Echo, we hardly knew ye. (Fox photo)

Well, it looks like Joss Whedon will have plenty of time on his hands to direct that episode of “Glee.” His current series, “Dollhouse,” appears dead in the water.

Fox has announced that the sci-fi thriller starring Eliza Dushku won’t air during November sweeps, which starts next week. That’s seriously bad news for fans, because it means Fox figures it’ll get better ratings out of reruns of “House” and “Bones” than from original episodes of “Dollhouse.” That can’t be good for its long-term prospects.

Friday night’s episode will be the last to air until the beginning of December, when Fox will run back-to-back episodes over three Fridays. In other words, they’ll be burned off. That’ll still leave three episodes with no scheduled airdate. Will they air in 2010? Who knows. If I had to lay down a bet, I’d say they’ll get burned off on a few Fridays in February, when everyone’s busy watching the Olympics. If not, you’re probably going to have to wait for the Season 2 DVD sometime next year.

It’s too bad, “Dollhouse” just added the awesome Ray Wise to the cast. Between this and “Reaper,” the poor guy can’t catch a break.