Photo credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Television producer and writer Bryan Fuller has quite the knack for quirky yet critically acclaimed television series. They have ranged from the less well-known such as Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls to shows at the forefront of the cultural zeitgeist including NBC’s Heroes and ABC’s Pushing Daisies. 

While both Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls, shows Fuller either created or co-created, received numerous critical accolades, neither were exactly positive creative experiences for Fuller.  Dead Like Me lasted for two seasons on Showtime, however Fuller departed after the fifth episode of the first season due to creative differences.

Wonderfalls didn’t even last that long with Fox canceling the program after airing only four episodes and after giving Fuller grief over a lesbian kiss. Despite that early cancellation, the show developed a strong enough fan base that Fox released a DVD set of the thirteen episodes filmed before cancellation. Such is the power of Bryan Fuller’s vision.

With any luck, those days of critical acclaim but not-so-stellar commercial success are behind Fuller for good. Pushing Daisies, the ABC dramedy about a pie-maker who can bring dead things back to life, is up for twelve Emmy nominations this Sunday night. And Fuller himself is up for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series.

AfterElton.com recently caught up with busy, busy Fuller who was hard at work despite nursing a very bad head cold.

AfterElton: Twelve Emmy nominations. How dizzying is that?
Bryan Fuller: It feels pretty great to get 12 nominations for nine episodes and you know always with these with these sort of things you’re like, what a fantastic hug from the industry. And then you’re sort of like, well, I wish … everybody [on the show got] nominated because I think everybody across the board is doing such fantastic work. But I would say 12 nominations for nine episodes is a pretty good ratio.

AE: That’s more than one Emmy per episode!
BF: I think it’s a pretty fantastic ratio.

Fuller with Pushing Daisies stars Lee Pace (left) & Anna Friel

AE: You’re up against Tina Fey for the writing Emmy. Let’s talk some smack about her. She’s really just a hack, right?
BF: [Laughing] You know, I am such a big Tina Fey fan. I totally want her to lose, but it’s very cool to be in that category with her because I do think that she has got such a great voice for our generation and she is very much the new Mary Tyler Moore in so many respects. I know what she’s going to say, “It’s an honor.”

AE: How nervous do you think you’ll be at the Emmys?
BF: I’m sure I will be in a flop sweat.

AE: How significant to you is this level of recognition from your peers?
BF: It’s pretty significant. When we won the Saturn award, being a sci-fi geek and really being embraced by that community for the first season of Heroes was such a big deal and it was such a cool statue. It’s a pretty significant thing, but it’s also one of those things where the moment that night is over, you just keep moving on. And like with the nominations, that day there was so much going on at work and things were flying fast and furious that it was literally hard to focus on it because there was so much else – there were production meetings and I was working on a script and so it’s like, “Oh my god, that is so nice! Now I have to get back to work.”

AE: Are you bringing a date to the show?
BF: Yes, I will be bringing my boyfriend. I will be bringing my boyfriend Tater.

MJ: Tater?
BF: Well his name is Scott, but I call him Tater.

AE: Details?
BF: He’s such a sweet guy and I’ve known him for a few years and he’s wonderful. He’s a wonderful man.

AE: Is he in the business?
BF: He’s an interior designer.

AE: Forget about Tater for a moment:  You and one other guy are going to be the last men left on earth – would it be NPH, TR Knight, or Lance Bass?
BF: Oh, Neil Patrick Harris all the way. I think he’s funny and charming and from what I can tell, he has a hairy chest.