"Dr. Horrible" does the Hulu

This just in from Dr. Horrible's lab: By popular demand, and a hell of a response from the crowd at Comic- Con, "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" will be offered via web streaming on Hulu for the next four months.

It's a slight departure from the Dr. Horrible world domination plan articulated by mastermind Joss Whedon a few weeks ago. When the first installment of the Internet musical monster was unleashed July 15, the notion was that it would only be available for free for a six days via the www.drhorrible.com site, and then taken down to build demand for a DVD release. (A guestimate on the traffic numbers for its July 15-20 stint is about 1 million views.)

But an extended engagement on Hulu seemed in keeping with the D.I.Y spirit of the supervillain tuner, which Whedon funded out of his pocket just to see what he and his brothers Zack and Jed and Jed's fiance, Maurissa Tancharoen, would come up with if left to their own devices. With the help of stars Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day.

"Dr. Horrible" will remain available on iTunes as a paid download, for those who just have to own it. Meanwhile, Joss' reps are taking meetings with homevid distribs who want a piece of the DVD action, which Joss has promised will include a second musical dubbed "Commentary!," as well as a proper (well...) commentary track.

To herald the Hulu deal, Joss posted a blog entry on Hulu.com calling the NBC Universal-News Corp. joint Internet vid venture "the premier site for people who like joy and life and children and America."