Have you seen any other ...
Question: Have you seen any other episodes beyond the pilot of
Pushing Daisies? I watched it last night — it's absolutely fantastic! But I'm worried it might be too quirky and non-mainstream to get a big enough audience to satisfy ABC, as was the fate of Bryan Fuller's previous
Wonderfalls and
Dead Like Me. I've seen promos during other ABC shows and have read that it's been screened at various functions and festivals recently, but probably only in larger cities like New York and L.A. It seems ABC is getting behind it, but what kind of numbers do you think it will have to achieve, and hold on to, in order to stay around a full season?
Answer: Impossible at this point to know or predict. And for the record, I haven't yet seen beyond the pilot of this or any other fall series. Can't wait, of course. There are so many intangibles involved in deciding a show's fate, including the timeslot it's in, how the quality of the episodes holds up, how its performance affects the rest of the schedule, and so on. I certainly hope it gets a better chance than
Wonderfalls did, but unlike that show, which was buried on Fridays before it quickly disappeared, I have to think that
Pushing Daisies is enjoying about as high an awareness in advance of its premiere as I could imagine. ABC is pulling its weight in getting the word out about this one, and for good reason — it is something special. And while it's true it may be too quirky for many, I'm going to stay cautiously optimistic that those who went out of their way to embrace
Ugly Betty a year ago will be in the market for a new show that's equally delightful and entertaining.
