“Pushing Daisies” is stepping it up this season – more movie homages, more guest stars, more musical numbers, and of course, more pie.
For the season premiere tonight (October 1), featuring French Stewart and Autumn Reeser, Kristen Chenoweth cracks after keeping the secret about Chuck’s mother, and joins a nunnery, “which of course lends itself to a ‘Sound of Music’ homage,’” creator Bryan Fuller chuckled.
“Once you have someone in a nunnery, you do have those moments,” producer Barry Sonnenfeld said, “standing on a hillside, singing out loud.”
Last season, which, if you missed it, is now available on DVD, featured three musical numbers, including They Might Be Giants’ “Birdhouse In Your Soul.” This season, they hope to have even more breaking-out-into-song moments. By episode eight, Fuller said, “Pushing Daisies” will “get our Bangles on,” when Chenoweth sings “Eternal Flame.”
“There’s quite a few other songs I’d like us to do,” Fuller said. “I’m a big Fleetwood Mac fan, so I would love to get ‘Go Your Own Way’ in there. I would love them to rock out some Kate Bush.”
“We’re still talking about doing an all-musical show,” Sonnenfeld said.
“And if we’re lucky, what I would love to do is a Christmas episode, where it’s all new Christmas songs,” Fuller said. “I really want to do a Christmas musical.”
Another dream Fuller has is to take all the music from “Sweeney Todd” and adjust the lyrics to fit the show – after all, both shows do feature pies and the dead, albeit one version is a tad more gruesome than the other.
Some guest stars might be up to the challenge – such as Missi Pyle (who has her own band with “Saw” actress Shawnee Smith, Smith & Pyle). “I’m glad Missi doesn’t die in her episode,” Fuller said. “I would love for her to come back.”
“We tend to hire guests and if we like them, we try to write more episodes with them,” Sonnenfeld said. “We fall in love with the actors. We did that with Paul Reubens, and hopefully we’ll do that with David Arquette.”
Arquette joins the show for four episode so far as a recurring character called Randy Mann, the piemaker’s friend who develops a romantic arc with Olive. “I once saw him in a production of ‘Rocky Horror,’ so I know he can sing,” Fuller said. “So we’ll see how far we can go with him on that.”
After the season premiere, the “Pushing Daisies” makers find out on October 2 if they’ll get a full season (they had a 13-episode order to start). They certainly hope so, Fuller said: “We want seconds on our pie.”
Looking forward to a brand new season of "Pushing Daisies"? Let us know below!
** FOLLOW MTV MOVIES BLOG ON TWITTER! **