Pushing Daisieswas the runaway winner of theB&C fall previewthis year. Last week at theNew York Television Festival, I was able to talk with three people involved with the show and ask their thoughts on Daisies critically acclaimed debut, and how they came to join the show.
Jim Dale- narrator
Do you think critical acclaim will translate into viewers when the show debuts?
“I don’t know, critics, you know, they are another type of animal. Whether this will go in middle America I don’t know. It may be a little too avant garde, a little too surrealistic, all those long words. On the other hand, it could click as being something that attracts you to the screen and you can’t take your eyes off because you don’t know what is going to happen next. That is the adventurous side of it. Also the make believe side of it is very important, once upon a time, the magic of it, so hopefully a lot of people, the right people will watch it and the right people will love it.”
What attracted you to the show?
“I was just sent a script, and as soon as any actoir gets a script sent to them they read it through once and they fall in love with it, that is the attraction. I thought, why ask me? How nice, that’s very complimentary.”
Bryan Fuller-creator/executive producer
Do you think critical acclaim will translate into viewers when the show debuts?
“Well, I certainly don’t think it will hurt us, I think the critical acclaim will get more word of mouth out so, the critics are kind of like the first barrier to what is new on television, they can get people past the barriers, then all the better for us.
Did the network embrace the show?
“ABC, I have never had an experience like this with a network before, they were so supportive and so behind us, they put billboards up everywhere. Creatively we are on the same page, it is the best experience I have ever had with a network.”
How did you come up with the concept of Pushing Daisies?
“I just pulled it out of my ass. It came out of Dead Like Me, and it was originally going to be a spinoff of that, and it took on a much more romantic life when I just thought it would be fun to do a much more romantic story. So this became a great opportunity to tell a story about two people who love each other but can’t touch.”
Lee Pace as ‘Ned" in Pushing Daisies
Lee Pace-star of show “Ned”
What will attract people to the show?
“I think that it is unlike anything that people have seeen before and there is a big audience in America that are interested in seeing whatever is new that year. The people who tuned into the first episode of Lost, the people that tuned into the first episode of desperate housewives, an audience is found, and I think we are that show this year. You have not seen show like this before. I think they will tune into the first episode.”
What attracted you to the show?
“You know, I know Bryan, because we worked on Wonder Falls a few years ago, and I just read the script just to check out what he was doing, and I read and I loved the character so much, and he tells me that he wrote it with me in mind and I thought this is too good to be true, and Barry Sonnenfeld directing it, this is too good.”
