TVSquad

(S01E09) "There is an unpleasant chill in the air." - The Narrator

And we have arrived: this week's episode was the last completed-before-the-strike episode of ABC's Pushing Daisies. The quote I put under the picture may not have been the most important one said in the episode (the bombshell quote is a tad too shocking to put up front) but it does highlight the mood and tone of the episode: chilly. "Corpsicle" is not my favorite Pushing Daisies episode but it offered good reveals, some fantastic lines from Emerson and Olive, and it finally gave the aunts (at least one of them) a real purpose in the series.

(S01E08) "Am I your boyfriend?" - Ned
"Yes." - Chuck

It was announced about two months ago that Molly Shannon would guest star on ABC's Pushing Daisies and the day, err... evening, has come. I've read a lot of comments from fans saying that they were somewhat scared after hearing she would guest star mostly because they thought her acting wasn't good enough for the show. In retrospect, her acting wasn't that great but it wasn't that bad either since Daisies is over the top at times.

(S01E07) "The mere smell of it made him feel, if only for an hour, exactly like he wanted to feel: safe and warm and loved, which is why he became the pie maker." - Narrator

ABC lost a good and fun opportunity to offer Pushing Daisies viewers a chance to get up close and really personal with the show and maybe attract new people who would have been interested in a scratch 'n' sniff event! Yes, it would have been pretty much a copy of what NBC did last year with My Name Is Earl, but having a scratch 'n' sniff card to use throughout this olfactory episode would have been just as magical as the episode itself! Okay, maybe the smell of the sock and the sewer would have been terrible but it would have been interesting to smell Ned, Emerson, and "honey and death" (aka Chuck). Okay, maybe that would have been a bad idea. Let's move on to the episode instead.

(S01E06) Up until now, we've only seen Emerson as a gruff P.I. whose role was to throw a sprinkle of cynicism on the decidedly sprightly environment around the Pie Hole. But you knew that eventually we were going to either find out more about his past or see him get involved with one of the people he was investigating. Tonight we got the latter. And his dalliance did a nice job of throwing some needed darkness into what was an overly-sweet episode.

(S01E05) "Tell Ned I love... his pies." - Olive

This Halloween-themed Pushing Daisies episode has been one of my favorites so far this season. We learned more about Ned's past and we discovered who Olive used to be while being entertained by a magical and mysterious storyline that was reminiscent of stories and movies such as Sleepy Hollow.

(S01E04) Since my co-reviewer Izzy lives in Canada, she gets to see episodes of certain shows before we get to here in the States. One of those shows is Pushing Daisies, which airs on Tuesdays up there. After she saw "Pigeon" last night, she wrote me asking if this was the first episode that was shot after the now-infamous budget cuts were made. I thought last week's episode was the first under those restrictions, but I can see why Izzy might have thought that this one was made on the cheap.

To me, though, the less visual doohickeys there are in a Pushing Daisies, the better. A little bit of snazziness goes a long way with this show, and it leaves more room to actually tell the story. And this week's story was pretty good.

(S01E03) "You killed someone for me?" - Chuck

After watching last week's episode, I was as worried as Joel was/is about Pushing Daisies's future. With such a stellar pilot, it was a given that the subsequent episodes wouldn't be as great but that second episode was a letdown. Narration aside (I'll get to this later on), this week's episode reassured me that PD can survive in its current format.

(S01E02) OK, I am now ever so slightly worried about Pushing Daisies.

Oh, don't get me wrong: there was plenty to like about the second episode of the most praised new show of the season. But there were two things that got me and every person concerned about this show's long-term future: a) Would the show get too cute (or twee, if closet Brit Anna Friel was discussing it. Alan Sepinwall was the first critic to use the term for the show, and I think it fits perfectly) for its own good, and b) would Barry Sonnenfeld's rumored budget overruns sink the show in its later episodes?

After watching "Dummy," my answers right now are a) it might if it's not careful, and b) it's starting to look that way.

ABC had so much star and producer power attending its All-Stars party for the TV Critics at the Beverly Hilton last night, it had to have had to have two -- count 'em two -- tip sheets (one with stars; one with producers) for the media.

There was one typo, however For some reason, Marc Cherry was listed on the producers' list; sure, he's Desperate Housewives' top exec, but the man should have been put on the talent tip sheet, too. He knows how to tease a season and entertain a table full of reporters like no other!

Cherry gave the scoop on new characters played by Dana Delany and Nathan Fillion -- also, a preview of what's ahead for the other ladies of Wisteria Lane.

We TV Critics are dead on our feet now that we're in the last two days of a near-three week press tour at the Beverly Hilton, but that hasn't stopped us from getting dish from actors and producers here to hawk their fall ABC series.

On stage to promote Cashmere Mafia (a series about four women living life in New York City) creator Darren Star was asked about his other program about four women that call the Big Apple home. Star says: "There's a [film] script. It's in the form of pre-production."

Big Lost scoop! Harold Perrineau is returning to the serial ABC drama as killer Michael Dawson.

Getting the news out of ABC entertainment president Stephen McPherson wasn't easy, however.

The session began with Hope Hartman, one of ABC's top PR chiefs, getting the day off with some really good news -- because we're on the final legs of the tour's "death march with drinks" all ABC functions will take place on-site at the Beverly Hilton hotel. Woo-hoo!

Fans of ABC's canceled-too-soon series The Nine will be happy to know that the six unaired episodes of the series will see the light of the small screen this summer.

The series, starring actors such as Tim Daly, Chi McBride, John, Billingsley, and Kim Raver, will return to ABC in its old 10 p.m. ET on Wednesdays timeslot starting August 1.

TV viewers -- or anyone for that matter -- haven't heard from Molly Shannon in a while. Though her IMDb profile has shown that she's been busy, the last time I saw her in anything was in a memorable guest role on Scrubs three years ago. Her absence was kind of surprising, given how funny she was on Saturday Night Live. But it looks like Shannon is on her way back, in an NBC comedy pilot called The Mastersons of Manhattan.

The Hollywood Reporter, in an article that contains a ton of casting news, reports that Shannon will star with Natasha Richardson in the serialized soap. The two play socialite sisters, the younger of whom (Shannon) is on trial for murder. Yes, I did say earlier that it was a comedy, if you want to check.

Beats me.

As I mentioned in my Five Canceled Shows post, this show was the most critically-acclaimed new show of the fall season and it had the nice time slot after Lost on Wednesday nights? It had a really strong cast and an intriguing pilot. So what the hell happened? The LA Times investigates, talking to the show's creator Hank Steinberg.

The whole thing was odd from the get-go, as The Nine's very first episode didn't even the numbers that ABC thought it would, and then the ratings fell from there. People who didn't like the show can say that the show didn't live up to the pre-season hype or the quality of the pilot, but that doesn't explain why the pilot wasn't watched by more people.

One thing the article says that I don't quite believe is that the show hasn't been officially canceled by the network. Yeah, if you want to get into semantics. The network says the show might be back in March or April, but at the same time it pulled the show because of low ratings and hasn't ordered anymore.

(S01E04) It's interesting how this show is becoming something different than how it started. Oh, the set up is the same, a group of strangers coming together after a horrifying bank hostage situation. But the stage it's in now is intriguing. The group started out as complete strangers who just happened to find each other together at a bank. Then, they find themselves becoming great friends and even meeting on a regular basis for dinner to help each other through this. And now comes the inevitable third stage: still great friends, but little differences in opinion are starting to create little irritations and disagreements.

And we find out that one of the bank robbers had a chance to escape, but decided to go back into the bank...