The biggest problem facing ABC’s “Pushing Daisies” is getting people to watch.
The whimsical hour-long comedy/drama is so quirky and fresh and unlike anything else on TV right now that promoting it is kind of difficult.
It’s about a humble, slightly awkward pie-maker named Ned (played by the charming Lee Pace) who has the extraordinary ability to bring dead people back to life with a simple touch and to send them back to being dead – permanently – with another touch.
He uses his ability for good deeds,

bringing the dead back to life just long enough to ask them who killed them. Then, one day he gets the news that his childhood crush, a girl named Chuck (Anna Friel), has died, and he brings her back to life despite his better judgment.
It’s an interesting premise that works surprising well, considering death is often a heavy subject, yet in the show it is treated lightly, and the interaction between Ned and Chuck is endearing, but strained, because they can’t touch. If they so much as hold hands or kiss, Chuck will die for good. This also makes things slightly awkward between the two, because let’s face it: They will want to touch each other at some point. This isn’t “High School Musical,” where singing to each other means loving each other.
Despite the awkwardness, Pace and Friel as Ned and Chuck, respectively, have instant chemistry. It’s natural to want them to be together – and why shouldn’t they be? It’s a fairy tale-esque romance/comedy/drama. Oh yeah, there’s that whole death thing…
Further complicating the Ned/Chuck situation is Kristin Chenoweth, famous for her role in “Wicked,” who plays a waitress at Ned’s pie business, The Pie Hole. She’s never been dead, so she’s more than willing to be touched by Ned – if only he were interested.
The show is overflowing with bright colors, sunshine, quirky music and a voice-over narration that is instantly more pleasing than any other voice-over on TV right now. All of this is in stark contrast to today’s TV landscape of dark, rain-soaked dramas, and it couldn’t be more refreshing. And in spite of all the death, resurrection and re-death, “Daisies” remains overwhelmingly positive and hopeful.
Therein lies the problem. Are viewers going to want to watch a show that looks more like a Tim Burton movie than “Grey’s Anatomy”?
One can only hope, because “Pushing Daisies” is the kind of exceptionally fantastic show that rarely makes it onto the network TV lineup.
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