29 new shows are headed for your TV

As the story opens, young Ned discovers he has a remarkable power. He can bring the dead back to life with a single touch. It's a power that comes with complications — if he touches that person a second time, he/she dies for good. And if he doesn't touch that person again within a minute, somebody else dies.

Grown-up Ned (Lee Pace) owns a successful pie shop — he touches dead fruit and makes fabulous pies with everlasting flavor. But, given his history (the death of someone close to him when he was a kid), he's distant from everyone, including his waitress, Olive (Kristin Chenoweth), who has feelings for him.

When a private investigator named Emerson (Chi McBride) discovers Ned's power, he makes a proposal — Ned touches murder victims; asks who killed them; touches them again; Ned and Emerson collect the reward. But when he revives Chuck (Anna Friel), the girl he loved as a child, Ned can't bring himself to return her to death. And, of course, he can't touch her again.

What's to like? Yes, it's a silly concept, but it's fun and utterly charming. In addition to the other members of the cast, Swoosie Kurtz and Ellen Greene are weird and wonderful as Chuck's aunts. And, what with all the primary colors on the screen, it's a joy just to look at.

What's not to like? The big fear here is that this is something that would have made a great movie but won't hold up week in and week out. Only time will tell.

Will it work? There's nothing I'd like to see succeed more than "Pushing Daisies," but it's going to be a function of whether the rest of the episodes are as good as the pilot. It's got a shot, but it's a bit of a long shot.

Debuts: Wednesday, Oct. 3

BACK TO YOU (Wednesdays, 7 p.m., Fox/Ch. 13) is a brand-new sitcom that already seems old and tired.

Kelsey Grammer ("Frasier") stars as Chuck Darling, a one-time Pittsburgh TV news anchorman whose rise to bigger markets was halted by an on-air meltdown. He's forced to return to his old station in Pittsburgh, although he's not at all humbled by his comedown. Chuck is reteamed with the anchorwoman he left behind, Kelly Carr (Patricia Heaton of "Everybody Loves Raymond"), who's still harboring some major resentment.

It's a workplace comedy full of cartoonlike characters. There's the idiot sports anchor (Fred Willard); the reporter who wants Chuck's job (Ty Burrell of "Out of Practice"); the babe-a-licious, unqualified weathercaster (Montana Diaz Herrera); and the very young news director (Josh Grad), a character cribbed directly from "Murphy Brown."

What's to like? Well ... um ... I dunno. Not much.