Hey, remember that time when the Writers Guild of America went on strike from the end of 2007 to the beginning of 2008? You know, that time when all of our favorite movies and television shows got royally shafted because studios and writers couldn't agree upon a fair way to share new media profits, resulting in an obviously rushed fourth season of "Lost," a full year delay on "24" and a truncated season of "Heroes" that was probably a blessing in disguise because "Heroes" was already an awful show?

Yeah, that kind of sucked... but it wasn't all bad.

Negativity aside, the Writers Strike afforded Joss Whedon with enough free time to bring "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" into the realm of reality, yielding iconic characters such as Nathan Fillion's Captain Hammer and, of course, Neil Patrick Harris himself as Doctor Horrible. It's one of the funniest pieces of original fiction that came out of the 2000's, and it's all thanks to the then sudden availability of writers for online ventures.



Because of that brief moment of discomfort that birthed "Dr. Horrible," we can all now purchase this amazing Dr. Horrible animated maquette, currently available for pre-order on Entertainment Earth. Well, some of us can purchase it, as the statues are limited to just 1,000 pieces. Still, that's 1,000 more pieces than would have existed if not for the Writers Strike.

So just remember, as lame as that time period was, it did bring about some good - if nothing else, it produced the closest thing to a Doogie Howser animated maquette as we're ever likely to see. That, to me, is certainly worth a little bit of pain.

[via Topless Robot]