TVSquad Interviews Chi McBride on "Pushing Daisies"

[JamesG]

Out of the shows that you've done that have not made it, which one do you miss the most?

Probably Daisies. I really was having fun.

I really loved playing Emerson. It was a lot closer to my own personality than many of my other roles. So I really was having a really good time.





Do you think the writer's strike killed that show?

I think it certainly helped. I don't think that it helped the cause of that show at all.

And when you've got a show that's really just out of the gate that's more different than anything on television, the one thing people need to do is see it. It's tough when people walk off the job.

And for what they ended up getting, it really wasn't worth the walk.





Do you think the writers compromised too much?

It isn't even a matter of that. I think that the whole thing could've been resolved without walking off the job. You know? I mean I just... once you walk off the job, man..

I mean look at baseball. With all the flap about steroids, what people forget is, the irony about that is, if it wasn't for steroids..steroids brought baseball back. Because steroids are what gave way for the long ball.

And that's what made people start coming out again.





There was a lot of upheaval due to the strike...

People don't like you messing with their TV shows, man! You know what I mean? People get really invested, they get an emotional attachment. And when you go for what people perceive to be... It doesn't matter what the real issues are.

The perception out there is that everybody that's on television has a 16-bedroom house, you know, and great danes and hounds, and grounds, and drive around their grounds on a golf cart. And it's really hard to you know, sort of take the gas out of that theory.



And when people have that perception and you walk off the job, I mean while they gotta get up at 6:00 in the morning to go to a job they can't stand, then their attitude is they flip you off and they don't f---ing watch. You know? And it takes something special to bring it back.

And the new crop of shows that came back are the ones that pretty much stayed. And the new crop of shows that was in that year pretty much fell by the wayside with probably the exception of maybe Chuck.





Why do you think Chuck got the chance and Pushing Daisies, Jericho, and some of the other ones didn't?

I think because they had a lot more episodes, they had a rabid following, and NBC really stuck with it because they really didn't have a choice. They really didn't have anything, and they gave it a chance and an opportunity to grow its audience.

But ABC man, they've got stuff in development, they've got rooms full of that stuff, you know what I mean? If you know you've got Modern Family on deck, are you gonna keep something that's gonna be kind of fledgling and sort of wobbling on the track?





Is there any thought from Bryan Fuller to bring Daisies back in some form?

He's doing a graphic novel right now.





But nothing more than that?

Not at this point. Not that I know of. I think we've sufficiently moved on and we've all gone to other things.

But Daisies was special to everybody who did it. And people are still winning awards for it, and getting nominated for awards for it. So it'll live on in its own way and that'll be that.

Whatever happens, happens. If they end up doing something else, we'll see if we're all available.





By the way, how do you think they handled that last episode, with the rushed ending?

Well, they did the best they could with what they had, you know what I mean? There was only really so much they could do.

So with what they had, I think they made good out of it.


Full interview here - http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/02/16/hu...shing-daisies/