TCA: "Pushing Daisies" -- the safest kind of sex
POSTED BY JON WEISMAN
In whimsical ABC fall entry “Pushing Daisies,” romantic leads Ned and Chuck are forbidden to touch. So, how will the young lovers played by Lee Pace and Anna Friel (pictured left) endure what Friel called “the longest foreplay ever?”
At TCA on Wednesday, series creator and exec producer Bryan Fuller mentioned that auds would see “Saran-Wrap kisses” and “dancing in beekeeper suits” after floating a much more provocative suggestion for an 8 p.m. show.
“Mutual masturbation,” Fuller said. “It’s very now. We’re trying to bring masturbation back.”
That would certainly help get a show launched.
But even without the afterplay, “Daisies” will be one of the most talked-about shows of the upcoming season, having won over the hearts and minds of a great many critics. Expert pie-baker Ned has a unique ability to bring dead folks back to life with a single touch – only to kill them for good if he touches them a second time. Resurrecting the love of his life puts Ned in what Fuller calls an “impossible romance.”
The combination of pies and forbidden love brought to mind the recent Adrienne Shelly movie, “Waitress,” 
but Fuller (“Dead Like Me”) said he was inspired by another picture.
“A lot of the tone of ‘Amelie’ pops in,” Fuller said. “I haven’t seen ‘Waitress,’ but I can definitely cop to ripping off ‘Amelie.’"
Each episode of 'Daisies' will offer a self-contained plot that ties Ned’s abilities with the casework of private investigator Emerson Cod (Chi McBride). In other words, procedural fever has reached ABC in a most unusual way.
“When we do have murders,” Fuller said, “they skew a little more ‘Beetlejuice’ than ‘CSI.’ ”
-- Jon Weisman
Cynthia Littleton is deputy editor, news development at Variety and a veteran television reporter.
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I loved the pilot. But the characters seem a little too childlike and whimsical (a la Amelie) to engage in mutual masturbation. I'm hoping that was sarcasm.
Posted by: Mikey | July 26, 2007 at 09:22 AM
I saw the pilot. Is this a show for children or what? "The tone of ‘Amelie’" worked for a movie, but for a tv-show ? People will be tired of it pretty soon. And "the longest foreplay ever" will go from "cute" to "very annoying". Very bad idea for TV- series.
Posted by: dona | July 29, 2007 at 07:39 AM