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Emerson Cod (Pushing Daisies)

kevinburtonsmith

Created by Bryan Fuller

“In Cod We Trust.”
— advertising slogan on a billboard

Hoo-boy. This one’s a stretch, even on a site whose parameters are as elastic as this one.

Sure, television’s Pushing Daisies  (2007-09, ABC) had a private eye as a regular character, but it was never really a PI show.

What it was was a quirky, stylish fantasy/mystery/comedy about an affably nerdy twenty-something pie-maker, Ned (played by Lee Pace), who has the magic touch… literally.

With a single poke of his finger, Ned can revive dead things. Of course, there are rules. Like, the dead can only come to life for a brief moment, after which Ned must either let them die again or have someone of “equal value” die in their place. And, if he touches the revived person or thing a second time, they die again. Forever.

Or something like that. Digby, his childhood Golden Retriever, was the first thing Ned reanimated, and the mutt’s still going strong, suggesting that maybe, just maybe, his magic touch can suspend the aging process of the recipients of his “gift” — as long as Ned never touches them again.

Not that the powers had done him much good. As an eight-year old, he brought his mother back to life when she keeled over from an aneurysm, but that lead to the death of the dad of his boyhood crush, Charlotte “Chuck” Charles. And Ned’s mother when she went to kiss him goodnight.

Oops.

But now Ned’s all grown up (he’s twenty-nine), and the proud owner of the struggling Pie Hole bakery in Coeur d’Coeurs, a fictional town in Papen County (wherever that is). There, he works alongside love-struck waitress Olive Snook (Kristin Chenoweth), who has the odd (but Emmy-winning) habit of bursting into song.

And then there’s the reappearance of Chuck, who moved away after her father’s death, to be raised by her two agoraphobic aunts (and former synchronized swimming stars) Vivian and Lily. Ned hasn’t seen her since that fateful night, but their reunion, at least at first, is not a happy one. Chuck is a recent murder victim, and although Ned revives her, and their relationship blossoms, he soon realizes they can never touch again — or else it’s permanent room temperature for good ol’ Chuck.

Bummer.

All of which would probably be enough plot hooks for most shows, but then local private eye EMERSON COD comes along and discovers Ned’s odd gift, and strikes a deal. Ned will use his powers to help Emerson work cases, particularly murders, and they’ll split the reward.

And of course Emerson is yet another oddball — a cynical knitaholic and children’s book author who’s been searching for years for his long-lost daughter, and who adds a welcome bit of ground-level pragmatism to the la-te-da proceedings.

Chalk it up as a “screwball forensic fairy tale.” The show drew critical praise for its oddball art direction (lotsa bright colors), quirky characters, rat-a-tat-tat snappy patter and splashes of black humour, while Jim Dale’s voiceover narration played into the whole storybook vibe.

Such weirdness, of course, resulted in a devout fan base and a slew of Emmy nominations (it won seven), but viewership dropped after its abbreviated first season (you can blame the 2007-2008 Writers Guild strike for that) and it never quite bounced back, forcing ABC to cancel it in late 2008, citing “financial viability concerns.”

The abrupt cancellation squashed any attempts for closure for the show’s multiple meandering plot threads, angering its fans, and attempts to bring the show back for a third season, possibly as a comic book, have so far failed, and at this point, almost two decades since the show made its debut, are just, well,  pie in the sky.

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Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.

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