Pushing Daisies: A Delightful Trip. ABC snagged 76 Emmy nominations last week, the most of any broadcast network by far.
Pushing Daisies, ABC’s freshman dramacom, snagged 12, five more than any other one-hour broadcast series, yet the network wasn’t doing a whole lot of promotion for it.
I talked to director Barry Sonnenfeld, who’s done features like Men in Black and Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, in addition to a bunch of fantastical, if not always ratings-successful, TV shows, including The Tick and Maximum Bob.
Sonnenfeld is a funny, unassuming man, not what you’d expect from a big-shot director. He seemed not to know that he had been nominated for a directing Emmy for Daisies. And he had no idea how much further ahead of other ABC shows it was in the Emmy nom race.
But he does know how to direct his actors, two of whom are going for Emmys, Lee Pace as lead actor in a comedy, and tiny, yet voluptuous Kristin Chenoweth as supporting comedy actress.
Pace plays a baker with the power to bring people back to life. Chenoweth plays a waitress at his restaurant, jealous of his abiding love for a woman named Chuck whom he has resurrected, played by Anna Friel. Chi McBride (Boston Public, House) is the venal private eye trying to make money off the baker’s gift.
“Oh, it’s not very hard really,” said Sonnenfeld, who has explained that he gets the show’s amazing visual palette just by “turning the color dial up to 11.”
“I just tell Lee to smile less. I tell Anna to embrace the karma that is Chuck, Chi to be less funny and Kristin to bump up her cleavage.”
