Tonight brings us the premiere of my favorite pilot of the new Fall season, Pushing Daisies, on ABC at 8PM. Unless, of course, you’re one of our neighbors to the North who got to see it last night. Damn you, Canada! First you get Just Jody and now you get Pushing Daisies a day early!

I adored Bryan Fuller’s Wonderfalls so I was excited about this pilot when I first heard about it. Hearing reports from people working behind-the-scenes on the pilot rose my level of anticipation even more. Needless to say, I was either going to love the show or be seriously disappointed by it. I’m so happy it’s the former and am excited to share the RTVW contributors sounding off about this show.

RAE: Shut your pie holes! Errmm, ok, that’s not very conducive for a good sound off. Open your pie holes and discuss Pushing Daisies!

POLTER-COW: This is one of the most buzzed-about pilots of the fall season, and with good cause. As a fan of Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls (as well as the Heroes episode “Company Man”), I was excited to see Bryan Fuller’s latest work. The concept is simple: for no apparent reason, Ned can bring things back to life with a touch, but if he touches them again, they die. That’s what makes it funny!

The pilot is whimsical, but not overly so. I think the actors end up grounding the world with their performances: the sensibilities at play may be a little, how you say, twee, but they are perfectly normal, yet slightly quirky, people. The only thing that’s a little overdone is the narration, which, while wonderful, sometimes goes overboard. I did love that Jim Dale always referred to Ned as “The Piemaker.” It gives it all a storybook quality.

Lee Pace and Chi McBride have good buddy repartee (”Bitch, I was in proximity!”), and Anna Friel is cute. I’m not sold on Kristin Chenoweth’s character yet (although I know she’s actually a big draw for many people, I’m not really familiar with her work at all).

Basically, the show is totally adorable and I want to hug it. Except I can’t, because it’s a TV show. Not because it will die if I do so.

R: Too bad there’s not another TV show you could ask to hug it for you.

Storybook is a great way to describe it. I was thinking the other day that it’s kind of like a fairy tale in some ways. I think it plays out in much the way I pictured fairy tales playing out in my head.

I’d like to know what Kristin’s character is there for before I really say whether I like her in it or not. I think she has the right quirkiness for the show but I’m uncertain what she’s doing there. I assume we’ll find that out later.

Though the narration didn’t bother me, I think I can see what you mean. Possibly because Jody said the same thing so I notice it more now. I have heard that, while the narration isn’t going away, that there won’t be as much narration. I can understand that… it was needed in the pilot to kind of spell things out but that won’t be as necessary now that we get the premise.

JUST JODY: I’m going to have go against the general consensus here, and say that I do not think that Pushing Daisies is the best of the new fall shows. (Not that either one of you said that, but that’s what I keep reading elsewhere.)

I’ve watched the pilot twice now, and while I did enjoy it, I also have some problems with it. The biggest being that I think it might be too quirky for mainstream television. Of course I also thought that about Ugly Betty, and look how great it’s doing. So what do I really know?? But I felt very much like I was watching a Dr. Suess movie when watching the Pushing Daisies pilot. As has been already noted, I found the narration to be a bit much, and the fact that time is expressed in days & minutes is distracting and somewhat confusing the first time around. (When I watched the 2nd time I knew that keeping track of those times had no real relevance to what happens in the episode, so it was much less distracting.) My other problem with the show is the relationship between Chuck & Ned. They’re definitely cute, and have some great chemistry together, but if I’m already wary of the “can’t touch each other” relationship-foil after one episode, I’m not sure how they’re going to be able to sustain it for the long haul without it getting terribly annoying.

But don’t get me wrong, there were lots that I liked about it as well. The casting and acting are both great - I love Lee Pace as Ned, and Chi McBride is great as the one not-so-quirky character on the show. And the look of the show is amazing… so bright and colourful. It’s so pretty that even if you’re not sure about the premise, I recommend you tune in at least once just to see how great it looks.

While I don’t have a love it or hate it verdict yet, I am very much looking forward to watching a few more episodes to see where they go with it.

R: It’s interesting that you describe it as Dr. Seuss-like, Jody. I think that goes along with what P-C and I were saying above. I wonder if that will put some people off, though, as not everyone likes Dr. Seuss. Was it the narration or just the overall feel of the show that gave you that feeling?

For me, Pushing Daisies was actually more dialed down than what I’d expect from Dr. Seuss which is why I compared to a fairy tale instead. Because to some degree, it feels like PD could be happening in our world and, yet, the little touches and vibrancy of the world take it one or two steps away from ours. (Whereas I feel like Dr. Seuss’ world is more like 20 steps away.)

SPADADA: I think America is ready for Pushing Daises. And I think Ugly Betty might have actually helped get them there. On the surface it is a formulaic cop show (America loves those!) but it is also sweet and poetic. It is the kind of show that you can get lost in and I think if America isn’t completely turned off by the narration or the hyper-real color scheme, America will appreciate the break from reality.

Did anyone else think it was laugh out loud funny? Because I lost my composure so many times during this pilot. And a lot of the laughs were unexpected.

R: I agree on your Ugly Betty comment, Spads. Not only do I think it helped, I actually think it shows that America can embrace these kinds of shows. I hope I’m right.

I think the procedural aspect might help give it just enough staying power to see that Bryan Fuller can keep up the wonderful look of the show. That’s my biggest fear. I think they have plenty of stories to keep them going and, unlike Jody, I don’t mind the Ned/Chuck thing… yet. But this show is just as much about the look and this quirky world they’ve built as it is anything else so I really hope they’re going to be able to keep pulling that off.

Oh, and yes Spads, I do think it’s laugh out loud funny. I’ve seen it several times now and it never loses that for me either. Even though I know the “jokes” are coming, I still laugh at them. It’s one of the things I love about it, actually. I think I’m in a “I just want to laugh” stage of my life or something because I seem to be more drawn to shows that make me laugh than have a more overtly dramatic flair to them.

JJ: I actually didn’t find it LOL funny… a few chuckles and lots of smiles cracked, but not a lot of LOL. I’m weird when it comes to humour though… I don’t find most of the popular comedies funny, so I don’t think I’m a good meter (marker? what’s the right word??) for humour on TV shows.

The Dr. Suess feeling came mostly from the narration, but also from the bright colours and slightly eccentric sets - like the Pie Hole actually looking like a big pie on the outside. (Also can’t you see Kristen C. as a grown up Cindy-Loo Who??) I like Dr. Suess, so it’s not like that’s a terrible thing, it’s just not something I expected from a primetime show. After watching a few more eps, I’m sure it will feel just right when you step into the PD world.

I didn’t find it had a fairytale/storybook feel because to me those are not set in our reality… “a long time ago, in a land far, far away” sets me in a magical place that’s not supposed to be real. Whereas I think PD is very much trying to be grounded in reality, but with a slight variation. And I do think that PD has done the reality with a twist thing properly, as opposed to Reaper which can’t quite get there. (But that’s a discussion for another post.)

You know, it’s interesting that I never even noticed that it had a procedural or ‘cop show’ aspect to it either time I viewed it. To me that’s a good thing because I don’t watch any of those types of shows, so obviously I like it when the MOTW is a background factor. But I wonder if that will hurt its success with the general public who may want that aspect to be a main feature?

POLTER-COW: Jody, I didn’t have it in my mind as a procedural/cop show either, but interviews do seem to support that it will be a sort of detective show with a twist. Which I am all for, as long as Chi McBride gets to be the hilarious straight man.

And oh my God, Kristin Chenoweth is totally Cindy-Loo Who.

S: I am not sure how I feel about Ned/Chuck either, but I do think it is an ingenious way to do the “Will they or won’t they?” malarkey that networks seem to think viewers love so much. I also think the actors have great chemistry, so I am happy to see them in scenes together. I knew Lee Pace from Wonderfalls, of course, and loved him in it, but I had never seen Anna Friel in anything before. I LOVE HER. Chuck was just so likeable. Soft and sweet, but tough. So even if I am not sure whether or not I am rooting for Ned/Chuck, I am rooting for Chuck.

R: Exactly, Spads, the thing I like about Ned/Chuck is that they both admit to wanting to touch. If you’re going to include a romance between two of the leads, I like everyone knows up front that these two like each other and it’s not something inconsequential thing that’s keeping them apart. In some ways I actually think that means Ned/Chuck won’t end up being the focus of the show like they would be if it was all about what’s keeping them apart this week.

GREG: I too laughed out loud watching it (and at seemingly inappropriate times), as Rae can attest to. There are so many things I like about this show: the stylized look (although I imagine that this will be toned down in future episodes - I think it made the introduction to the Pie Maker’s “power” and other aspects of his world a little easier), the great cast, and the writing. I agree that the quirkiness could be the show’s undoing. It happened to Wonderfalls and I don’t think that Dead Like Me would have stuck around so long if it wasn’t broadcast on Showtime. I hope I’m wrong and this show sticks around because I can’t wait to see where it goes.

R: I don’t think the stylized look will be toned down too much as I think they know it’s part of what makes this show so special. Although, I think it’s important to note that I think the writing is also there. I love the look of this show for sure but I would love the story even without the vibrancy with which they are telling it. There’s just something so refreshing about it.

I know not everyone has fallen instantly in love with this show and I don’t want to admit this but I fear I’ve already given it my heart. So, I hope you’re wrong too, Greg. I hope I’m camping out on my sofa on a Wednesday night in May breathlessly waiting to see what they do with the season finale. Which means the perfect way to wrap this sound off up is to remind everyone out there that Pushing Daisies premieres Wednesday, October 3, at 8PM on ABC. Watch!

Now that you’ve heard what we’ve had to say about the Pushing Daisies pilot, let us know what you think! Is it great or just plain delightful? Is it too quirky for the average viewer, do you think it can survive? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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