Joss Whedon revealed he once pitched the beloved Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog musical-comedy series to Amazon's Jeff Bezos. Whedon revealed this during Comic-Con@Home's "A Conversation with Nathan Fillion" virtual panel, where he appeared as a special guest.
Originally released in 2008, the short-form series was produced and released exclusively for the Internet, which Bezos and his company Amazon weren't interested in doing at the time. As Whedon, Fillion and The Rookie showrunner Alexi Hawley discussed the state of the Internet as a viable entertainment platform back in '08, Whedon discussed how he tried to put together a project that "proved we could do it without the studios."
Fillion recalled how prominent agents at that time were inherently dismissive of the concept because it was developed for the Internet. He was frequently left feeling as though agents were "discounting it because it was the Internet. Somehow, that was a wall by which entertainment couldn't enter."
Whedon then shared how he approached Amazon with the idea. "I actually pitched them to Jeff Bezos at Amazon. I pitched one that I ended up writing a treatment with Jane Espenson," he recalled. "I had three pitches and the third one was 'And here's something I know you won't want, it's called Dr. Horribe's Sing-Along Blog.' Nobody was ready to make any kind of commitment."
Whedon also explained how he intended to just pay for the show himself and planned to distribute it as an "event" by purposefully staggering the release of each episode, in turn aiming to create a water cooler experience for fans eagerly watching -- all without studio support.