Pushing Daisies
Running Time : 45 minutes (per episode)
Cast
| Charlotte "Chuck" Charles | Anna Friel |
| Ned | Lee Pace |
| Olive Snook | Kristin Chenoweth |
| Emerson Cod | Chi McBride |
| Vivian Charles | Ellen Greene |
| Lily Charles | Swoosie Kurtz |
| Narrator | Jim Dale |
| Young Ned | Field Cate |
| Young Chuck | Sammi Hanratty |
| Coroner | Sy Richardson |
| Chuck's Father | Jon Eric Price |
| Ned's Mother | Tina Gloss |
| Oscar Vibenius | Paul Reubens |
Crew
| Executive Producer | Barry Sonnenfeld |
| Executive Producer | Bryan Fuller |
| Executive Producer | Bruce Cohen |
| Executive Producer | Dan Jinks |
| Executive Producer | Brooke Kennedy |
| Producer | Adam Kane |
| Co-Producer | Livia Hanich |
| Co-Producer | Scott Nimerfro |
| Co-Executive Producer | Rina Mimoun |
| Co-Executive Producer | Peter Ocko |
Story
Series 1
S1E01 - Pie-lette - Ned uses his unique powers to bring his childhood crush, Chuck, back to life and solve her murder. But he is also forced to keep his distance from her, because if he touches her, she will be dead forever.
Ned owns and operates a pie bakery and seems to lead a perfectly normal life. This, however, is far from the truth. Ned can, with the touch of his hand, wake people from the dead. But another touch will kill them again, for good, and if he keeps them alive for more than a minute, someone else in close proximity dies. He decides to use this ability of his to solve crimes, but it grows complicated when he gives life to his childhood crush, Charlotte "Chuck" Charles, and decides to let her keep living.
S1E02 - Dummy - The team investigates an unusual car manufacturer after a murder victim claims that he was killed by a crash test dummy.
Emerson gets annoyed with Chuck tailing himself and Ned on their cases, while Ned refuses to share secrets with Chuck. For this instance, Ned revives Bernard Slaybeck, an auto safety specialist who was murdered in a hit-and-run. Before he can explain his death, Chuck breaks in with romantic questions. With the minute almost up, Bernard asks the team to give his last wishes to Jeanine, a young woman who worked with him at Dandy Lion Industries. Soon, a mysterious murder plot involving a crash dummy costume, bodies in the testing room, and a car that runs on dandelion fuel comes to light.
S1E03 - The Fun In Funeral - Emerson asks Ned to bring the funeral director he killed back to life, knowing that it will expose the secret about why Chuck is still alive. Olive also learns about Ned and Chuck's secret while delivering a pie to Chuck's aunts.
Ned and Chuck speak to Lawrence Schatz, who they find out died one minute after Ned brought Chuck back to life. Meanwhile, Chuck decides to stay true to her original threat of baking anti-depressants into her aunts' food, in the form of Ned's pies. Olive unwillingly becomes the messenger in Chuck's plan and accidentally stumbles onto a secret about her unrequited lover's love.
S1E04 - Pigeon - Emerson, Ned and Chuck are on a case of stolen jewellery goods, and solving a murder/suicide case, as well as finding out about a missing prisoner.
A plane crash into an apartment building leaves the trio with a case - did the pilot commit suicide? - while Chuck finds herself drawn to the man who appears to be the sole survivor much to Ned's distress. Meanwhile, Olive takes a wounded messenger pigeon to the aunts for help.
S1E05 - Girth - In this Halloween episode, Emerson and Olive track down a "ghost" who's been killing the jockeys at the old race arena where Olive used to race as a former jockey herself. With help from Ned and Chuck, they try to solve the big mystery.
In this Halloween episode, Emerson and Olive track down "the ghost" who's been killing the jockeys at the old race arena where Olive used to race as a former jockey herself. With help from Ned and Chuck, they try to solve the big mystery.
S1E06 - Bitches - When a dog breeder is poisoned to death, suspicion falls upon his four wives as well as a businessman who was planning to market his new breed of dog.
When a deceased man tells Ned that his wife killed him after giving him a cup of coffee, he fails to mention that he is a polygamist, making the case harder than it sounds, with matters only becoming more complicated when Emerson falls for the prime suspect and Ned is left contemplating starting a physical relationship with Olive to complement the emotional one he has with Chuck.
S1E07 - Smell of Success - A woman dies in a scratch-and-sniff book explosion. Was the scientist who wrote the book the target of the explosion, or was this part of an intentional publicity stunt gone horribly wrong?
The trio is called on to investigate the case of Anita Gray, loyal assistant to the olfactory scientist and aspiring novelist Napoleon LeNez. Sitting at her desk, Anita was leaning over to use her heightened sense of smell on a scratch-and-sniff book when suddenly, an explosion erupted from the book, completely engulfing her. Additional attempts on Lenez's life and incriminating evidence leads to the suspicion of Oscar Vibenius, former lab partner and bitter rival of Lenez. This rivalry leads to the belief that Vibenius is trying to prevent Lenez's book from being published. Elsewhere, Olive attempts to get Lily and Vivian back in the water. And, Vibenius begins an obsession with Chuck.
S1E08 - Bitter Sweets - The owners of a new candy store hope to put The Pie Hole out of business. And when one of the store's owners turns up dead, Ned is wrongfully charged with murder.
Emerson, Ned and Chuck investigate the death of Tony DiNapoli, who appears to have been strangled by a woman. However, when Ned brings Tony back to life to find out who killed him, Tony claims it was Burly Bruce Carter, via the hands of his “girlfriend” who is a RealDoll. Meanwhile, business at the Pie Hole plummets when a new candy store opens in town- the situation becoming more complicated when Ned discovers one of the owners dead in a large vat of candy-, and Alfredo continues to pursue an oblivious Olive who, herself, continues to pine after the Pie Maker.
S1E09 - Corpsicle - After a shocking turn of events, Ned tries to make peace with Chuck. Meanwhile, Emerson tries to get him to concentrate on their latest case, an insurance adjustor found frozen solid. And scent expert Oscar Vibenius (guest star Paul Reubens) returns, trying to figure out what's so different about Chuck and Digby.
When Chuck disappears after discovering Ned’s connection to her father’s death, Ned finds her with Olive, but she refuses to go back home with him. Meanwhile, Oscar Vibenius continues his attempt to figure out why Chuck smells so different. It’s New Year’s, and Emerson and Ned investigate the death of an adjuster from the Über-Life Life Insurance Agency who was found in a snow bank. Lily suffers from hallucinations after Olive inadvertently overdoses a pie with Chuck's homeopathic mood enhancer.
Series 2
S2E01 - Bzzzzzzzzz! - The gang tries to solve a murder of a woman who works for a company that makes beauty products from honey
Chuck goes undercover as a "Bee Girl" at a honey-based cosmetics company after their new spokesmodel is stung to death. She soon discovers that office politics are killer (literally) between the founder (Missi Pyle) and the new owner. Meanwhile, Ned can't stand her growing independence or the fact that she wants to move out of his apartment. In other developments, Lily spirits Olive off to a nunnery so she won't spill Lily's deep, dark secret.
S2E02 - Circus, Circus - The Pie Maker and his friends solve a mystery in the most unlikeliest of places: the circus.
Georgeann Heaps hires Emerson to find her missing daughter who has apparently run away, and the trail leads to a circus surrounded by murder in the form of several dead clowns. Meanwhile, Ned and Chuck try to deal with the change in their relationship, and Olive considers staying longer at the nunnery.
S2E03 - Bad Habits - Ned, Chuck, and Emerson go to Olive's nunnery to solve a murder. However, Olive is nervous that she will reveal to Chuck the secret identity of her real mother.
Olive calls on the Pie Maker and Emerson to solve a suspicious suicide of a fellow nun that she believes was murdered. Meanwhile, Chuck tries to fill in her family tree and considers what to do in the present with her new lease on life.
S2E04 - Frescorts - Emerson's mom comes to town just in time to help the team investigate the murder of an employee at a professional friendship service business. Chuck and Olive move in together after Olive comes back, but how long will it last
When the most popular escort at a rent-a-friend agency turns up dead, the team investigates who killed him, including likely suspect Randy Mann, the guy's antisocial, taxidermy-loving roommate. Meanwhile, Emerson's famed private investigator mom, Calista Cod, pays an unexpected visit and does a little snooping of her own.
S2E05 - Dim Sum Lose Some - While the gang investigates a murder at the Dim Sum restaurant below Emerson's office, a woman from Emerson's past reenters his life. Meanwhile, Olive and Chuck discover that Ned has twin stepbrothers.
The wife of a murdered chef, Bao Di, hires Emerson to investigate the death of her husband. So Ned, Emerson, Chuck, and Olive all go undercover at the Chinese restaurant where the murder took place. Meanwhile, Ned encounters a mysterious man who claims to have ties to his past, and Emerson is reunited with polygamist widow Simone Hundin.
S2E06 - Oh Oh Oh....It's Magic - The team investigates the disappearance of the magician who took Ned's two half-brothers under his wing. Dwight Dixon comes to Lily and Vivian searching for a pocketwatch, and Chuck tries to get Lily to confess that she's her mother.
Famed magician The Great Herrmann hires Emerson Cod to come to the Conjurer's Castle to track down the killer of his animal assistants. Meanwhile, Ned makes a discovery of his own at the Castle involving his newly found half-brothers.
S2E07 - Robbing Hood - The detectives connect the death of a millionaire to a modern day Robin Hood, while also trying to figure out what Dwight is really up to.
A lawyer for the late Gustav Hoffer suspects his client's death was not part of a robbery gone wrong as was reported, but rather murder. He hires Emerson Cod and Ned to find out who killed Hoffer. Meanwhile, Dwight Dixon romances Vivian (much to the disgust of Lily), and discovers that Chuck is still alive.
S2E08 - Comfort Food - Chuck doesn't tell Ned that she kept her father alive after Ned brought him back, and Dwight Dixon dies because of it. Meanwhile, Ned and Olive are left to solve the murder of one of the contestants at a bake-off.
Ned and Olive compete at the Papen County Comfort Food Cook-Off, where Ned brings back to life Colonel Likkin, who was mysteriously deep fried to death. His world-famous original recipe has gone missing and Likkin asks Ned to find who stole it, forcing Ned and Olive to tackle a case without Emerson's detective expertise for the first time. Meanwhile, Chuck saves her father by tricking Ned, and is overcome by guilt. Turning to Emerson, the two try to find the person who died while in proximity
S2E09 - The Legend of Merle McQuoddy - Emerson and Olive investigate the murder of an infamous lighthouse keeper's wife, while Chuck's father schemes to keep Ned and Chuck separated forever.
The Papen County Lighthouse keeper, Nora McQuoddy, is discovered dead, and her son hires Emerson to find the killer. Meanwhile, Charles Charles pays a visit, but his continued demands for Ned to leave Chuck and his rejection of Ned's attempt to impose rules on his second chance of life result in Chuck being forced to choose between the two.
S2E10 - The Norwegians - While Ned and Chuck try to locate the whereabouts of Chuck's father, Vivian hires a crack team of Norwegian investigators to help find Dwight Dixon.
Ned, Chuck, and Emerson finally meet their match when three rival Norwegian detectives start to get in their way after Vivian hires them to investigate the disappearance of Dwight Dixon, with matters becoming increasingly complicated as Ned and Chuck try to find the missing Charles Charles and Olive apparently betrays the team to join the Norwegians.
S2E11 - Window Dressed To Kill - Erin Embry, window dresser extraordinaire for Dicker’s department store, is killed and Chuck manages to get the Pie Hole gang on the case. Erin’s fans think it was her window-dressing partner, Coco Juniper, who did the deed. Apparently the two artistic minds did not always meet. Meanwhile, Ned refuses to use his zapping ability which causes him a small crisis of identity as he tries to establish his old identity, with matters becoming further complicated when the arrival of two old 'friends' of Olive's force Ned to pose as her fiance due to her having referred to him as such in her letters to them.
S2E12 - Water & Power - Lila Robinson, a beautiful grifter from Emerson’s past resurfaces, revealing a painful secret that Emerson has kept hidden all these years. Now on the lam for murder, Lila promises Emerson a quid pro quo if he clears her name.
S2E13 - Kerplunk - The past becomes the present when one half of the Darling Mermaid Darlings’ arch rivals, the Aquadolls, is killed. In order to find the murderer, the Darling Mermaid Darlings must come out of retirement with Ned as their manager and Olive as their stylist. Chuck, of course, cannot participate. Olive gets close to Sid, with whom she shares her experiences in gender discrimination, what with him being a male synchronized swimmer and her attending Vassar on a jockey scholarship. But was Sid jealous enough of the headliners to commit murder?