ABC. They’d like us to think the acronym stands for “American Broadcasting Company” but, for the purpose of the article, we’re going to go with a far more appropriate explanation: “Almighty Bungling Cretins.”

I don’t expect network executives to be a think tank – I request only a smidgeon of good taste. A year ago, it seemed ABC was frothing with just that. Pushing Daisies is the sort of eye candy that nestles into the sweet tooth like a gum-centered, cherry flavored Blow Pop. In short… I was rather shocked such a wondrously quirky show made the network airwaves.

And then came the Writer’s Strike.

Pushing Daisies delivered a scant nine episodes before the season was prematurely hijacked by internet royalty squabbles. I’m not one for soaps, but I do prefer shows that come with a Loyalty Reward Program. When I plop down on the couch, I’m ready to get my geek on – no internet blog needs to inform me the chick who sold the boat to Desmond was really Hugo’s fellow asylum patient in disguise. Pushing Daisies seemed to be cultivating this very sort of geek trivia love. With every episode, delicious morsels were trickling forth… for a show about a pie maker, I was certain they were on their way to surpassing dutch apple for a five-tiered wedding cake.

And then it stopped. For a long time. ABC had already ordered a full season; a remarkable show of faith for a new show whose lead characters not only haven’t been in the sack with one another – but, realistically, cannot. The antithesis of the network’s Old Faithful: Desperate Housewives. One imagined there was no cause for worry – ABC clearly knew what they were getting into, and were willing to lend leash and time enough to Daisies for it to achieve its inevitable cult status.

… only to blindside fans with an unexpected cancellation – after only thirteen episodes!

Over the span of two seasons, we have not been afforded even a single full season of the show. It begs the question: Where are those balls now, ABC? Cajones and spines, alike, just shrivel up, and disappear?

Television is full of drivel. It’s no secret. The little bit that isn’t canned laughter-laced drivel is precision engineered events. Lost, Heroes… they weren’t exactly risks. Pushing Daisies was different. Brian Fuller had a vision, and he didn’t compromise. His leading lady doesn’t wear stilettos, crimes aren’t solved by whirlwind, toxicology and genetic testing performed within ten minutes. From the beekeeping rooftop, to the synchronized-swimming aunt’s eye patch… it was art. For the uninitiated: Pushing Daisies acquaints us with the life of Ned, the pie maker. He has a shop (a dreamy, corner spot with pie crust awning) called “The Pie Hole”, and would like nothing better than to slip along through life unnoticed. Unfortunately for Ned, he has a gift that invariably gets him noticed: if he touches deceased flesh, it is resurrected… if he touches a second time, the subject is returned to death. But if he doesn’t touch the flesh that second time – within one minute, to be exact – something nearby will suddenly expire, to take its place. Incidentally, he can never touch his dog again. Nor his girlfriend, for that matter. Through Ned, we learn life isn’t quite as easy as pie.

There’s a wit baked into Daisies that goes beyond one liners, and snarky barbs. One of my favorite scenes involved small sprite Kristen Chenoweth, as Ned’s lovelorn waitress, singing in the shop after hours. While the cleaner’s machine roared, her lungs burst with bars from Hopelessly Devoted to You – punctuated with make busy, nonchalant, table-wiping pauses whenever the machine clicked off for a few seconds. You don’t find those kinds of scenes on shows with pill-popping doctors.

Pushing Daisies charmed me.

ABC is an art hating wankwad for canceling it. It makes me shelve whatever small hopes I housed for The Middleman – if they can’t love Pushing Daisies, they, clearly, have no heart. I don’t want to know how their blood is circulated. It would give me nightmares.

In closing, allow me to queue up another adored scene from Pushing Daisies: A man has hired Emerson (Chi McBride) to suss out the culprit behind his wife’s death. The widow, Ned’s girlfriend, Chuck (Anna Friel), and Emerson are seated in a booth at The Pie Hole:

The Male Widow: If I was more comfortable with you people, I would cry.

Chuck: Oh, you can cry, that's okay.

Emerson: It is not okay for a grown-ass man to weep in public with a bunch of happy families enjoying pie. If you can't hold it, you take your ass to the men's room and cry in private on the toilet… like a man!

….. (pregnant pause)….

The Male Widow: I need to use the men's room.

*sniff* Me too.

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George   |24.0.3.xxx |2008-11-26 23:53:22 This show was art, that's why it had to be canceled. It will join the likes of Freaks and Geeks and Wonderfalls as a show too good for the masses. Don't ask the general public to actually watch something original. Even with the Emmy wins; do you think if Tina Fey didn't do such an amazing job as Palin, if 30 Rock wouldn't be headed for the chopping block?

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