'' is an
American Television Comedy-drama series, created by
Marc Cherry , who also serves as
Show Runner , and produced by
ABC Studios —
The Walt Disney Company 's main television studio — and
Cherry Productions . Executive producers, as of the upcoming fourth season, are Marc Cherry,
Bob Daily ,
George W. Perkins ,
John Pardee and
Joey Murphy .
The setting of the show is the street of
Wisteria Lane in the fictional
American town of Fairview. It follows the lives of a group women, seen through the eyes of their dead neighbour, as they work through domestic struggles and family life, while facing the secrets, crimes and mysteries hidden behind the doors of their — at the surface — beautiful suburban neighbourhood.
The show features an
Ensemble Cast , headed by
Teri Hatcher as
Susan ,
Felicity Huffman as
Lynette ,
Marcia Cross as
Bree ,
Eva Longoria as
Gabrielle , and
Nicollette Sheridan as
Edie .
Brenda Strong narrates the show as the deceased
Mary Alice .
Since its premiere on ,
2007
As later told by series creator Marc Cherry, the idea of the series was born as he and his mom were watching a news report on '',
September 30 ,
2004
Prior to ''Desperate Housewives'', Cherry was best known for producing and writing episodes of '',
August 13 ,
2005
The ABC executives weren't initially satisfied with the name of the new show, suggesting ''Wisteria Lane'' and ''The Secret Lives of Housewives'' instead, "Desperate Housewives - The Complete First Season" DVD but on '',
October 23 ,
2003 While Cherry continued his work on the show, Pratt was credited as executive producer for the pilot episode only, remaining linked to the show as a consulting producer during the first two seasons.
On '',
October 20 ,
2004
Since its ,
2005
Executive Producer s for the first two seasons were - in addition to Marc Cherry -
Tom Spezialy and
Michael Edelstein . Spezialy, who also served as a staff writer for the show, left his previous position as writer and executive producer for ''
Dead Like Me '' to join the ''Desperate Housewives'' crew. He had also worked as writer and co-executive producer on several shows, among them ''
Ed '', ''
Jack And Jill '', and ''
Parker Lewis Can't Lose '', while Edelstein had been the executive producer of ''
Threat Matrix '' and ''
Hope & Faith ''.
During second season conflicts arose among the executive producers. As a result, Edelstein left the show mid-season, and at the end of the season, so did Spezialy. Keck, William:
Wisteria Lane's new landscape , ''
USA Today '',
May 19 ,
2006 For the third year, Cherry was joined by award winning writer and producer
Joe Keenan , of ''
Frasier '' fame, and
Telefilm producer
George W. Perkins , who had been on the ''Desperate Housewives'' crew since the show's conception.
Although receiving praise for his work on the show, Keenan chose to leave ''Desperate Housewives'' after one season to pursue other projects.
Keenan not 'Desperate' any more , '''',
June 15 ,
2007 Both had also worked on Cherry's previous show ''The Crew'' in 1995, as well as on the sitcom ''
Cybill ''.
Larry Shaw and
David Grossman have, as of the first three seasons, been the most prominent directors, together directing more than half of the series' episodes.
See Also: Wisteria Lane
Colonial Street
The set for ,
2007
For the second season of ''Desperate Housewives'' the street went through some heavy changes. Among the most noticeable of these changes was the removal of a church facade and a mansion in order to make room for Edie's house and a park.
TheStudioTour.com: Colonial Street/Circle Drive - The Church , Retrieved ,
2007
The initial idea for the show opening sequence was Cherry's own, and after having asked sixteen companies to come up with suggestions how to best realize it, the producers finally hired , Retrieved
August 5 ,
2007
The first image shows
Lucas Cranach The Elder 's painting ''
Adam And Eve ''. A snake passes an apple to Eve before another, larger, apple, with the words 'Desperate Housewives' written on it, falls on Adam. Then follows the
Tomb Paintings of
Queen Nefertari of
Egypt , the
Great Royal Wife of
Ramesses The Great . An animation of Queen Neferatari is seen standing within her tomb being overwhelmed by what appear to be countless children surrounding her. Next appearing is ''
The Arnolfini Portrait '' by
Jan Van Eyck painted in
1434 -
Giovanni Arnolfini is seen eating a
Banana and throwing the skin on the floor, leaving for his pregnant wife to sweep it away.
The painting ''
American Gothic '' by
Grant Wood from
1930 then follows, and the farmer is shown smiling as he is touched on the chin by a
Pin Up , before his now harsh wife appears on a tin of canned sardines. The can appears on a kitchen work surface when the
World War II poster ''Am I Proud!'' is shown, depicting a woman holding cans and jars including
Andy Warhol 's
Campbell's Soup Cans . The soup can then falls into the hand of a man featured in
Pop Art work by Robert Dale, ''Couple Arguing'' and ''Romantic Couple''. After the woman in this pictures is seen crying and giving her male companion a black eye, the image folds away, and the tree from Cranach's painting reappears with the snake wrapped around it and the four main characters Bree, Lynette, Susan and Gabrielle appeaing under the tree, each catching an apple.
The music for the openings is composed by '',
May 17 ,
2007 In
2005 it was included on the album
Music From And Inspired By Desperate Housewives .
The first season promotional video was only seen in UK brocast by
Channel 4 , the video was shot after the great success in the U.S.
The second season promotion took on the theme of "''Temptations''", and the video featured the song , Retrieved
August 3 ,
2007
The promotion video for the third season, which had the theme of ''"Dirty Laundry"'', featured the leading characters in a computer generated garden, surrounded by white sheets. The song was a , Retrieved
August 3 ,
2007
The video for season four was released in late ,
You Tube , Retrieved
August 25 ,
2007
See Also: Desperate Housewives Season 4
On '',
July 25 ,
2007
Following the success of musical episodes on television series such as '''',
July 5 ,
2007
See Also: List of Desperate Housewives episodes
Desperate Housewives Season 1
Desperate Housewives Season 2
Desperate Housewives Season 3
Season one began its original airing on ,
Bree Van De Kamp ,
Lynette Scavo and
Gabrielle Solis , and their families and neighbours on
Wisteria Lane . The main mystery of the season is the unexpected suicide of
Mary Alice Young , and the involvement of her husband and teenage son in the events leading up to it. Meanwhile Bree tries to save her marriage, Lynette struggles to find time and energy to cope with her children, Susan fights with
Edie Britt for new neighbour Mike's affection, and Gabrielle tries to prevent her husband from discovering her affair with their underage gardener.
The second season began airing on
September 25 ,
2005 and its central mystery is that of new neighbor
Betty Applewhite , who moved in in the middle of the night. Throughout the season, Bree tries to cope with being a widow, unknowingly begins dating the man who poisoned her husband, fights alcoholism, and is unable to prevent the gap between her and her son to keep growing to extremes. Susan's love life gets even more complicated as her ex-husband gets engaged to Edie, Lynette goes back to her career in advertising and eventually becomes her husband's boss, and Gabrielle decides to be faithful to her husband, and begins preparations to have a child.
In season three, which began airing on
September 24 ,
2006 , Bree marries
Orson Hodge , whose past and involvement with a recently discovered dead body becomes the main mystery for most of the season. Meanwhile, Lynette has to adjust to having another child around the house as an previously unknown daughter of her husband arrives, and both the Scavos leave their careers to start a pizzeria. Gabrielle goes through a rough divorce, but finally finds new love in Fairview's new mayor. Edie sees her chance to make her move on Mike, who's suffering from amnesia, and Susan moves onto a handsome Englishman whose wife is in coma. And Edie's family relations are explored throughout the season.
See Also: List of Desperate Housewives cast members
List of Desperate Housewives characters
List of one-time characters and guest stars on Desperate Housewives
''Desperate Housewives'' features the biggest
Ensemble Cast of American
Prime Time Television , with seventeen regulars during the third season.
During its first season the show featured thirteen starring actors, all credited in the
Opening Sequence . For the show's second year, several actors, mainly
Child and teenage ones, who had guest starred during the first season, were promoted to series regulars without having their names included in the opening sequence. Instead they were billed as "also starring" during the first minutes of each episode, together with episode guest stars. This practice continued for season three.
The thirteen starring actors for season one included four leading actresses:
Teri Hatcher as
Susan Mayer , a divorced mother with a sense for drama and in search of love,
Felicity Huffman as
Lynette Scavo a former businesswoman turned stressed out stay-at-home mother of four,
Marcia Cross as
Bree Van De Kamp the seemingly perfect mother struggling to save her marriage, and
Eva Longoria as
Gabrielle Solis , an ex-model whose unhappy marriage has had her beginning an affair with her 17-year-old gardener. Furthermore,
Nicollette Sheridan played
Edie Britt , Susan's arch rival, described by her as "the neighbourhood slut", who since then slowly has grown to become somewhat of a fifth lead.
Steven Culp played
Rex Van De Kamp , Bree's frustrated husband with secret sexual desires, while
Ricardo Antonio Chavira portrayed Gabrielle's spouse
Carlos Solis , a rough business man who regarded his wife mainly as a trophy, and
James Denton acted as
Mike Delfino , the mysterious new neighbor who becomes Susan's love interest.
Brenda Strong portrayed the show's narrator
Mary Alice Young , who generally doesn't appear in front of the camera, and whose unsuspected suicide in the first episode remained a mystery throughout season one.
Mark Moses played
Paul Young , Mary Alice's widower, who went to extremes not to have the reason for his wive's suicide revealed, and
Cody Kasch acted as
Zach Young , the troubled teenage son of Paul and Mary Alice, who eventually turned out to be Mike's biological son. Finally,
Andrea Bowen did the part of Susan's caring and kind-hearted teenage daughter
Julie Mayer , and
Jesse Metcalfe acted as
John Rowland , Gabrielle's teenage gardener/lover.
For the second season, Culp and Metcalfe left as show regulars, as Rex had died from a heart attack and Gabrielle had ended her and John's relationship. Several actors who had appeared as guest stars during the entire run of the first season where promoted regulars for the second year, including
Doug Savant as
Tom Scavo , Lynette's husband who for the second season quit his job determined to become a stay-at-home dad,
Brent Kinsman ,
Shane Kinsman and
Zane Huett as
Preston ,
Porter and
Parker Scavo , Lynette's and Tom's rascal boys,
Shawn Pyfrom as Bree's complicated, bisexual son
Andrew Van De Kamp , and
Joy Lauren as
Danielle Van De Kamp , Andrew's hardheaded sister.
Alfre Woodard and
Mehcad Brooks joined the cast as
Betty Applewhite and her son
Matthew , who moved to the street in the middle of the night in order for the neighbours not to discover that they had Betty's other son Caleb - originally played by
Page Kennedy but soon replaced by
Nashawn Kearse - locked up in the basement. Also joining the main cast for the second season, after guest starring in a few season one episodes, were
Richard Burgi as
Karl Mayer , Susan's ex-husband who becomes engaged to Edie, and
Roger Bart as
George Williams , Bree's pharmacist, and later obsessed fiancée, who had caused Rex' death. Bart, however left the show midseason, due to the suicide of George.
As the Applewhite mystery was solved in the second season finale, Woodard, Brooks and Kearse all had left the show when the third season begun. As had Mark Moses, as Paul was framed for murder and incarcerated, Cody Kasch, due to Zach's becoming a millionaire after causing his ill biological grandfather to die and thereby inheriting his entire fortune, and Richard Burgi, following Karl being dumped by both Susan and Edie. Two additions were made to the main cast for season three:
Kyle MacLachlan as
Orson Hodge , who marries Bree and whose dark family history serves as the main mystery for most of the season, and
Josh Henderson , playing Edie's bad boy nephew
Austin McCann , who starts a relationship with Julie, but ends up getting Danielle pregnant and left the series midseason.
The show also features a large number of recurring guest stars, the most prominent being
Kathryn Joosten and
Pat Crawford Brown as elderly neighbors
Karen McCluskey and
Ida Greenberg . Others include
Dougray Scott as
Ian Hainsworth , Susan's season three love interest;
Harriet Sansom Harris as
Felicia Tillman , in search for his sister's murderer during the first two seasons;
Ryan Carnes as
Justin , Andrew's boyfriend during season one and two;
Rachel Fox as
Kayla Huntington , Tom's daughter from a previous relationship, showing up in season three; and
Bob Gunton as
Noah Taylor , the wealthy father of Mike's deceased fiancé and the biological grandfather of Zach, appearing during the first two seasons.
'',
February 9 ,
2004
followed by '',
February 10 ,
2004
'',
February 18 ,
2004
'',
February 26 ,
2004
'',
March 1 ,
2004
'',
March 3 ,
2004
'',
March 4 ,
2004
and '',
March 8 ,
2004
On '',
May 18 ,
2004
On '',
May 21 ,
2005
Early reports also had different names for some of the characters: Andrea Bowen's character, who was originally said to be named Jenna,
Development Update: March 4 , '''',
July 2 ,
2004 had been changed to Young.
On '',
August 11 ,
2004
During the second year of the show the recasting of the new character '',
December 20 ,
2005
The show was one of the biggest successes of the 2004–2005 television season, being well-received by both critics and viewers. The pilot episode had 21.3 million viewers making it the best new drama for the year, the highest rated show of the week, and the best performance by a pilot for ,
2004
Along with '''',
September 30 ,
2004
Following the initial success of the show, the term "desperate housewives" became a cultural phenomenon. This warranted "real life desperate housewives" features in TV shows, including '',
2007
and in magazines.McKeever, Katrina & Britton, Paul:
The Real Desperate Housewives , '''',
May 1 ,
2005
The show ended up being the fourth most watched in the
United States during the 2004-2005 season, with 23.7 million viewers each week.
2
For its second year, the show still maintained its ratings - with 22.2 million viewers, it reclaimed its position as the number four most watched show.
3 However, several critics started to notice a declining quality of the show's script, Guthrie, Marisa:
In its second season, 'Desperate Housewives' is at a dead end , '''',
October 21 ,
2005
and ''USA Today'''s Robert Bianco suggested that the a part of the show getting "less good" was that showrunner Cherry had left much of the series writing in the hands of others.Biango, Robert:
Housewives' is dragging desperately , '',
2006
The critics generally agreed on the improved quality for the third year,
ABC's 'Desperate Housewives' back on track for third season , ''Reality TV World'', ,
2007
but the overall ratings fell notable from previous seasons - with six episodes left of season three, it looked like the show ratings would be down with over 25% since the premiere year. Ryan, Joal:
Housewives' Most Desperate Hour , '',
2007
In ,
2006
According to a survey of twenty countries conducted in 2006 by ''Informa Telecoms and Media'', ''Desperate Housewives'' was the third most viewed TV show in the world, after fellow American series '',
2006
See Also: List of Desperate Housewives awards and nominations
For its premiere season, the show was awarded six ,
2005 In the end, the Emmy went to
Felicity Huffman , while
Teri Hatcher received the Golden Globe, as well as a SAG.
The show's second Golden Globe Award for its first year was for Best Musical or Comedy TV Series, while the other Emmys went to
Kathryn Joosten for her guest role as Karen McCluskey (beating, among others, fellow cast member
Lupe Ontiveros ),
Charles McDougall for his direction of the pilot episode,
Danny Elfman 's theme music, the picture editing of the pilot, and the casting of the series. The entire cast was awarded an Screen Actors Guild Award, and
Nicollette Sheridan was nominated for a Supporting Actress Golden Globe.
In 2006 the show continued to receive several nominations. It was awarded with yet another Golden Globe for Best TV Musical or Comedy Series, and all the four leading women received Golden Globe nominations, although none of them won. The cast ensemble was awarded with another SAG Award, as was Felicity Huffman. Emmys nominations included, among others, guest actress
Shirley Knight and supporting actress
Alfre Woodard , although none of the resulted in an actual award.
The show did continue to be nominated in 2007 - Felicity Huffman was granted an Emmy nomination for the second time, and guest actresses
Laurie Metcalf and
Dixie Carter also received Emmy nomination. The show, just as actresses
Marcia Cross and Felicity Huffman, received Golden Globe nominations, and Huffman and the cast ensemble was also nominated for SAGs. None of the Golden Globe of SAG nominations resulted in any actual awards, and the Emmy winners will be announced on
16 September ,
2007 .
Other notable awards include the 2005 ,
2007
On '',
March 5 ,
2007 Later on, the Colombian and Ecuadorean productions merged, leaving three
Latin American shows:
The Argentinan version, called '',
2007
In addition, a second US version is being developed for the '',
May 14 ,
2007
Also, a feature film inspired by the series, entitled '',
2007
See Also: List of Desperate Housewives DVD releases
In 2005, UK company Re:creation published ''Desperate Housewives Dirty Laundry Game'', a ,
2007 Players attempt to guess their opponents' secrets while keeping clues to their own secrets concealed by answering
Trivia questions.
2006 saw the release of two ,
2007 Twenty four exclusive episodes were written by one of the writers to the show. The players takes on the parts as the housewives, a few others and a new character on a board with dice to reach for three clues before the computer gets them. Also including were trivia pop-quizzes and puzzles.
In September ,
2007
Two books has been officially released within the Desperate Housewives franchise. In ,
2007
Three unauthorized books written from different points of view were released in ,
2007 Also, following the "real life desperate housewives" phenomenon, several books has been released dealing with life strategies for contemporary women.
In ,
2007
