Here they are, folks: the best new hour-long series and half-hour series of the season!

“Pushing Daisies” (Wednesday, ABC): The pilot is one of the most colorful, cinematic, magical TV episodes I’ve ever seen. It’s like a Roald Dahl story come to life, full of dark humor and whimsical fantasy. It’s about a man named Ned (Lee Pace) who has the peculiar gift of being able to bring dead things back to life by touching them. Two caveats, however: If he ever touches the thing again, it will re-die, this time for good. And if the newly resurrected organism remains alive for more than a minute, something else nearby will die to take its place. Ned gets involved with a private detective, reviving murder victims, finding out who killed them, touching them again within 60 seconds to send them back to death, then “solving” the mysteries and collecting the reward money. In the pilot, the victim is his childhood sweetheart, Charlotte “Chuck” Charles (Anna Friel) … and he can’t bear to let her die again. (He lets the evil funeral director take the fall instead after 60 seconds go by.) Now she’s in his life, but he can’t ever touch her.

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My friend Mike Russell couldn’t fulfill his normal duties as movie critic on KUFO’s Cort and Fatboy program Friday night, so I stepped in for the assist. The guys were broadcasting live from Portland’s Bagdad Theater in conjunction with their 11 p.m. screening of “Goodfellas,” and I joined them there on the scene to discuss “The Heartbreak Kid” (which is not nearly as good a movie as “Goodfellas”). A fine time was had by all. You can listen to the broadcast here. My appearance starts only a couple minutes into it, so you might as well just listen from the beginning.

I’ve joined Mike a few times in the past to cover films he hadn’t seen (the last time was in February), but this was the first time I’d gone solo, without Mike even there. I was alone with Cort and Fatboy! But it was OK. They were nice to me. I pointed out to Fatboy that he’s really not fat anymore, and he said he’s been losing weight, getting in shape, etc. He said his goal is to get so thin that “Fatboy” becomes an ironic nickname, like when giant guys are called Little John. Also, I finally learned his real first name. (It’s Susan. No wonder he prefers Fatboy!)

In honor of Columbus Day, this week’s “Snide Remarks” is about Filipinos who got mad about a joke on “Desperate Housewives.” The column is entitled “A Mild Pinoyance,” and the audio version of it can be found here, or you can listen to it right there on the page with the SnideCast© player. (To subscribe to the podcast feed, use the link in the right-hand column of this blog.)

Now that I think about it, it has nothing to do with Columbus Day.