Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo

Behold the future of the internet... TV execs are no doubt waking up at 4.48 am screaming at what Joss Whedon (he of Buffy fame) is doing this week. Currently uploading is Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, an internet musical miniseries in three acts. Act 1 is up there now, with Acts II and III to follow in the next few days. Why? Mr Whedon himself explains:

Once upon a time, all the writers in the forest got very mad with the Forest Kings and declared a work-stoppage. The forest creatures were all sad; the mushrooms did not dance, the elderberries gave no juice for the festival wines, and the Teamsters were kinda pissed. (They were very polite about it, though.) During this work-stoppage, many writers tried to form partnerships for outside funding to create new work that circumvented the Forest King system.

Frustrated with the lack of movement on that front, I finally decided to do something very ambitious, very exciting, very mid-life-crisisy. Aided only by everyone I had worked with, was related to or had ever met, I single-handedly created this unique little epic. A supervillain musical, of which, as we all know, there are far too few.

The idea was to make it on the fly, on the cheap – but to make it. To turn out a really thrilling, professionalish piece of entertainment specifically for the internet. To show how much could be done with very little. To show the world there is another way. To give the public (and in particular you guys) something for all your support and patience. And to make a lot of silly jokes. Actually, that sentence probably should have come first.

It streams free, but you can download for a small fee. Theoretically. And guess what? Australian iTunes doesn't sell it (get your act together, guys) so even those Australians who don't want to "go all piratey" can't get their greebly little hands on it. And thanks to the Federal Government's cack-handed attitude to broadband, it's a bit glitchy to stream. But worth the patience, all the same, for us deprived antipodeans.