Maybe Ned Can Touch It…
Posted by Marisa
November 21st, 2008 at 09:59am
In Pushing Daisies
The Hollywood Reporter is saying that Pushing Daisies isn’t getting picked up for any more episodes. They haven’t said the word “cancel,” so maybe its prospects aren’t totally dead. (Denial.) I don’t know why the assholes at ABC wouldn’t try to help it at all, by moving it to a different night, or re-running the 9 episiodes it had over the summer while NOTHING ELSE WAS ON. (Anger.) Maybe there could be a home for it on cable? (Bargaining.) It would be too awful for it to be gone for good. (Depression.) But, in reality, it probably is. (Acceptance.)
“If we are indeed dead on ABC,” Fuller told THR, “we now have to convince DC Comics to let us tell the rest of the season’s story lines out in comic book form and convince Warner Bros. features to let Pushing Daisies live again as a movie.”
I think those are horrible ideas.
I’m the show’s No. 1 fan, but I don’t want to see a comic book or a movie. I watch Pushing Daisies for these reasons:
1) To see pretty sets unlike others on television, with saturated colors and weird fantasy elements like old-timey cars.
2) To hear the stars deliver smart, funny lines at lightning speed.
3) Because Lee Pace is totally hot.
None of those would translate to a comic book. The look of the show is totally original for television, but kinda boring when it comes to the comic-book universe, where people can wear capes and fly. You can write as much as you can fit a word-bubble, so it’s not as impressive to hear the characters manipulate wordy dialogue. And cartoons are never as hot as the real deal, otherwise Aladdin would’ve been People‘s “Sexiest Man Alive” in 1992.
Nobody I know watches Pushing Daisies for the mysteries, which are totally easy to figure out (the boss did it!), or to find out if Emerson is going to be reunited with his daughter. He either will or he won’t. The outcome isn’t as important as watching him get to it.
As for a movie, I’m against it in principle. The X-Files and Sex and the City post-cancellation movies this summer really killed the idea for me. They both had this desperate need to cram in characters for the fans. (Did Charlotte do ANYTHING in the movie? Why was she there?) Since they’re never really as good as the original shows, I’d rather a series I like end on a great episode as opposed to a mediocre movie.
RIP, PD!
7 Comments Add your own
1. np | November 21st, 2008 at 10:33 am
i respectfully disagree about cancelled tv shows moving to film. sex and the city was never about broad story arc, and i can’t speak to the x-files, but neither of those shows were cancelled before their time. they played out for years on tv. a better comparison is the outrageously fabulous FIREFLY which was given a chance to finish out its story after it was cancelled in the actually-also-awesome SERENITY. if the movie’s made for the fans, and with the intimate involvement of the brilliant creator of the property, a pushing daisies movie needn’t necessarily be sex and the city-style dreck.
2. Jared | November 21st, 2008 at 11:10 am
So sad. I never watched this show, but I really wanted to give it a try.
3. jesse | November 21st, 2008 at 11:30 am
Does anyone else feel like the networks are just kinda flailing through this market shift? I guess it’s kind of exciting in that low-rated shows can last for a few episodes or a few seasons (rather than being yanked immediately), but it seems like a lot of the people in charge just jerk back and forth nervously between techniques. ABC was generous with renewals last spring, bringing back Pushing Daisies and Dirty Sexy Money and Eli Stone (and at that point, I believe PD was the best-rated of the bunch, being a moderate success). Then, when the audience isn’t still there after six-to-nine-month gaps, they cut them all off. NBC did the same thing with Lipstick Jungle (good riddance, but it’s still weird — give a show some more time, and then call it off just as quickly). On the other side, NBC killed Bionic Woman quickly last year, but this year is giving Knight Rider time to “fix” itself (I have no opinion on the fairness, but it seems at least wildly inconsistent). They’ve shown patience with 30 Rock, which is great and starting to pay off as it’s been holding 85-90 percent of the audience from The Office, and they’ve also shown patience with Kath & Kim, even though its ratings suck and it doesn’t appear to have the critical acclaim or cult following of, say, Andy Barker PI, which was axed quickly last season. I’ve harped on this before regarding Veronica Mars, but the CW seems to be constantly changing how it defines a “hit,” mostly to fit the profile of however its most-hyped show is doing (so even as Gossip Girl does actually improve in the ratings, 90210 has to be called a hit with lower numbers). It seems more like random chance than ever, and you never know which network is going to show up: the patient, niche-happy, post-DVR network, or the traditional, numbers-hungry network. Fox renewed the Terminator show for a full season, and then paired it in the Friday graveyard with Dollhouse — will they treat this as a low-expectations zone where these shows can build a devoted audience, or will both be abruptly axed after a month?! You can’t really tell!!
Anyway, a Pushing Daisies movie could be good. At least you know it would be visually splendiforous.
4.
Marisa | November 21st, 2008 at 11:55 am
I agree, Jesse. I’m surprised that ABC didn’t really try to do anything–they didn’t even move it to the Friday graveyard. All of those Wednesday shows were doing poorly and, like you said, I don’t know what made ABC decide it was the shows’ fault and not theirs.
I think that there have been okay tv-to-movie transitions in the past (my favorites are the Beavis and Butthead, South Park, and Aqua Teens movies, so maybe cartoons are just better at it), but a lot of them fall into the same annoying traps, like shoehorning in characters that don’t really have much to do just because fans want to see them there, or zany plots. I just think that creators have to tread very, very carefully, and it’s not a risk I’m eager to take for Pushing Daisies or Arrested Development even though I trust Bryan Fuller and Mitch Hurwitz.
5. Iain "DDude" Dawson | November 21st, 2008 at 12:17 pm
For me, PD has never been able to maintain it’s amazingly high quality. The second episode was the greatest single episode of anything last year, but since then, it has been slippping for me.
And I am slightly uncormortable with the way every single charcter shows far too much cleavage. I am guy. I like boobs, but when every charcter, including the aunts…. it gets a bit unsettling.
The show will be missed, but it may do better as a cult classic from a short run than if it had continued and worn itself out.
(Now that everyone is prepared to hate me, I can go even further.) I totally agree with your tv-to-movie point. Personally, even when they are good, like serenity, they butcher things.
Goodbye Daisies, you were a good show.
6. Susie | November 21st, 2008 at 8:37 pm
I do not have words for this. I want this show beamed directly to my head. How far are we from this? Can we pull someone off the global warming issue and get them working on this?
7.
Marisa | November 22nd, 2008 at 12:17 am
I like where your head’s at, Susie.
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed