"Pigeon" is the fourth episode of the first season of the American television comedy-drama Pushing Daisies. The episode—which features a duet version of the They Might Be Giants song "Birdhouse in Your Soul"—earned Jim Dooley a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series.Music Emmys Honor Pushing Daisies, The Company from the website of the Film Music Society It attracted about 9.7 million viewers for its broadcast premiere in the United States.Primetime Ratings Report For the week of October 22, 2007 from thefutoncritic.com
Plot A plane crash into an apartment building leaves Emerson, Ned and Chuck investigating whether the pilot committed suicide. Chuck finds herself drawn to the man who appears to be the sole survivor (guest star Dash Mihok). Olive takes a wounded carrier pigeon to Chuck's aunts for help. Ned, Chuck and Emerson deduce that Dash is a prison escapee, and follow him to a windmill. Olive and the aunts follow the repaired pigeon to the same windmill. The case is solved, but Aunt Lily catches a fleeting glimpse of Chuck as Olive and the aunts drive away; the glimpse is so fleeting, Lily believes it was just wishful thinking.
U.S. ratings This episode aired the day after the ABC television network announced an order for a full 22-episode first season of the series.ABC Picks More Daisies, Scripts Added to Carpoolers, Moonlight, an October 23, 2007 article from thefutoncritic.com The full order was not a surprise, since the show had easily won its Wednesday lead-off time slot among adults 18-49 during each of the three previous airings, though that success was against the backdrop of an overall bad start for the new fall TV broadcasting season.News from the Trades - For Week of October 22, 2007, from MultiChannel News via an Insight Media website
The episode competed against the first game of the 2007 World Series, losing to that sporting event but outdrawing the premiere of Phenomenon on NBC,Quick Take for Wednesday, October 24, 2007 an ABC press release via thefutoncritic.com as well as every other program that night.
Writer's strike The week the episode aired in the United States was also one in which screenwriters authorized their union leaders to call what in two weeks became the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike.TV Writers Edging Toward a Strike, an October 22, 2007 blog entry from The New York Times Entertainment Weekly later credited the strike for giving Pushing Daisies, a series with only moderate ratings success during its first season, a chance to relaunch with a 22 episode season order.It's Over!, a February 2008 Entertainment Weekly article Nine episodes had been written before the strike was called, and these nine would form the first, shortened, season. Nine months later, actress Kristin Chenoweth, who played Olive, cited the strike as one reason for the series being canceled in its second season (made up of the remaining 13 episodes delayed by the strike), though she speculated that other reasons may have also played a role.Sources: Daisies, Eli Stone and Dirty Sexy Canceled a November 2008 article from E! Online
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