Sad Day

ABC has offically not renewed any new episodes of the magnificant show, Pushing Daisies.

All right, we all know that the show was riding on the fence for this past season, considering more than a year passed since the season finale of season one and the premiere of season two; or that the ABC executives didn't advertise and promote the show through movies and billboards and relentless TV commercials; or that the writers' strike threw the piece into a conundrum. Yet there was still that distant, hopeful chance that the ABC executives would say, "We like this, there's a lot of acclaim and a built-in audience--" (Who, if they're like me, have been telling their friends to watch this show incessantly, and those people who didn't and I told you to, I'm ashamed of you) "-- we'll keep trying." If quality in the television world meant anything at all, this wouldn't happen, and the storylines would run their course until they were stale and unoriginal or until the creators thought that now would be a good time to stop them, when people didn't flock like mindless Communistic hordes to subpar medical dramas like Private Practice or Grey's Anatomy, which gain most of their audience not because they are well-developed and well-written shows but because the lead actors are incredibly attractive; or the consistant slew of crime dramas (though you could argue Pushing Daisies is a crime drama in itself, yet, unlike other shows on TV, it's so much more); and let's not forget anyone who thinks that Family Guy is something worth watching.

And ABC, in this case, is worse than FOX: FOX, at least when it came to regarding one of their biggest cult shows (Arrested Development), let it out for three seasons and tried to move it to so many different times to catch an audience (despite this being a primary reason it died).

Pushing Daisies was probably the most original, well-written, well-executed, wonderful to look at, full-character, spectacular show on television. The plots were interesting and the you cared about the people. There was humor and passion and depression and those heavy themes that do factor into fairy tales though you never see them on the surface levels. Sure, it could appeal to all ages, but the show worked because everyone cared about doing it.

Bryan Fuller has said that there will probably be a comic book series released to finish up the storylines (these might be the first comic books that I ever buy; I don't even own Watchmen, and wouldn't want to own Watchmen anyway) or that he might shop it around to other networks, or pitch it as a movie -- the show's more cinematic that Lost (also more interesting). And ABC hasn't said that it's "officially cancelled", though you know that's just to not get an armada of angry fans at their doorstep, making threats reminiscent of the time Marge Simpson rallied the people of Springfield to go against Itchy and Scratchy. So, of course, this comes off as patronizing, which might be even worse. I had heard Internet rumors that ABC would end the show at 13 episodes and then renew it for a third season, and as joyful as that sounds, it doesn't seem very logical.

So who's to blame for this? Well, obviously ABC for just moving their show to the backburner (it was off the air for two weeks so mindless drones could watch Dancing With the Stars results and the Country Music Awards), but that's too much of a cop-out. Really, it's you, the person who said, "Oh I'll get around to watching it sometime," after their friends who loyally watched it spoke highly and passionatley about the program; who decided that you'd rather watch something that didn't have any quality to it whatsoever, just so you don't have to think and can be carelessly entertained (sometime I'll talk about how I don't think entertainment has to make you feel like a vegetable). People should be ashamed of themselves.

This show should have been able to run its course, but it didn't and that's terrible.