Fun
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Nostalgic
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Curious
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Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.
IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: October 24, 2007
PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: Pushing Daisies, “Pigeon” (Season 1, Episode 4) [Watch on Amazon Instant Video]
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: Pushing Daisies was never destined to last all that long on network television. And while fans of the show justifiably lament the fact that they didn’t get more than 24 episodes across two seasons, I don’t think they’d have wanted the kind of show that would have lasted longer than that.
Creator Bryan Fuller was used to shows whose longevity couldn’t match their fans’ enthusiasm levels. Wonderfalls was the shortest-lived of these. Hannibal was the longest, and it still feels like a miracle that it lasted as long as it did. At 24 episodes, Pushing Daisies lasted long enough to give its audiences a sweet love story, some indelibly innovative ways to die (that kind of morbid whimsy would come in handy on Hannibal, no doubt), and most wonderfully, some once-in-a-lifetime musical moments.
And so we arrive at today’s moment in TV History. From the moment that Kristin Chenoweth was cast as pie-slinging waitress Olive Snook and Ellen Greene was cast as one half of a pair of eccentric spinster aunts, viewers (particularly those inclined towards musical theater) began salivating over the possibilities for musical moments. We’d already gotten Olive belting out “Hopelessly Devoted to You” to an oblivious Ned (Lee Pace):
Two episodes later, the once-in-a-lifetime duo of Chenoweth and Greene teamed up on, of all things, a They Might Be Giants cult favorite:
Everything about this clip, from the primary-colored environs to the deliberately fake-looking pigeon, from the choice of song to the singers singing it, adds up to a moment that must have felt tailor-made for the audience members who responded to it. That kind of TV-as-personal-fan-service is easy to scoff at, but when you’re the one getting hit where you live, it honestly does feel magical. Like you’re the only bee in that particular show’s bonnet.
[You can watch the “Pigeon” episode of Pushing Daisies on Amazon Video]
Joe Reid (@joereid) is a freelance writer living in Brooklyn. You can find him leaving flowers for Mrs. Landingham at the corner of 18th and Potomac.
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