So much of the news surrounding Fox's upcoming Joss Whedon drama "Dollhouse" has been downbeat, you could be excused for forgetting that the show is designed to entertain rather than induce grief-counseling.

Fox asked for a reshot pilot, then decided to launch it and the series in the veritable graveyard of Friday night – the same night that buried Whedon's previous effort for Fox, "Firefly."

But with a sprightly sampling released for critics in advance of Tuesday's session at the TV Critics Assn. press tour, along with some believable spin that the Friday scheduling, which includes a "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" leadin, will mitigate audience demands, you could perceive the makings of a backlash to the backlash.

"My initial reaction (to the scheduling) was mixed, I think," Whedon said via satellite from Boston. "I had a bad experience on a Friday night – you might have heard about it. ...(But) I'm very excited about being paired with "Terminator," a show that I love and that shares the same sort of sensibility."

And although "Dollhouse," starring Eliza Dushku in the story of an underground agency that imprints personas on (mostly) unsuspecting people to create (mostly) infallible super-agents, is more serious than Whedon's iconic "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," saying it's humorless would be a stretch.

"The show is much more straight-ahead drama than what we've done before," Whedon said. "(But) we can't fight the funny. The funny is going to win ... partly because that's how articulate people react to difficult situations."

Meanwhile, for fans of Whedon's side project, "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," there was more good news.

"As far as 'Dr. Horrible' is concerned, yeah, we'd like to do that again," Whedon said. "It's just a matter of time and the venue."

– Jon Weisman

It's a very weird year. That's what everyone in town keeps saying over and over again as the biz gears up for the annual upfront ritual, which will be a little less ritualistic this year.

Gone in this Very Weird Year is the time-honored way in which reporters get big hints on what pilots are getting picked up -- by tracking the talent that is being flown in to New York.

As we all know, there are a whole lotta pilots that have not yet been shot and are just now setting casts. Most of the chatter, good and bad, about 2008-09 hopefuls this week has centered around the projects that the nets have in hand as pilots or presentations, or at least have significant thesps attached, a la ABC's "Never Better," which landed Damon Wayans (pictured right) as its lead last week.

So with the caveat that it is all spin and conjecture at this moment in time, let's review the buzz out there.

ABC's the hardest to read when it comes to new stuff.

On comedy front, Cedric the Entertainer (pictured left) vehicle (ABC Studios) seems to have traction -- or not, depending on who you talk to!

"Bad Mothers Handbook" (ABC Studios), about three generations of femmes living together, has not lensed but has the benefit of Alicia Silverstone (pictured right) and another high-profile name in the offing.

"My Brother's Hot and Other Dilemmas" (ABC Studios) about a girl attracted to her new step brother, has Alyssa Milano (pictured left). It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that either a Silverstone or Milano comedy vehicle could be a nice companion for ABC's frosh hit "Samantha Who?" -- assuming that either pilot satisfies the larger obligation to actually be funny.

"Never Better" (ABC Studios) shot up on the radar after Wayans signed on and Marc Buckland signed on to direct.

Drama-wise at ABC ... I just don't know.

Only "Life on Mars," offbeat time-travel cop drama, is in the can. David E. Kelley and Tommy Schlamme have bowed out of that project, they're looking to move this from 20th Century Fox TV to ABC Studios and retool it under prospective showrunners Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec and Scott Rosenberg.

There's been a lot of chatter in the biz that "Life on Mars" shuffle granted a reprieve to Kelley's "Boston Legal" for another season. (Biz watchers with long memories will recall that two years ago, the same thing happened when ABC was hot for Kelley's "Mars.") But I'm hearing that "Boston Legal's" fate also has a lot to do with Kelley and how involved he intends to be going forward, among other factors.

It seems a safe bet that "Women's Murder Club" is headed for the morgue, though ABC is said to be anxious to stay in biz with star Angie Harmon. Midseason drama "Eli Stone" is said to be 50-50 for a sophomore year. And surprisingly, ABC is said to be considering a pickup for midseason comedy "Miss Guided." Can't swear to this but I heard the actors' options have been extended for a few more weeks.

At CBS, it's always a dangerous game trying to predict what Team Moonves is going to announce at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday. But some chatter about returning shows seems to be firming up.

Joss Whedon was a goner. He had no intent of going back to the smallscreen, and in fact was trying hard to sort out his options for a pre-strike feature writing offer. Then he got a ring from his faithful friend and former "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" colleague Eliza Dushku, who was looking for some advice on how she should make the most of the development pact she'd signed with Fox and 20th Century Fox TV during the summer.

In mid-September, the two went to lunch at Santa Monica's at Ivy at the Shore, and over a meal, almost by accident, Whedon came up with the concept for "Dollhouse," as Variety's Michael Schneider details in his report on the seven-seg commitment that Fox and its studio sib 20th have given to Whedon's idea for a show about a super-secret (what else?) world of folks who are walking tabula rasa -- blank slates who are programmed with different personalities each time they're dispatched for a mission.

"It was a mistake!" Whedon says. "I sat down with her to talk about her options, and acted all sage, saying things backwards like Yoda and laying out what I thought she should do. But in the course of doing it, I accidentally made one up. I told it to her, and she said, 'That's exactly what I want to do.' "

At the moment Eliza beckoned, Whedon was at work on his fantasy-thriller "Goner," for producers Mary Parent and Scott Stuber at U, and he was fielding a whole bunch of options for a pre-strike feature writing project. Although Whedon didn't have such a grand time during his last hitch at Fox in 2002-03 with "Firefly" (which begat the 2005 U feature "Serenity"), times change and so do networks.

Whedon gamely took a meeting with Fox's Peter Liguori and Kevin Reilly, and walked out with a sizable commitment for a project the net hopes to have in production by the spring -- in an ideal, strike-free world. Fingers crossed.

(Pic of Whedon and Dushku at a 2003 "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" charity event by Albert L. Ortega/WireImage)