Couch potatoes looking for something unique on the tube this fall should check out ABC's arresting "Pushing Daisies."

If one show is a darling of TV critics this fall, it is ABC's "Pushing Daisies," premiering Wednesday, Oct. 3 at 8 p.m. It's whimsical, it's romantic, it has an incredible color palette and it deals with the subject of life and death, but in a unique way.

"Pushing Daisies" stars LEE PACE as Ned, a man who can touch dead things and bring them back to life. But if he touches them a second time, they die again, never to be resurrected. Ned has incorporated his ability into a career: he bakes pies for a living, because when he touches fruit, it ripens with wonderful flavor. When his ability is discovered by a private investigator (CHI McBRIDE as Emerson), they pair up to use Ned's ability to bring murder victims back to life long enough to discover who killed them and collect the reward money.

"I'm really excited about the procedural elements to the show," Lee comments. "It wasn't the thing that initially attracted me to it. I thought the love story would be really fun. But, with the minds that work on this show, I think that procedural element is going to be really awesome."

The love story to which Lee refers begins in the pilot episode, when Ned brings his childhood sweetheart, "Chuck" (ANNA FRIEL), back to life. But instead of returning her to death, he lets her live, knowing that he can never touch her again.

"I think it makes it more exciting not to be able to touch," Anna says. Then she jokes: "The longest foreplay ever in existence."

Chuck's return to Ned's life gives him something very tricky to deal with but, from the beginning moments of the pilot, we see that Ned has created an existence that works for him.

"He can bake a pie," Lee says. "He can give people fresh pie, goodness and be a generous person within a small world. And then, he brings Chuck back to life and his entire life is blown open. He learns something new, I think, every episode about how to enjoy his life, how to make other people's lives a better place. And that's the big psychology behind his gift."