Welcome to the 'Dollhouse' Fan Frenzy

Fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Joss Whedon have always been passionate. But paranoid, too? After Fox announced that it would premiere the producer's new show, Dollhouse, at midseason, a website has been rallying Whedonites to hype the series lest it flame out like his sci-fi Western, Firefly. ''After seeing some of my favorite TV shows get canceled...a fan campaign before the show begins may be the best thing to do,'' says Nathan George, a ringleader of dollhouseforums.com. Whedon's new opus could certainly use the help; the intriguing premise — Eliza Dushku stars as a programmable employee of a company that specializes in illicit wish fulfillment — will be tough to market. Yet even assuming that this campaign represents genuine enthusiasm (and not self-promotion — Dollhouse fansites? Already?), fearmongering isn't cool. It risks turning buzz into buzzkill. We want Whedon to thrive again too, but Dollhouse should earn its fans the old-fashioned way: by airing a few episodes first.