Day 632: TV Review – ‘Pushing Daises’ and the Writers Strike of 2007

Have any of you seen “Pushing Daises”? I loved this show! It’s was smart and witty and quirky and very fast paced. It was REALLY good. But, like may shows from 2007, the writer’s strike ruined its momentum. I’m sure you guys remember this strike… it lasted 100 days! For “Pushing Daises”, they had only completed 9 episodes prior to the strike… and when it was called off on February 12, 2008, there just wasn’t enough time to put shows back into production.

So, the networks ended up canceling a bunch of decent new shows once their initial order of episodes finished like “Carpoolers”, “Women’s Murder Club”, “Big Shots”, “Aliens in America”, “K-ville”, and “Cane”.

Hell, even the producers of battle-tested shows like “24” wrote off the entire season opting to regroup for the following year.

However, some lucky shows premiering in 2007, like “Pushing Daises”, they were brought back for a second season… unfortunately, it was a rather pointless season. “Push Daises” was canceled during its second season after the completion of its initial 13 episode order. Thankfully, the networks gave them enough notice to rework their final episode offering some semblance of closure for the show. “Pushing Daises” was not alone. It was one of many writers strike survivors who ultimately bit the dust midway through season two. Do you remember any of the following shows: “Samantha Who”, “Reaper”, “Dirty Sexy Money”, “Life”, and “Eli Stone”?

Sadly, I was a loyal fan of all these shows. Thanks to my tivo, I’ve slowly been catching up on each of them watching their final episodes. “Pushing Daises” is on my mind because I finally caught up on the show last month. Watching the final eight episodes over the course of a week, I remembered why I loved the show so much. As far as crime solving shows go, “Pushing Daises” was light and refreshing and was unlike anything else on TV at the time or any other time. Its cancelation makes me sad… even two years later.

Whelp, I now have eight episodes of “Reaper” to watch and I will be official caught up on all these very unfortunate shows.

Oh, and you’re probably wondering… what new show’s premiered in 2007 before the writers’ strike and returned successfully? Well, here they are: “The Big Bang Theory”, “Chuck”, “Private Practice”, and “Gossip Girls”… that’s it. Only four shows premiering in 2007 made it to season three.