Whedon watched on the Internet & he asked Felicia for advice throughout the entire process of Dr. Horrible. She schooled everyone on Internet marketing, including agents/execs.

-Joss has yet to join twitter because he "thinks it might be dirty" though everyone on stage was encouraging him to join, Felicia saying "You would be a great twitterer!" (Nathan Fillion ended up joining after the panel!)

-The evil lab in Dr. Horrible is an actual evil lab, owned by one of Joss' friends. The tubes in the background all dispense alcoholic drinks.

-Simon Helberg is a black belt in karate

-Joss is performing his commentary song "Heartbroken" on a live "This American Life" coming up

-Joss, along with Drew Goddard, is of the belief that you have to be careful with what you reveal. They don't wanna blog during Cabin in the Woods cause they want everything to be a complete surprise. With Dr. Horrible, Joss made sure that the words "Tragicomedy" or "twist" were never used before the show's release, so the end would be a complete shock to the audience. Though Joss admits that the ending "made people hate me a lot"

-Trailer leaked because Jed uploaded it to Vimeo to test the player and "like a genius," named it Dr. Horrible

-They joked about Jed asking before they made Dr. Horrible "We're only doing this to be rock stars at Comic Con, right?"

-Joss was a huge NPH fan, saw him in Assassins, loved his voice & comedy chops. Turned out he was old friends with Amy Acker & sang at her wedding, which when witnessed, caused Joss to go into "Full Squee"

-How would Captain Hammer be different in a sequel? Nathan - "I would wear a darker outfit...to symbolize the darkness. And I'd grow my hair our and do a Pompadour."

-Felicia: "Trying to be one of the cool kids was never my goal." I love her.

-Felicia re: Dollhouse's 13th episode: "Sorry about that Twitter thing I did"

-Joss re: Dollhouse's 13th episode: "Wait til you see Felicia's role. And you'll have to wait."

-Lots of people see webisodics as getting a foot in the door in Television, but Felicia enjoys creating her own work that no one else would ever let her do

-Someone asked what happens if you bounce Wonderflonium? Joss - "It will cause me to Twitter"

-If you go to Myspace.com/darkhorsepresents, you will find a Moist comic & a Captain Hammer comic. On June 1st a Penny comic will be released and soon after, a Dr. Horrible comic

-Someone asked Joss why he went back to Fox for Dollhouse. His answer - "Eliza. I don't care, she's worth it." Awwww.

-Influences on Dr. Horrible? Joss says James Gunn's The Specials (I love that movie!), The Boys and Powers (I love that comic!)

And that about does it! I have a video from the event that I'll try to get up later and don't forget - I'll be live tweeting tonight from the Dollhouse panel! Be sure to head over to Twitter.com/loquaciousmuse around 7pm PST for live updates!