Pushing “Daisies”: Girth
I love horses, so this week’s “Daisies” was a particular treat. Little 4-foot-11 inch Olive, we discover, used to be a jockey. And a jockey who won the Jock Off 2000 (how funny was that??)
KRISTIN CHENOWETH, CHI McBRIDE, BARBARA BARRIE (as Momma Jacobs), ANNA FRIEL
But the winner’s circle came at a steep price. Fellow jock John Joseph Jacobs, who probably should have won, got his girth cut and fell off. As the narrator says, being in front is a good thing unless you fall off because there are so many horses coming up to trample you.
One by one, the four riders who did the major damage, are getting killed by trampling. Will Olive be next? Has JJJ come back from the dead?
As you know by now, the answer was no and no.
But my favorite part was when Ned went to see the aunts after once again feeling abandoned by his dad, who, let’s face it, abandoned him when he was just a kid.
But first, the big sad thing. After Ned’s mom died, he was shipped off to boarding school. But he escaped to go trick-or-treating in his old neighborhood and when he knocked at a door, his father answered.
What was sadder, the fact that little Ned discovered Dad with another family, or the fact that his own father didn’t recognize his son under his ghostie-sheet?
SWOOSIE KURTZ, ELLEN GREENE
When Ned goes to see The Aunts, Lily and Vivian (Swoosie Kurtz, Ellen Greene), Lily says his dad was just an ass. But Vivian walks the despondent Ned to the door and tells him how everyone says Ned turned out to be such a good person and gives him a kiss.
Ahhhh.
Blog reader Kara Severy wrote that she hopes to recreate part of that whimsical world.
“Could you tell me if the house that the Darling Sister’s live in is real or computer generated? And if it is real, where I can see it….especially the iron looking fence and gate? I’m trying to design that fence and really like the gate. Oh, I like the show too but it does have some elements of TOO CUTE that bug me a little.”
Too cute, Kara? We think not. But just to let you know how nice creator/executive producer Bryan Fuller is, we had a little email exchange on Tuesday about the show.
While I didn’t wrangle an offer that would allow you to come on the set to see the house itself, we’re hoping this is the next best thing. When Fuller found out you wanted to know about the house and especially the gates, which are real and not computer generated, he tracked down the information for you.
No pampered Hollywood flower, Fuller actually did his own leg work on this one. Well, maybe he just sent an email, but in my mind he hopped into a flower-trimmed golf cart and hunted down the designer for you.
“I asked our production designer and he said the fence/gate was designed by him (Michael Wylie) and built especially for ‘Daisies,’ “Fuller writes.
For those of you who caught last night’s episode, which Fuller says is one of his favorites, you might have seen a familiar face. Former Concord resident Carlos Alazraqui was a fixture around the Bay Area comedy club circuit in the early 1990s. He’s best known for being the voice of the Taco Bell Chihuahua and his role on “Reno 911.”
Alazraqui popped up last night on “Pushing Daisies,” where he played the drunk jockey in the Halloween-themed episode.
“We LOVED Carlos,” Fuller writes. “He was so great in the episode. We have to get him back on the show. He doesn’t die _ twice _ so we can absolutely have him back on the show.”
We’ll have to wait two weeks for another “Pushing Daisies” because of the CMA Awards next Wednesday, but here’s a peek:
LYDIA LOOK, CHRISTINE ADAMS, BUBBLEGUM THE DOG, JENNY WADE (ABC/RICHARD CARTWRIGHT)
When a dog breeder who may have bred the world’s most perfect pooch is found dead, Ned and company try to figure out who exactly did the deed, especially after they learn the deceased was a polygamist who left four grieving widows, on Nov. 14.