We first got to know producer Bryan Fuller with Wonderfalls, the short-lived Fox series in which a slacker working in a gift shop is sent on missions from talking merchandise. Now, he's brought the world ABC's Pushing Daisies, featuring a pie baker mysteriously endowed with the power to bring the dead back to life with his touch. If Daisies turns out to be as big a hit as the critics seem to think it should be, Fuller will be justified in adding "death" to "whimsy" as his TV trademarks -- as one can plainly see in this top-secret list TWoP has acquired, detailing his future projects: Bought The Farm Cornelius Bridger (Nick Stahl) is a driven -- and seemingly content -- Wall Street type, until his dead girlfriend Millicent Spoot (Amber Tamblyn) comes to him in a dream and tells him he isn't living up to his destiny: he needs to give up his loft in Tribeca and buy a farm outside Eden, NY. Confused but moved, Corny drops everything to carry out Millicent's orders, purchasing a modest corn plantation from Hortense McPhail (Cloris Leachman), but keeping her on his payroll for her guidance and expertise, because what does a Stanford MBA know from corn farming? What Corny didn't realize when he signed the deed -- but soon finds out -- is that the farm is more than it seems. At night, Corny's dead loved ones return and walk amongst the stalks, giving Corny other pieces of advice on how to bring more meaning to his life. This turns out to be both a blessing and a curse: Corny still has unfinished business with Millicent, and having contact with her again almost tricks him into think they're a real couple again...but will her presence scuttle Corny's budding friendship (and maybe more!) with Calliope Biggles (Autumn Reeser), curatrix of Eden's famed Kazoo Museum?
Croaked Marine biologist Dorcas Fowler (Lauren Graham) has given up her personal life for the sake of her career, and figures she's looking forward to more of the same when she relocates from Washington, DC to the Darling Marine Center in Maine to continue her study of North American amphibians. But after being introduced to her new boss -- the dashing but cocky Dr. Increase Stipplewell (Richard Burgi) -- and heading out to start her field work, Dorcas learns that the local Northern leopard frogs have an unusual talent: instead of the usual "ribbit," they croak the names of people who are about to suffer untimely deaths. After a few false starts (rest in peace, Walpole residents Edgeley Tibbs and Baudelaire Pitch!), Dorcas figures out the frogs' bargain: she has twenty-four hours from hearing the potential decedent's name to investigate his or her life, determine the most likely cause of death, and intervene to prevent his or her passing -- all without revealing to the would-be victim what's actually going on. Will Dorcas be able to carry out her assignments successfully? Will she get past her initial dislike of Increase to consider him a potential ally? And will she be able to turn this most unusual situation into a publishable research paper? The Great Beyond Small-time magician Micawber Beyond (Timothy Busfield) is working the Poconos senior-center circuit and living out of an old RV. The pay is bad, the audiences worse, and his long-suffering wife and assistant Trieste (Patti D'Arbanville) is tired of getting sawed in half -- she wants to go back to school. But one strange and stormy night, the rabbit he pulls out of his battered top hat delivers a speech about the nature of magic, and as word of the bunny's unique talent spreads, The Great Beyond finds himself at the center of a maelstrom of fortune and fame, with only "Ear-istotle" (voiced by Wilford Brimley) for company. When the laws of nature are broken, who gets punished? Find out this fall on The Great Beyond.
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Kicking The Bucket Mingus Pecksniff (Edward Furlong, in his debut as a series regular) is a janitor at a mental hospital by day, a star soccer player by night -- in his dreams, Busby Berkeleyan musical extravaganzas featuring Pelé, and costumes by Bob Mackie. Alas, Mingus is also a klutz, which creates mishaps at work and makes it unlikely that he'll ever net a goal...until a string of incredible coincidences sees Mingus take over as the coach of the long-term patients' soccer team. Herding various multiple personalities up and down the field, managing OCD routines and meds schedules, Mingus starts to feel crazy himself...until the footie talents of one patient (Costas Mandylor) teach him to believe in his dreams. And you can believe...in Kicking The Bucket. Toes Up Hard-charging L.A. talent agent Banjo Rudge (Shannen Doherty) didn't want a dance academy in Middletown, Pennsylvania -- she inherited it from her eccentric aunt, a former Ziegfeld Follies girl, and Banjo wants nothing more than to sell the academy to Middletown's queenly mayor, Fiddens Major (Shirley Knight), and get back to her sun-kissed west-coast life. But Banjo inherited more than just the academy; she inherited a box of old tap shoes...and the shoes have other plans, carrying Banjo Esther Williams-movie style to the furnished apartment above the ballet room, foiling her attempts to sneak out of town, and putting her directly in the path of Middletown's most radioactively eligible bachelor, Toby Chadband (Eric McCormack). What do the shoes want? What does Banjo want? Go Toes Up, Tuesdays.
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