Production History
The series was greenlit and given a 13-episode order by ABC on May 11, 2007. On October 23, 2007, the show received a full season order. However, scripts for only nine episodes were completed before the start of the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. Bryan Fuller reportedly made last-minute changes to the ninth episode to allow it to serve as a season finale, adjusting the episode to be a cliffhanger.
Because of the Writers Guild strike, the show completed only nine episodes of a full 22-episode season. Instead of attempting to complete the first season, the writers planned to start work on the second season with production restarting around March to June 2008. Although ABC picked Pushing Daisies up for the 2008–09 television season, when ratings quickly declined ABC opted not to order any additional episodes beyond the second season's initial thirteen. By November 20, 2008, creator Bryan Fuller had confirmed that Pushing Daisies had been cancelled by ABC and expressed the possibility of wrapping up any lingering plotlines in a comic book or movie sequel.
On July 17, 2008, Pushing Daisies was nominated for 12 Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Lee Pace), Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Kristin Chenoweth), and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series (Bryan Fuller). It won three; for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series (Barry Sonnenfeld), Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Jim Dooley), and Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series.
The last scheduled episode of the show was broadcast in the United States on December 17, 2008, leaving three episodes unaired, although those episodes were screened at the 2009 Paley Fest. ABC was in negotiations at one time to forfeit broadcast rights to the shows and make the unaired episodes available exclusively online, but announced on April 3, 2009 the final three episodes would be broadcast on ABC Saturdays at 10:00 pm beginning May 30. According to Chenoweth, these episodes do not provide a narrative conclusion to the series.
The final three episodes aired on ABC on successive Saturdays at 10:00 pm from Saturday, May 30, 2009 to June 13, 2009, having already aired elsewhere around the world. In India, the last episode aired on February 27, 2009 as a world premiere. In Germany, the television network ProSieben showed the last three episodes of Pushing Daisies on March 4, 2009 ("Window Dressed to Kill") and March 11, 2009 ("Water and Power", "Kerplunk"). The three remaining unaired episodes were also broadcast in the UK as ITV announced it would be showing the complete season during its run on the channel.
The original concept of Pushing Daisies was rooted from Dead Like Me. The show's creator, Bryan Fuller, intended for Pushing Daisies to be a spinoff of Dead Like Me.
Read more about this topic: Pushing Daisies, Production
Famous quotes containing the words production and/or history:
“The heart of man ever finds a constant succession of passions, so that the destroying and pulling down of one proves generally to be nothing else but the production and the setting up of another.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“Anyone who is practically acquainted with scientific work is aware that those who refuse to go beyond fact rarely get as far as fact; and anyone who has studied the history of science knows that almost every great step therein has been made by the “anticipation of Nature.””
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)