Stephen McPherson, pictured, is the President of ABC. He recently spoke with The Los Angeles Times about a bevy of new shows on the network, most notably Pushing Daisies.

ABC is rolling out the most new shows this fall. How does the upcoming season look?
We’re excited to get going. We’re in a more stable place than in years past and it’s nice to go into September with a lot of hits - Ugly Betty, Grey’s, Lost” and Dancing With the Stars. We have Sunday, Monday and Thursday working well. And we’ve got some great shows coming up where we really took some chances - Dirty, Sexy, Money and Pushing Daisies.

Pushing Daisies already has made an impression with the critics.
My hats off to Bryan Fuller, who created the show. It’s his vision from beginning to end. Barry Sonnenfeld brought a great touch to the premiere episode. It’s a truly unique, interesting, touching procedural show with romance, intrigue and comedy to it.

Visually, it’s the most stunning show put on television in years. We’ve had a lot of success taking chances - whether it was Lost or Ugly Betty. Pushing Daisies is one of those shows that stands out in a crowded market. It’s wonderful doing shows like this and not just trying to copy what’s already working out there.

The following interview with Lee Pace is taken from the same E! Online feature that named the actor as a Newbie We’ll Love…

How did you get involved with Pushing Daisies?
I’ve been doing movies for the past five years, and I wasn’t really looking at doing television until this year, but I did work with Bryan Fuller on Wonderfalls, and I heard through the grapevine that Bryan Fuller had a new show, so I got a script from the manager. I read it, and I thought, this is actually really, really good.

Then I talked to Bryan, and he told me, “You know, I kind of wrote the character with you in mind.” And I was like, Oh, wow, that’s never happened before.

That’s so amazing.
Ned reads like the way I speak; we have the same speech patterns. So, I called my agents and my manager and I said, “I think this is really worth doing.”

So, they fought you, or you fought them, or both?
Both. I remember one of them saying, “Doing television right now would be a deeply regrettable move.” I just kept thinking, You know, if I’m tied up not doing movies for six years that means the show is a massive hit. And if that’s the problem I’m dealing with six years from now, then I’ll take it. I’ll take it. But what really kind of tipped the scale is that it’s good. Barry Sonnenfeld is directing it!

And the cast is great.
Every element has fallen into place. Everyone on the cast and crew gets along really, really well, we enjoy working together.

This show is love!
It’s about love and life. It’s about someone who can bring people back to life, but who can also inadvertently kill people. What I think we’re going to see Ned gain through the course of the series is an appreciation for how good it is to be alive. That’s the addition that Chuck makes to his life - it’s good to be alive, it’s good to be out of the Pie Hole, solving these cases. He learns how good life can be, how important this gift is.

In Pushing Daisies parlance, the show does not premiere in a little over two weeks.

It starts in 18 days, five hours, forty-five minutes and 20 seconds.

That’s because, more than anything else on the show, Pushing Daisies savors every second of life. That’s evident from the opening voice-over, in which Ned (Lee Pace) is described as being “9 years, 27 weeks, 6 days and 3 minutes old.”

Later, he’s “”19 years, 34 weeks, 1 day and 59 minutes.”

Why the details? Because this forensic fairytale - as ABC describes the series as - centers around the concept that every minute matter. As Chuck (Anna Friel) says in the opening episode, “Pie-lette,” dying is as good a reason as any to start living.

“I just thought that every minute was precious,” said Creator Bryan Fuller, who spent last year on the writing staff of Heroes. “So when the narrative talks about how old somebody is, the motivation is that at the end of your life, down to the minute, you look at every minute as precious.”

Overall, is the show a bit far-fetched? Sure. But maybe that’s on purpose. Perhaps it’s meant to help you focus on your own world, as Chi McBride says:

“It’s a fairy tale, man. If you want reality, you have your own life.”

Previously, our Pushing Daisies spoiler section took a close look at episode two, “Dummy.”

Along the same lines, here are a few details on episode three of the upcoming season, entitled “The Fun in Funeral.” Read on if you wish to learn more:

The aunts (played by Swoosie Kurtz and Ellen Greene, pictured) will be folded back into the story during this hour. Here’s how: Chuck follows through with the threat she made in the pilot by baking anti-depressants into her aunts’ food (i.e. Ned’s pies).

Olive (Kristin Chenoweth) delivers one of these treats to the sisters and stumbles upon Chuck’s plan. This provides Ms. Snook with dirt on Chuck - because her aunts think she’s dead - so the question becomes: will Olive use it against her nemesis to lure in Ned?

Also, Ned and Chuck speak to a dead man named Donald Funk, who worked at the same funeral parlor as Lawrence Schatz, the man they find out died one minute after Ned brought Chuck back to life.

Donald and Lawrence acted together in stealing flowers from graves and jewelry from the bodies of clients of the funeral home.

The accolades continues to pile up for the Pushing Daisies cast.

Earlier, we reported on the honor bestowed upon Lee Pace by E! Online.

Now, it’s time for his on-screen love to receive attention, as Yahoo! has named Anna Friel (and Pace) as a Fresh Face for viewers to watch out for this season.

Here’s how her section reads in the article:

Fresh from England, Friel has been busy on this side of the Atlantic with parts in the TV movie Perfect Strangers and the feature The Jury.

But it’s her role as Charlotte “Chuck” Charles that should make her a well-known presence here. Chuck is the childhood love of Ned, brought back to life by his magical touch and kept alive when he decides he can’t send her back to her coffin for good.

Swoosie Kurtz is a veteran of television.

While she may become a new face for Pushing Daisies viewers, others have enjoyed this star’s work for years. Here’s a look at the awards and milestones the actress has achieved throughout her career:

Awards:

• OBIE Award Performance “The Mineola Twins” 1999
• Emmy Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series “Carol & Company” 1989 - 90
• Tony Featured Actress in a Play “The House of Blue Leaves” 1986
• OBIE Award Best Performance “The House of Blue Leaves” 1985 - 86
• Drama Desk Award Outstanding Featured Actress “Fifth of July” 1981
• Outer Critics Circle Award Actress “Fifth of July” 1981
• Tony Featured Actress in a Play “Fifth of July” 1981
• Drama Desk Award Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical “A History of the American Film” 1978
• OBIE Award Performance “Uncommon Women and Others” 1977 - 78

Milestones:

• 2006 Cast in a revival of “Heartbreak House”; earned a Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
• 2004 Starred in Doug Hughes’s play “Frozen”; received a Tony nomination
• 2004 Played Beth Huffstodt’s mother on the Showtime drama, “Huff”; earned Emmy nominations in 2005 and 2006
• 2002 Appeared in “Rules of Attraction,” based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis
• 2001 Starred opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in the comedy “Bubble Boy”
• 1999 Played Dr. Regina Greenbaum opposite Ryan Phillippe in “Cruel Intentions” a modern version of Dangerous Liasons
• 1999 Returned to the NY stage as star of Paula Vogel’s “The Mineola Twins”
• 1999 Co-starred in the CBS sitcom “Love & Money”
• 1997 Signed development deal for TV-movies and series with Warner Bros.
• 1996 Cast in role of a librarian in Fox series “Party Girl”
• 1996 Had recurring role of mother to Brooke Shields’ title character in “Suddenly Susan”
• 1978 Primetime series debut as a regular on “Mary”, a variety show starring Mary Tyler Moore
• 1977 Film acting debut in “Slap Shot”
• 1976 TV movie debut in “Ah! Wilderness”
• 1971 TV acting debut in the CBS daytime drama “As the World Turns“
• 1966 - 1970 Worked in regional theater
• Appeared as female lead in TV series “Love, Sydney”
• Played Alex on NBC’s drama “Sisters”

New York Newsday recently published a keen article, questioning why so many networks emulate the success of other shows when crafting their new schedules.

Don’t they know that originality always wins out?

With that in mind, the newspaper praises Pushing Daisies. There certainly isn’t anything else like it on TV. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

The fall’s best pilot and most promising concept is, like Heroes, an invention all its own. ABC’s Wednesday delight Pushing Daisies combines fairy-tale whimsy and Technicolor splendiferousness with English-accented narration (from Jim Dale) and all-American zest from an eccentric cast of characters.

It’s so jauntily good-natured in its telling of a boy who grows into a man who can revive the dead with one touch - or kill them again with two - that you’re not only willing but eager to swallow its absurdities.

“I suppose dying’s as good as any an excuse to start living,” says the boy’s onetime childhood crush, after being resurrected but forbidden to touch her rescuer. That reward-seeking magic man has just as enchanting a way with resisting her advances: “I’m sort of exhausted from chasing your coffin.”

Pushing Daisies looks a lot like Heroes in another respect: Its wondrous young stars - stage-acclaimed Lee Pace (Soldier’s Girl, Wonderfalls) and British actress Anna Friel (Rogue Trader) - arrive in the series little-known but crisply talented and primed for greater fame.

Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth (”Wicked”) co-stars as a waitress.

America will love Lee Pace.

So says a feature on E! Online, as the entertainment site counts down fresh faces on fall TV for the country to get excited about.

Here’s what it says about the Pushing Daisies star:

Who He Is: The star of ABC’s critically acclaimed dramedy Pushing Daisies, Lee Pace is best known so far for his work as Jaye’s big brother on Wonderfalls, an earlier show from Daisies creator Bryan Fuller, and for his turn in the Showtime film Soldier’s Girl.

Where to Meet Him: On Pushing Daisies, of course, the story of Ned, a gentle pie baker who just so happens to be able to resurrect the dead. Unfortunately, his power comes with strings attached, and as a consequence, he is forever forbidden to touch the love of his life: a girl named Chuck (Anna Friel).

She was dead once, you see, and he brought her back to life by his magic touch, and should he ever touch her a second time, she would die forever, never to return. Ah, the road of TV love never did run smooth.

Why You’ll Love Him: He’s smart, sweet and thoughtful, not to mention dead sexy.

Pushing Daisies may not premiere on ABC until October 3… but you can watch a snippet from the pilot now.

Sorry, we mean the Pie-lette.

Here’s the opening sequence of the episode:

Lee Pace may be a relative unknown at the moment - but that should all change once Pushing Daisies becomes a hit.

Therefore, we wanted readers to get to know this actor a bit more before he’s a household name.

The actor was born in Oklahoma, but spent parts of his childhood living overseas with his family. While studying in the States, he got involved in regional theater and was accepted to the prestigious Juilliard School.

Early on, Pace was a stage star, featured in plays such as Romeo and Juliet, King Richard III and Juliu Caesar. After receiving his BFA, Lee made his professional stage debut in the off-Broadway play The Credeux Canvas.

A year later, it was on to television and the Showtime original movie A Soldier’s Girl, based on a true story. Pace received was nominated at the Golden Globes, Gotham Awards and the Independent Spirit Awards for his portrayal of transgendered nightclub singer Calpernia Addams.

In 2004, Pace landed a role on the Fox dramedy Wonderfalls. While the show gained a cult-following, it only lasted half a season. The actor’s reputation was cemented, however, and he went on to star in well-received features Infamous and The Good Shepherd.

Lee Pace Awards:

Golden Globe
2003 Best Supporting Actor (TV Movie): A Soldier’s Girl
Independent Spirit Award
2003 Best Actor: Soldier’s Girl