Pushing Daisies : The creator and some facts

This series at the begining received very good reviews and great fan support, but at the time, they couldn't change ABC's mind, and the network canceled the show. Fans tried to get Pushing Daisies picked up by another network, but that didn't happen either. There was also support for the idea of ​​immortalizing the series in a two-hour movie, as was done with its creator, Bryan Fuller's previous series, Dead Like Me, but this also failed to materialize.

To the dismay of the show's fans, it only lasted two seasons. ABC changed the show's time slot, and there was also a writers' strike at the time, which further hampered its ability to attract new viewers. The series's high production costs, combined with the other two factors, made it easy for ABC to cancel the show. The difference between Pushing Daisies and other series is that it offered a rarely told story that was not very popular on television at that time: how to live with death, having the responsibility and "playing" at being God, its visual-aesthetic proposal of the 50s and 60s adapted to the present, colorful, happy, but at the same time always linked with death.

The series was created by Bryan Fuller

Bryan Fuller is an aclaimed American television writer and producer. His television aesthetic is highly stylized visual aesthetic and magical, also with a touch of macabre story teling. His work is a mix of dark fantasy, horror and sharp comedy.

Pushing Daisies is often described as a forensic fairy tale.

In the past year Fuller has said: “We have a season three pitch, and the entire cast wants to come back, and we’re hoping we get to return to them. We just have to find somebody who wants to make it.”

From an unused story idea to a complete show

The central premise was taken from an unused idea from Fuller's previous show, Dead Like Me (another great series about grim reapers, but we will talk about it another time), where the protagonist touched people to kill them, but someone else was bringing them to life. Ultimately, this opposite concept expanded to a whole new show and universe.

The Whimsy and Heart of Amélie

Visually and emotionally, Pushing Daisies owes a massive debt to the 2001 French romantic comedy Amélie. Fuller has frequently cited it as one of his favorite films. The show has a hyper-saturated color palette, surreal production design, and emotional tone. As Fuller once explained: 

"Really sad things happen in it, but you never get bogged down in the sadness.

Like Daisies, it's really about human kindnesses."