Emotional Snow Day and Eternal Flame: Ned and Olive Bake While Chuck Plots on "Pushing Daisies"

I've always been a huge fan of Pushing Daisies, ever since I read the pilot script way back in the fall of 2006, but last night's aptly-named episode ("Comfort Food")--written by Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum Douglas Petrie--was perhaps one of the very best installments of our quirky and beloved series to date, as comforting as a warm apple pie and a cup of milky tea. (That's saying a lot when you have a series as consistently great and rewarding week-to-week as Pushing Daisies.)

From the opening sequence, in which Young Ned first discovers that his homemade pies make other homesick students as comforted as they do him, to the end of the episode where Ned discovers that Chuck has dealt him a most cutting betrayal, "Comfort Food" elevates Pushing Daisies' bag of tricks to new levels.

Yes, there's the usual adorable lovey-doveyness between Chuck and Ned (loved the plastic partition--with an arm for snuggling--separating their beds) and the witty repartee we've come to know and expect but this week's episode also did the unexpected: split the characters up into conflicting pairs and have them engage in separate storylines for a change.

I absolutely loved Chuck and Emerson together (though I am still not sure why they had to bury Dwight Dixon's corpse instead of just walking away) and my heart leapt upon seeing Ned and Olive as partners-in-crime-solving at the Comfort Food Cook Off (along with Wonderfalls' loopy Marianne Marie Beetle, played once again by the incomparable Beth Grant, and The Waffle Nazi, played by Mad Men's Patrick Fischler). Plus, who didn't cheer when Kristin Chenoweth's Olive burst into a gorgeous rendition of The Bangles' "Eternal Flame"? (If not, your heart is clearly made of stone.)

The mystery-of-the-week (the murder of Colonel Likkin at the cook-off) dovetailed nicely with Ned and Olive's teamwork both in solving the aforementioned murder and taking home the coveted blue ribbon. I've long taken for granted the fact that Olive is distinctly on the outside of the Pie Hole's little coterie--after all, she still doesn't know the truth about Chuck or Ned's powers and she tends to clean up their messes rather than act as a sleuth--so I was pleasantly pleased to see that Petrie not only gave Olive the role of Ned's sidekick for a change but also beautifully dealt with her unresolved feelings for the Pie Maker.

Meanwhile, Chuck betrayed Ned and forced him to kill someone (remember that pesky proximity thing?) when she gave her dead father her glove and told him to play possum when Ned came back to touch him... and then dug up his body and hid him in Ned's abandoned childhood home. Given the fact that Ned has only thrice resurrected those closest to him (his mother, Digby, and Chuck, naturally) and always with a price, this was an inexcusable breach of trust on Chuck's part and she didn't even think about the fact that by keeping her father alive again, she had indirectly caused the death of someone else. (The fact that Ned unknowingly killed Dwight Dixon, who was himself preparing to kill both him and Chuck in cemetery, is what's known as a happy coincidence.)

It worries me to think just what this will mean for our star-crossed lovebirds. Chuck did a Very Selfish Thing in concealing her father's resurrection from Ned and didn't stop to think of the consequences, even after Ned warned her that it would be hard to say good-bye again. Plus, Old Charles has been dead for quite some time and no amount of bandages and sunglasses can really conceal that. (Bryan Fuller had told me about Charles' resurrection back in May 2007 so I am very curious to see if this storyline will play out in the same fashion he originally told me.)

So what worked for me this week? Chuck and Ned spooning in bed with the help of their homemade contraption; Lily's fantasy sequence in which she shoots Dwight with a shotgun; Ned and Olive's coordinated cook-off costumes with jaunty pie-shaped chapeaux; Charles asking Chuck if he is going to start craving human flesh; the "emotional snow day" discussion; Olive and Ned on top of one another in the trunk; Leo Burns' flashback as he becomes morbidly obese from eating the Colonel's chicken with its secret 500 herbs and spices blend; Olive singing "Eternal Flame" while Ned ducks out to find Chuck (of course!); "Finger licking' donut holes" ("Sounds delicious... and filthy," offers Ned); Chuck giving her father the birthday present she made all those years before; Vivian believing that Ned and Olive were a couple; the Colonel attempting to eat his deep-fried self before Ned touches him again. (Honestly, I loved every single second.)

Best line of the evening: "Bitter tang, bitter Olive. It's a story." - Ned

All in all, a simply brilliant episode from a series that just gets better and better with age.

Next week on Pushing Daisies ("The Legend of Merle McQuoddy"), Ned and Chuck deal with Charles' resurrection; Emerson and Olive investigate the mysterious death of lighthouse keeper Nora McQuoddy, whose murder could expose some of Papen County's stranger secrets.

Channel Surfing: Bryan Fuller Heads to Universal, More Hamm for "30 Rock," Stoltz Stalks Halls of Seattle Grace, and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. I'm still behind on telly so I haven't seen the latest episode of Dirty Sexy Money yet...

That sound you hear? It would be the final nail in the coffin for Pushing Daisies... Daisies creator Bryan Fuller has signed a two-year overall deal with Universal Media Studios, under which he will rejoin the staff of NBC's Heroes and develop new series projects for the studio. Fuller, who is completing post-production on WBTV's Daisies, will rejoin Heroes starting with episode 320 though it is unknown what his official position will be, other than that he will be working closely alongside showrunner/executive producer Tim Kring. (Hollywood Reporter)

In other Pushing Daisies news, Kristin Chenoweth has joined the cast of FOX's animated midseason comedy Sit Down, Shut Up, where she will replace Maria Bamford as Florida high school science teacher Miracle Grohe, opposite Arrested Development's Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Henry Winkler, Will Forte, Kenan Thompson, Tom Kenny, Cheri Oteri, and Nick Kroll. (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

More info on Mad Men's John Hamm joining the cast of NBC's 3o Rock, first reported back in October, has emerged. Hamm will play a new love interest for Tina Fey's Liz Lemon, a doctor who lives in her NYC apartment, and could return for future installments. "I just finished a couple of episodes," said Hamm, "and I'll go back in the new year and do another one of those, and then we'll see what happens." (Associated Press)

Eric Stoltz, who will star in Sci-Fi's Battlestar Galactica spinoff Caprica, will guest star in a three-episode story arc of ABC's Grey's Anatomy, where he will play a serial killer "in need of immediate medical attention" whose story "takes a surprising turn around the second episode [and] will raise a myriad of thorny ethical questions for McDreamy and Co." Also cast in a multiple-episode story arc: Jessica Capshaw (The Practice) who will scrub in as pediatric surgeon Arizona Roberts. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

NBC has unveiled their midseason schedule, which includes a super-sized episode of The Office in the post-Super Bowl timeslot, a reduced episode count for Knight Rider, and that 3-D episode of Chuck. (Televisionary)

Showtime has renewed comedy series Californication for a third season of twelve episodes, which will debut later in 2009. The series, currently down 16 percent from its freshman season, will begin production on Season Three this spring. (Variety)

Fred Thompson will guest star on a February sweeps episode of ABC's Life on Mars, where he will play the NYPD chief of detectives. Producers are also said to be casting the role of the daughter of Gene Hunt, described as "mid-30s, beautiful, confident, and be willing to work long hours alongside Harvey Keitel." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Courteney Cox guest stars in the January 6th launch of Scrubs on ABC, where she will play the uber-friendly new chief of medicine. (TV Week)

Bravo has ordered a second season of unscripted series The Rachel Zoe Project and is expected to launch Season Two in mid-2009. (Los Angeles Times)

Miranda Richardson, Christopher Evan Welch (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), and Lauren Hodges (My Guide to Becoming a Rock Star) will star in AMC's untitled political thriller pilot about an analyst at a national think tank who discovers that his employers aren't what they appear to be and uncovers evidence of a secret society that influences world political events. Project, from Warner Horizon, comes from writer/executive producer Jason Horwitch (Medical Investigation), director Allen Coulter (Damages), and executive producer Josh Maurer. Richardson will play the widow of a billionaire who leaves her a cryptic message when he dies mysteriously; Welch will play an arrogant analyst at the think tank and Hodges will play the youngest analyst on the team. (Hollywood Reporter)

Laura Breckenridge (Related) will appear in at least three episodes of the CW's Gossip Girl as Rachel Carr, a new (and very young) English teacher at Constance Billard, who finds herself mistaken for a student and quickly finds herself sparring with Blair. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

BBC has commissioned an eighth season of Spooks (a.k.a. MI-5), to air in 2009. (BBC)

An Echolls Family Christmas, anyone? TV Land has ordered a pilot presentation for an untitled reality series that will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the lives of acting couple Lisa Rinna and Harry Hamlin (who appeared together as a married couple on Veronica Mars) and their two daughters. Project, executive produced by Jason Carbone, could air as early as 2009 if ordered to series. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Orbis Pro Vox: Robbing Hood and Robbing Graves on "Pushing Daisies"

It's a shame that Pushing Daisies has died in the vase because week to week the cast and crew continue to produce a top-notch series that's unlike anything on television.

This week's episode ("Robbing Hood"), written by Jim D. Gray, offered up yet another delicious repast in the form of a murder mystery involving a millionaire (guest star Shelley Berman), his gold-digging widow (Jennifer Elise Cox), his lovelorn lawyer (Ethan Phillips) and a modern-day Robin Hood named Rob Wright (Danny Comden) who steals from the rich and gives to the poor.

It also served up another installment in the ongoing storyline of Dwight Dixon (guest star Stephen Root) who is on the hunt for an old pocket watch owned by Chuck's father Charles Charles. Just what Dwight needs this watch for (in addition to those originally owned by himself and Ned's father) remains to be seen, but it is clearly connected to something that happened when the three men were comperes together as UN peacekeepers.

Unfortunately, in his quest to uncover the missing watch--and his blossoming relationship with Aunt Vivian--Dwight has stumbled onto another mystery: why do Lily and Vivian think that they buried their niece (lonely tourist Charlotte Charles) when there's no body in her grave... and he's clearly seen Chuck alive and working at the Pie Hole? Faster than you can say "touch of life," Dwight leaves a message at the Pie Hole for our girl Chuck: he knows what you did last summer.

What I did love about this week's episode? Let's see. Young Ned resurrecting Akbar's poor bunny and python duo after their marble accident, Emerson's explanation to Ned that a key part is "kind of a raffle, of the porno variety" and Ned still not understanding it (much to Chuck's delight), the roar of the bear as Ned is forced to bring it back to life in order to locate Gustav's second will (ouch!), Olive's performance as obnoxiously OTT Mrs. Carville, the way that Ned and Emerson furtively turned off all of the lights in Lily and Vivian's house to make it appear deserted, Olive stress eating no less than six pies at the Pie Hole, the adorable (and emotionally restrained) scene between Dwight and Vivian in the autumn-colored park, and the fact that Chuck would fall for Rob Wright's story AND share a cheese plate with him while the others await the inevitable robbery. That's our fromage-loving Chuck.

Meanwhile, it was only a matter of time before someone learned that Chuck was alive and not dead after all this time. She's had a number of close encounters with her aunts over the past season, both at her aunt's house (where she returned last night to her childhood bedroom--now turned into a cheese locker--in search of clues) and at the Pie Hole. And Dwight seems to be a Keeper of Secrets. After all, he knows that Lily is actually Chuck's mother and had an affair with Vivian's fiancé (and their half-brother) Charles. And now he knows that Chuck is alive and well. In a word: not good.

I can only imagine what Lily and Vivian's reaction will be to this news, after all of their grieving and guilt over Chuck's death. Elation, yes, but also anger at being kept in the dark all this time. Meanwhile, the noose is tightening around Chuck. There's only so long the dead can walk among the living without people getting suspicious and she's gotten too complacent in her new life to continue her charade at being someone else.

With Dwight having stolen Charles' watch from right out underneath their noses, Chuck convinces a reluctant Ned to resurrect her father so they can get some answers. (Hell, I predicted nearly a year ago that this would happen.) And they do get as far as digging up the coffin when this week's episode was over. Will they go through with their plan? Will Ned stand by and watch Chuck watch her father die a second time? Or, more likely, will they be shocked to discover that Charles Charles' body isn't in that coffin? After all, wouldn't Dwight have beaten them to the grave long before in search of that very watch? Hmmm...

Next week on Pushing Daisies ("Comfort Food"), it's time for the much discussed Pushing Daisies/Wonderfalls crossover in which Chuck turns to Emerson for help after learning that Dwight Dixon knows that she is alive (again) while Ned and Olive compete at a comfort food competition that includes murder on the menu when one of the participants is found deep-fried and dead.

Wilted Daisies: ABC Opts Not to Renew "Pushing Daisies," "Dirty Sexy Money," and "Eli Stone"

The axe has fallen at ABC.

It's time for the terrible, terrible news that we've all been dreading for weeks now: ABC has decided not to renew Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, and Eli Stone past their initial 13-episode orders for this season.

While the word cancellation hasn't been officially given, it's basically equal to just that. None of the three series will continue past their initial second season orders. Many of us have been on death watch for Pushing Daisies for some time now and it absolutely breaks my heart to think that Chuck and Ned's days are now numbered.

ABC has yet to release an official statement about the, er, non-cancellation cancellations, but word started to reach me mid-day that the network would not be ordering any additional episodes of the troika.

UPDATE: James Hibberd at The Live Feed has gotten a statement from Daisies creator Bryan Fuller, who was playing phone tag with ABC's president, about the decision:

"I assumed that's what [the call] was about," said Fuller. "I can't help but feel immense pride when it comes to Pushing Daisies. I'm grateful TO everyone and FOR everyone who brought the show to life and for the very loyal audience that embraced us. If we are indeed dead on ABC, 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."

While we've heard other creators speaking of continuing their canceled series' storylines in comic form (I'm still waiting for that Carnivale comic, Knauf!), I really do hope that Fuller has the opportunity to wrap up some of Daisies' storylines, especially as the thirteenth episode is said to end on a cliffhanger for Chuck.

UPDATE #2: Kristin Dos Santos at E! Online has another statement from Fuller. "Steve McPherson called me, and said 'We gave it the best shot we could,'" said Fuller. "It's very likely that Pushing Daisies will end after episode 13, which as you know, is a cliffhanger. But we are talking to DC Comics about doing comic books that will wrap up our storylines, and I already have a pitch for a movie ready to go. To be honest, I'm really not feeling very boo-hoo about it. I am so proud of the show. We put together 22 really good episodes, and there is a lot to be proud of. I'm sure I'll be working with a lot of these people again, and I would love to do so."

Sigh.

Meanwhile, I can't help but think back to a certain dinner I had with Bryan Fuller back in May 2007 when he told me the very final scene he envisioned for Pushing Daisies, should the series make it that far. (If Bryan is okay with me revealing the details, I'm happy to share.) But until then, I can't help but imagine just what other delicious treats Fuller would have been able to cook up in that brilliant imagination of his.

Pushing Daisies, I'll miss you terribly, not only for bringing some lightness (and darkness) into the television landscape with your zany plots, candy-colored sets, and heartbreaking (and mirth-making) stories but for the deft dialogue, the witty characterizations, and above all your innate beauty and originality. You'll be missed.

Next Best Thing Magic Dad: Truth and Illusion on "Pushing Daisies"

It seems like it's been months since we've gotten a new episode of Pushing Daisies, though it's really only been three weeks. (In the rarefied world of Daisies, that's like a lifetime for those of us craving a piece of narrative pie from The Pie Hole.)

Suffice it to say, I found myself positively salivating for the series' quirky sweetness during the "previously on" montage at the start of this week's episode of Pushing Daisies ("Oh Oh Oh... It's Magic"), a delightful confection that had Ned and the gang investigating the murders of the animal assistants of The Great Herrmann, a.k.a. Herman Gunt (guest star Fred Willard), a stage magician who had become the surrogate father for Ned's own half-brothers Ralston and Maurice. (Where do the writers come up with these delightful names?)

Written by Kath Lingenfelter (who was hired on Daisies, according to creator Bryan Fuller, on the strength of a sample piece about a man with pork chop hands), this week's installment was an episode filled to the brim with guest stars aplenty, from Willard to Kerri Kenney-Silver (Reno 911!) and Stephen Root (Office Space). What more could you possibly want, save maybe a glass of cold milk with which to wash that down?

I absolutely loved Ned's abhorrence of all things magical as evidenced by his acid reflux symptoms every time the word "magic" was mentioned and how this tied into his own abandonment by his neglectful father (and that of Maurice and Ralston during an actual magic performance). For a man with seemingly magical abilities, it's an interesting paradox that he should find slight-of-hand so unseemly but be (relatively) at ease with his own extraordinary powers. I think it incredibly inventive of the writers to throw two very needy twin half-brothers at the relationship-phobic Ned. After all, he might be able to bring dead people to life with barely a touch, but the Pie Maker can't seem to stand human contact with the living. Could the twin illusionists melt the frost around Ned's heart? Unlikely, but I relished seeing him thrust into the role of explaining his own father's actions.

Speaking of Ned's father, just what is his old friend Dwight Dixon up to and why does he need the three pocket watches he, Ned's father, and Charles Charles had during their time as UN Peacekeepers? Hmmm. Dwight inched his way closer to uncovering a secret from the very first episode of Pushing Daisies: namely that there was no body in the grave of lonely tourist Charlotte Charles and therefore no pocket watch to be had. While it's clear that Dwight doesn't know Chuck and Ned's secret, the mere fact that he's digging around (quite literally) could prove to be disastrous, especially if he learns that Chuck is actually out and about among the living... and armed with that coveted pocket watch.

Meanwhile, he's cozying up to Aunt Vivian, who seemed to thrill at the mere prospect of an illicit date with a man her sister disapproves of, a man who also knows Lily's decades-old secret about being the birth mother to Chuck. Something tells me that it's only a matter of time before poor Vivian learns the truth about Chuck's parentage and it won't be pretty.

What did I love? Herrmann's "I'm not made of hugs" line; Chuck putting on various accents to try and get Lily to admit on the phone that she gave birth to a child; Cementia; Olive turning the wrong way (towards Emerson) to tell Chuck that the twins were "magically delicious"; Herrmann allowing the gang to call him "Great" and expressing his tiredness with the twins' neediness; Vivian's "emotional or federal?" line to Dwight upon learning that he was in prison; the Geek accidentally regurgitating the kitten after Ned and Olive spring their trap on stage; and Emerson referring to Maurice and Ralston as the "Wonder Twins" and them offering to copy Herrmann's book for Alexandria.

But the cream was the conversation between Lily and Olive at the episode's end, in which Olive engages in a role playing exercise where she pretends to be Chuck asking her birth mother for the truth... while all the while Chuck listens in and gets to ask her own burning questions to Lily. A trick to beat all other tricks, conjured up by Ned. Who says that the Pie Maker doesn't believe in magic?

Next week on Pushing Daisies ("Robbing Hood"), the gang investigates the suspicious death of a millionaire who may have been killed by a modern day Robin Hood or his gold-digging young widow; Lily is irate when Vivian and Dixon begin spending more time together.

Channel Surfing: Rashida Jones Joins Untitled Greg Daniels Comedy, Heaton Heads to "The Middle," No Brain Tumor for Izzie, and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. I'm still a little tired after staying up to watch Fringe last night after attending the Los Angeles premiere of Doubt, starring Meryl Streep, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams. (Verdict? A good film but not a great one.)

NBC has confirmed a long-standing rumor and announced that Rashida Jones (The Office) has been cast in the untitled Amy Poehler workplace comedy project from Greg Daniels and Michael Schur that isn't a spin-off to The Office. Jones will play Ann Logan, a nurse whose boyfriend has suffered a strange injury that leads her to the characters played by Poehler and Aziz Ansari. Do they work in a specialized medical clinic? A psychiatrist's office? Witch doctor's emporium? That remains to be seen but I am happy that Jones and Poehler will appear together in this project. I've missed Jones, especially since her last Office visit. The series is expected to be ready by late spring but may not launch until next fall. (Variety)

Izzie will NOT have a brain tumor on Grey's Anatomy. So says series creator/executive producer Shonda Rhimes. "I think the love triangle with Denny, Izzie, and Alex is among the most interesting we've ever done," said Rhimes. "Watching the chemistry between Jeffrey and Katherine again has been really touching. I can't wait for our viewers to see where we're taking it. But what it won't involve is Izzie having a brain tumor." So then what the hell is going on between Izzie and the dead Denny then? Hmmm. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

ABC has given out a pilot order for family comedy The Middle, to star Patricia Heaton (Back to You). Project, to be directed by Julie Anne Robinson (Weeds) and written by DeAnn Heline and Eileen Heisler, was previously produced as a pilot in 2006-07 with Ricki Lake in Heaton's role and was resurrected by ABC and Warner Bros. TV when they received a pilot order contingent on Heaton's attachment. Personally, I quite liked the script (about a mother dealing with her unruly flock in Middle America) back in 2006 and am interested to see what they do with it this time around. (Hollywood Reporter)

MTV is in talks to resurrect reality franchise Beauty and the Geek for a new six-episode season that is being called Beauty and the Geek: Celebrity, in which the titular geeks would be paired with celebrity hotties. Under the potential deal, MTV would also retain the option for additional cycles of the series. (TV Week)

Want more scoop on what's coming up next on Pushing Daisies, including that aforementioned crossover with Bryan Fuller's Wonderfalls? Head over to Sci Fi Wire, which has details about the "Comfort Food" episode which will feature guest star Beth Grant's May Ann Marie Beetle character from Wonderfalls, as well as several other upcoming episodes. (Sci Fi Wire)

Brooke Shields is attempting to save Lipstick Jungle from cancellation following an onslaught of lipstick delivery by fans to the network. "NBC is now flooded with lipstick,” said Shields. “Women are in uproar over this… they’ve tried to kill us before and we have refused to die. If we were meant to be off the air, we wouldn’t have made it as far as we have. Everything that could possibly go wrong with a show has happened with us.” (The Daily Beast)

FX is developing drama AR2, from Prison Break creator/executive producer Paul Scheuring, executive producer Thomas Schlamme (The West Wing), and fox21 that is described by Scheuring as "Les Miserables in modern America." Plot follows a group of Michigan college students who set off a second American Revolution (hence the title) and how the military and police deal with their revolt. "It looks into what happens on both sides of the conflict and how that affects the personal lives of all involved," said Scheuring. (Hollywood Reporter)

Laura Linney will take over as host of PBS' Masterpiece Classic, succeeding Gillian Anderson. Linney's first on-screen appearance is set for January 4th when Masterpiece Classic will kick off a new season that includes Tess of the d'Ubervilles, Wuthering Heights, and The Incomplete Charles Dickens. (Variety)

The New York Times has an update on the increasingly complex legal situation surrounding the next season of Project Runway, which will likely not air until late spring. (New York Times)

Sean Combs will guest star in a two-episode arc of CBS' CSI: Miami, where he will play a prosecutor who bristles against David Caruso's Horatio Crane. His episodes are slated to air sometime this winter. (Associated Press)

Ed Begley Jr., Tyne Daly, Linda Emond, and Henry Simmons will star opposite Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons in Lifetime biopic Georgia O'Keeffe, from Sony Pictures TV and director Bob Balaban. (Hollywood Reporter)

Elsewhere in TV Movie Land, Hallmark Channel has filled out the casts for two its upcoming telepics. Peter Strauss, Jonathan Silverman, DeDee Pfeiffer, Linsey Godfrey, and Nolan Gerard Funk will star in The Wilderness Family, about a family that inherits a cabin in the woods and faces some distinct challenges. Angie Dickinson and Laura Leighton will star in The View From Here, about a journalist who returns to her hometown to visit her ill mother and uncovers a plot against the town's inhabitants. Both are expected to air in late 2009. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Alphabet Soup: "Pushing Daisies" Still Not Canceled But Missing from Midseason

Well, Pushing Daisies fans, there's the good news and then there's the bad news.

The good news is that ABC hasn't quite decided what to do about the fate of Pushing Daisies. Daisies and fellow sophomore drama series Dirty Sexy Money are both said to be in contention for renewal for the 2009-10 season. However, then there's the bad news: Pushing Daisies isn't anywhere on ABC's midseason schedule. (Its Wednesday night timeslot, according to the schedule obtained by Futon Critic from ABCStagePass.com, has been taken over by Scrubs and The Goode Family.)

The decision to take Daisies off the schedule could mean that ABC merely decided to cut costs and truncate the second season and could later decide to magnanimously renew the series for a third season despite low ratings. (Production wrapped on the series' initial thirteen episodes last week so it's now a given that it won't shoot any additional episodes for this season.) I'm hoping that ABC does come to its senses and decide to bring back Daisies, even with another shortened season. (After all, thirteen episodes is more than the series aired in its first season.)

Also missing from the lineup: Life on Mars, which could continue to air new episodes through January and February, should ABC decide to delay the start of its new series until March, the Nathan Fillion-led mystery drama Castle, Cupid, and comedy Better Off Ted. (Could the latter series be delayed until next season? Possibly but it's more likely they'll bow in March.)

And what series gets the plum post-Lost timeslot? Why that would be new series The Unusuals, a police procedural with some intriguing metaphysical and serialized elements. (If you couldn't tell, I quite enjoyed the pilot for that one.)

Meanwhile, the rest of ABC's midseason schedule can be found after the jump.

ABC MIDSEASON SCHEDULE 2009

MONDAY
8-9:30 pm: The Bachelor
9:30-10 pm: Samantha Who?
10-11 pm: True Beauty (New Series)

TUESDAY
8-9 pm: Border Security USA (New Series)
9-9:30 pm: According to Jim
9:30-10 pm: According to Jim
10-11 pm: Eli Stone

WEDNESDAY
8-8:30 pm: Scrubs
8:30-9 pm: The Goode Family
9-10 pm: Lost
10-11 pm: The Unusuals (New Series)

THURSDAY
8-9 pm: Ugly Betty
9-10 pm: Grey's Anatomy
10-11 pm: Private Practice (New Time Slot)

FRIDAY
8-9 pm: Wife Swap
9-10 pm: Supernanny
10-11 pm: 20/20

SATURDAY
8-11 pm: Saturday Night Movie

SUNDAY
7-8 pm: America's Funniest Home Videos
8-9 pm: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
9-10 pm: Desperate Housewives
10-11 pm: Brothers & Sisters

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: Sword of Damocles Dangles Over "Pushing Daisies," Hilary Duff Heads to NBC, and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. I am still laughing after last night's episode of 30 Rock and, while I did love the interaction between Andy and Oscar in Canada, was less than impressed once again with The Office. (Sorry, Brent!)

The TV-related headlines are pretty sparse today, so I'll be brief. Everyone is, of course, talking about whether or not Pushing Daisies will get canceled today. I've heard from numerous sources that ABC is going to opt not to renew the series past its initial 13-episode commitment. Having the Sword of Damocles hanging over Daisies' head like this for so long is making me a bit woozy, if I'm honest. I also wish that ABC had decided to air Pushing Daisies during the first two weeks of sweeps before making a decision about its fate, but that's just me.

Production wrapped last night on the thirteen episodes currently slated for Daisies' second season and THR reports that no decision has yet been made (or formally announced anyway). "Our ABC exec was on the set last night saying they are still swinging in the fight to keep Daisies on the air," said creator Bryan Fuller. "Spirits are high and hopeful and everyone here is very proud of our work and this show." While hopes are flagging that ABC will come to their senses, I won't quite give up hope until the fat lady sings. (Or in this case, tiny little Kristin Chenoweth.) (Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times, TV Week)

Despite being fired last week, Heroes co-executive producers Jesse Alexander and Jeph Loeb will still appear at tomorrow's Screenwriting Expo... but executive producer/creator Tim Kring has dropped out of the show, in order to keep the panel's focus on Heroes' writing rather than on recent events. "It's a chance for Jesse and Jeph to tout their incredible participation and involvement and responsibility for the first three seasons of Heroes," said Kring, "without me pulling the focus from that, given the course of recent events." Regardless, look for that Entertainment Weekly cover story to be a topic of conversation. (Variety)

Hilary Duff has signed a one-year talent and development deal with NBC, under which she will star in a new series for the network and will guest star in current NBC series. The Duff series will be produced by Universal Media Studios and the actress will begin meeting with writers and execs to determine the right project. (Variety)

New York Times' Alessandra Stanley has a glowing review of Saturday night's HBO comedy special Ricky Gervais: Out of England. According to the dek, "Onstage, Ricky Gervais blends the slimy self-delusion of David Brent, his character on the original version of The Office, with the aggrieved hostility he perfected in Extras on HBO." I'll be watching for sure. Will you? (New York Times)

Marvel Animation is developing 26 half-hour animated episodes based on its Thor franchise to launch in Fall 2010, just after the release of Marvel's live-action Thor feature. The studio is already in production on animated series The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes for a 2011 launch in order to tie in with the releases of features The First Avenger: Captain America and The Avengers. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: Fuller Could Return to "Heroes," CW Scraps Robin Plans, Morrissey Responds to "Doctor Who" Rumors, and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. I'm still getting mail from readers about yesterday's announcement that FOX would stick Joss Whedon's Dollhouse on Fridays, as many are extremely upset by what they perceive to be the final nail in the coffin for Whedon's latest work.

As one door opens, another one opens. Or so the aphorism goes. In any event, should ABC opt not to order additional episodes of Pushing Daisies past their initial 13-episode commitment this season, creator Bryan Fuller will be heading back to NBC's Heroes, where he was on staff during the beleaguered series' freshman season. "I am exclusive to Daisies through the delivery of the 13th episode of our 13-episode order, which will be mid-January," Fuller told EW.com. "If Daisies isn't picked up by then, I will definitely be going back to play with my friends at Heroes." Sadly, it's now looking more and more likely that ABC won't be ordering more installments of the groundbreaking Pushing Daisies, meaning that I just died a little inside when I read Fuller's statement. (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

The CW has ditched plans for its Robin franchise. (Wahoo!) The netlet had previously announced that it had given a put pilot commitment to The Graysons, a retelling of the Robin origin story that would follow D.J. Grayson (ick) as a hotheaded teen, prior to his becoming Batman's Boy Wonder sidekick. Decision to kill the project came from Warner Bros. Pictures Group president Jeff Robinov, who originally gave the series his blessing but changed his mind. In a statement, a company spokesperson said, "The studio has opted not to go forward with the development of The Graysons at this time as the concept doesn't fit the current strategy for the Batman franchise." (Whew.) It should also be noted that Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan never signed off on the project though the decision came squarely from Robinov. (Variety)

Reiko Aylesworth (ER) is in talks to join the cast of ABC's Lost in a "major recurring role." If the deal closes, Aylesworth--best known for her role as Michelle Dessler on 24--will appear in at least four episodes of Lost as Amy, a highly successful "professional woman with a love for the outdoors who is looking for the right man." (Hmmm, to me that should read: female Dharma Initiative conscript. But that's just a guess on my part.) In other casting news, Amy Price-Francis (Californication) has been cast in a six-episode arc on Day Seven of 24, where she will play a coldblooded attorney working for Jonas Hodges (Jon Voight). (Hollywood Reporter)

David Morrissey (State of Play) has responded to rumors that he is being considered to replace David Tennant in Doctor Who. "As for any talk of me taking over as the next Doctor, well, if or when they do choose someone, they would have to be totally different to David - which I am," said Morrissey, who next appears on Doctor Who's Christmas Special, entitled The Next Doctor. "I play a character called The Doctor – a man who believes himself to be a Time Lord. It was great to be on board, because I’m a huge fan of the programme and of David Tennant." (Digital Spy)

FOX has announced their midseason schedule, which has Joss Whedon's Dollhouse and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles in a two-hour block on Friday evenings. (Televisionary)

Dylan McDermott (The Practice) has been cast in Jerry Bruckheimer's TNT cop drama pilot The Line, about a squad of undercover LAPD officers who are tempted by easy money. McDermott will play Lt. Andre Carter, who created the secret unit within the LAPD. He stars opposite Logan Marshall-Green, Omari Hardwick, and Nicki Aycox. (Hollywood Reporter)

ABC Studios has asked its series producers to trim their budgets by two percent and is leaving it up to each individual showrunner how the two percent cuts will be made. Producers have been asked to identify excesses that can be corrected immediately. NBC Universal is said to be under a similar initiative to cut three percent (or $500 million) of its 2009 budget. (Variety)

Emilio Estevez will guest star on CBS' Two and a Half Men, opposite real-life brother Charlie Sheen. Estevez will play a former drinking buddy of Charlie's who drops in for a visit. No air date has been announced for the episode. "My dad did the show a couple of years ago," said Sheen, "so it was only a matter of time until someone of my brother's talent could also come and play in our sandbox." (TV Guide)

LeAnne Rimes, Eddie Cibrian, and Rosanna Arquette have been cast in Northern Lights, Lifetime's latest Nora Roberts telepic slated to air in 2009. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: "Pushing Daisies" In Danger of Wilting Away, Mad Man Hamm Heads to "30 Rock," and More

Happy Halloween and welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. I'm still catching up on television from this week, thanks to a busy social calendar and some LA-based preemptions of CW's Wednesday night series, so look for me to spend much time this weekend catching up.

I got many a worried email from readers last night about Kristin Dos Santos' report about the possibility that ABC had not extended Pushing Daisies beyond its initial 13-episode order. While ABC has yet to make a decision about the fate of the series, producers were told to change their original plan for the second season's thirteenth episode (intended as the first of a two-parter) and make said episode a stand-alone installment to "cover all bases," whether the episode be just the thirteenth episode... or Pushing Daisies' series finale. (And be sure to read this item about what you can do to help the Daisies cause.) (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Don Draper has found somewhere new to hang his hat. Jon Hamm (Mad Men) is said to be in advanced negotiations to appear in a multiple-episode story arc on Season Three of NBC's 30 Rock, where he'll play a potential love interest for our beloved Liz Lemon and possibly her neighbor. (Let's just hope he has better luck with her than Achmed.) (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

FOX has ordered a fifth season of American Dad and studio 20th Century Fox Television has signed new overall deals with executive producers Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman to keep them on as showrunners on Season Five. Barker and Weitzman, who were writing partners working out of the same deal, have separated their services and signed individual deals, freeing both up to pursue solo projects as well. (Variety)

While American Dad may be returning for the 2009-10 season, one FOX animated skein won't be. FOX has confirmed that it will not go ahead for an additional season of King of the Hill, currently airing its twelfth season. Episodes for Season Thirteen, however, don't launch until February and could, in fact, be held for next season if need be. (Variety)

Bradley Whitford (West Wing) and Romany Malco (Weeds) have joined the cast of NBC's buddy cop comedy pilot Off Duty from writer/executive producer Jason Mantzoukas. Project follows a veteran police detective (Whitford) who finds his life--both on and off duty--complicated by his new partner (Malco), a rising star in the force. (Hollywood Reporter)

Jane Lynch (Lovespring International) has joined the cast of FOX dramedy pilot Glee, where she will play the "antagonistic coach of the high school's cheerleading squad." The former Cindy Lightballoon will star in the project opposite Matthew Morrison, Jessalyn Gilsig, Stephen Tobolowsky, and Lea Michele. Should Glee be ordered to series, it could bow as early as this spring. (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

Mike Binder (The Mind of the Married Man) has sold comedy pilot script Two Dollar Beer to FOX and 20th Century Fox Television. Project will revolve around a group of twenty-somethings as they deal with the worsening economy in Detroit. Should the project be ordered to pilot, Binder is attached to direct. (Variety)

Emily Rose (Brothers and Sisters) will star in USA's medical drama pilot Operating Instructions as a top female truma surgeon who returns from Iraq to take a position at a military hospital; her attachmen lifts the casting contigency on the project. Elsewhere at USA, Willie Garson (Sex and the City) has joined the cast of drama pilot White Collar, opposite Matthew Bomer and Tim DeKay. (Hollywood Reporter)

Bravo has announced five unscripted projects in development: Fashionality, featuring Manhattan tastemakers in a roundtable discussion about pop culture and fashion from Embassy Row; Celebrity Sew-Off, in which celebs will design their own clothes in a sartorial competition from Lake Paradise Entertainment; Double Exposure, a docusoap following fashion photographer Markus Klinko from Juma Entertainment; Polo, a BTS-look at the lives of professional polo players from Granada America; and The Dubai Project, about the lavish lifestyles of American and Brit ex-pats from World of Wonder. (Variety)

Alison Pill has been cast as one of the leads of Season Two of HBO's In Treatment, where she will play April, a graduate student diagnoses with lymphoma. (Hollywood Reporter)

Dave Franco (Do Not Disturb, Greek) has signed on to appear in a multiple-episode arc of CW's Privileged, where he will play a love interest for Rose (Lucy Hale). His first episode is expected to air in early 2009. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: CBS Breaks Up with "Ex List," New "Daisies" for ABC This Week, Katee Sackhoff, "90210," and More

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing.

Hope you weren't too attached to CBS' The Ex List. The Eye has pulled the low-performing drama off of its schedule, effective immediately, and will fill the Friday night timeslot with repeats of NCIS for now. Decision comes on the heels of yet another batch of low ratings for the drama (5.3 million viewers and 1.5/5) and the departure of showrunner Diane Ruggiero. No word on whether production will continue (series is currently shooting its eleventh episode) or whether CBS will air the produced episodes later down the line. My thought is that they won't be going to prom any time soon. (Variety)

Barack Obama's presidential campaign has decided not to enlist a full broadcast regime on Wednesday night, opting not to purchase the 8 pm air time on ABC, which will instead air an original episode of Pushing Daisies instead. I'm hoping that the fact that Daisies is one of the few series that will air original episodes in that timeslot (other than the CW's Top Model) will mean some more eyeballs tuning in. Fingers crossed. (Variety)

Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica), recently cast as the lead in NBC's procedural crime drama Lost and Found, will appear in an upcoming episode of NBC's Law & Order, which returns to the lineup on November 5th. (Chicago Tribune's The Watcher)

Writer/director Luke Greenfield (The Girl Next Door) has set up two projects at the networks: ABC comedy My Mom is Hot, about a man whose newly divorced mother reenters the dating scene, from writer Duncan Birmingham (Greenfield will direct and executive produce with his mom, Beth Greenfield), and FOX comedy Broke Friends, about a naive Midwestern kid who moves to New York, where he moves in with two con men. The latter project comes from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia writers Sonny Lee and Patrick Walsh; Greenfield will again direct and executive produce. (Congrats, Sonny!) (Variety)

Megan Dodds (Spooks, a.k.a. MI-5) has signed a talent holding deal with 20th Century Fox, under which she will star in an upcoming one-hour series. Dodds recently starred in the courtroom dramedy pilot Courtroom K for the studio. (Hollywood Reporter)

Jennifer Lopez's Nuyorican Prods. have signed a first-look deal with Universal Media Studios, under which they will create a variety of TV projects for the studio. Company had previous sold a TV version of film Maid in Manhattan to ABC and Amigas to Disney Channel. (Variety)

Comedy Central has ordered an 11-minute pilot presentation for Secret Girlfriend, based on Fremantle's web series of the same name, about a twenty-something guy and his friends "'living the dream' in the pursuit of sex, beer and more sex.” (Broadcasting and Cable)

UK residents will be able to catch the antics of a new generation of Beverly Hills denizens next year: Channel 4 has outbit rival networks ITV, Five, and Living to acquire 90210, which it will air on C4 and E4 early next year. (Variety)

ABC Family has given a pilot order to drama Perfect 10, from writer/executive producer Holly Sorenson, about a group of teen gymnasts training for a shot at the Olympics. (TV Week)

Nina Lederman has been hired by Lifetime as SVP, series programming and development; she was previously the president of Joe Roth TV. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

"Pushing Daisies" Once Again Proves to Be as Comforting as a King-Size Duvet of Goose Down Goodness

Another fantastic installment of Pushing Daisies, but have we come to expect any less of this gorgeously crafted series? My only complaint about the series is, of course, that not enough people are watching and the clock is ticking away for the fate of Pushing Daisies as ABC has yet to order any additional scripts. Sigh.

On this week's episode of Pushing Daisies ("Frescorts")--written by Lisa Joy, Gretchen Berg, and Aaron Harberts--the gang investigates the murder of a professional best friend as new BFFs Chuck and Olive go undercover (as Kitty Pimms and Patty Boots respectively) as potential Frescort trainees, Emerson attempts to negotiate a new relationship with his best friend/mother Calista (Everwood's Debra Mooney) and finally comes clean about a secret, and Chuck and Ned try to find new footing in their relationship now that she's living with Olive.

And, of course, there was that jaw-dropping last scene in which Chuck surprised Ned (who earlier offered to be a comforter for Chuck, a "king-size duvet ready to wrap you in goose down goodness") by showing up at his apartment and dropping the duvet around her shoulders... to reveal that she wasn't wearing anything underneath. Poor Ned. If only they could actually, you know, touch.

I have to say that I really enjoyed David Arquette's performance as Randy Mann last night, which is saying a lot as Arquette often has the tendency to give me hives. But I thought that he was delightfully eccentric on last night's episode, which introduced taxidermy-loving Randy and set him up as a potential friend for Ned, one who might understand his special gift, given his own predilection for "reanimating" beloved things but stuffing and mounting them... and then posing them in vivid (and disturbing) tableaux. (Arquette, of course, will return later this season in a multiple-episode arc.)

It was also nice to see a softer side of Emerson Cod. I absolutely loved the flashback scenes of Young Emerson at the beginning of the episode in which we got to see his and Calista's crime-fighting past, beginning with Emerson was nothing more than a wee bairn used as a prop in Calista's attempt to prove an accident victim was faking his injuries. (Nice echo, BTW, to the Odessa steps scene in Battleship Potemkin.) I was also really impressed with the casting of Mooney as Calista Cod; I had assumed that Emerson's mother would be black and I was happy to see such color-blind casting at work here as no mention is made whatsoever about the racial differences between Emerson and his mother. Progressive and touching.

This week also continued the storyline of Emerson attempting to track down his missing daughter as his pop-up book "Lil' Gumshoe" gets rejected by a slew of publishers. Fortunately, Calista is able to give him some notes on how to improve the work and points out that any kid reading about Emerson's screwy upbringing (as a child gumshoe) would run the other way, so he should make the book about what a great father he would be. Something tells me we'll meet up with Emerson's daughter before long...

I loved seeing Chuck and Olive navigate the choppy waters of roommate-hood as each tried to be as cordial and conciliatory as possible to the other, despite their fractous history. I had a feeling that Olive would end up moving in with Chuck, if only because she has nowhere else to go and all of her belongings were taken by the poor (rather than the porter, as she incorrected assumed) at the convent. The locker scene with the two of them (in which Olive admitted that Chuck's freesia hair detangler nauseated her) was brilliant ("It's like we're trapped in a sachet in a panty drawer of a dead shut-in, who was shut in her bedroom by her cat so that they wouldn't have to smell the stench of Freesia"), as was the scene where they admit (helped, handily, by some shoofly pie) that, while they might not be best suited to living together, they'll give it another shot.

I like seeing Chuck and Olive as friends (complete with silly secret handshakes) as it subverts that dominant storytelling paradigm that says that two attractive women have to be adversaries. Yes, Chuck and Olive both love the Pie Maker but that doesn't mean that they can't also be supportive and understanding towards each other, rather than catty. It's a good thing.

Best line of the evening: "I want to duvet you right now."

Next week on Pushing Daisies ("Dim Sum Lose Some"), Ned is surprised to meet a mysterious man (guest star Stephen Root) who claims to be an old friend of his dad's and asks for help in locating him; Emerson investigates a murder at a dim sum restaurant reunites with Simone, the dog obedience trainer (and former polygamist's wife) who had caught his eye in Season One.

Channel Surfing: AMC Renews "Mad Men," ABC Cancels "Opportunity Knocks," Brian Cox, and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. I spent last night in front of the telly, watching The Office (meh), SNL Weekend Update Thursday (hilarious), Crusoe (mind-numbingly boring), It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (funny), and Life on Mars (humdrum). I still have to watch last night's Ugly Betty, however.

AMC has renewed Mad Men for a third season mere weeks before the series' current series wraps up. However, talks continue apace between the cabler, studio Lionsgate Television, and creator Matthew Weiner. Lionsgate does not have a deal in place with Weiner to stay on as showrunner/executive producer for Season Three and he is seeking a raise "commensurate with the white-hot level of acclaim (including the Emmy for drama series last month) and pop-culture buzz the show has generated." Studio hopes to reach a deal with Weiner for both the third and fourth season, which it would then use to leverage an early pickup for Season Four from AMC. Fingers crossed that they are able to come to an arrangement as, to me, Mad Men is synonymous with Matthew Weiner. (Variety)

Jessica Walter wanted to be downgraded to recurring status on CW's 90210. "I'm just recurring on 90210, not a regular," said Walter in an interview. "I come in, drop a glass and goodbye. Actually [Tabitha] hasn't dropped a glass yet! And I recur on Saving Grace too, as Holly Hunter's mother. So it's sort of ideal because I'm bicoastal and, of course, I'm available for other things because I'm not committed on the show. When you're recurring, you're not exclusive." (Los Angeles Times)

ABC has given a put pilot commitment to a US adaptation of British comedy series The Inbetweeners, about four high school boys who belong to the social caste in between the cool, popular clique and the geeks. Project, which aired in the UK on Channel 4, will be overseen by original series creators/executive producers Iain Morris and Damon Beesley, who have also written for HBO's Flight of the Conchords, and will adapt their own material without an American writer. In a separate deal, ABC has given Beesley and Morris a blind script commitment with penalty for a future original project. (Hollywood Reporter)

David Arquette, who guest stars in next week's episode of Pushing Daisies as "frescort" Randy Mann, will return to the series later in the season as a potential love interest for Kristin Chenoweth's Olive Snook, according to series creator Bryan Fuller. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

In other Pushing Daisies-related news, ratings for the third episode of the current season were actually up twelve percent this week, with an average of 6.3 million viewers, and retained nearly all of its audience from half-hour to half-hour. Well done, Pie Hole gang! (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

ABC has canceled reality competition series Opportunity Knocks, pulling the series off of its schedule effective immediately. The series had aired three episodes to date in its Tuesdays at 8 pm, where it averaged a 1.9/5 among adults 18-49 and 6.3 million viewers. Series will be replaced by an edited one-hour recap of Dancing with the Stars. Personally, I was surprised that this was ever programmed during the regular season; it screamed cheap summer reality filler to me. (Variety)

Brian Cox (Zodiac) will star opposite Katee Sackhoff in NBC's drama pilot Lost and Found, where he will play Burt Macey, the argumentative and racist older partner to Sackhoff's Tessa who solves crimes by cracking heads and taking names. Cox has also signed on to appear in a four-episode arc on NBC's midseason drama series Kings, where he will play former King Vesper, the nemesis of Ian McShane's Silas Benjamin. (Hollywood Reporter)

The third season premiere episode of NBC's 30 Rock (an advance review of which can be found here) will be offered as a free download on iTunes a full week before its broadcast for readers of TV Guide, who can obtain a special code from the October 27th issue. (Variety)

Colin Hanks will return to CBS' NUMB3RS, where he will reprise his role as mathematician Marshall Penfield, Charlie's frenemy. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Former Veronica Mars cast member Jaime Ray Newman has been cast in a multiple-episode arc on Sci Fi's Eureka, where she will play Dr. Tess Fontana, an engineer/astrophysicist with a unique perspective and a potential love interest for Colin Ferguson's Jack Carter. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Bad Habits and Not-So Flying Nuns on "Pushing Daisies"

I watched last night's episode of Pushing Daisies ("Bad Habits") a few weeks ago but I couldn't resist saying a few things about this fantastic installment that ranks up there with some of the series' very best episodes.

Written by Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts (who created the WB's short-lived series Pepper Dennis), "Bad Habits" not only continues the storylines elegantly established in the previous two episodes--Olive running away from the Pie Hole, Lily covering up her tracks, Chuck attempting to be independent--but also puts a nice little bow on them as well. We know that Olive won't stay metaphorically cloistered now that Chuck knows the truth about her birth mother but I can't wait to see whether she moves in with Chuck (who is now residing in her old apartment)... or is forced to move in with Ned in the meantime. Strange bedfellows, people.

I loved Ned, Chuck, and Emerson going undercover as Vatican investigators (a better inspired cover story has yet to be invented) looking into the death of a nun at the convent where Olive is hiding out. (I especially loved the Father Dowling, Father Mulcahy, and Sister Christian references. Classic.) That Olive would seek to involve Emerson (given her distaste for being near Ned and Chuck whilst she knows Lily's secret) points to the fact that she really does believe that the death of her fellow nun Sister LaRue (guest star Mo Collins) wasn't suicide but murder. Especially given the fact that it was pretty damn likely that Emerson would laugh in her face. (And, oh boy, did he.)

Olive believes that murder, like secrets or truffles, will out, to quote the Bard himself. But how far can someone run from the truth? Even Lily must realize that eventually the truth will come out about Chuck's parentage... even if she doesn't know that Chuck is still alive and around to hear it. Was it just me or did Kristin Chenoweth turn in a performance that was so pitch-perfect, so subtle and winning, that it all but seals her Emmy nomination next year?

We finally got an actual explanation for Chuck's complicated and tangled family tree: Aunts Lily and Vivian are her step-aunts. Sort of. It turns out that Chuck's grandfather married Lily and Vivian's mother, making Charles Charles and Lily and Vivian step-siblings. So there's no actual biological relationship between Lily and Charles... making Lily and Vivian aunts by proxy. Whew.

What else did I love? Seeing super-determined and plucky Young Olive end up getting an Arabian horse through sheer grit and, well, unearthing a trycerotops skeleton buried in the yard (yep, everyone's digging in this episode); Ned's dog head mugs; guest stars galore in the form of Mo Collins, Michael Hitchcock, and Diana Scarwid; Olive saying her full name when she goes to see Emerson ("Olive. Olive Snook."); Sister LaRue's longshoremen-like vocabulary; Chuck and Ned's proxy high-five; Olive screaming "you are killing me!" at Ned's ineptness at deciphering her clues ("something to do with the sacred feminine?"); Ned's sad confession; and Ned catching Olive. Aw.

But one of the most beautiful elements of this week's gripping episode was Chuck and Ned's heartfelt discussion of how Chuck felt as though she were stuck "in between" life and death. Poor Chuck. At least she realizes she has a second chance once she learns that Lily is in fact her mother and Ned realizes that just because his past is "rotten" it doesn't mean that Chuck's is as well.

Nice twist with Ned admitting to the priest that if he ran into his father today, he wouldn't know him "from Adam," only to have his father turn up at the Pie Hole. As for Ned's father coming back into the picture, I am extremely worried about him revealing Ned's secret to the world. I can't help shake the feeling that his return to Ned's life isn't a blessing but a curse and wonder just how much Ned's father knows about the boy he abandoned all those years before...

Next week on Pushing Daisies ("Frescorts"), Emerson is hired to investigate the murder of a woman's best friend named Joe but uncovers a rent-a-friend agency, where the gang learns that the victim had quite a lot of, um, best friends... and each of them had a reason to kill Joe; Emerson's mother Calista pays her son an unexpected visit.

Channel Surfing: ABC Gets "V," "Torchwood" Details, Renewals for "Burn Notice" and "Psych," and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.

Details are slowly emerging about the next season of British import Torchwood. Producers have cast four actors for the series' condensed third season, entitled Torchwood: Children of Earth. Lucy Cohu (Meadowlands) will play Alice, "a woman keeping many secrets from the past," according to producer Peter Bennett. Susan Brown (The Riff Raff Element) will play Bridget Spears, "a character vitally connected to the government, which plays an important part in this story." Cush Jumbo will play Lois Habiba, a secretary who "hacks into some vital information," and Rik Makarem will play Doctor Rupesh Patanjali, a "junior doctor at St Helen's hospital who gets drawn into Torchwood's investigations." I can't wait! (Digital Spy)

ABC is developing an adaptation of classic 1980s mini-series V, about reptilian aliens who enslave Earth, with The 4400 co-creator/executive producer Scott Peters. The new version of V will focus on Erica Evans, a Homeland Security agent with a troubled son who attaches himself onto the aliens upon their arrival, which causes some problems at home. Warner Bros. is being the adaptation, which was sold as a spec script to ABC. Original V creator Kenneth Johnson recently tried to revive the franchise with V: The Second Generation but he will not be involved in the latest incarnation. (Variety)

USA has renewed dramas Burn Notice and Psych, with each earning 16 episode orders for 2009. The orders bring Burn Notice to its third season and Psych to its fourth. The second halves of their current seasons are slated to air in January with the following seasons set to bow next summer. No decision has yet been made about the fate of Monk. (Hollywood Reporter)

Pushing Daisies was only slightly down this week (5.6 million viewers; 2.0/6 in adults 18-49) versus its premiere last week (6.3 million viewers; 2.0/6) but Private Practice dropped 21 percent in the key demo week-to-week and Dirty Sexy Money dropped 17 percent as well. At least Daisies fans seem to be sticking around. Now if only we could get those numbers to just... go up. (Variety)

Eric Winter (Brothers & Sisters), Michael Weaver (Notes from the Underbelly), Brian Van Holt (Threshold), Reid Scott (My Boys), Kevin Sorbo (Andromeda), and James Tupper (Men in Trees) are among the upcoming guest stars on CBS' The Ex List, according to series star Elizabeth Reaser. (TV Guide)

The CW has ordered a pilot for Operation Fabulous, a Top Model spinoff to star Jay Manuel and J. Alexander that will be executive produced by Tyra Banks and Ken Mok. Project will follow the Jays as they travel the country giving women makeovers, selecting five women in each town and giving them head-to-toe fashion overhauls in order to boost their confidence. (Hollywood Reporter)

Mark Burnett Prods. has teamed up with Ralph Edwards Prods. to produce a new version of This Is Your Life, in which guests are surprised with a retelling of their life stories including appearances by important people in their past. Series began as a radio show in 1948. (Variety)

ABC has renewed reality competition series I Survived a Japanese Game Show, with 10 episodes to likely air next summer. (Variety)

Rock of Love 2 runner-up Daisy De La Hoya is getting her own series on VH1. The cabler has already set up a website to cast potential suitors for the Rock of Love castoff whose series is set to debut in spring 2009. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Dead Clowns, Teenage Runaways, and Triple-Berry Pie on "Pushing Daisies"

While I saw the second episode of Pushing Daisies ("Circus Circus") a few weeks back, I can't help but want to discuss it some more now that everyone has seen the episode.

After all, there are few series as sweetly infectious as Pushing Daisies and I find, once I've watched an episode, that I can't get it out of my mind for days... or often weeks. So just a few more thoughts about "Circus Circus" that didn't make it into the original three-episode review I did.

Last night's episode, written by Peter Ocko (who wrote last season's "Dummy"), furthered some of the plots established in the season opener (Olive at the nunnery, Vivian reentering the world, Chuck moving into her own apartment, etc.) while also offering up a bizarro mystery of the week about a teenage runway named Sweet Nickie Heaps who literally ran off to join the circus... only to encounter murder and mayhem in the most unlikely of places. Hell, what other series could pull off sending an entire carload of clowns into a lake and then offer up a parade of the dozens of resulting corpses? Not bloody many, I'll hazard.

How utterly exquisite was the scene in which Aunt Vivian went to The Pie Hole for some triple-berry pie (or, really, comfort of some kind) and nearly saw her dead niece Chuck? The sight of Vivian closing her red umbrella (which luckily shielded her gaze) was one of the most beautiful things I've seen on television this year. Director Lawrence Trilling (Alias) deserves an Emmy just for that single shot alone. Artful, dazzling, and touching, the scene between Vivian and a guilty Chuck--hiding behind the counter--was one of the most heartbreaking and realistic portrayals of grief and hope that I've ever seen.

I'm really hoping that we eventually get to see Emerson's daughter... or at least see Emerson attempt to track down his wayward ex-wife and daughter. It's clear that Emerson has been suffering through some hard times on his own and looking for a way to express his sense of loss. "Lil' Gumshoe" was the first attempt that we've seen of him setting down some breadcrumbs for his daughter to find him. I only hope that she doesn't turn up dead in one of their many investigations and that there's an actual happy ending here.

As for Chuck and Ned, I am glad that Bryan Fuller and the writing team split them up physically, with Chuck getting her own space and a new lease on life by, well, taking over Olive's lease on the apartment. Yes, these two star-crossed lovers are meant to be together (well, somehow anyway, given the fact that they can't touch) but I am glad that we are seeing a Chuck with a new perspective about life after death. She spent so much of last season in hiding that she has only now realized that she needs to enjoy the rest of her life, given how tragically short it was cut the first time around. And I like seeing Ned all jealously squirmy. But how adorable were the would-be lovers as they pretended to be strangers? If it wouldn't kill Chuck, I would have pushed them together right then and there.

Will Chuck's new outlook about life and living push her and Ned further apart? Or closer together? I'm not sure but it's clear that the walls are closing in for our Charlotte Charles, with Lily and Vivian turning up everywhere from The Pie Hole to Olive's nunnery. Chuck's homeopathic medication may have worked a miracle in getting the former Darling Mermaid Darlings out of the house but no good deed, as they say, goes unpunished. And with her aunts newly mobile, there will come a time when Chuck can't hide from them any longer.

One can only imagine how Lily and Vivian will react when they learn that Chuck is alive (again). Until then, I'm absolutely hooked and can't wait to see just what happens next.

Best line of the evening: "I could throw up in my mouth a little and not even know the difference." - Olive, speaking of the convent's notoriously bad porridge.

Next week on Pushing Daisies ("Bad Habits"), Olive calls in Ned and Emerson to investigate the suspicious death of a nun whom she believes was murdered; Chuck adapts to her new life; Lily comes clean about a decades-old secret.

Channel Surfing: FX Cancels "The Riches," "Pushing Daisies," Ratings Dim for "Friday Night Lights," "Ashes to Ashes," and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. While everyone is buzzing about last night's presidential debate, there are more than a few television-related news tidbits to discuss as well.

Following several months of discussions, FX has confirmed that it will not be renewing drama series The Riches for a third season, due to falling ratings for the drama. In its second season, which was shortened to seven episodes due to the writers strike, viewers dropped 44 percent in the key 18-49 demo. The move is hardly a surprise: showrunner Dmitry Lipkin is currently working on his HBO pilot project Hung and I had assumed for a while now that The Riches would sadly not be returning to the cabler. (Variety)

TV Guide talks to Pushing Daisies star Lee Pace about what to expect for Season Two, a certain game of "slap jack" between Ned and Chuck that never made it to the screen, and the Pie Maker's family. (TV Guide)

Sadly, there might not have been a new episode of Fringe last night but you can still get some hints about The Pattern and what's going on with Walter, Olivia, and Peter in this handy video from Fringe's executive producers Alex Kurtzman, Jeff Pinkner, and Roberto Orci. (FOX)

Only 400,000 viewers tuned in to watch the third season opener of Friday Night Lights, which debuted on DirecTV's The 101; series will run exclusively on the satellite provider for four months before launching its third season on NBC in February. Granted, DirecTV only counts 17.1 million subscribers overall but that's still extremely low, as Friday Night Lights only ranked in 7th place among all basic cable programs available to its subscribers. (New York Times)

Writer/executive producer David E. Kelley and Warner Bros. are shopping a spec script for a new one-hour legal drama. CBS and NBC said to be extremely interesting in picking up the project, which is expected to land a significant commitment. (Hollywood Reporter)

Fire up the Quattro. Filming has begun on Season Two of BBC One's Life on Mars spinoff sequel Ashes to Ashes, which stars Keeley Hawes, Philip Glenister, Dean Andrews, Marshall Lancaster, and Montserrat Lombard. In the second season, Alex (Hawes) will discover that she may not be the only one in 1982 in her, uh, predicament. (BBC)

TBS has renewed comedy My Boys for a third season, with nine episodes set to air in early 2009. (Variety)

HBO has cast Bryan Greenberg (October Road) and Victor Rasuk (Stop-Loss) as the leads of its single-camera comedy pilot How to Make It in America, from writer Ian Edelman and executive producers Stephen Levinson and Mark Wahlberg. Project revolves around two twenty-something NYC hustlers who are determined to grab a slice of the American dream. Julian Farino (The Office) will direct the pilot. (Hollywood Reporter)

Jack Kenny (Book of Daniel) has joined the staff of Sci Fi's upcoming drama series Warehouse 13 as showrunner/executive producer, a move that reunites Kenny with his former Book of Daniel colleague David Simkins. Warehouse 13, which stars Eddie McClintock, Joanne Kelly, and Saul Rubinek, is set to launch in July 2009. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: "Wonderfalls" Crossover Slated for "Pushing Daisies," Jesse L. Martin Donates to "Philanthropist," "Desperate Housewives," and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. I will admit that I felt the loss not having a new installment of The Office to watch last night and I still have Episodes Two and Three (next week's episode) to watch of Ugly Betty, but I did laugh my butt off watching the one-hour It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia last night, which not only gave us Mac and Charlie faking their own deaths but the very odd sight of Mac in a pawn shop wedding dress. (Congrats, BTW, to Rob McElhenny, who wed his Sunny co-star Kaitlin Olson this week.)

While the ratings for the launch of Pushing Daisies, were not exactly as sweet as honey for ABC, fans of the brilliant series can look forward to, among other things, a cross-over with Bryan Fuller's tragically-missed Wonderfalls in the eighth episode of the current season, according to Fuller in an interview. Just what this means and which Wonderfalls characters have been cast (an interesting dilemma as Lee Pace starred on that series as well) remains to be seen. But I for one would love to see Caroline Dhavernas' Jaye Tyler show up... (iF Magazine)

Jesse L. Martin (Law & Order) has been cast in NBC's upcoming drama The Philanthropist, opposite James Purefoy who plays Teddy Rist, a wealthy billionaire playboy who uses his wealth and connections to help people in need. Martin will play Philip Maidstone, Teddy's business partner and close friend. Production is slated to begin soon in London though the network has reduced the series' initial 13-episode commitment by several segments. (Hollywood Reporter)

Steven Weber (Brothers & Sisters) will turn up on ABC's Desperate Housewives this season as the thrice-divorced college professor lover of Susan's adult daughter Julie (Andrea Bowen). Look for the duo to turn up on Wisteria Lane next month. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

In other casting news, Wallace Shawn (The Princess Bride) has been cast in a multiple-episode arc on the CW's Gossip Girl, where he'll play the father of Serena's new boyfriend Aaron (Vanished's John Patrick Amedori) and a potential love interest for Blair's mother Eleanor. He'll first show up in the November 11th episode. (TV Guide)

Zeljko Ivanek will return for Season Two of Damages, despite shooting himself to death in the first season's penultimate episode. Ivanek, who won an Emmy last month for his amazing turn as Ray Fiske, will be making "several appearances" in Season Two... but something tells me that he won't be returning from the dead any time soon, unless Damages brings the Pie Maker to Hewes & Associates. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

AMC is developing a sci-fi series based on Kim Stanley Robinson's novel "Red Mars," with writer/executive producer Jonathan Hensleigh (Armageddon), about the inhabitants of the first human colony on Mars. (Hollywood Reporter)

NBC has moved the premiere of its six-episode reality competition series Momma's Boys to this fall, airing in the Wednesdays at 9 pm timeslot vacated by America's Got Talent beginning October 29th. Lest you think that NBC isn't wedded to this concept--in which 32 women try to win over three bachelors and their all-important mothers--casting on the second season has already begun this week. (Variety)

USA Today's Robert Bianco reviews the CW's Sunday night lineup, which it leased out to Media Rights Capital. In a view that's hardly surprising, Bianco says that all of the series are "missable"
and goes on to say that Valentine is "badly cast and sadly inept." Ouch. (USA Today)

ShineReveille International has come on board to distribute NBC's upcoming reality series Howie Do It, executive produced by and hosted by Howie Mandel (Deal or No Deal). Let's just hope that it's better than Mandel's performance at the Emmys last month. (Hollywood Reporter)

Talk Back: "Pushing Daisies" Season Premiere

I don't know about you but I was just buzzing with delight at having ABC's Pushing Daisies back on the air.

While you can read my advance review of the first three episodes of Pushing Daisies' second season, now that you've all gotten to see the buzzworthy season opener, I thought we could chat a little bit more about this delicious series.

I absolutely loved last night's episode ("Bzzzzzzzzz"), which saw Chuck going undercover at a honey-based cosmetics company following the death of the company's latest spokesmodel Kentucky Fizz (Autumn Reeser) and dealing with fallout from the Season One finale in which she asked Ned to resurrect her late father (who died as a result of Young Ned bringing his mother back to life). And how heartbroken was the Pie Maker when Chuck said that she wanted to move out of their apartment (how adorable were their little bell-adorned slippers) and into Olive's vacant one? You could literally see Lee Pace's heart breaking though I was very happy that he put his own feelings aside to create a new home for Chuck, complete with all of her books, childhood furniture, and even her special pillow. (Loved how Vivian thought it would be filled with all sorts of microbial nasties.)

As for Olive, I am loving that Lily was able to place her in a convent somewhere in some very Alp-like mountains which enabled series creator Bryan Fuller to indulge in a very apt Sound of Music homage... though with the other nuns shushing little Olive Snook. And Fuller was able to work with his former Wonderfalls co-star Diana Scarwid, who turns up here as the haughty Mother Superior, who has a particular disinterest in Olive or her luggage. (Loved how Olive thought that a porter was coming for her things, rather than the, er, poor.)

All this and delightful guest star turns from Missi Pyle and French Stewart as warring heads of the honey company? And a bee man who spits a plastic-encased queen bee at his victims? Classic Daisies madcapery.

One of my favorite lines of the evening: "Chuck, I knew this was dangerous. Just because you're alive again doesn’t mean you can’t be dead again. There’s a reason I don’t let Digby play in traffic!" (Though I have to say that the line tied with Ned's off-hand mention of Dead Like Me's Happy Time Temp Agency.(

While I could talk about all things Daisies-related for a whole day, I am curious to see what did you think of last night's season opener. Did you fall in love all over again with Chuck, Ned, Emerson, and Olive? Did you think that Chuck's assumed identity of Kitty Pimms was perhaps the very best fake name ever? Did you think that the way poor Kentucky Fizz died may have been the most gruesome yet? And how awesome was Olive's earth-shattering scream at The Pie Hole?

Talk back here.

Daisy Chain: An Advance Look at Season Two of "Pushing Daisies"

Everyone who knows me knows that I love television but I can often be a harsh critic of the beast, having worked on both sides of the medium for many years. So when I first saw Pushing Daisies early last year, I knew a series had come along that was strikingly different, wholly original, and definitely danced to the beat of its own drum.

And then the writers strike happened last fall, curtailing production on Pushing Daisies and giving its fans only nine superlative episodes filled to the brim with resurrection, pie, monkeys, and a whole host of ephemera from the furtive mind of series creator Bryan Fuller. Forced to wait ten months since the end of the truncated first season, I've been in severe withdrawal from the candy-colored Pushing Daisies.

So imagine my absolute glee when I received the first three episodes of Season Two of Pushing Daisies a few weeks back. No power in heaven or hell could have prevented me from hungrily devouring these morsels after such a long fasting period but I was worried: would the series live up to my extremely high expectations after all of this time?

I'm happy to say that not only does Season Two of Pushing Daisies fulfill my hunger but surpasses it, crafting a series of new beginnings for Ned, Emerson, Chuck, Lily, and Vivian and turning the entire ordered universe of The Pie Hole on its head. And yet Daisies manages to be as comfortable and comforting as a slice of cherry pie, a warm mug of cocoa, or whatever it is that makes you feel all snuggly and safe on a cold winter's night.

So what can we expect from the start of Pushing Daisies' second season? Let's talk.

First up, look for major changes in the dynamic at The Pie Hole as Olive--bursting at the seams from knowing the truth about Chuck's parentage (Aunt Lily is really Mama Lil')--is placed in a convent by said Lily, where she encounters not only a truffle-sniffing pig named Pigby but also a wonderful Sound of Music parody and--in the third episode--cloistered intrigue in the form of a not-so-flying nun. Also look for Wonderfalls' Diana Scarwid to recur in the first three episodes as a sarcastic Mother Superior at the convent and for reclusive sisters Lily and Vivian to explore the world outside their carefully ordered existence at home.

As for star-crossed lovebirds Chuck and Ned, Olive's hasty disappearance brings about some major changes in their own touch-free relationship as Chuck looks to be slightly more independent than last season now that she has a literal second chance at life. Of course, the emergence of Lily and Vivian from their hermetically-sealed life in Coeur d'Coeurs spells new trouble for murdered tourist Charlotte Charles, who will eventually have to come clean to her aunts about her resurrection as they are practically breathing down her neck these days.

As for that secret about Chuck's parentage, look for the writers to handle this extremely skillfully and early on, rather than dragging out this plotline through the entire season. And, yes, the eventual explanation of how Lily could be Chuck's mother--confusing as it may seem, given that Vivian is her sister and they don't appear to have another sibling--will make sense, once we get there in the third episode. (Here's a hint: Chuck knows that Lily and Vivian were never really her biological aunts.)

As for Emerson, we learn a little bit more about his backstory--and his missing daughter--when the gang takes on a case of a missing teenage runaway and stumbles onto a car full of murdered clowns and various other circus-set misdeeds. I have a feeling that the search for his missing daughter (as evidenced by his authoring of mystery pop-up book Lil' Gumshoe) will happily be an ongoing subplot throughout the second season.

Throughout it all, the series' talented team of writers (which now includes Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Douglas Petrie) manage to make the action not only wacky but witty, effortlessly turning out lovingly crafted bon mots like so much delicious candy while making all of our characters lovable, memorable, and utterly unique.

In an age of pre-packaged reality series and sound-bite driven politics, Pushing Daisies proves once again to be television that makes you think, feel, and laugh, sometimes all at once. And that might just be the rarest truffle of all.

Pushing Daisies kicks off its second season tonight at 8 pm ET/PT on ABC.