In honour of its five-year anniversary, this week’s Web Series of the Week is Joss Whedon’s award-winning online musical Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog!

We all remember the Writers’ Guild of America Strike of 2008 as a dark time for television. Many hit series were cut short by the strike, as the Writers’ Guild forbade its members from writing anything for profit until an agreement had been made.

But in retrospect, this Writers’ Strike was the best thing that could have happened for the web series movement because without it, Joss Whedon might never have had time to write and produce Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog!

In July 2008, Dr. Horrible‘s three 14-minute episodes were released with two-day intervals, on the still functioning website DrHorrible.com. Now, five years later, we look back at the iconic series and the impact it has had on the online scripted series industry.

Introducing ‘Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog’

“The hammer is your what?!”
 

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is a musical in three acts, written by Joss Whedon, his brothers Jed and Zack Whedon, and Maurissa Tancharoen.

It stars acclaimed actor Neil Patrick Harris in the title role, with Nathan Fillion as the smarmy hero Captain Hammer, and Felicia Day as their love interest, Penny.

The would-be supervillain Dr. Horrible (otherwise known as Billy) struggles to be accepted into the Evil League of Evil, while trying to win the heart of Penny, the girl from the laundromat.

When she starts dating his arch-nemesis Captain Hammer, Dr. Horrible begins to step up his game to woo Penny with his Death Ray gun. But the story ends in tragedy, leaving Billy lost and more determined to be evil than ever.

And of course, we can’t forget about the music! Not only are songs like “A Man’s Gotta Do” and “Brand New Day” irresistibly sing-along-able (hey, it’s in the title), but the musical element also gives the series a lingering cult value – like with Buffy‘s musical episode, fans still gather for special Rocky Horror-type events at conventions like the San Diego Comic-Con.

Along with several online awards, Dr. Horrible managed to win an Emmy in 2009 for “Outstanding Special Class – Short-format Live-Action Entertainment Programs.” Last year, the series had its television debut on The CW.

The legacy of Whedon’s iconic web series

Come on everyone, sing along now, one more time!
 

While Dr. Horrible did not manage to win our Ultimate Web Series Poll a few months back, this is arguably the most important web series ever made.

Felicia Day’s The Guild is often credited as launching the web series movement in 2007, and it was this series which first inspired Whedon to create his own. But the star power of Dr. Horrible was what really put web series on the map.

Not only did Whedon already have a significant cult following from Buffy and Firefly, but the series’ top-notch production value and recognisable stars meant that it wasn’t just internet geeks (like us!) who wanted to watch it.

With the popularity of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, suddenly web series had become a thing, and once “legitimate” actors and writers like Whedon and his crew had begun to cross over, others began to seriously consider the idea of using the medium of the web to distribute scripted series.

Today, the internet is cluttered with web series; ranging from the amazingly written, acted and executed, to the amateurish, half-hearted and half-finished. It can be quite a task to wade through them all to find the true gems, but looking for series inspired by Dr. Horrible is a good place to start.

There is The Guild, of course, which wrapped up its final season in January, after six incredible years. There is The Legend of Neil, created by Day’s Guild co-star Sandeep Parikh, which lovingly parodies the classic Nintendo game The Legend of Zelda.

And of course there is Husbands the Series, the groundbreaking online comedy from Whedon’s co-writer on Buffy, Jane Espenson, and Brad Bell. Whedon likes this series so much, he even guest starred in season 2!

Some might argue that Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is so professionally done that it stands in a league (of evil) of its own, and even five years later, it still stands out as being one of the most professional and entertaining web series of all time.

But for the web series movement, this is a good thing. Dr. Horrible legitimized the art form in a crucial way, and would-be creators of online drama can use it as a benchmark; a standard of excellence which they can aspire to achieve with their own work.

A ‘Dr. Horrible’ sequel?

“I heard your last Doctor was Horrible…”
 

Although five years have passed since Dr. Horrible, fans of the cult series aren’t giving up hope for a sequel, or maybe even a movie.

After all, the series was left so open-ended, and considering its massive success, it seems like a project Whedon and the actors might be interested in returning to.

And it looks like Dr. Horrible 2 is indeed happening – the question is when. Last year, Whedon stated that writing was in full swing and all the actors were on board, but they simply couldn’t find the time.

Just like with Firefly, it seems that Whedon has too much on his plate to find the time to return to this project. The last update came in April, when the writer told Zap2It that he would have to put Dr. Horrible 2 on hold until after Avengers 2.

“We’ve written a bunch of it,” he says. “It’s really just getting that into production, there’s too much even for me. There is such a thing.”

But hey, who knows? Maybe one day he’ll have Neil and Nathan over for dinner and get bored – it worked for Much Ado About Nothing!

Meanwhile, let’s celebrate the five-year anniversary of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog the only way we know how – by watching the whole thing again and singing along as loud and off-key as we can!

Stay up to date with news and updates from the Dr. Horrible 2 team via their official Twitter account.