Colorful Daisies is the critics' pick

LOS ANGELES - ABC's "Pushing Daisies," described by the network as "a forensic fairy tale," is an odd-sounding series about a man whose touch can bring dead things to life, or take that gift of a second life away forever.

Yet as the fall season approaches, this one-hour fantasy is being viewed by critics as the new show most likely to be a hit.

"I'm a big believer in flying under the radar, and we're not doing that for this show," executive producer Barry Sonnenfeld, who directed the pilot, told members of the Television Critics Association.

Sonnenfeld acknowledged that the "Pushing Daisies" pilot has proven equally popular when he's shown it to his adult friends and the friends of his 14-year-old daughter, and he suspects it may have the wide appeal of one of his hit movies, "Men in Black."

Sonnenfeld also groused good-naturedly about the way even the show's creator, Bryan Fuller of "Dead Like Me," likened the pilot's brightly colored, cartoonish palette to Tim Burton's "Beetlejuice."

"I just love," Sonnenfeld said dryly, "how many of you have written that the show looks very Burtonesque - which makes me really thrilled, since my name is Sonnenfeld."

Fuller insisted he had a rather sunny take on the subject of death ("The show's a fun show," he said, adding, "I can't watch '24,' it's just depressing"), but Chi McBride, one of the "Pushing Daisies" co-stars, said he shared Sonnenfeld's bleak outlook.

McBride broke into a whiny imitation of the director and quoted him as saying, "Some people see the glass half-empty, some see it half-full - I see half a glass of poison."

Other cast members supporting series leads Lee Pace and Anna Friel are Broadway and Off-Broadway veterans Swoosie Kurtz, Ellen Greene and Kristin Chenoweth. When asked, given that cast, whether a musical episode of "Daisies" was being considered, Fuller immediately said, "Oh, yeah."

Chenoweth, recently seen on Broadway as the star of "Wicked" and "The Apple Tree," added, "We in musical theater believe we sing because we can't speak anymore. And I believe this is a show that would be perfect to lend itself to something like that."