Pushing Daisies

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Pushing Daisies
Second Pushing Daisies intertitle
Genre	Dramedy Fantasy
Created by	Bryan Fuller
Starring	Lee Pace Anna Friel Chi McBride Ellen Greene Swoosie Kurtz Kristin Chenoweth
Narrated by	Jim Dale
Composer(s)	Jim Dooley
Country of origin	USA
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	9 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Bruce Cohen Bryan Fuller Dan Jinks Barry Sonnenfeld Brooke Kennedy (ep. 2-7) Peter Ocko (ep. 8-present)
Producer(s)	Production Companies:[1] Jinks/Cohen Company. Living Dead Guy Productions. Warner Bros. Television.
Location(s)	United States
Running time	42 min (without commercials)
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Picture format	480i (SDTV), 720p (HDTV) ABC HD
Original run	October 3, 2007 – present
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Pushing Daisies is an American television dramedy created by Bryan Fuller (creator of Dead Like Me and co-creator of Wonderfalls) who also serves as executive producer alongside Bruce Cohen, Dan Jinks, Brooke Kennedy (episodes 2-7), Peter Ocko (episodes 8-present) and Barry Sonnenfeld.

Described as a "forensic fairy tale", about a pie maker who has the power to bring back the dead,^[2] the show premiered in the United States on October 3, 2007 on ABC.

Due to the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike, the show completed only nine episodes of its order of a full 22-episode season.^[3] On February 11, 2008 ABC picked up Pushing Daisies for the 2008-09 television season.^[4]

Contents 1 Plot 1.1 Episodes 2 Cast 2.1 Guest stars 3 Production 3.1 Production history 3.2 Visual design 3.3 Quirkiness 3.4 Music 3.5 Online comic 3.6 Trivia 4 Reception 4.1 Ratings 4.2 Critical Reception 4.3 Awards and nominations 5 International Broadcasting 6 DVD and Blu-ray Release 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Plot

Pushing Daisies centers on the life of Ned, a pie maker gifted with the mysterious ability to bring dead things back to life by touching them. There are a couple of conditions to the somewhat unwanted talent, however. Ned quickly learns that if something is revived for more than exactly one minute, something of similar "life value" in the vicinity drops dead, in a form of balance. Additionally, if he touches the revived thing a second time, it falls dead again - permanently. No amount of his prodding will ever bring it back again.

In the pilot episode, Ned discovers his gift as a child by resurrecting his Golden Retriever, Digby, after the dog is hit by a truck. He later brings back his mother when she dies of an aneurysm. However, by leaving her alive, he accidentally causes the death of the father of his childhood sweetheart, Charlotte "Chuck" Charles. Even worse, Ned's mother then falls dead permanently when she gives him his good-night kiss. Ned and Chuck are separated; her agoraphobic aunts Vivian and Lily move in to take the role of her parents, while he is shipped off to a lonely boarding school by his father.

Inheriting his mother's baking talents, Ned becomes a pie maker who owns a restaurant called "The Pie Hole," which he runs with the help of waitress Olive Snook. The restaurant is failing financially when private investigator Emerson Cod accidentally discovers Ned's gift and offers him a proposal; Ned will bring murder victims back to life, inquire about the circumstances of their untimely death, then touch them once more, all before his set limit of sixty seconds is up. Emerson will then solve the case and they will split the reward money.

The scheme succeeds until they learn that Chuck, whom Ned hasn't seen since childhood, has been murdered on a cruise. When her body is shipped back home, Ned revives her, but can't touch her a second time. Against his better judgment, Ned allows her to live and the larcenous funeral home director falls dead in her place. Ned and Chuck fall in love again and he brings her home to live with him under the unique circumstances of never being able to touch each other. Chuck is extraordinarily grateful upon receiving a second chance at life, and as such she starts to appreciate life as a truly precious resource and Ned, witnessing his vivacious beauty's happiness, begins to break out of his lonely shell.

The series continues as Ned, Chuck, Emerson, and Olive solve murder cases, negotiate relationships, and explore what it means to be fully alive. Their stories combine mystery, magic, dark humor, giddy romanticism, animals, technicolor landscapes, musical numbers, and, of course, pies.

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of Pushing Daisies episodes

[edit] Cast

Main article: List of characters in Pushing Daisies

Cast	Character
Lee Pace	Ned, owner and head pie maker at the Pie Hole
Anna Friel	Charlotte "Chuck" Charles, Ned's childhood sweetheart
Chi McBride	Emerson Cod, Ned's business partner
Jim Dale	Narrator
Ellen Greene	Vivian Charles, Chuck's aunt
Swoosie Kurtz	Lily Charles, Chuck's aunt (a new relationship with Chuck is revealed at the end of the episode, "corpsicle")
Kristin Chenoweth	Olive Snook, a waitress at the Pie Hole

[edit] Guest stars

• It was originally announced that Paul Reubens would be guesting as Alfredo Aldarisio, a traveling homeopathic antidepressant representative/salesman.^[5] The role was recast with three-time Tony nominee Raul Esparza. Reubens instead has been cast in the recurring role of Oscar Vibenius, a former olfactory expert who works for the Department of Water and Power. Oscar smells something peculiar about Chuck — and Digby, as well — and decides to get to the bottom of it.
• E! Online columnist Kristin Dos Santos did a one-line cameo in episode 1.03, "The Fun in Funeral".^[6]
• The Soup host Joel McHale appeared in episode 1.06 as Harold Hundin, a polygamist dog breeder who was killed by one of his wives.
• Molly Shannon appeared as Dilly Balsam, the owner of a saltwater-taffy emporium that sets up a shop across the street from the Pie Hole in what may or may not be a multi-episode story arc^[7], depending on the strike. It was reported that there was a possibility, depending once again on the strike, that Shannon could have been made a regular on the show. This, however, seems impossible now because Shannon was cast for another show as a regular.
• Mike White appeared as Dilly Balsam's brother and co-owner of a saltwater-taffy emporium, Billy Balsam.
• Christopher Sieber appeared as Napoleon Lenez in episode 1.07

[edit] Production

[edit] Production history

The series was greenlit and given a 13-episode order by ABC on May 11, 2007.^[8] On October 23, 2007, the show received a full season order.^[9] However, scripts for only nine episodes were completed before the start of the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike,^[10] Bryan Fuller reportedly made last-minute changes to the ninth episode to allow it to serve as a season finale, adjusting the episode to be a cliffhanger.^[7]

Due to the strike, Pushing Daisies did not finish its order of a 13-episode season. Instead, the writers planned to start work on the second season with production restarting around March to June 2008.

[edit] Visual design

Production Designer Michael Wylie told TV Guide that, "My goal was a storybook come to life. I wanted everything to look almost like an illustration." He achieved this by "concentrating on conflicting patterns in different colors, particularly reds and oranges, but per director Barry Sonnenfeld, virtually no blues."^[11] Cinematographer Michael Weaver told Variety that he and the producers decided the visuals should "feel somewhere between Amélie and a Tim Burton film — something big, bright and bigger than life."^[12]

Automobiles featured in the series are often mint-condition vintage vehicles, though some newer vehicles have been used (such as a mid-1990s Chevrolet Lumina APV minivan or a Hummer in a recent episode). Emerson drives a mid-1960s Lincoln Continental with suicide doors in like-new condition. Ned is also seen driving a very old, but like-new car, a Mercedes-Benz W108. Other characters drive decades-old vehicles as well.

[edit] Quirkiness

The distinctive visual style of the show is complemented by noticeably quirky traits in the naming of characters and locations and also in plotlines themselves.

Many characters' names are alliterative, and some have duplicate (or near-duplicate) fore- and surnames: Deedee Duffield, Billy Balsam, Charles Charles, Charlotte Charles, and so on. This doubling up of names is also apparent in place names (Coeur d'Coeurs being an obvious example), and a theme of "pairs" is apparent in episodes' plots (a pair of monkey statuettes in the pilot episode, for instance).

The distinctive storybook-esque style is continued within the overall design of the visual aspects. Regardless of the fact that the show focuses on murder investigations, the morgue is still painted in candy-cane stripes and many of the outfits worn by the characters are vibrantly colored, bright, and cheery (for example, Olive's work uniform is a lime-green pintucked dress, and Emerson is frequently seen wearing shades of purple.)

[edit] Music

The show contains original music composed and arranged by Jim Dooley.^[13] The first six minutes of the series pilot, "Pie-lette" were composed by Blake Neely. Dooley describes the musical score as having an Amélie type of sound (Yann Tiersen), which is a "wide-angled," adult fairy tale, with a narrator and this super-real world."^[13]

Both Kristin Chenoweth and Ellen Greene have backgrounds in musical theater. In Dummy, Chenoweth sang "Hopelessly Devoted to You" from the movie musical Grease. In Pigeon, Chenoweth and Greene harmonized on the They Might Be Giants hit, "Birdhouse in Your Soul". Also in Smell of Success, Greene sang "Morning Has Broken".

It was revealed at the 2008 Paley Festival that the producers are planning a soundtrack of the score and songs^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Online comic

The show's official website includes a comic book that was given at the 2007 Comic-Con International in San Diego, which features new mysteries and background information not shown on the televised episodes.^[14] The book also contains recaps of aired episodes.^[15]

[edit] Trivia

Some scenes of the 6th episode from season 1 "Bitches", was filmed at the same set as the "Gilmore Girls". You can clearly see the town square.

[edit] Reception

[edit] Ratings

See List of Pushing Daisies episodes for per-episode ratings

According to The Los Angeles Times, the heavily-promoted pilot episode ("Pie-lette") attracted over 13 million viewers in the United States; it was the most-watched new series and 14th in overall viewership for the week.^[16]

Time magazine's James Poniewozik named it one of the Top 10 New TV Series of 2007, ranking it at #5.^[17]

[edit] Critical Reception

Critics have responded well to the series, comparing the style and direction to that of director Tim Burton.^[18] The pilot, before it officially aired, was well-received by critics who were able to screen it. TV Guide's Michael Ausiello claimed that "ABC has found its next Lost!" upon review^[19] and the series has also been touted as "the fall show with the most spring buzz"^[20] by many, including the trade publication Variety.^[21] New York Magazine also provided it with a rave review, calling it "funny, imaginative and smart" while also claiming it "boasts Gilmore Girls-speed wit."^[22] The show was also heavily promoted by E! online columnist Kristin Dos Santos (who guest starred in one episode as the "30's Woman") and was featured in her Top 10 shows of 2007.

[edit] Awards and nominations

Year	Result	Category	Award Show	Recipient(s)
2007	Won	Best New Series	Family TV Awards
	Won	Best Television Series, Comedy, or Musical	Satellite Awards
	Nominated	Actress in a Television Series, Comedy, or Musical	Satellite Awards	Anna Friel
	Nominated	Actor in a Television Series, Comedy, or Musical	Satellite Awards	Lee Pace
2008	Nominated	Best New Comedy	People Choice Awards
	Nominated	TV Series, Musical or Comedy	Golden Globe Awards
	Nominated	Best Actor, TV Series, Musical or Comedy	Golden Globe Awards	Lee Pace
	Nominated	Best Actress, TV Series, Musical or Comedy	Golden Globe Awards	Anna Friel
	Won	Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Television - Comedy Series (for "Pie-lette")	DGA Awards	Barry Sonnenfeld (Director), Gabriela Vasquez (Unit Production Manager), Chris Soldo (First Assistant Director), Greg Hale (Second Assistant Director), Renee Hill-Sweet (Second Second Assistant Director)
	Nominated	Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Movies of the Week/Mini-Series'/Pilot for "Pie-lette"	ASC Award	Michael Weaver
	Nominated	Best New Series	WGA Awards	Chad Gomez Creasey, Dara Resnik Creasey, Bryan Fuller, Abby Gewanter, Jim Danger Gray, Lisa Joy, Kath Lingenfelter, Rina Mimoun, Jack Monaco, Scott Nimerfro, Peter Ocko
	Nominated	Best Episode for "Pie-lette"	WGA Awards	Bryan Fuller

[edit] International Broadcasting

• South Africa, premiered on January 22, 2008 on M-Net.
• Turkey, premiered on February 19, 2008 on CNBC-e.
• Israel, premiered on April 8, 2008 on satellite television provider Yes.
• Latin America, premiered on April 10 on Warner Bros.
• United Kingdom, premiered on April 12, 2008, on ITV1
• Ireland, premiered on April 28, 2008 on RTÉ TWO.
• Philippines, premiered on May 6, 2008 on 2nd Avenue.
• India, premiered on May 7, 2008 on Zee Cafe.
• Hong Kong, premiered on May 12, 2008.
• Singapore, premiered on June 9, 2008 on MediaCorp TV Channel 5 & HD5.
• New Zealand's TV2.
• Brazil, Warner Channel.

In the United Kingdom, Episode 2 was skipped in order to fit the 9 episodes into an 8-week slot^[23]. ITV have since made the episode available on their website for a limited time^[24].

It will begin airing in Poland and Portugal in early 2008.^[25][26]

In Australia, Channel 9 recently started advertising for Pushing Daisies, to air in 2008.
In Malaysia, Pushing Daisies will premier on June 10 2008 on 8TV.

[edit] DVD and Blu-ray Release

Season 1 will be released on Standard DVD and Blu-ray Disc in Region 1 on September 16, 2008^{[27] [28]} and four months earlier on Region 2 on June 23, 2008 ^[29] The sole bonus feature announced is "Pie Time - Time for Pie: Delicious Interactive Featurette with Flavorful, Fresh-Baked Pie Slices As Your Entrée and Cast/Creative Team Members Dishing Forkfuls of Series Secrets".

[edit] See also

Severus of Naples, a 4th century bishop of Naples who supposedly brought a man back to life for a moment in order to solve a fraud case.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Wikia has a wiki on this subject: Pushing Daisies
• Full Episodes online from ABC (US only)

v • d • e Pushing Daisies Episodes · Awards and nominations · Ratings Characters Ned · List of other characters Cast Lee Pace · Anna Friel · Chi McBride · Kristin Chenoweth · Swoosie Kurtz · Ellen Greene