Pushing Dasies

[iBender]

Pushing Dasies was more my thing.
Vivid colours/colors, dialog, and amazing ideas.
Great music, it was a detective show, but; it was so much more than that, it was a Sci-fi Fantasy show.

Ned the Pie Maker, he can touch dead things and bring them back to life; One touch life, another touch; Dead, again, forever. If Ned brings anything back to life for more than a minute then, something else has to die, within a certain radius, of course.

There are secrets and love triangles and a whole bunch of wacky characters.

There was only two seasons and this show was created by the same man who directed the Men in Black Saga. - This show does see a conclusion at the end of Season 2 where, everything gets wrapped up. I guess the creator of this wanting to go back to making movies, coincidently - Check out Men in Black III (2012) - Once again Will Smith returns as Agent J.

 

[Checkmate]

Oh please. It didn't have anything to do with the creator giving up on the show. The show, very sadly, didn't have the ratings to justify continuing it. That fucking Writer's Strike was what really did it in.

I really do hate how television works, especially in the United States. The best shows get cancelled well before their time, and all because the stupid fucks who have Neilsen boxes have a hardon for reality shows and douchebags like Leno.

Ranting aside, this was and still is one of my all-time favorite shows. I was very sad to see it go, but overjoyed to get what we got.

 

[iBender]

Yeah, also, I'm thinking... Saga was perhaps the wrong word, I guess I should have written;
'The Men in Black Trilogy.'

I have both Seasons 1 & 2 DVD Boxsets.
and 'hey!' 'Don't blame the writers.'
They only write the darn thing, it's not like they do anything important; like 'she'ya.' But you should be aware that, all because your union might want an Oscar or more money or 'what-not' - Doesn't mean that those who didn't write Pushing Dasies wanted to strike... It was just bad timing, that's all. - But... The show turned out great, despite head aches like that in production and shizz.

 

[bigdaddy]

The creator gave up on the show and that's why he has been trying to get his 12 issue comic book season 3 series to get published. Yep, really gave up.

 

[Chaos Descending]

Errr, the OP never hinted that the creators gave up on the show. I took his comment about them wanting to get back into movies as a more of a trivial aside, rather than a commentary on the reason for the show's cancellation.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Very unique series, but not the kind that survives on network TV. The one thing that might have helped would be to add a bit of bite to the sweetness. There's such a thing as being too sweet.

I really do hate how television works, especially in the United States. The best shows get cancelled well before their time, and all because the stupid fucks who have Neilsen boxes have a hardon for reality shows and douchebags like Leno.

There's never been any evidence that the Neilsens don't accurately reflect what people watch. Shows like Pushing Daisies appeal to a niche market, and that's not usually enough to survive on ad revenues alone. Need cable subscriptions in the mix.

 

[auntiehill]

I loved Pushing Daisies. I thought it was witty, charming and fun, with its dark humor and brightly colored sets. I don't why it wasn't a hit with audiences; the ratings were fairly dismal. However, hubby and I adored it. My favorite was Emerson Cod; he had the best lines and the most likable character.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnrm5bm2TSA&feature=related[/yt]

 

[Professor Zoom]

There was only two seasons and this show was created by the same man who directed the Men in Black Saga. - This show does see a conclusion at the end of Season 2 where, everything gets wrapped up. I guess the creator of this wanting to go back to making movies, coincidently - Check out Men in Black III (2012) - Once again Will Smith returns as Agent J.

No. He didn't.

Bryan Fuller created Pushing Daises.

You're thinking of Barry Sonnefeld. He produced the show. Which doesn't always mean much.

Bryan was the writer and the showrunner. He's never made any movies.

 

[IndyJones]

Bryan Fuller created Pushing Daises.

Dead Like Me, Wondefalls, and Pushing Daisies are enough to earn a man quite a bit of credibility in my mind.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Of course.

It's just the majority of the human race which falls into a state of disapproval for not living up to these standards.

 

[Professor Zoom]

Bryan Fuller created Pushing Daises.

Dead Like Me, Wondefalls, and Pushing Daisies are enough to earn a man quite a bit of credibility in my mind.

Absolutely. He's a fantastic person to be making TV. Even if these things don't last long, I'm really glad to see them. (Of course, as they don't last long, he gets less and less of a chance.

 

[23skidoo]

Absolutely. He's a fantastic person to be making TV. Even if these things don't last long, I'm really glad to see them. (Of course, as they don't last long, he gets less and less of a chance.

The thing is - and this goes not only for Fuller, but frankly Joss Whedon and other "hard done by" TV creators who seem to have trouble creating shows that last more than a few episodes on network TV these days, despite much fan love - is they need to stop looking at a "big picture" and focus instead on mini-series, and short-run shows. Pushing Daisies never had a chance at more than a couple seasons - there's no way the concept could sustain itself. Arguably it only had a single season in it, but it got a pass because of the writer's strike. Wonderfalls? Again, even though they had a several-year game plan, they had to know they stood little chance of getting past the first 13 (never mind the first 4). To their credit, they paced and plotted WF in such a way that when it ended, the story it told as more or less a whole. Fuller's Dead Like Me was rather cool because every episode felt as if it was the final episode - the series could have ended at any time. So when it did suddenly end, it felt complete (which is probably why a lot of folks felt the reunion movie was unnecessary and I tend to agree).

Once a show gets past a certain point, then it's OK to get a bigger picture view - Fringe, for example, you'll notice tended to be mostly monster-of-the-week until it got past the first season hurdle. Terminator SCC likewise, though its big-picture plan backfired by a fascinating digression of a storyline (involving Sarah and the 3 dots) that should have been saved for season 3 or later.

Alex

 

[Professor Zoom]

Absolutely. He's a fantastic person to be making TV. Even if these things don't last long, I'm really glad to see them. (Of course, as they don't last long, he gets less and less of a chance.

The thing is - and this goes not only for Fuller, but frankly Joss Whedon and other "hard done by" TV creators who seem to have trouble creating shows that last more than a few episodes on network TV these days, despite much fan love - is they need to stop looking at a "big picture" and focus instead on mini-series, and short-run shows.

Until how the business of American TV changes how it works, that isn't up to them. American TV wants shows that stay on for years and years.

 

[gblews]

I loved Pushing Daisies. I thought it was witty, charming and fun, with its dark humor and brightly colored sets. I don't why it wasn't a hit with audiences; the ratings were fairly dismal. However, hubby and I adored it. My favorite was Emerson Cod; he had the best lines and the most likable character.

Thank you (for the Emerson Cod moments).

 

[Temis the Vorta]

What's Fuller up to now, anyway? I know he had a couple of pilots that fell through.

 

[Chuckles]

I loved Pushing Daisies and Dead like me, they both appeal to my dark humored self. And Kristin Chenoweth is cute as a bug!!!

 

[watermelony2k]

Absolutely. He's a fantastic person to be making TV. Even if these things don't last long, I'm really glad to see them. (Of course, as they don't last long, he gets less and less of a chance.

The thing is - and this goes not only for Fuller, but frankly Joss Whedon and other "hard done by" TV creators who seem to have trouble creating shows that last more than a few episodes on network TV these days, despite much fan love - is they need to stop looking at a "big picture" and focus instead on mini-series, and short-run shows.

Until how the business of American TV changes how it works, that isn't up to them. American TV wants shows that stay on for years and years.

Milk the cow until it dries or dies, that is. One of the benefits of shorter British TV shows is that they're short and sweet and if entertaining, leave on a high note and you wanting more.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Sigh. Might as well go over this again. (Should it be a sticky? )

The American TV biz is hit-driven. This is a problem because nobody hows to produce a hit, because nobody really knows what works. Do some cookie cutter cop show, and you'll compete with all the other cookie cutter cop shows. Do something distinctive and original, and you run the risk that nobody's buying what you're selling. Either way, you'll probably lose.

So it all comes down to volume. Throw twenty shows against the wall, some cookie cutter, some of them more creative, and maybe six do okay and two are hits. You pay for the whole twenty, plus all your business overhead, with those two hits.

That means every show you do must be designed to pay off maximally, in case it happens to be one of those two hits. The survival of your business depends on it. Maximal payoff means a show that runs for as long as the ratings justify it.

Premium cable, which is least under the gun to produce hits for survival, shows the greatest willingness to not maximize shows. Basic cable and especially network TV can't afford to do that.

There's no sense complaining about this, since it's driven by financial necessity and will never change unless all of TV goes to the premium-cable model and do we really want to be shelling out that much money each month?

 

[Checkmate]

There's no sense complaining about this, since it's driven by financial necessity and will never change unless all of TV goes to the premium-cable model and do we really want to be shelling out that much money each month?

Yes.

Because 1) I can buy the channels that show the programs I want to see and 2) I can let the channels that show shit starve to death.

 

[IndyJones]

Pushing Daisies never had a chance at more than a couple seasons - there's no way the concept could sustain itself. Arguably it only had a single season in it, but it got a pass because of the writer's strike.

I don't think this is true.

My reccollection is that Pushing Daisies was moderately successful during the first season, and that the writers strike in the middle of the *second season* killed all the show's momentum and it never recovered.