The orchestra swells, the camera swoops in from the towering alps to my Julie Andrews twirl. The hills are alive…and then a pigeon craps on my face. This is how life works for hapless—but never hopeless!—Olive Snook, whose unrequited love and general enthusiasm sometimes compel her to burst into song. I knew from the moment Dannielle handed me the Pushing Daisies pilot script that Olive and I were made for each other. “You must read this carefully,” Dannielle told me. “And then you have a huge decision to make.” One of life’s little jawbreakers. I’d been workshopping a Broadway musical redux of Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein. I loved the pilot script, but who turns down an opportunity to work with Mel Brooks? Bryan Fuller’s first show, Wonderfalls was—well, it was a wonder, and the script in my hand was even more captivating. They’re calling it a “dramedy,” which is a word I hate, but there’s really no word existing that adequately describes the strawberry-rhubarb combination of whimsy, mayhem, and emotion.
