Not Pushing "Daisies"

Pushing Daisies Season 1 is out on DVD today, which means I can finally clear the episodes I’ve been hoarding for almost a year on my Tivo. But it also reminds me of my growing concern – is ABC doing enough to push Pushing Daisies?

I could be wrong, but I don’t think a single episode has aired in 2008. I know the strike jacked everything up, but ABC missed a prime opportunity to hook in new viewers (and remind old viewers of the show’s existence) by running some repeats over the summer. In fact, they could have started airing episodes every Wednesday starting on July 30th and then run right into the October 1st premier.

And the Season 1 DVD comes out today, two weeks (and one day) before Season 2 starts. That doesn’t give the Netflixers a lot of time to catch up if they wanted to see Season 1 before giving Season 2 a try. There’s no reason they couldn’t have pushed to get the DVDs out a little earlier to help build buzz for the series.

Even the promos I’ve seen have been weak. The few I’ve seen have been very ambiguous to the show’s plot, it’s just cutesy glamour shots and pull-quotes. Hell, they could have even thrown the Season 1 eps up for free on OnDemand or something.

(And by the way, everything I’ve said could be applied to Dirty Sexy Money as well, but while I love DSM, I’ll survive if it doesn’t, whereas a Daisies cancellation would truly gut me.)

Maybe I’m just nervous because I’ve had two other wonderful Bryan Fuller shows snatched away from me in their prime (Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me) so I’m a little gun shy, but man, I need Pushing Daisies to stick around. It’s been a long time since I’ve been this attached to a show – since Veronica Mars, Alias, Angel, and Buffy went off the air. (I’ve loved other shows since, but not in a really insanely connected way.) When Season 1 was airing last fall, I was going through a stressful period with tough school demands and treacherous interpersonal relationships and shit, and instead of immediately watching Pushing Daisies as it aired, I’d save each episode for the inevitable day each week when everything had gone wrong and I felt like crap. Then, I’d watch Daisies, and it was like shooting up with a syringe full of sunshine and kittens, I swear to god. You can’t help but smile watching the show. And now I’m in an even worse place trying to find my way in a post-grad world and being unable still to land permanent employment in this crappy media-killing recession, and I need that one-hour dose of happiness each week.

On the up side, I also have Fringe, which I’m already super attached to. But, of course I am, it’s a J.J. show. I love J.J. Even Fringe has me nervous though. Fox has a habit of killing off shows I love (see: Firefly, Wonderfalls, Dark Angel, Reunion, Undeclared, Boston Public). But supposedly this is a new regime, and Joss Whedon is willing to give them a second chance with Dollhouse after they slaughtered Firefly, so I’m tentatively hopeful.

Still, ABC doesn’t seem too trigger happy compared to other networks, so I hope they’ll give the audience a chance to find (and re-find) Pushing Daisies. I just wish they were doing more to light the way.