The untold truth about Desperate Housewives
The untold truth about Desperate Housewives
Updated on August 02, 2022 14:52 PM by Andrew Koschiev
Desperate Housewives is an American Comedy mystery drama created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. The show aired for eight seasons on ABC from October 3, 2004, until May 13, 2012, for a total of 180 episodes.
Imitating characterActor James Dentin admitted that he is the same as the character Mike Delfino whom he portrayed until season eight of the show. In an interview with VH1, he explained. "[Mike] was a real blue-collar guy with a dog and a pick-up truck and that's me exactly. I'm always building something, working on something around the house. So aside from the painkiller addiction and cop-killing thing, we're pretty much alike."
Tom Scavo's initial character cheats on LynetteFrom the first to the last eight seasons of Desperate Housewives, Doug Savant took up the role of Tom Scavo. In the first season, he acted as a recurring character, showing him as away on a business trip too often. During the initial development of the script, it was planned for Tom Scavo to cheat on Lynette in the first season. However, the idea was dropped as the scriptwriters wanted at least to have one happy couple on the show's Wisteria Lane since Gaby cheats on Carlos, Rex cheats on Bree, and the last Susan is just single and alone.
Teri Hatcher starred as Susan Mayer, while Felicity Huffman played Lynette Scavo. Marcia Cross played Bree Van de Kamp, and Eva Langoria played Gabrielle Solis. Nicolette Sheridan, Vanessa Williams, Brenda Strong, James Denton, and Ricardo Antonio Chavira also starred in the series.
The fake laneThe entire Desperate Housewives show was shot in Wisteria Lane at Universal Studios in California. The actual name of the street is Colonial Street which was constructed in 1946. It was also used in series like"Leave it to Beaver" and "The Munsters" still Desperate Housewives was the first complete series that used the images of the entire street at once, for which all the houses were refurbished to give a more modern look for the show.
Episodes were scrutinized due to the strikeDuring the fourth season of Desperate Housewives, the writers went on a strike between a period of 2007 to 2008. As a result, the show produced only 17 episodes than the usual production of 24. Many stories have to be taken off because there were not enough episodes to fit in. So the production house was scrutinized with episodes. Because of this, Gaby and her abusive stepfather and Danielle taking her baby back from Bree were shown later on the series run.
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In season two, Kyle MacLachlan was introduced in Desperate Housewives and was cast on the show as a murderer in season 3. Since Kyle MacLachlan wanted to be on display for long rather than staying just for one season, he asked Marc Cherry if anything could be done to stay longer on the show. Based on his request Cherry brought Dixie Carter as Orson'sOrson's mother and plotted her to kill Monique. Change in the script made Kyle MacLachlan stay with the series until the show's end.
Seasons progressed, and viewers declinedThe show Desperate Housewives became a huge blockbuster and grabbed the 4th most-watched series of 2004-2005. The pilot episode alone was watched by 21.3 million viewers globally. One pilot episode that last hit such massive viewers was Spin City on the same ABC network eight years ago. As the show proceeded with new seasons, the viewership declined parallel. In the show's fourth season, it was able to pull more viewership, and the show Desperate Housewives was ranked as a top 20 show for the first six seasons. Season 7 was ranked at 26; subsequent seasons were ranked very low as the eighth, and the finale season was the 37th most watched show of the 2011-2012 season; the audience viewers also further declined from 21.3 million to 10.6 million viewers in the last season.
Desperate Housewives were on the verge of popularity, so two video games were created in the show's likeness. The first video game was released in 2006. The player who takes the role of a housewife moves to Wisteria Lane with her family, who then tries to solve a mystery. The game features all the show's favorite characters. At the same time, the game featured the only voice of Mary Alice Young and several other characters. The same year, a game for cell phones resembling Mario Party was introduced.
Awards and accoladesThe Desperate Housewives was the recipient of many awards. The series and Teri Hatcher both were recipients of the Screen Actors Guild Awards before the end of the first season, a first for the awards. Other awards include Felicity Huffman taking home an Emmy and SAG award, Kathryn Joosten receiving an Emmy for her work as Mrs. McCluskey, and Teri Hatcher winning the Golden Globe award in 2005.
ABC aired the drama Ugly Betty in which Vanessa Williams spent four seasons playing the role of Wilhelmina Slater. In 2010, the series ended as she was still under the contract with ABC for two more years. Due to this, a part was created just for her in the show Desperate Housewives. Williams was cast as Renee Perry for the show's final two seasons. When the show Desperate Housewives ended in 2012, Vanessa Williams stuck with ABC for another series, 666 Park Avenue, and the show was canceled during the first season.
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In all the eight seasons of Desperate Housewives, 52 people were killed in total, and all those demised characters came back as ghosts in the final scenes of the finale when Susan was driving away. Of all seasons, season six had many demises like Karl, one of Lynette's twins she miscarried, and several unlucky women killed by the Fairview Strangler.Felicity Huffman surprised the producers at the auditionActress Felicity Huffman was a perfect match for the character Lynette Scavo, and she shared the same.When the time came for that character, she did not want to audition; instead, she wanted the producer Marc Cherry to hand over the role to her.
In the end, she was auditioned, producers were amazed by her performance, and immediately the part was given to her. Producers could have saved some time had they listened to her. The humor made the show top the listMarc Cherry, the creator of Desperate Housewives, came up with an idea for the show with at least half an hour of humor content in it. At the development stage, the show was decided to be an hour long, and the content will be more towards drama and serious dialogues than comic puns. The idea resulted in a brilliant script and became a successful show ever made.
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Eva Longoria's first choice for Gabrielle SolisFor the role of Gabrielle Solis, Eva Longoria was the first actress to be signed to play the role as it was interesting since it was presented as a trophy wife who wants all her attention from her husband. Her character was scripted as a man woman not favored, but Longoria created something that was the best of both worlds. With all her cheating and little personality, she then developed into a robust character with a lot of values in it. My First choice wasn't Desperate HousewivesDesperate Housewives was not the first choice for the title of the show. The producers were brainstorming with various choices as
.The Secret Lives of Housewives, and The Secrets of Wisteria Lane were seriously considered. But in the end, the title was finalized as Desperate Housewives, which seemed to be the best fir and good choice for the show team because everyone was familiar with the name.The producer's mother inspired a characterMarcia Cross's character was an authentic portrayal inspired by a natural person, the mother of the producer Marc Cherry. She was a powerful woman with incredible cooking skills and a pure perfectionist. Another interesting fact was that the actress Cross was pregnant on the sets of Season 3. The entire team got creative with shooting, carefully keeping the angles in a perfect spot.
Marc Cherry, the creator of the show, came up with the idea during a conversation with his mother when they watched news coverage of the trial of Andrea Yates, who confessed to drowning her children when his mother revealed her moments of desperation raising kids while her husband was away. During the seminar series Conversation on a Craft, "It was a complete epiphany, and I said, ''Well, good heavens, if you've you've had moments of desperation in those years, then every woman's had them — because you wanted that life,"However, he considered Desperate Housewives to be a mix of the shows Knots Landing, American Beauty, and Twin Peaks.After the show, Longoria revealed a letter of support for costar Felicity Huffman who was then involved in the college admission scandal and was bullied on the set of Desperate Housewives. It was Felicity Huffman who stood up against he.
Felicity Huffman also took the lead to pay negotiations to ensure that all the four lead actresses were equally paid.Nicolette Sheridan filed a court caseSeason 5 was the last for Nicolette Sheridan; after that, she left the show amid controversy over her departure. The creator of the show Marc Cherry proclaimed that it was the creative decision and that the storyline had reached an end. For which Nicolette Sheridan filed a case against the creator about wrongful dismissal, and the case was later tossed out of court.2022 marks the 10th anniversary of the show 2022 will mark a decade anniversary of the Desperate Housewives show's finale. ABC network has no concrete plans for its revival but still, the network keeps the show's Twitter page active by regularly posting messages on it. But still, fans are waiting for the show to return.
In the past ten years, the cast and crew members have been seriously bombarded with many questions; they like to play their characters again. In her recent interview, Longoria told the Radio Times that she is excited to play her role as Gaby again."I mean, we ended the series with [Gaby] going off to start her own business. So I'd love to pick up and see like how she's grown that business,"In January 2021, Cross confirmed no revival after a fan tweeted about the rumor, for which she jokingly said, "News to me!!" Cross, Hatcher, and Huffman competed against each other for the 2005 Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series Emmy Award, with Huffman prevailing.
In April 2020, the entire cast reunited for a virtual reunion to support the actor Huffman fund, who served 11 days in prison for the scandal she got involved in. Despite the news, her costars praised her performance on the show."We were a true dramedy. We were always a joke, and then that gravity would take you by surprise, and that's what I loved about the show; we got to do two things," Longoria said. "But when Felicity had this storyline, she sunk her teeth into it -- she had so many questions... She's the acteur."