Dollhouse is an American science fiction television program created by Joss Whedon and set to premiere February 13, 2009 on Fox.

In Dollhouse, Eliza Dushku plays a young woman named Echo, a member of a group of people known as "Actives" or "Dolls." The Dolls have had their personalities wiped clean so they can be imprinted with any number of new personas, including memory, muscle memory, skills, and language, for different assignments. They're then hired out for particular jobs, crimes, fantasies, and occasional good deeds. On missions, Actives are monitored internally (and remotely) by Handlers. In between tasks, they are mind-wiped into a child-like state and live in a futuristic dormitory/laboratory, a hidden facility nicknamed "The Dollhouse". The story follows Echo, who begins, in her mind-wiped state, to become self-aware.

Beyond Dushku's character, the show will also revolve around the people who run the mysterious "Dollhouse" and two other "Dolls", Victor and Sierra, who are friendly with Echo. Although the Actives are ostensibly volunteers, the operation is highly illegal and under constant threat on one end from Paul Ballard, a determined federal agent who has heard a rumor about the dolls, and an insane rogue Active on the other.

The show is scheduled to air on Fox as part of their midseason lineup in February 2009 on Fridays at 9 PM, following Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.The series stars Eliza Dushku, who worked with Whedon on the cult television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain will be showrunners, while Tim Minear and Steven DeKnight will serve as consulting producers.The writing staff will include Tim Minear, Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain, and Joss Whedon.Whedon will direct a number of his own episodes, as he has done in past series. Tim Minear and Buffy producer David Solomon are also set to direct.Jonatha Brooke and Eric Bazilian have written the theme song for the show. A viral marketing campaign promoting Dollhouse was started on May 26th, 2008.

Dollhouse, which is to be produced by 20th Century Fox Television, Whedon's Mutant Enemy Inc. and Dushku's Boston Diva Productions, has been granted a thirteen-episode production commitment by Fox, with a reported license fee in the range of US$1.5 million to US$2 million per episode.Fox has decided to forgo the pilot episode of the series, opting to put funds towards the construction of the elaborate set and cultural context of the television series. It has been described as a "life-size Dollhouse".On July 22nd, 2008 Joss Whedon announced that the first episode shot, "Echo", will be pushed to be the second, while a new episode will become first, saying that this "idea to do a new first episode wasn’t the network’s. It was mine."

Dollhouse, along with J. J. Abrams' Fringe, will air with half the commercials and promo spots, adding about 6 minutes to the shows' run times, as part of a new Fox initiative called "Remote-Free TV".

On July 22, Whedon announced he was planning to shoot a significant number of Dollhouse webisodes—one for every regular episode produced.

Anya Colloff and Amy McIntyre Britt, who previously worked with Joss Whedon on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, and Serenity, are the show's casting directors.

On March 26, 2008, it was officially announced that Tahmoh Penikett, Dichen Lachman, Fran Kranz, and Enver Gjokaj had been cast in four principal roles for the show.On April 3, 2008, it was announced that Olivia Williams would be playing the role of Adelle DeWitt.On April 17, 2008, it was announced that Harry J. Lennix had also joined the cast.On the same day, Joss Whedon announced on whedonesque.com that Miracle Laurie and Amy Acker were to complete the cast.

Brennan Elliott and Michael Muhney auditioned for the part of Paul Ballard but lost out to Penikett. Ian Anthony Dale and Paul Campbell auditioned for Victor, but Gjokaj got the part.

WEBSITE : http://www.fox.com/programming/shows/new/dollhouse.htm