notes for Pushing Daisies proposal

General piece on why Pushing Daisies appeals to our inner child
•Theory of neoteny: the retention of childlike attributes into adulthood, such as sensitivity, curiosity, creativity, humor, wonder, joy, imagination and playfulness believed to be essential to identifying and creating value, enabling people and organizations to embrace the intense change caused by the dynamic effects of technology on our society.
•Big production: We’re being told and are watching a story-third-person omniscient narration (“observe the situation either through the senses and thoughts of more than one character or through an overarching godlike perspective that sees and knows everything that happens and everything the characters are thinking”) and elaborate sets are theater-like; Visual images: bright colors, stage-like sets, costumes; music and musicals
•Word play/nomenclature
•Whimsy/imaginative/unusual situations-people die in “funny” ways (does this make death less scary?)

Pushing Daisies Nurtures the Inner Child
Neoteny, generally defined as “the retention of youthful qualities by adults,” has been a long-time scientific theory associated with the maturity of animals. However, in the past couple decades, psychologists have been associating neoteny with play and other psychologically-critical characteristics we retain from childhood such as sensitivity, curiosity, creativity, humor, wonder, joy, imagination, and much more. In my article, I would like to apply the theory of neoteny to show why Pushing Daisies is a show that appeals to the inner child in all of us through its production, word play, and quirky characters and situations.



Geeks and Geezers -Warren G. Bennis, Robert J. Thomas

“The dictionary defines ‘neoteny’ as ‘the retention of youthful qualities by adults.’ However, the authors argue that neoteny is much more than that, being positive qualities associated with being young: curiosity, playfulness, eagerness, fearlessness, warmth energy (20).

The authors exemplify Walt Disney who said, “People who have worked with me say I am ‘innocence in action.’ They say I have the innocence and unselfconscious-ness as a child. Maybe I have. I still look at the world with uncontaminated wonder” (20-21).

Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul By Stuart Brown, Christopher Vaughan
“Neoteny has fostered civilization, the arts, and music” (58).