I am so desperately going to miss “Pushing Daisies.”
I still remember sitting at dinner with Len Wein during the San Diego con a couple years ago and he was describing this new series he’d just seen the pilot for. He couldn’t be effusive enough about it. He talked about how it was brilliant and funny and quirky and smart. And it all sounded terrific, and I said so and I meant it, but all I could think was, “No way it lasts.”
This has been a brutal season for shows I was enjoying. “Sarah Conner” got terminated. “Eli Stone” was pulverized. “Reaper” was condemned. “Chuck” barely survived, but God knows what the budget cuts are going to do to it. But somehow the worst was the plucking of “Pushing Daisies.” From Jim Dale’s narrative (I’ve started using “the facts were these” in daily speech) to the whimsical scripts (television has little tolerance for whimsy in the one-hour form) to the brilliant balance of the stellar cast, there was virtually nothing like it on the air. And now there is literally nothing like it on the air.
And I can’t even enjoy Kristen Chenowith in “Legally Mad” since NBC passed on it. I wonder if it was whimsical?
PAD
• 
Fear not, all lose ends will be tied up in forthcoming Pushing Daisies comics by Bryan Fuller.
I’d say television has little tolerance for whimsy, period.
Agreed on all counts – a wonderful show… and while a comic book will be nice, it’s not the same thing…
I hope Fuller gets to do the “Pushing Daisies” movie he’s hinted at…
Don’t be mad at me, but people like me may be part of why this show’s gone.
On paper, and from the previews, I should’ve loved, Loved, LOVED Pushing Daisies. I like quirky. I like the cast. The premise caught me the first time I heard it.
But…for some reason, the show just never “clicked” for me. It wasn’t that I thought it was a *bad* show…I didn’t. But, neither did I find myself caring about the show. It never became a “must watch” show, but did become an “I’ll record it and watch it later” show…but “later” never came.
I know, I know.
It was literally the only bright spot in my television viewing…. chromatically bright, emotionally bright, you name it.
My heart just shrivelled some more.
Not a big Billy Joal fan but I have to say it. Only the good die young.
I suspect next on the chopping block will no doubt be “Kings”. Given just a little more time it could sore(IMO).
BAH! Just read that The King is dead. Not to be renewed
Very sad, just watched the final episode now.
One thing I am disappointed in with shows that are cancelled is that usually they know there is a good chance they will not get renewed and they do these huge cliffhangers and leave the audience hanging forever (looking at you Terminator!). It really sucks and I think a writer has a responsibility to try and wrap up a show for the fans. Why should I buy Sarah Conner Terminator Cronicles on DVD when it is an incomplete story? I wouldnt buy a novel Peter David wrote in which he admitted the last 30 pages were left out because he want out of money or desire to finish it.
So I beg writers and producers of bubble shows not to end their season on cliffhangers and pray for a new season. Or like they did with Farscape, the Network pays for one more tv-movie episode to wrap it all up.
That being said, I hate the way these shows are judged as being worthy of TV. With so many people DVRing, Buying the DVD season or watching online, there has to be a better way.
Maybe at the end of the season networks ask fans to vote to see if the show gets another season and if they get enough phone calls and emails, they create a new season.
It seems network people are oblvious and have a thick head to what people like to see. Family Guy was in limbo for many years before being brought back and finally Futurama is being given another chance. Its great that these shows are back, but its also easy to get the cast back when you are talking animation, you cannot do that with Eli Stone and such. The facts are these…
“Maybe at the end of the season networks ask fans to vote to see if the show gets another season and if they get enough phone calls and emails, they create a new season.”
As soon as they cancelled the first show under that system, fans of the cancelled show would start angrily posting about how unfair that system is.
Another possibility is “Pushing Daisies Direct to DVD” movies ala “Babylon5-The Lost Years” and “Trancers.”
I’ve seen enough of the first season to understand the basic premise but several members of my family didn’t and dismissed it as “weird” and “stupid” which is another way of saying “I don’t get it, so I don’t like it!” Thanks alot bottom-feeders! It looks like more “reality shows” like “I’m a Celebrity! Get Me Out of Here!” for me to avoid like The Plague!!
“With so many people DVRing, buying the DVD season or watching online, there has to be a better way.”
Exactly what is happening with comic books. We are in a transition phase, or possibly in a dying phase, in both cases.
DVRing is recorded in the same way that regular watching is. Nielsen asks their diary keepers to keep track of that, too. That’s where they get all those numbers for Live +1 and Live +7 that they talk about. So DVR hasn’t really changed that part of the equation at all. There’s even estimates about the percentage of people who don’t fast forward over the commercials, and it’s higher I expected, which is good for getting a show some advertising dollars.
DVDs are a bit of a guessing game for any first or second season show. I’m not sure they’ll ever have a great way of guessing how much money the DVDs will make before they come out. So that leads right back to the situation where they’ll make a judgement call and any time the call is negative, the fans will be unhappy.
Watching online, however, gives very reliable numbers. The network knows exactly how much revenue they get Hulu because Hulu writes them checks. No reporting estimates to advertisers, they know exactly how many views any episode gets.
All of this is already being taken into consideration. It’s not really a “there must be a better way” situation because the Network people aren’t just ignoring all this information and pretending that it is still 1985. They know they can make money off DVR viewings and DVDs, so they take those things into consideration. Anyone following the Dollhouse renewal closely knows that strong DVR numbers were a major factor in that show getting a second season.
Re: Chuck. Well, the one thing’s that’s been reported for sure with respect to the budget cuts is that next season there will be a permanent Subway set as part of the chain’s sponsorship deal.
No word on whether Adam Baldwin will have to regularly launch into a “5 Dollar Footlong” jingle as part of the deal.
I’ve seen rumors of the permanent Subway set, but I hadn’t seen it confirmed. Where did you read that?
Wouldn’t it be nice if a network gave a promise that any show that lasted at least 1 year would get an actual final episode…might encourage people to commit to a show that (like Daisies) is wonderful but has “won’t last” written all over it.
.
I knew that show would break my heart and it did.
I just taped the last PUSHING DAISIES (and am surprised and glad no spoilers are here), and I’m sorry to see it go. This series was like a Tim Burton movie come to television, gloriously so. It was almost infinitely quotable, the characters were all fun, and it took what could have been a one-note show (using info from dead people to solve crimes) and made it refreshing. But, to paraphrase Mister Nobody from Grant Morrison’s DOOM PATROL [and if anybody has the exact quote, please post it here], the people tire of it, they tire of the weird and unusual so quickly; but they never seem to tire of the mundane.
I had thought the series ended a few months ago, but then I stumbled across the final episodes. (Talk about not supporting a product: ABC aired them Saturday nights from 10-11, with no advertising or info that they were even on!) I’m not surprised that they left it as a cliffhanger: With all the great shows on cable (I’d say the major cable networks are more popular for their original series than the movies that are already on dvd), I’m sure there’s the hope it’ll get picked up rather than finish everything off.
Besides, who *really* wants everything finalized and explained away all nice and neat? Part of the magic is not knowing; and this being a fairy tale, let’s have some mystery instead of the biological questions about the dead coming back fully functional, or the mreligious ones about the afterlife.
“I had thought the series ended a few months ago, but then I stumbled across the final episodes. (Talk about not supporting a product: ABC aired them Saturday nights from 10-11, with no advertising or info that they were even on!)”
Summer is known in TV land as “burn-off” season. This is where they dump remaining episodes of cancelled shows, pilots they paid for that weren’t picked up, and other stuff they don’t really expect that anyone cares about.
And they sure aren’t going to waste advertising space (read: dollars) on promoting shows that are already cancelled.
If anyone missed some of these because of the lack of advertising, the last three episodes are at ABC’s website.
Couple of things:
First:
They’d be idiots NOT to put a subway set into Chuck, just make it Sarah’s next cover job. I’m shocked they didn’t do it from the start.
Second:
Amongst all these unfortunate cancellations, Scrubs got renewed for a 9th season. I bìŧçhëd at maximum volume when I heard about that. Several worthy shows got the chopping block before their time, and Scrubs had its proper goodbye this year. Were they willing to produce the “new format” Scrubs free with a full tank of gas?
Bill Lawrence has stated (I read the quote in Michael Ausiello’s column) that part of why he agreed to do another season was to provide continued employment to the crew for at least one more year in a lousy economy.
Yep, definitely going to miss “Pushing Daisies.” It and “The Middleman” were the brightest spots on TV. Heck, now I miss “Wonderfalls” all over again, too….
I must confess to never having watched Pushing Daisies, though I’ll catch it on DVD. Nowadays it seems that there are so many drama shows with story arcs, it can be hard to jump on board if you haven’t been watching from the beginning.
Comcast and other digital cable providers offer shows with their On Demand service but it’s limited. Pushing daisies was one of those shows that never showed up there. The great thing about watching On Demand is that you can watch anytime so bad scheduling is never a problem. It’s through On Demand offerings that I’ve discovered and became a fan of Breaking Bad, Mad Men and Hustle on AMC , Leverage on TNT, Jekyll and Ashes To Ashes on BBC America and I’ve been enjoying Veronica Mars reruns on WB. I am absolutely stoked about True Blood being available On Demand later today.
Fox terminated Sarah Connor Chronicles as soon as the show was scheduled for a Friday doom slot. Reaper logically should have gone with Supernatural.
Sadly, The Unusuals won’t be back either, but Castle survived the ax. NBC’s The Listener is enjoyable so far.
I groan a bit when I see a good drama show, particularly a genre show air on one of the big networks. There’s so much pressure to pull in big ratings numbers right away that nothing gets a chance to grow and develop an audience. They end up just cranking more celebrity reality crap.
Too bad SciFi has chosen to address their mediocrity with an epically lame “rebranding”. Eli Stone, Reaper, Pushing Daisies and Sarah Connor Chronicles would all be great on SciFi and maybe even help them pull in the non-genre viewers they seem so desperate to capture.
I’ll miss Pushing Daisies… not as much as I miss Dead Like Me, but I’ll miss it. I think the show had great potential that will now go unrealised, and its ‘failure’ makes it that one bit harder to get unusual shows to air.
–
SCTTC, not so much. Personal opinion, it was wandering in the wilderness and getting hung up on its own pretentiousness and desire to be the next BSG for the last half of the last season. Another series that would have benefitted from much tighter editing and overall show running.
–
Cheers.
Glad to see someone mention Dead Like Me. Especially on a creator’s forum, we should all realize it’s the people behind the scenes who create the things we love. With Bryan Fuller it’s Daisies, Dead, and the first season of Heroes.
Guy with a track record like that deserves a viewing of anything he touches.
Anyone know who the publisher is for the forthcoming ‘Pushing Daisies’ comic? And is that alone the title?
I would love to see the final loose ends wrapped up in some form or another.
DC will be publishing it. My guess is under the WildStorm banner since that’s where X-Files, Fringe, etc. are published.
Cool fact, the girl I was Bar Mitzvahed with wrote the “Bitter Sweets” episode (the one with Molly Shannon). That ep had one of my favorite scenes of the entire series: when Olive visits Ned in prison, and she’s crying hysterically the whole time, and bawls “I baked you a pie…”, and it’s got the outline of a gun and bullets baked under the crust! I laughed my ášš off at that.
And I could say the same about the rest of the series: Pushing Daisies was just pure joy to me. I really can’t remember the last time a TV show made me feel as happy as every episode of this one did. I’m going to miss the show terribly.
I haven’t enjoyed a show this much in I don’t know how long. It did everything a TV show should do – it made me feel joy, and left me dying to know what happened next. I’m definitely looking forward to the comics.
I couldn’t agree more. Just when the series was really starting to get interesting with Ned’s dad returning and Chuck’s dad leaving, it gets pulled and we’re left with no eclectic fairy tale to take its place. A sad day for America, indeed.
.
I seriously have to ask, though, do the TV networks not realize the power of good comedy during hard times? Because, historically, it seems like the people who have life the hardest are the ones who enjoy good comedy, meaning instant huge viewership for any comedy that is worthy. Like Pushing Daisies.
The hard times we’ve been having started in between Pushing Daisies first and second season. However, the ratings for Pushing Daises dropped between seasons instead of rising. What you’re saying makes sense to me, but it didn’t work out that way for this particular show.
“I seriously have to ask, though, do the TV networks not realize the power of good comedy during hard times?”
Fair question, but the real question is, does the audience not have appreciation for it? After all, numbers are the only thing the network looks at, whether monetary or market share, but it’s the second one which is entirely in our hands. As much as I loathe the tripe that is network TV, there are millions out there who just lap it up.
My own problem is that there’s just too much GOOD TV out there. My wife and I are just finishing The Wire, I’m rewatching The Shield with my best friend, and I still haven’t touched Deadwood or the last season of Dexter. Pushing Daisies interests me, but it’s still stacked up on my DVR.
As Solomon said, “To the making of many books there is no end, and much devotion to them is wearisome to the flesh.” In other words, no matter how good something is, we just can’t be expected to keep up with all of it.
the actress who played olive will be on glee starting with ep 4
While sad to see all those cancelled, maybe Kristen Chenoweth will be seen more often on a Broadway stage where her unique talents are best displayed. Same with a talent like Nathan Lane.
Well, Nathan Lane currently IS on Broadway in “Waiting For Godot.”
.
Now the scuttlebutt that I’ve heard which intrigues me is a musical version of “The Addams Family” which from what I understand was being workshopped in Chicago some months ago with Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth as Gomez and Morticia. The day tickets go on sale, I’m there.
.
PAD
Any time I hear of someone turning an existing thing (movie, TV show, comic book) into a musical, I imagine the worst.
But then you said “Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia” and that brought a smile to my face. That just sounds perfect.
“But then you said “Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia” and that brought a smile to my face.”
Didn’t she play that role on Cheers?
Peter:
The Addams Family musical premieres in Chicago this November… info and tickets (already available!) here: http://www.theaddamsfamilymusical.com/
Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth are reason alone to go see anything they are in. Talk about dream casting as Gomez and Morticia.
But you add Terrence Mann, Carolee Carmello, Jackie Hoffman and Kevin Chamberlain (all major Bdwy talents) and unless the score really sucks, this should be great and well worth the bucks.
Now we still need a vehicle for Kristin. Haven’t seen her since her limited run in the revival of Apple Tree.
Sounds like a trip to Chicago is in order for me! I loved “The Addams Family” as a kid, and I’ve always wanted to visit Chicago.
Kristen’s musical abilities were among my favorite parts of Pushing Daisies. I loved that they would occasionally have her, and also Ellen Greene, sing as if the show were a musical. The creators obviously enjoyed utilizing the full talents of their cast, and it showed. That’s one of the things that no comic book version, no matter how well written and drawn, will ever be able to bring to life.
The only real problem I ever had with the storytelling is that when Chuck’s dad was revived, he was in far better shape than he should have been after being dead for 20 years, especially since Jews don’t embalm their dead.
Embalming wouldn’t help anyway. All it buys is a few days so the body won’t smell at the funeral. 20 years with embalming would look exactly the same as 20 years without.
.
I had the same reaction to seeing what great shape he was in. I guess they thought that having the guy up and around just wouldn’t look right with a skeleton.
Pushing Daisies was the most fun and original tv show on american television in years. Clever dialogue, visually exciting, humor, murder mystery, musical, character driven … the show had it all. I looked forward to Pushing Daisies each week as I hadn’t for anything else in years.
I too will miss Pushing Daisies. The final episode did wrap up a few things but there were so many stories that could be told. Just the show design and settings themselves were a wonder to behold each week. So sad to see it go.
Totally agree. Such a great series. I’m glad there’s going to be a comic and can’t wait to read it. Still, I’m going to miss the show. It really made me smile alot (only other shows that made me smile this much were Eli Stone and the Middleman). Loved it. I’m not sure what else to say. PAD said it best. 🙂
DF2506
I thought the first season was better than the second one–more engaging stories, for one thing. But the last episode was fairly solid.
ELI STONE, though–that’s one show I’m gonna miss a whole lot.
Fans of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles have not given up. Petition, letter writing, video contests, viewing parties (now given technical support by wb.com, 10pm Eastern or 7pm Pacific, Fridays) online rallies, polling campaigns (we own all polls we don’t ignore!)
Will you join us?
thewb.com/shows/terminator-the-sarah-connor-chronicles/
thewb.com/boards/forumdisplay.php?f=43
savethescc.com/petition/
savethescc.com/campaigns.html
Chat room for the viewing parties can be joined at savethescc.com/chat.html (widget has been known to break) or channel #savethescc on the web at:
mibbit.com/chat/ or using an irc chat client like Chatzilla or mIrc at:
irc.mibbit.com
We have lately been given a tiny glimmer of hope that all is not lost.
scifiwire.com/2009/06/sarah-connor-producer-on.php
If you like podcasts try:
skynextpodcast.com/
Those two guys are hilarious.
If you like satire try:
roxybisquaint.com/tsccomicals/
On Twitter follow:
twitter.com/savethescc
twitter.com/OPSaveSarah
No fate!
I have never missed a show the way I will miss this one! It was the most delightful and entertaining hour of television ever devised. After each episode, I just sat back and thought, “How delightful!” Every single episode. The facts are these, ABC and the corporate monsters behind them should be flogged. Ah well, at least we still have Castle. And another thing, I loved The Unusuals, too! They really screwed the pooch when they killed that one. Castle and LOST is the only reason to watch that sorry network!
AARRGGGHH!
Chuck
Starting tonight ABC will be airing the rest of the Eli Stone episodes. 9pm (10 Eastern & Pacific).
And, on top of this, I just found out that the current season of Primeval running on BBC America is the serie’s last season. Too expensive to continue, apparently.
I watched Primeval, but I’m not too sad to see it go. It was one of those shows that depended on the characters doing at least 3 stupid things every episode.