SueTube – Let’s talk TV with critic Susan Young

There seems to be little hope that a strike beginning at 12:01 Monday by the Writer’s Guild of America can be averted.

But before they do, Bryan Fuller and his scribes were busy Thursday night and on to Friday morning trying to finish one more “Pushing Daisies” script.

“We’re desperately trying to finish one last script before we are instructed to put our pencils down,” Bryan said at midnight. “We want to keep our crew employed as long as we possibly can, but don’t know how long that will be. ”

“Desperate Housewives” will shoot the tenth script next week, and then the well is dry.

And the truth is, according to producers like Bill Lawrence of “Scrubs,” if the work stops for a couple of weeks or even a month, it’s not going to do much damage.

Scripts have been stockpiled and, while November is a busy month, some specials bounce network programs off the air anyway. We won’t be seeing “Pushing Daisies” until Nov. 14 because of the Country Music Awards. And the lights go out for much of the month of December.

“The only thing that can really screw up everything is if it’s like it was in 1988 when it went on for 22 weeks,” says Lawrence. “And then you’re talking about drastically altering this TV season as well as the next one. ”

For “Scrubs,” there are two, perhaps three, scripts that have been completed and could be shot. After that, nada.

If things drag on, Lawrence says that chances are good that the final episodes would eventually be written, shot – and pop up on DVD.

“The one thing that’s keeping me from panicking completely as far as ‘Scrubs goes is I have such a good relationship with the studio, that were there something that essentially erased the rest of the year, you know, (we would still do) a finale of the series even if it was something that would just be released on a DVD or something,” Lawrence says. “To tell you the truth it’d probably end up making more money. ”

And money is the central issue here.

The bottom line is over DVD and online residual payments. Writers believe they are not being fairly compensated for their work, which is increasingly being seen through DVD sales and online with online becoming a bigger factor in the coming years. For a more detailed explaination, go to the Wall Street Journal’s story.

The impact is more than just a delay in new programs. During the 1988 strike, almost 10 percent of the TV viewing audience left and never returned.

In these days of eroding audiences, a long strike could cripple the industry. Many people will be impacted, from publicists to dry cleaners, if this proves to be a long strike.

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.

Good news or bad?

I’m a person who would rather go to a Giants or A’s game than to watch it on television, so this only means that my regular TV watching won’t be disrupted as often. But what do you think of the announcement today that KTVU-Channel 2 has ended their baseball deal with the Giants?

On the plus side, the Fox affiliate will be able to broadcast its national and local programming more consistently.

“The business realities have dramatically changed and we were very thoughtful and creative in our efforts to continue as the local TV rights holder,” said Tim McVay, Vice President and General Manager of KTVU-Channel 2 in a statement sent out today. “Any time there is a change that has so much positive history, it is unsettling. We have a tremendous amount of respect and appreciation for the Giants. The Giants organization is first-class from top to bottom and we look forward to carrying the Giants games on Saturday and into the Playoffs and World Series.”