ABC/MICHAEL DESMONDPlease, please, please watch Pushing Daisies tonight (at 8 on ABC).
Yes, it's critically acclaimed, it has Emmys and it's TV's most enjoyable confection, but it still needs all the Nielsen-ratings love and affection it can get.
I actually just talked to the fabulously good Lee Pace, and he had some interesting things to say about the show's likely future...
Is Daisies Safe or In Danger? Despite last week's less than optimal ratings, Lee said, "They have been nothing but great over at ABC, truly great and supportive. Pushing Daisies is not necessarily an obvious show to put on the air. They are smart people and creative people who really like it—they think it's really fun." Will it get picked up? "I have no idea, no idea. If the numbers are different than they were last week, it might be clearer right now, but I have no idea." Did I mention please, please, please watch Pushing Daisies tonight?
Zombie Chuck Is Quite a Leap of Imagination: According to Lee, a lot of this year's secrets lead back to Swoosie Kurtz and Ellen Greene, and that can only be good news for us fans. He said, "There are a lot of secrets in the land of Pushing Daisies, and Lily and Vivian have a lot of them. It's tied them right into the center of the plot. We're in episode 10 right now, and they still haven't discovered Chuck (Anna Friel). It's not like the show is about a world full of magic where it would even make sense that Ned can do what he can do. That's why Olive (Kristin Chenoweth) is convinced that Chuck has faked her death; it would never even occur to her that Ned has touched her back to life."
The Brains of the Operation: Look for one ep where the professionals abandon ship and the amateurs have to do a little detecting. Said Lee, "There's an episode where just me and Olive solve the case, which is very funny because neither one of us know what we're doing. Chuck and Emerson (Chi McBride) are the ones who are actually really good at solving cases. It's funny, Ned's methods for solving a case without Emerson basically involve going around saying 'You're the killer; no, you're the killer; no, you're the killer!' "
More Emerson! I love me some Cod—good news then that we're going to learn more about the little baby Cod! According to Lee, Emerson Cod takes a missing persons case this week, and he said, "It kicks off this whole storyline about finding his daughter. This week is someone else's missing daughter, but down the line—I know that the next episode we shoot, episode 12, has a lot to do with Emerson and tracking down the daughter."
If you love Pushing Daisies, please post in the comments—it needs all the good vibes it can get, and you have them to share, don't you?