Last night's episode of ABC's superbly sublime Pushing Daisies tied, in the preliminary ratings, with NBC's supremely stupid Knight Rider. Not good. For Daisies, it was a series low in terms of viewers, but close to a series high in terms of writing and acting.
ABC, ignore the ratings for now. It's time to grow a pair, or at least rent one, and renew your best new show of the past two years...
Here are five quick reasons.
One: I put it to ABC that no show in prime time this week was promoted LESS than Pushing Daisies, and I was keeping track. How can a show build an audience, at a crucial time in its history, if its own network ignores it?
Two: The drop in viewership is ABC's fault. After the strike, it held back on new episodes, figuring it would relaunch the show this fall. Poor strategy -- but Bryan Fuller, Barry Sonnenfeld and the rest of the people involved with Daisies did nothing wrong. So stand by them now, and make it up to them.
Three: There hasn't been as visually ambitious and unique a series on broadcast network TV since Twin Peaks.
Last night, the climactic image -- involving a dead magician encased in concrete, an unconscious geek killer and a suddenly rescued and regurgitated kitty -- was laugh-out-loud hilarious.
Abra cadaver!
Four: This company of actors is pitch-perfect, and a total treat. Anna Friel and Lee Pace, as the look-but-don't-touch lovers (see above), are magical. The aunts, played by Ellen Greene and Swoosie Kurtz, are as lovable as they are colorful. Chi McBride's cynical investigator is a hoot, that's what he is. (Sorry: now I'm channeling Boston Legal.) And Kristin Chenoweth, as Olive, is my favorite character in the entire series. She's almost like a three-dimensional cartoon character
And next week, when she goes undercover like some sort of modern Eva Gabor from Green Acres (diamonds, upswept hairdo, false eyelashes, pig on a leash), who can look at this woman and not smile, broadly?
Five -- and this is my final point -- there was a time when the networks would stand behind their best shows, and watch and wait as Hill Street Blues, Cheers, Seinfeld and other quality shows climbed from the ratings basement to much loftier heights. Pushing Daisies had big audiences once, pre-strike. Given network patience and support, it can get them again... and shows this excellent don't come around that often.
Give the show a renewal for the rest of the season, ABC, and get behind it. Daisies, like any flower, will benefit from a nurturing environment -- and it doesn't count that it's surrounded, on much of the rest of the lineup, by a bunch of manure.
Fans of Pushing Daisies recognize what a special show it is. Does ABC?
ABC, now's the time to demonstrate taste and patience... or admit, as a network, you don't have enough of either.