Pushing Daisies

Something we all may have missed after the ax fell on our favorite show is this article from the Dallas News —

Here’s a glimmer of hope for fans of the critically acclaimed but modestly viewed ABC comedy Pushing Daisies. Last week, executive producer Bryan Fuller confirmed that the series had been canceled.

But two nights later, character actor Beth Grant was in Dallas attending the Black Tie Dinner, a fundraiser for gay and lesbian support groups. She reported that she got a call from Mr. Fuller just prior to the Black Tie Dinner saying Pushing Daisies was not canceled.

She is to appear in the Dec. 3 episode as a crossover character from another Bryan Fuller series, Wonderfalls.

We’ll see.

So what does this mean? Was there a miscommunication between  the actor Beth Grant and Bryan Fuller? Is the show, in fact, not only renewed for Season 2, but that doesn’t mean it’s altogether canceled? Can it return for Season 3? Are we pinning our hopes up?

What do you think Daisies fans?

If you missed Kristin Chenoweth’s performance at the Macy Thanksgiving Day Parade early today, here she is —

Last night’s episode ends with a cliffhanger. We’re about to see Chuck’s dad in the flesh! If you’ve been reading up on Pushing Daisies news, then you’re probably aware he shows up in the next two episodes. Yep, Ned is reviving Chuck’s dad after twenty years. They need him alive as he is probably the key to the mystery surrounding an old friend of his who has come back to town asking and poking into their private lives. An old friend, who may endanger his daughter, Chuck and her secrets (and Ned’s secrets); and an old friend who has Aunt Vivian smitten.

Aunt Lily is less enthralled by this person, Dwight. Chasing him off with a shotgun may have given him the warning Aunt Lily was someone to be reckon with. In fact, she was able to steal back the pocket watch that belongs to Chuck. But Dwight knows a lot of secrets, including the fact that the daughter Aunt Lily thought was dead, is very much alive in The Pie Hole.

Meanwhile, the case of the week seemed like a classic story of a gold-digging young wife who murders his aging husband. Jennifer Elise Cox, as the annoyingly superficial and dense young wife played her part so well that I wish she comes back to do more of it (unlikely that’s every gonna happen now!). Except this wasn’t a classic case. In solving the case, it seems what it was, was actually an unfortunate accident.

I loved the scene with Olive Snook dressing up as a character Eva Gabor played in an old series, Green Acres. And Pigby was all dolled up too!

Ned saying, “I love you too much to make you suffer like that…” when Chuck suggested they dig up her dad to help with the Dwight situation. Ahh, Ned. This is the reason why you’re in my subconscious and I’m having dreams about you!

Tomorrow’s episode, and this show’s 7th, is going to once again going to impress us fans, based on how elaborate this set is and based on that funny look on Emerson’s face. Hah.

Episode Title: Robbing Hood

Episode Summary: Ned, Chuck and Emerson investigate the case of a dead millionaire (Shelley Berman) who may have been murdered by a latter-day Robin Hood (Danny Comden) or his much-younger money grubbing widow (Jennifer Elise Cox). Meanwhile, Lily fumes as the suspicious Dwight Dixon (Stephen Root) begins romancing clueless Vivian.

Written By: Jim Danger Gray
Directed By: Paul Shapiro

Spoiler notes after the cut…

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Barry Sonnenfeld, the award-winning director of Pushing Daisies Pie-lette episode, is set to produce and also possibly direct the pilot of a new 30 minute single-camera comedy that CBS and Sony Pictures TV are planning to develop for next year.

The show, tentatively titled “Things a Man Should Never Do Past 30″ is inspired from author David Katz’s humorous book, who also wrote a list of 500 rules for men in Esquire Magazine.

The list is based from Katz’s personal experiences and according to his editor, AJ Jacobs who will be writing the pilot with him —- “The show is about a guy working at men’s magazine who is reluctant to embrace adulthood and his friend who is an immersion journalist”. These writers or print journalists will be supervised by a TV veteran, Al Higgins, who is set to become the project’s showrunner.

Barry Sonnenfeld believes in the idea of this new series — “I thought it was a great idea for a show about modern-day men and women dating and trying to grow up and commit while at the same time surrounded by many reasons why not to grow up.”

Here’s a wishful thinking though — can Lee Pace potentially star in it, if he’s fit for the part? Can you imagine Lee doing a single-camera comedy?

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

With her movie Four Christmases playing in theaters soon, Kristin Chenoweth talks to Celebrity Parade about how the holiday celebrations are done in her own household, surrounded by families —

Q: You’re really mean to your sister in the movie. Have you ever had to cope with sibling rivalry?

A: I was fortunate enough to have an older brother who was interested in chemical engineering, calculus—everything that I’m not. I should never be near a math book and he should never sing. So we didn’t really have sibling rivalry. It was more of ‘Let me take care of you.’

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Emerson: A magic show? Where did I put that rat’s ass I could give? Magic ain’t nothing but a voodoo grift.

Chuck: What do you got against a magic show? There’s sequins and drama and the promise of bloodshed…
Olive: Next to pageants, they’re my favorite thing.
Ned: They give me acid reflux.
Olive: Oh, here, have a lozenge.
Ned: A magic lozenge that’ll make me forget they’re putting on a magic show, which is the same kind of show my dad put on, so what they’re pulling out of their magic hats isn’t a rabbit, it’s my childhood trauma. They’re wearing it like a cape and taking it to the stage.

Ned: I love magic. As much as I love other forms of popular entertainment, like Boxarate tae-kill-do cage fighting or monster trucks on ice.

Emerson: While we can appreciate and sympathize with your predicament, Mr. Herrmann…
The Great Herrmann: Please, call me Great.
Emerson: No.

Emerson: Here I was just about to tell you all to shut the hell up, and the you stopped talking so I didn’t have to.

Olive [to Chuck and Ned]: Do either of you have a gun? Then I’m going with Emerson..

Ned: It’s all very confusing. There’s murdered magic dads and the promise of taste pate with tuna sauce.
Emerson: What do you think you were saying in your head? Cause that ain’t what came out of your mouth.

Emerson: Honey, you been spurned, and next to the spurned lover, the spurned employee rides shotgun. On the homicide Chuck wagon.

Vivian: Charles has been dead for 20 years.
Dwight: I’ve been in prison for 22.
Vivian: Emotional or Federal?
Dwight: I’m going to say yes to both.
Vivian: I can only say yes to one.

Lilly: Do you have a point to this visit? Or did you just stop by for snorts and giggles?
Dwight: Snorts and giggles are the raisins in my oatmeal.

Ned: Have you been crank-calling Lily again.
Chuck: Umm, not recently. Although that does depend on how you define “recently.”

Olive: Isn’t it funny how easy it is to remain calm when everyone else is freaking out?

The Great Herrmann: What do you tell a couple of kids you’ve never met that their dad, who you’ve never met, has just dropped them like they were hot? You can’t sugarcoat that turd.

Here’s the first actor from the show to speak of Pushing Daisies cancellation, Kristin Chenoweth:

It’s heartbreaking to watch, if you’re a big fan of everything and everyone involved in the series.

Thanks to Lisa for the tip.

So what did I say yesterday? That as beautiful as the episode was, it’s not the type an average viewer would stick around for. Watching Pushing Daisies requires a lot of…thought processing, of making use of our senses. It’s a tough pitch to viewers who just want to sit and watch.

This week was Daisies’ worst rating yet. Although I still have this tiny morsel of hope left, I think I’ve come to terms with the fact that this show will not be picked up for the rest of the season (I am hopeful for a third!). Apparently, that’s seems to be the case. ABC has not ordered any more episodes beyond the 13 they have finished. And Bryan Fuller has been missing calls from the network.

“I assumed that’s what [the call] was about. I can’t help but feel immense pride when it comes to ‘Pushing Daisies.’ I’m grateful TO everyone and FOR everyone who brought the show to life and for the very loyal audience that embraced us. If we are indeed dead on ABC, we now have to convince DC Comics to let us tell the rest of the season’s story lines out in comic book form and convince Warner Bros. features to let ‘Pushing Daisies’ live again as a movie.” — Bryan Fuller to THR Feed

The ratings from last Wednesday night:

8.00 Block
Bones Fox 10.73 M/3.1
Gary Unmarried CBS 8.14 M/2.7
New Adventures Of Old Christine CBS 8.09 M/2.5
Knight Rider NBC 5.12 M/1.5
Pushing Daisies ABC 4.86 M/1.8
America’s Next Top Model The CW 4.80 M/2.3

9.00 Block
Criminal Minds CBS 16.38 M/4.3
Private Practice ABC 7.14 M/2.4
House (Repeat) Fox 5.73 M/2.2
Life NBC 5.32 M/1.7
Stylista The CW 2.16 M/1.0

10.00 Block
CSI: New-York CBS 14.00 M/3.8
Law & Order NBC 7.58 M/2.2
Dirty Sexy Money ABC 5.63 M/1.8

Bearing cancellation, I do hope that ABC decides to air the remaining episodes and finish all thirteen.

In the meantime, we fans have to stick together and set our sights on a third season. We can still push this, shortened second season be damned. Continue to Save Pushing Daisies by doing any of these suggestions.

After a three (two?) week hiatus, Pushing Daisies comes back to deliver one magical episode in terms of visuals effects, writing, acting and quality of story. Oh Oh Oh…It’s Magic has been called it’s best episode yet. And I can’t debunk that. This really was one of its most beautiful. The last five minutes of it were purely golden…I’m so sure it left every fan welling up and hugging someone. Didn’t you just die watching Chuck and Ned inside the car, with Ned wanting to touch her as she listens to her mom? I was watching this one alone and I hugged my knees to my chest! It was sad but oddly, so beautiful.

At the back of my mind though, I almost wish this show was less of a clever, spectacular, spontaneous ensemble. Because bewitching as it was, I think that it does have the tendency to tune out viewers who only mindlessly watch a TV program at 8:00 in the evening. Oh Oh Oh…It’s Magic was so high up there in terms of distinction that I sense regular viewers may feel…choked. So many things went on. Most of your senses have to work when watching this episode, that I’m afraid it’s only us true blue fans of the series who watched with smile on our faces last night. I hope I’m wrong and ratings prove me otherwise.

Anyway, best moments? I can’t zero in on one particular instance. But I did love —

• Cementia — funny word!
• Emerson’s one liner always cracks me up. I loved that rats ass quote. I should put that up later with the quotes for this week.
• The twins are adorable… sometimes too adorable, too sweet, too stiff. I feel they are wind up dolls or something.
• Big half-brother Ned, consoling his twin half-brothers when their surrogate dad died. Big half-brother Ned who’s against vigilante killing. Big half-brother Ned who is also sweet-boyfriend Ned. I still can’t get over that last few minutes. No-touching policy aside, Ned would have gotten some good lovin’ the way he pleases Chuck in so many ways, emotionally.
• Chuck listening to the story of her birth — wonderful! So emotionally charged.
• Aunt Vivian on a date. Flirty! Hah.
• Fred Willard. What about him, huh? He was great, wasn’t he?

And what is up with Dwight Dixon huh? Is he the reason why Ned’s father disappears on his family? Is Ned’s father a spook?

Get behind the campaign to Save Pushing Daisies! There is no news about the status of the show yet, we’ve got to keep the campaign going.

And remember to watch tomorrow night’s episode, Oh Oh it’s Magic.

Here’s a video compilation I found of Youtube of Kristin Chenoweth’s performances, which earned for her a Point Courage Award recently:

Despite a stronger buzz about its imminent cancellation, ABC has not yet decided on the fate of Pushing Daisies. This comes even after the show is not up on the network’s Winter Schedule. Taking over the slot for Pushing Daisies come Wednesday nights in January is the new season of Scrubs and the freshman series The Goode Family.

Production has wrapped its 13th and final episode last week.  And even as this report says things are not looking very good, this is what Bryan Fuller says ABC feels about the show:

• “Our ABC exec was on the set last night saying they are still swinging in the fight to keep ‘Daisies’ on the air,” Fuller said. “Spirits are high and hopeful and everyone here is very proud of our work and this show.”

If the show isn’t going to get the axe, it may be shortened to 13 episodes with a 3rd season renewal.

In the meantime, here’s the new schedule for ABC for January 2009:

Mondays
8:00/7:00c - “The Bachelor” (New Season)
9:30/8:30c - “Samantha Who?”
10:00/9:00c - “True Beauty” (New Series)

Tuesdays
8:00/7:00c - “Border Security USA” (New Series)
9:00/8:00c - “According to Jim” (New Season)
9:30/8:30c - “According to Jim” (New Season)
10:00/9:00c - “Eli Stone”

Wednesdays
8:00/7:00c - “Scrubs” (New Season)
8:30/7:30c - “The Goode Family” (New Series)
9:00/8:00c - “Lost” (New Season)
10:00/9:00c - “The Unusuals” (New Series)

Thursdays
8:00/7:00c - “Ugly Betty”
9:00/8:00c - “Grey’s Anatomy”
10:00/9:00c - “Private Practice” (New Time Slot)

Fridays
8:00/7:00c - “Wife Swap”
9:00/8:00c - “Supernanny”
10:00/9:00c - “20/20″

Saturdays
8:00/7:00c - “Saturday Night Movie”

Sundays
7:00/6:00c - “America’s Funniest Home Videos”
8:00/7:00c - “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”
9:00/8:00c - “Desperate Housewives”
10:00/9:00c - “Brothers & Sisters”

After the discussion from the Paley Center panel with Pushing Daisies writers the other day, this is what we know —

• That the show isn’t part of ABC’s January line-up. In its place will be Scrubs and Lost.
• That there is still no word about its cancellation. Although the last of the 13 episodes will be finished filming this week.
• That after January, if the remaining nine episodes are not yet ordered by ABC, Bryan Fuller may return to work on Heroes. The writers from Pushing Daisies may continue with the story via a Pushing Daisies comic book, which according to Fuller, “should clear the slate for a move”
• As of the moment, the show’s status is really still in limbo. Maybe the network is still feeling it, gauging it? Pushing Daisies has a lot going for them. Sans the ratings, it remains to be a multi-awarded television show. And I guess that accounts for something really big.
• That if the thirteenth episode this season will be Daisies last, Fuller says it is something all of them (in their team) can be very proud of. Viewers should look forward to a satisfying ending.
• In  the next episodes, we will see a shift in the mood of the story which can only be described as “‘Twin Peaks’-ian soap opera.”
• That a Pushing Daisies soundtrack will proceed its release on December 9th.
• Future episode guests include Wendie Malick and Nora Dunn, playing the Aqua Dolls rivals to Aunt Lily and Vivian. The Aqua Dolls are described as the Sarah Palin of Synchronized Swimming.

More details are available at TV Week.

Today is a very crucial day for Pushing Daisies.

ABC is scheduled to announce it’s January line-up and sources indicate that the show isn’t going to be on it.

But I’m still very hopeful, especially since Pushing Daisies at the Paley Center panel is taking place later today. I think we’re still going to hear good news, like what was mentioned earlier. (I’m all for a shorter season, than no new season at all!)

And to keep the positive vibe going — here’s another feather on Pushing Daisies cup. Congratulations to the casting directors of Pushing Daisies for winning the Artios Awards!!

The details are after the jump…

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