Once upon a time, director Barry Sonnenfeld (Men In Black, Get Shorty, The Addams Family) and writer-producer Bryan Fuller ("Heroes," "Wonderfalls," "Dead Like Me") created an unprecedented blend of romance, crime procedural and high-concept fantasy. It is a love story about a young man with a very special gift...the ability to return someone dead briefly back to life with just a simple touch. Ned, a mild-mannered baker of fabulous pies, discovered his gift as a child. Now he puts his gift to good use, working with his only friend, a private investigator, to crack murder cases by asking victims to name their killers. But the tale gets complicated, as all tales do, when he saves his childhood sweetheart and she miraculously stays alive. Each week, she encourages him to use his powers to solve mysteries and help others. Life would be perfect, except for one cruel twist: if Ned ever touches her again, she'll lose the life he gave her, for good this time. There's always a catch... Golden Globe® nominee Lee Pace (The Good Shepherd, "Soldier's Girl"), Chi McBride ("The Nine," "Boston Public"), Golden Globe® nominee Swoosie Kurtz ("Huff," "Sisters") and Tony Award winner Kristen Chenoweth ("The West Wing," Broadway's Wicked) star in a fairytale in the spirit of Amelie, Stranger than Fiction, and Chocolat. From the producers of Big Fish comes an equally magical and delightful series that offers a weekly dose of sweet, heartwarming, quirky fun.

Question: With the upfronts coming next week, can you tell us which pilots are generating the most heat?— Smalley72
Ausiello: One pilot is generating more heat than all the rest combined: ABC's Pushing Daisies. One of my network moles went so far as to call it "one of the best pilots I have ever seen."

Wow, that press release makes this show sound like my new favorite show. I love Dead Like Me, I love Wonderfalls, I love Bryan Fuller and I LOVE Lee Pace.

All of a sudden I'm super excited for this show. Can't wait.

About the series, Chenoweth recently told Playbill.com, "[Lee Pace is] a talented individual. He plays a guy who can bring people back from the dead. Now it sounds hokey, sounds like, 'Oh we've seen that before.' But the trick is this: He can touch people — that's how he brings them back, but he has 60 seconds to decide. If he touches them again before 60 seconds, they go back to being dead. If he leaves it, they live, but somebody else drops dead. It's very complicated. But Bryan Fuller is the writer, and Barry Sonnenfeld directed it. You know, I read the script and, again, I'm pretty picky. It's gotta be something really interesting for me to [accept a role] — whether it goes or succeeds is besides the point. It really has to speak to me. There's a love triangle, and I play one of the girls. It's a great cast."

Pushing. Daisies.

I've said it before, and, now that I've actually seen the complete pilot, I'm saying it again with added vigor: This is the show. The one everyone will be talking about. The one we'll be obsessing over. The one with the potential to replace Gilmore Girls as Ask Ausiello's favorite child.

I can't wait for you guys to see it. It kills me that you have to wait until September. I'm tempted to stream the thing online myself, but then I'd be arrested and lose my job and that would suck for everyone.

For now, you'll just have to take my word for it. The 2007-08 TV season will be all about them Daisies.

And just look at that promo pic of Lee with all the flowers, reminds me of Big Fish, I want it to be September tomorrow!

Chenowith has always irked me for some reason, but I will watch anything with Lee Pace and his sexy voice. Oh, and, WORD to hoping Caroline Dhavernas getting some type of guest spot.

Oh, and, WORD to hoping Caroline Dhavernas getting some type of guest spot.

but I adore Anna Friel and Kristin Chenowith, having seen them both on Broadway

Men in Black director Barry Sonnenfeld brings his lush, oddball vision to a fairy-tale story about a guy (Wonderfall's Lee Pace) who has one hell of a conundrum: He can bring people back to life with a touch, but they die for good if he ever lays a finger on them again. The lovely Anna Friel plays the man's childhood love, whom he saves from the crypt after a nasty murder. Offbeat, good-natured, plus it has Tony Award-winning Broadway star Kristen Chenoweth (You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Wicked) — what's not to like?

By far the highlight of ABC's reel, this new series from Bryan Fuller, the creator of Dead Like Me, and a Heroes writer/producer, looks fantastic. Fuller certainly seems obsessed with death in his work, as this story is about a man with a curious talent; if he touches a dead person, they come back to life. If he touches them again, they die once more, this time for good. He uses this gift to help solve crimes, bringing murder victims back just long enough to have them name their killer, before touching them once more. It sounds grim, but it's played in a fantastical way, and director Barry Sonnenfeld (The Addams Family / Men in Black) looks to have given the series the right off-kilter visuals to make it the appealing sort of macabre that Tim Burton traffics in. The driving plotline - our hero brings back to life a girl he loved as a child, but now, tragically, can't ever touch her again, or she'll die - garnered genuine pathos in just the couple of minutes shown, and ABC's description of this as a sort of dark "fairy tale" seems right. Definitely a show to look out for this fall.

Every once in awhile, a television show comes along that changes the game. ER revitalized the medical drama, FRIENDS ushered in a new era of comedies and PUSHING DAISIES will, well we’re not actually sure what DAISIES will do. The one thing we can promise you is that it’s unlike anything on television (which is a good thing) and you’ll fall in love with DAISIES the moment they spring to life. Yup, you heard it here first folks. PUSHING DAISIES is the fall’s next big hit.

TV Guide's Ausiello strongly hints that the pilot role Adam Brody turned down was the lead in Pushing Daisies.

They'll probably show the Same Damn Clip, though.

It almost looks too good to be true and that makes it one of those shows that I love and they get cancelled right away. I really want to be wrong about that because this looks like my new favourite show. And I desperately need one too now that Veronica Mars has ended.

It almost looks too good to be true and that makes it one of those shows that I love and they get cancelled right away. I really want to be wrong about that because this looks like my new favourite show. And I desperately need one too now that Veronica Mars has ended.

I just hope people tune in and it doesn't get an early cancellation like Fuller's other shows, because this looks like it has the potential to be amazing.

You have to hand it to ABC. Then you have to take it away.

As with the last two seasons, ABC seems to have the fall's most intriguing, most discussed and flat-out best new series: Pushing Daisies [...] is the most creative, inventive, enchanting pilot since Lost.

Daisies would be a standout in any year — but in a season that, on first impressions, looks weaker than most, Daisies practically screams, "I'm the one to watch."

Unfortunately, there's a very good chance that Daisies' pronouncement will be swamped by the chaos that is ABC's schedule. [...] the network just seems to be making it too hard for viewers to find a wonderfully cast, wonderfully written novelty that is likely to need nurturing and patience.

Based on first impressions, ABC's new fall series "Pushing Daisies" is one to watch.
[...]
On paper, the premise sounds stupid, even terrible - but "Pushing Daisies" is on TV, not paper. A guy named Ned (Lee Pace) develops the mysterious power to revive the dead with one touch - with the caveat that a second touch from Ned will take that life away forever.

What do you do with a fantasy concept like that? Writer-producer Bryan Fuller (one of the "Heroes" collaborators) and director Barry Sonnenfeld ("Men in Black") treat it like a vivid, oddball fairy tale. It looks like Tim Burton's "Edward Scissorhands," and has the instant charm and goofy sense of humor of "The Addams Family," the movie versions of which were directed by Sonnenfeld.

It looks great, and looks to be the most pleasant surprise of the 2007 fall season.

I love the narrator! The narration fits perfectly with the theme and the feel/look of the show and it's not just a VO to have a VO, it's really part of the story. And it also helps a lot that he's not American, it just adds another layer to the show.

The narrator is Jim Dale who reads the Harry Potter books for cd (American version). I prefer the British sets (I love Stephen Fry) but he's the perfect voice for this show.

I'm still VERY wary of ABC though.

Was Lee Pace a regular on Wonderfalls?

Is there a premiere date for PD yet?