desperate housewife

Desperate Housewives is an American television Emmy award-winning popular series, created by Marc Cherry, that began airing on ABC on October 3, 2004. Set on Wisteria Lane in the fictional town of Fairview (license plates show the motto "The Eagle State," but no state name), the series tracks the lives of four housewives, following their domestic struggles while several mysteries involving their husbands, friends, and neighbors unfold in the background. The tone and style of the series combine elements of drama, comedy, mystery, thriller, farce, soap opera and satire.

Cherry initially pitched the series to HBO, CBS, NBC, Fox, Showtime, and Lifetime, but all turned him down. The series rocketed to the top of the ratings from the premiere episode, and immediately the term "desperate housewives" became a cultural phenomenon, warranting "the real desperate housewives" features in magazines and such TV shows as The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Dr. Phil Show. The show has been credited, along with Lost and Grey's Anatomy, with reviving the long-dormant fortunes of ABC, whose last major ratings hit had been Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

The show focuses on four housewives living in suburbia, whose friend recently took her own life and is now sharing all their juicy secrets from beyond the grave. The show has come under critical fire by religious and conservative groups due to what some consider the seeming lack of morality amongst the characters. Though it is not uncommon for soap opera characters to make ethically questionable decisions, in the first season of Housewives, almost every character arguably committed a crime.

"Wisteria Lane," the neighborhood where the show takes place, aims to shadow that of a wealthy avenue, plentiful in states like Connecticut. The show, however, only indirectly implies this fact.

The show was a big success of the 2004-2005 television season and gained much critical acclaim. Its pilot episode which aired in October 2004, gained a stunning 21.3 million viewers making it the best new drama for the year, the highest rated show of the week, and also the best performance by a pilot for ABC, since Spin City in 1996. All five actresses, especially Cross and Huffman, were critically praised for their roles on the show.

Plot and characters

See also: List of Desperate Housewives episodes

Season One

October 3, 2004 - May 22, 2005

Nielsen Ranking (2004-05 U.S. TV season; based on average total viewers per episode): #4 (23.7 million viewers)^[1]

The show opens with the suicide of Mary Alice Young (Brenda Strong), who narrates the episodes from beyond the grave. Mary Alice's suicide leaves behind a mystery involving her husband Paul Young (Mark Moses), her son Zach (Cody Kasch), and a mysterious toy chest, which Paul digs out from underneath the family's pool. Ultimately, it is revealed to have contained the skeletal remains of a dead woman's body. The story unravels through Mary Alice's four friends and neighbours. Each has her own storyline that ties into the theme of being a desperate housewife: accident-prone single-mother Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher) trying to find love; perfect housewife Bree Van De Kamp (Marcia Cross), mother of two problematic teenagers, who struggles to save her marriage; harried Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman) tries to be super-mom to four children while longing to return to her life as a corporate executive; and materialistic, adulterous ex-runway model Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria) who tries to keep her husband from finding out about her affair, and then finds out she's pregnant.

In its first season, the show reveals the mystery of why Mary Alice took her own life and the quest by a mysterious "plumber" named Mike Delfino (James Denton) to find out the fate of his former lover, drug addict Deirdre. By the end of the season, the show resolves the mystery with the revelation that 15 years ago, when Mary Alice's name was Angela Forrest, she buys the heroin-addicted Deirdre's only son Dana, and then flees with her husband Todd (now Paul) to Fairview (the town Housewives is set in) to keep the child (now named Zach) from being taken away from them. When Deirdre finds them, Mary Alice refuses to give up the child. Upon being accused of being back on drugs, Deirdre hits Paul (Mary Alice's husband) and goes to get her son. Mary Alice, shocked, murders her, checks her arm for signs of drug use (she was not), and has her horrified husband dismember the body, put it in Zach's toy-chest, and bury it where the family is building a new pool in their backyard. All this happens while a 4-year-old Zach is watching them from the staircase. What Mary Alice does not count on is that one of her neighbours, Martha Huber, learns of Mary Alice's secret from her sister, Felicia Tilman (Harriet Sansom Harris), (with whom Mary Alice had worked before coming to Fairview). After learning the secret, Martha attempts to blackmail Mary Alice. Rather than face the blackmail, Mary Alice kills herself. Later, when Paul finds this out, he kills Martha after she tells him she does not have any regrets about her blackmailing and its result. Mike (Deirdre's former lover) learns this information from Paul, whom Mike leaves in the desert (rather than killing) after Mike realizes Zach is his son. As a surprising twist, Bree's husband Rex (Steven Culp) dies of poisoning shortly after George Williams, a pharmacist in love with Bree, tampered with his heart attack medication.

Season Two

September 25, 2005 - May 21, 2006

Nielsen Ranking (2005-06 U.S. TV season; based on average total viewers per episode): #4 (22.2 million viewers)^[2]

In the second season, Susan found herself involved in a rather complicated and at times frustrating love-rectangle with ex-husband Karl, Mike, and neighbor/nemesis Edie, that culminated in Edie burning down Susan's house after Karl rejected her for Susan. Susan ultimately rejected Karl in order to reconcile with Mike, only to have Mike be the victim of a hit-and-run at the hands of a new friend of both Bree and Susan, a dentist named Orson.

Bree struggled with being a widow and, after learning George had murdered her husband, stood back as George committed suicide in a desperate bid to guilt Bree into loving him. The revelation that George murdered Rex drove Bree to drink, which her son Andrew used to try to become emancipated from Bree (and coincidentally get access to the trust fund Bree's parents had set up for him). Bree countered by outing her son's homosexuality to her father and step-mother, resulting in them abolishing the trust fund. At the same time, Bree and Justin (Andrew's boyfriend) met and talked, leading to Bree realizing how wrong she was to condemn her son for his homosexuality. Bree sought to bridge the gap between mother and son with the help of her AA sponsor/boyfriend, who himself was a reformed sex-addict, and whom Andrew seduced into having sex in order to spite his mother. Andrew's actions made Bree think he was a sociopath and led her to abandon him outside of town. Andrew gloated that "he won" and that his evil actions towards his mother was all part of a plan to make Bree hate her son, since in Andrew's mind it was better to make Bree hate him for being evil and cruel towards her than being hated by his mother for simply being gay. Bree responded by telling Andrew that she never stopped loving him unconditionally until that moment, at which point Bree told her son that so long as he allowed himself to be consumed by hatred for himself and his mother, that she can't give him unconditional love.

Bree's story would intertwine with the mystery of the newest addition to Wisteria Lane, Betty Applewhite (Alfre Woodard) and her sons Matthew (Mehcad Brooks) and Caleb (NaShawn Kearse). The two had fled to Wisteria Lane when Caleb was accused of murdering Matthew's on-again/off-again girlfriend and held Caleb as a prisoner in the Applewhite family's basement. In spite of Betty's demands that the family not interact with the neighbors, this became hard when Caleb slipped out of the house and caused Gabrielle to miscarry and Matthew began dating Bree's daughter Danielle. In the end, Betty discovered that Matthew and not Caleb had murdered Matthew's ex-girlfriend. But by the time she figured out the truth, Danielle had ran off with Matthew and the bitter goodbye letter Danielle left Bree had caused Bree to check herself into a mental health facility. When Betty got hold of Bree and warned her that Danielle was in danger, she fled the facility and confronted the two. Bree told her daughter the truth about Matthew, but her daughter refused to believe her. When Bree tried to prevent the two from leaving, Matthew pulled out a gun and threatened to shoot her. Despite Danielle's shock, he attempted to but was shot by a SWAT sniper. Her murderous son dead, Betty took Caleb and left Wisteria Lane.

Lynette struggled with her fast-track career in advertising and her husband Tom's growing resentment. Tom was upset that Lynette got him fired (she was upset that she was stuck at home while he had a career). Lynette reluctantly got her husband a job at her advertising agency but when her boss forced her to help him write sexually provocative instant messages to his wife, her boss blamed Tom for the messages when his wife refused to believe her husband had written them and demanded that he fire whomever was the real writer. When their boss threatened to reveal incriminating information about Tom, Tom punched the boss and was fired. Lynette was then informed by her boss that Tom had been making regular trips to Atlantic City. Lynette thought her husband was having an affair but then found out he was actually visiting his other child, who he'd fathered during a one-night stand before he married Lynette. The child's mother demanded eleven years in back child support, which Lynette and Tom could not afford. To get her to go away, they decided to pay her a large sum of money in exchange for signing away all child support claims. The single mother instead used the money to put a deposit down on a home near Wisteria Lane, to be closer to Tom.

As for Gabrielle, the adulterous housewife fired her lover/gardnerer and sought to salvage her marriage, after a run-in with Caleb Applewhite resulted in her losing her unborn child. Meanwhile her husband Carlos was convicted and paroled with help from a fairly attractive nun, who sought to seduce Carlos away from Gabrielle. In order to make peace with Carlos over her sleeping with another man, Gabrielle agreed to allow Carlos a one-time free pass to have an affair of his own. After making a clumsy pass at Lynette, Carlos ended up carrying on an affair with the couple's maid, Xiao-Mei, who the two had convinced to be artificially inseminated with the couple's child which ensured she would not be deported. At season's end, Gabrielle finally discovered the two were sleeping with each other and kicked Carlos out of their house while insisting the maid continue to work for her until the birth of Gabrielle's child.

Mary Alice's widowed husband Paul, meanwhile rode to Wisteria Lane to find his son Zach and deal with the possibility that Zach was Mike's biological son. Complicating things was the return of Felicia Tilman (Harriet Sansom Harris), Martha Huber's sister. Felicia alerted the frail Noah Taylor (Deirdre's father) of the existence of Zach and Noah decided to leave his entire empire to Zach. Felicia was angry that Mike had not murdered Paul and began a harassment campaign that culminated in her severing several of her fingers and draining enough blood from her body to create a bloody murder scene and frame Paul for "killing" Felicia. From jail, Paul asked Zach to ask Noah to provide money for Paul's defense. Noah refused, and chided Zach for being a weakling, saying he no longer thought Zach deserved his empire and planned to change his will. With Noah egging him on, Zach turned off the respirator which had been keeping Noah alive and inherited the entire estate. Realizing his newfound wealth, Zach ended the season by telling his increasingly agitated "father" that he wouldn't be able to visit him in jail for some time and coolly requesting Noah's assistant get him a new cell phone and number so his father could not contact him, apparently having adopted the requisite attitude for running the empire.

Season Three

September 24, 2006 - May 20, 2007

Is this stuff even true below???

Susan has moved on from Karl, her ex-husband, who is no longer a regular, but a recurring character. Mike is in a coma after being run over by Orson Hodge (Kyle MacLachlan), and Susan has been dutifully attending for Mike. In the hallway of the hospital, Susan meets a man named Ian Haynesworth (Dougray Scott) whose wife, Jane, is in a coma. They have coffee together, and then begin to date. When Mike wakes up from his coma, he is a peculiar man and he has a darker personality, thinking that this was not an accident. He also has amnesia, and has no recollection of his relationship with Susan. Edie, who is continuing to hate Susan, takes advantage of this by convincing Mike that she was always his girlfriend.

Lynette is having a hard time integrating yet another kid, Kayla Huntington (Rachel Fox), into the family. Kayla is the sweetest girl imaginable, but her mother, Nora (Kiersten Warren) is forcing herself into the family and makes life difficult for the Scavos, especially Lynette. Lynette is desperate to find Nora a man, as she wants her out of the house as much as possible. She hooks her up with Carlos. In return, Nora tries to hook Lynette up with a tempting new neighbor in the Youngs' house, Art (Matt Roth). Nora and Kayla decide to sell their house on Arden Drive and move in with the Scavos full time. Also, Lynette quits her job to help Tom run a pizzeria.

Bree and Orson became engaged in the season premiere. Bree wants to wait until they are married before having sex, but is overcome with lust when he tells her his secrets for removing difficult stains. When Orson attempts to perform cunnilingus on Bree, she protests that she doesn't do that. When Orson asks why not, she explains, "I'm a Republican." Bree relents, and apparently has her first orgasm. At the party announcing their engagment, Orson's former neighbor Carolyn Bigsby (played by Laurie Metcalf) shows up, and loudly tells Bree and the party guests that Orson murdered his ex-wife, who has not been seen since she (according to Orson) left him. Bree and Orson get married on the second episode of the season. Andrew also returns, and we learn that he has become a hustler shortly after Bree dumped him on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere.

Carlos and Gabrielle get divorced early in the season. In the season premiere, their surrogate maid Xiao-Mei (Gwendoline Yeo) is confined to bedrest because of her pregnancy. Gabrielle is her reluctant -- and obnoxious -- caretaker, threatening Xiao-Mei with deportation to China when she is too demanding. Xiao-Mei has the baby on the second episode of the season, except it isn't the Carlos and Gabrielle's. It's an African American. Their embryo has been switched with someone else's. Their embryo was never given birth to. During her bitter and unpleasant divorce with Carlos, Gabrielle tries to hook up with other men. She runs into John at a restaurant and has sex with him at a hotel, only to find out he's engaged to another woman.

Edie's 18-year-old nephew, Austin (Josh Henderson), moves in with her. Julie gets annoyed at his loud music playing while he is cleaning his bike. Julie goes to confront him, but there is a spark between the two of them. They begin to date, much to Susan's displeasure.

The big mystery this season revolves around Bree's new husband, Orson, and his mental hospital friend, Amanda (Julie White). The mystery brings all the housewives together, as Susan, Lynette, and Gabrielle are all concerned about him. He is an odd character, but he cares about Bree a lot and wants to have a good marriage with her. Orson was married once before to a woman named Alma, who planned on leaving Orson. However, how their marriage truly ended is a mystery and Bree is suspicious that Orson killed her. Also, when Orson and Alma were married, they had a nosy neighbor, Carolyn Bigsby (Laurie Metcalf.) The mystery will include the answer to the question why Orson ran over Mike. James Denton (Mike) has revealed that Orson and Mike do have a history, and it is slowly revealed.

Also, a character will be killed in a storyline involving a hostage situation at a supermarket. Lynette, Nora, Edie, Austin, Julie, and others are there. The shooter will be Carolyn Bigsby, who discovered her husband, the store owner, was having an affair. Susan, who isn't in the store, tricks the hostage negotiator into giving her a phone and begs Carolyn to allow her to trade places with Julie. Art, the new neighbor in the Youngs' house, saves the day. The story will be featured on the news, much to Bree's horror. Bree feels guilty because she was the one who told Carolyn about the affair. Lynette will be wounded, but not badly, and another character will be killed. The character that will die will be a woman who will be prominently featured this season up until her death, but she won't be one of the four leads. She will also be a relative of Art's. Two characters are set to die in that situation. One, someone who we've met before, and two, someone who is introduced in that respective episode. Neither are series regulars.^[3]

Mary Alice Young is continuing to watch over the neighborhood from her grave and sharing with us, through narration, the juicy secrets inside each house.

DVD Releases

Main article: List of Desperate Housewives DVD releases

Note: In Belgium and the Netherlands (Region 2), the DVD for season 2 was released on September 06.^[4]

Cast

Main article: List of Desperate Housewives characters

Starring

(in order of the credits)

• Teri Hatcher - Susan Mayer
• Felicity Huffman - Lynette Scavo
• Marcia Cross - Bree Van De Kamp Hodge
• Eva Longoria - Gabrielle Solis
• Nicollette Sheridan - Edie Britt
• Ricardo Antonio Chavira - Carlos Solis
• Andrea Bowen - Julie Mayer
• Doug Savant - Tom Scavo
• Kyle MacLachlan - Orson Hodge
• Brenda Strong - Mary Alice Young
• James Denton - Mike Delfino

Also starring

• Shawn Pyfrom - Andrew Van De Kamp (Season 2–) recurring previously
• Joy Lauren - Danielle Van De Kamp (Season 2–) recurring previously
• Josh Henderson - Austin Britt (Season 3–)
• Brent Kinsman - Preston Scavo (Season 2–) recurring previously
• Shane Kinsman - Porter Scavo (Season 2–) recurring previously
• Zane Huett - Parker Scavo (Season 2–) recurring previously

Formerly starring

• Steven Culp - Rex Van De Kamp (Season 1) recurring afterwards
• Alfre Woodard - Betty Applewhite (Season 2) recurring previously
• Mark Moses - Paul Young (Seasons 1-2) recurring afterwards
• Cody Kasch - Zach Young (Seasons 1-2) recurring afterwards
• Jesse Metcalfe - John Rowland (Season 1) recurring afterwards
• Richard Burgi - Karl Mayer (Season 2) recurring otherwise
• Mehcad Brooks - Matthew Applewhite (Season 2) recurring previously
• Page Kennedy - Caleb Applewhite #1 (Season 2) credited until ep. 30
• NaShawn Kearse - Caleb Applewhite #2 (Season 2) first appearance in ep. 31
• Roger Bart - George Williams (Season 2) recurring otherwise

Recurring

• Steven Culp - Rex Van De Kamp (Season 2–) starring previously
• Jesse Metcalfe - John Rowland (Season 2–) starring previously
• Roger Bart - George Williams (Season 2–) starring previously
• Richard Burgi - Karl Mayer (Season 3−) starring previously
• Mark Moses - Paul Young (Season 3−) starring previously
• Cody Kasch - Zach Young (Season 3−) starring previously
• Harriet Sansom Harris - Felicia Tilman
• Christine Estabrook - Martha Huber (Season 1)
• Pat Crawford Brown - Ida Greenberg
• Kathryn Joosten - Karen McCluskey
• Ryan Carnes - Justin
• Conor O'Farrell - Detective Copeland (Season 1)
• Lesley Ann Warren - Sophie Bremmer (Seasons 1–2)
• Bob Newhart - Morty Flickman (Seasons 1–2)
• Sam Lloyd - Dr. Albert Goldfine
• Bob Gunton - Noah Taylor (Seasons 1–2)
• Lupe Ontiveros - Juanita Solis (Season 1)
• Terry Bozeman - Dr. Craig
• Currie Graham - Ed Ferrara (Season 2–)
• Joely Fisher - Nina Fletcher (Season 2)
• Jay Harrington - Dr. Ron McCready (Season 2)
• Gwendoline Yeo - Xiao-Mei (Season 2−)
• Lee Tergesen - Peter McMillian (Season 2)
• Jeff Doucette - Father Crowley
• Dakin Matthews - Reverend Sikes
• Melinda Page Hamilton - Sister Mary Bernard (Season 2)
• Sharon Lawrence - Maisy Gibbons (Season 1)
• Shirley Knight - Phyllis Van De Kamp (Season 2)
• Lucille Soong - Yao Lin (Season 1)
• Richard Roundtree - Jerry Shaw (Season 1)
• Betty Murphy - Alberta Fromme
• Alejandro Patino - Ralph (Season 2)
• Melinda McGraw - Annabel Foster (Season 1)
• Kurt Fuller - Detective Barton (Season 2–)
• Charlie Babcock - Stu (Season 2)
• Kathryn Harrold - Helen Rowland (Seasons 1-2)
• Nick Chinlund - Detective Sullivan
• Adrian Pasdar - David Bradley (Season 2)
• Dagney Kerr - Nurse Heisel
• Heather Stephens - Kendra Taylor (Season 1)
• Paul Dooley - Addison Prudy (Season 2–)
• Joyce Van Patten - Carol Prudy (Season 2–)
• Marla Sokoloff - Claire (Season 1)
• Carol Mansell - Pat (Season 2–)
• Tanner Maguire - Young Zach (Seasons 1-2)
• Jolie Jenkins - Deirdre Taylor (Season 1)
• Nike Doukas - Natalie Klein (Season 1)
• Joy Bisco - Melanie Foster (Season 2)
• Julie White - Amanda (Season 2–)
• Kiersten Warren - Nora Huntington (Season 2−)
• Rachel Fox - Kayla Huntington (Season 3–)
• Jill Brennan - Tish Atherton
• Dougray Scott - Ian Haynesworth (Season 3–)
• Laurie Metcalf - Carolyn Bigsby (Season 3−)
• Matt Roth - Art (Season 3−)
• Ernie Hudson - Detective Ridley (Season 3−)
• Kathleen York - Monique (Season 2-)
• TBA - Isabel (Season 3-)

Trivia

• Before Touchstone offered Desperate Housewives to ABC, in the original pilot, Mary Alice Young was played by Sheryl Lee; Gardener John by Kyle Searles; and Rex Van De Kamp by Michael Reilly Burke. Lee was replaced by Brenda Strong; both had played regular roles as dead people before, Strong on Everwood and Lee on Twin Peaks. Strong also guest starred in two Twin Peaks episodes during their second season. Also, in the original pilot, when the camera is pulling away from the housewives after they found the note, there is a ghost of Mary Alice standing on her lawn looking at them.

• Opening credits contain references to famous pieces of art, including Adam and Eve by Lucas Cranach the Elder, The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck, American Gothic by Grant Wood, and Andy Warhol's Campbell's soup can. Also alluded to are the lesser known Couple Arguing and Romantic Couple by Robert Dale (drawn in a comic book style similar to that of Roy Lichtenstein) and a 1940s "Am I Proud!" poster by Dick Williams (showing a woman holding cans).

Production details

• Production: Touchstone Television
• Created by: Marc Cherry
• Theme music composer: Danny Elfman

References

External links

Official websites

• ABC Offical Homepage
• Watch full episodes online. Only available within the US

Other websites

• Desperate Housewives at the Internet Movie Database
• Desperate Housewives at TV.com
• Desperate Housewives at AOL Television
• Lifetimetv.com: Desperate Housewives
• Official Merchandise for fans of Desperate Housewives