In the fall of 2007, no new network show got as much critical buzz as Pushing Daisies. The pilot was directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, a filmmaker known for big hits like Men In Black but also for quirkier fare such as The Addams Family. That was news in itself, but what made Pushing Daisies such a notable show went beyond Sonnenfeld’s involvement.
Pushing Daisies: Like Stepping Out Into Oz
The first thing a viewer would notice is the look. Where so many prime-time dramas seem to be filmed through grimy grey windows, Pushing Daisies is alive with colour. Switching channels from, say, CSI to Pushing Daisies is like the moment when Dorothy opens the door of her Kansas farm house and steps out into Oz.
But the look goes beyond the colour saturation. On what other show would a coroner’s office be in a candy cane-coloured palace? On what other show would a pie bakery have an actual pie crust for a roof?
Pushing Daisies: The Plot and Cast
Pushing Daisies was also remarkable for having two relative unknowns as its lead couple, while filling supporting roles with bigger stars. Lee Pace, who had been in a couple of high-profile films and who had worked with creator Bryan Fuller before, starred as Ned, the pie maker. Anna Friel, quite well-known in her native England but a new face to American audiences, starred as Charlotte “Chuck” Charles, Ned’s childhood sweetheart.
The romance between Ned and Chuck was one of the cutest on television, but it also had a barrier no other TV couple ever faced. Ned could not only bake pies, he could wake the dead. But the dead could only live for one minute or someone else would die, and if he touched them again, they would die forever. In the pilot, Chuck is murdered, and rather than touching her back to death, Ned lets her live – but they can never touch again.
Rounding out the cast were Broadway stars Kristin Chenoweth (as Olive Snook, waitress at the Pie Hole) and Ellen Greene (Vivian Charles, one of Chuck’s aunts) as well as film and TV stalwarts Chi McBride (as Emerson Cod, private detective) and Swoosie Kurtz (as Lily Charles, Chuck’s other aunt).
Pushing Daisies: The Ratings
For such a weird and complicated show, Pushing Daisies was doing quite well in the ratings until the writers’ strike cut it short. But like every other show that chose not to come back after the strike, it lost a massive portion of its audience, and ABC, which had only given it a 13-episode order for season two, effectively cancelled it before all the ordered episodes had even aired.
Story-wise, the show had left off with Chuck having secretly smuggled her long-dead, recently re-awakened, father out of his grave, and with Ned about to receive a visit from his own long-absent, but still naturally alive, dad. The two men had some kind of history together that was intertwined with that of Lily Charles, who was revealed in the season one finale to be Chuck’s mother, not her aunt. Frustrated viewers were left hanging, wondering where the show could be going from there.
Pushing Daisies Returns May 30th
But those viewers are in luck. ABC is burning off the remaining episodes of Pushing Daisies, beginning tonight (May 30th) at 10 p.m. Eastern. Whether the writers are able to wrap up the storyline in the final three episodes remains to be seen, but lovers of pie, romance and visually-arresting murders can rejoice that their show is back, at least for a little while.
