Pushing Daisies Finale Aired at Paley Center
Event Date: April 19, 2009
Patricia Morris Buckley — Associate Staff Writer
pmb@thetwocentscorp.com
Oh, how it hurts to say goodbye. After three episodes, three standing ovations and a bucket of tears the crowd at the Paley Center closed the book on Ned, Chuck, Emerson and Olive — our beloved friends from the over-way-too-soon Pushing Daisies.
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[photo: Kevin Parry/The Paley Center for Media]
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Oh, how it hurts to say goodbye. After three episodes, three standing ovations and a bucket of tears the crowd at the Paley Center closed the book on Ned, Chuck, Emerson and Olive — our beloved friends from the over-way-too-soon Pushing Daisies.
ReplyDeleteThe event had been touted as “The Un-Aired Pushing Daisies Episodes.” But in the time between when the event had been announced and it actually happened, ABC finally did schedule to air the last three un-aired episodes (beginning Saturday, May 30). So there won’t be any real reviews/recaps here as we will do them when those shows air, although a few thoughts about each one is down below.
****Don’t look if you don’t want any spoilers.****
The day before the event, ticket holders received an exciting email that the show’s composer, Jim Dooley, would be performing his inspired music the 45-minutes before the screening of the last three PD episodes. With a band of about 10 musicians, attendees swooned over Ned and Chuck love theme, Emerson’s sleuthing tunes and the show’s theme song (also my ring tone!).
As announced, PD creator Bryan Fuller spoke at the event. But also in attendance were Chi McBride (Emerson) and Ellen Greene (Aunt Vivian), Barry Sonnenfeld (producer and director of the Pie-lette) as well as additional producers, writers, prop people and many others who worked on the show.
Bryan broke some big news. “We will be having a comic book coming out this fall,” he announced as the crowd roared appreciatively. “We have a deal with DC Comics and it’s a story that broke out of the 12th episode.”
He recalled coming to the Paley Fest 10 years ago to see a Buffy the Vampire Slayer event and being so excited to see other fans and people who worked behind the scenes. He was pleased that so many were at this event and that he was “proud to be a cult show.”
Barry added: “I want to say how amazing Bryan Fuller is. He is such a visionary and a wonderful young man. I enjoyed working with Ellen, Chi, Lee (Pace), Anna (Friel), Kristin (Chenoweth) and Swoosie (Kurtz). I was very, very lucky to be part of this.”
Chi said: “Thank you to all who attended today. Pitchforks and torches will be handed out as you leave to storm ABC. OK, perhaps just plastic forks and glow sticks. It’s sad that I’m standing here. Thank you for trying to save our show. We loved making it for you.”
During the course of the event, Bryan Fuller and the cast tossed T-shirts out into the audience and Ellen pulled raffle tickets for a few lucky winners of PD props (my friend’s son, Ben, got both — including the original jar of Honey for the Homeless!).
Fuller concluded by telling us that the CGI ending that would give the show some closure (the filming had concluded by the time the axe fell and the additional CGI gives a wonderful feeling of a satisfying ending). But they only had $8,000 left in the budget, so visual effects companies donated $90,000 worth of work to make it happen. To those companies — a HUGE thank you!
“Thank you all,” ended Fuller, “for your support of our show.”
Don’t look below if you don’t want spoilers!
EPISODE 11: WINDOW DRESSED TO KILL
This was the best of the three. The acting, directing and production values are so sharp they almost brought me to tears. Olive is trying to figure out what Ned meant about his feelings when they were hanging off a cliff in episode 10. Ned has decided not to use his power anymore and Randy Mann makes a play for Olive. But Olive’s childhood kidnappers and pretend daddies have broken out of jail and think Ned is engaged to Olive — and Ned plays along. Emerson and Chuck, without Ned’s magic finger, solve a string of murders of window dressers.
EPISODE 12: WATER AND POWER
Emerson’s ex, Lila, comes back and tells him he can see his daughter, Penny, if he clears Lila of a murder. Ned is a little jealous of Olive and Randy, while Olive thinks of Randy as her rebound guy. Things heat up between Emerson and Simone. Watch for the glow-in-the-dark flowers!
EPISODE 13: KERPLUNK
The Charles sisters get to perform in the water again and offered a European tour. But Chuck goes crazy over the news. That’s when Ned makes a very important decision. And Olive finally realizes that her feelings for Randy Mann are serious. Vivian learns everything Lily has been hiding. Again, we get a great sense that everyone ends up happy thanks to a CGI tour of Papen County.
Great re-cap and we feel so lucky to have been in the audience to see these last amazing episodes on the big screen.
ReplyDeleteI've been a huge fan. I'm gonna miss Pushing Daisies deeply.
ReplyDelete