"Dr. Horrible," With Neil Patrick Harris, Hits #1 on iTunes

By Adam Hetrick
July 16, 2008

The new musical web series "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," featuring stage and screen star Neil Patrick Harris, landed in the #1 slot on iTunes for its July 15 premiere.

Variety reports that "Dr. Horrible," the brainchild of "Buffy the Vampire" writer Joss Whedon, pulled in roughly 200,000 hits per hour following its 10:30 PM debut on the official website of the new series. The demand for the premiere episode was so great that the original "Dr. Horrible" site crashed, forcing Whedon to move the site to a larger server able to accommodate eager fans.

The first installment of "Dr. Horrible," which is also available for a $1.99 download on iTunes, ranked #1 on the popular music hub for much of Tuesday.

Penned by "Buffy the Vampire" scribe Joss Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, "Dr. Horrible" features Harris in the title role as "a low-rent super villain" wannabe.

The series also features Nathan Fillion as the superhero Captain Hammer and Felicia Day as Penny, the object of Dr. Horrible's affection. Subsequent "Dr. Horrible" web-isodes are scheduled to air July 17 and 19.

Music and lyrics for the series are penned by Joss and Jed Whedon, with additional lyrics by Maurissa Tancharoen. Joss Whedon is also responsible for creating the cult-favorite musical episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," entitled "Once More with Feeling."

The series was produced on a shoestring budget over a period of six days during the writers strike. Three episodes, roughly ten-minutes each, were filmed for the series that Whedon hopes to ultimately bundle together for DVD distribution.

Neil Patrick Harris' Broadway credits include Assassins, Proof and Cabaret as well as the L.A. company of Rent, the Reprise! and New York Philharmonic productions of Sweeney Todd and the London mounting of tick, tick . . . BOOM! Harris is also well known for his television work on "How I Met Your Mother" and "Doogie Howser, M.D."

For further information visit drhorrible.com.