99 Fun Facts About Desperate Housewives

Which Desperate Housewives lead was best known as Lois Lane on Lois & Clark before playing Susan Mayer?

Teri Hatcher went from Lois Lane to Bond girl Paris Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies, a part Monica Bellucci also tested for before the studio insisted on an American actress.

Which actress plays the perfectionist homemaker Bree Van de Kamp on Desperate Housewives?

Marcia Cross first read for the narrator, Mary Alice, before creator Marc Cherry insisted that she try out for Bree instead.

Which actress plays Gabrielle Solis, the former model, on Desperate Housewives?

Eva Longoria was the first lead cast, after admitting at her audition that she had read only her own part of the script; Marc Cherry said that was when he knew she was right.

Who voices Mary Alice Young, the narrator of Desperate Housewives from beyond the grave?

Brenda Strong was a late replacement: the pilot had already been shot with another actress as narrator, and the part was recast after ABC picked the series up.

What is the name of the fictional town where Desperate Housewives is set?

Fairview was designed as an everyplace: the production designer watched old family sitcoms such as Father Knows Best to give its streets a classic American look.

Which event in the Desperate Housewives pilot sets the whole series in motion?

A neighbor's suicide opens the story: Mary Alice Young shoots herself, and her friends only start digging once they find a blackmail note among her belongings.

What trade does new neighbor Mike Delfino ply when he arrives on Wisteria Lane in Desperate Housewives?

Plumber is only half the story: Mike has really moved in to find out what happened to his missing ex-girlfriend, hired by her father.

How far forward does the story of Desperate Housewives jump between seasons 4 and 5?

Five years pass at the end of season 4, a leap Marc Cherry later said worked well because it let every character start from scratch.

Which actress joined Desperate Housewives in season 7 as Renee Perry, Lynette's old college friend?

Vanessa Williams came straight from Ugly Betty, which had just ended, as producers hunted for a saucy successor to Edie Britt, gone since season 5.

What does Susan Mayer do for a living when Desperate Housewives begins?

Children's book illustrator Susan also writes them, starting with Ants in My Picnic Basket; when money runs short in season 7 she takes a job modelling lingerie on a website.

Which ABC hit launched in 2005 in the hour straight after Desperate Housewives?

Grey's Anatomy was a four-week stand-in for Boston Legal that rated so well ABC kept it in the slot behind Desperate Housewives.

Marc Cherry was best known for writing and producing which sitcom before he created Desperate Housewives?

The Golden Girls had made his name, but his Housewives script was still turned down by CBS, NBC, HBO and Lifetime before ABC bought it.

Which actor plays Orson Hodge, the man Bree marries in season 3 of Desperate Housewives?

Kyle MacLachlan's Orson turns out to be the driver who ran Mike Delfino down in the season 2 finale, and he later goes to prison for it.

Which Desperate Housewives lead won the 2005 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series?

Felicity Huffman beat two of her own co-stars, nominated in the same category that night; the fourth lead was left out, which Marc Cherry called a 'horrendous error'.

Which Oscar-nominated actress played Betty Applewhite, who keeps a prisoner in her basement on Desperate Housewives?

Alfre Woodard admitted, when Marc Cherry rang to offer her the part, that she had never seen his show; he wanted her simply because he liked her in everything.

Dana Delany turned down Bree three times, then joined Desperate Housewives in season 4 as which character?

Katherine Mayfair finally brought her to Wisteria Lane; Delany had refused Bree because the part was too much like the one she had just played on Pasadena.

The murder of whose stepfather, Alejandro, is the cover-up that drives the final season of Desperate Housewives?

Gabrielle's husband Carlos kills Alejandro with a candlestick in the season 7 finale, and the friends hide the body while a dinner party goes on around them.

Desperate Housewives overtook which series as the longest-running hour-long show with all-female leads?

Charmed set the mark with 178 episodes, so Housewives, which ended on 180, edged past it only on the night of its two-hour finale.

The two-hour Desperate Housewives finale aired in 2012 on which American holiday?

Mother's Day, May 13, suited a farewell to four wives and mothers, and the two hours packed in a wedding, a birth and a death.

Kathryn Joosten won two Emmys for playing which Desperate Housewives resident of Wisteria Lane?

Karen McCluskey made a star of a late starter: Joosten had been a psychiatric nurse and did not take up acting until she was 42.

Which First Lady joked at a White House correspondents' dinner, "Ladies and gentlemen, I am a desperate housewife"?

Laura Bush told the 2005 dinner that her husband was sound asleep by nine o'clock, leaving her to watch Desperate Housewives with the vice president's wife.

How does Edie Britt die in season 5 of Desperate Housewives?

Electrocution: Edie survives crashing her car, then steps out onto a live power line, and she narrates a later episode from beyond the grave in Mary Alice's place.

Where do Lynette and Tom Scavo end up living after the Desperate Housewives finale?

A New York penthouse overlooking Central Park is the reward: Lynette moves east to become a CEO, and the couple grow old there with six grandchildren.

Who sent the blackmail note found among Mary Alice Young's belongings on Desperate Housewives?

Martha Huber, the lane's nosiest neighbor, pays for it: Paul Young kills her when he finds out, and her sister Felicia then arrives to learn what happened.

Which illness is Lynette Scavo diagnosed with at the end of season 3 of Desperate Housewives?

Hodgkin's lymphoma: Lynette hides her chemotherapy under wigs to dodge her neighbors' pity, while her estranged mother Stella moves in to help.

Marc Cherry conceived Desperate Housewives while watching news coverage of which criminal case with his mother?

Andrea Yates had drowned her children, and when Cherry asked how any mother could be that desperate, his own mother replied, 'I've been there.'

Which composer wrote the Emmy-winning opening theme of Desperate Housewives?

Danny Elfman, who also wrote The Simpsons theme, supplied only the title music; he left the first episodes' score to his old Oingo Boingo bandmate Steve Bartek.

The fictional hometown of Desperate Housewives lies in which equally fictional state?

Eagle State is printed on the license plates, but it sits nowhere in particular: the production designer wanted 'neither a red state nor a blue state'.

Most Desperate Housewives episode titles are taken from the songs and lyrics of which composer?

Stephen Sondheim was creator Marc Cherry's habit: he named episodes after songs such as 'The Ladies Who Lunch', 'Children Will Listen' and 'Every Day a Little Death'.

What is the title of the final episode of Desperate Housewives?

Finishing the Hat ends on a poker game at which the four friends vow it will not be their last together; the narrator then reveals that it was.

The Wisteria Lane set of Desperate Housewives sits on whose Hollywood backlot?

Universal Studios won out only after the makers had scouted every suburb within 30 miles of Los Angeles and decided no real street would put up with a series.

Desperate Housewives avoided filming one house on its street in season 1 because it was too recognizable from which sitcom?

The Munsters had lived in it, so the house stayed out of shot until it was completely remodeled as the Applewhite home for season 2.

Which episode of Desperate Housewives drew the show's biggest audience, more than 30 million viewers?

The first-season finale drew 30.62 million, capping a debut year that ended fourth in the season's ratings; the show's own farewell seven years later drew about a third of that.

How did Nicollette Sheridan's 2012 Desperate Housewives case end before a jury?

A mistrial: the jury deadlocked, and before a retrial could begin an appeal court ruled that she had not been fired at all, because her contract had simply not been renewed.

Nicollette Sheridan, in character as Edie Britt, appeared with which NFL star in a controversial 2004 Monday Night Football intro?

Terrell Owens played opposite her in full team uniform; ABC apologized, but the FCC ruled the skit broke no decency rules because it had no nudity or foul language.

On Desperate Housewives, Bree Van de Kamp is a card-carrying member of which organization?

The National Rifle Association card fits Bree, a firearms collector beneath the pearls: given a wartime Luger by a suitor, she takes him to a farm to teach him to shoot.

In the Desperate Housewives finale flash-forward, Bree is elected to the legislature of which state?

Kentucky: Bree moves to Louisville with her third husband, Trip, the lawyer who defended her in court, and he encourages her to go into politics.

With whom is Gabrielle Solis having an affair when Desperate Housewives begins?

Her teenage gardener, John Rowland, was recast after the pilot had been shot; the director's diary says the change was made 'to add some male sex appeal'.

Who kills Mike Delfino in the final season of Desperate Housewives?

A loan shark named Donny guns Mike down outside his own home, in revenge for Mike getting in the way of his dealings with Ben and Renee.

Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry made a cameo in the series finale playing what?

A mover: Cherry and fellow producer Bob Daily turned up as the two removal men emptying Susan's house as she left the lane for good.

Which actress's company set up Wisteria Lane, a Desperate Housewives offshoot announced in 2025?

Kerry Washington's company Simpson Street took it to Onyx Collective as a reimagining with new characters, and creator Marc Cherry was not part of the pitch.

Under what name did Mary Alice Young live before she moved to Wisteria Lane on Desperate Housewives?

Angela Forrest was a nurse in Utah who illegally bought an addict's baby and fled to start again under a new name; years later she killed the mother, who had tracked them down.

Who causes the death of Bree's husband Rex at the end of the first season of Desperate Housewives?

A lovesick pharmacist named George tampers with Rex's heart prescriptions to clear his way to Bree, and Rex dies believing his own wife poisoned him.

Kathryn Joosten died in 2012 of which illness, weeks after her Desperate Housewives character did?

Lung cancer: Joosten, a two-time survivor, agreed with Marc Cherry that her character would die of cancer in the finale, and she died just 20 days after it aired.

Who played Mary Alice in the original, unaired version of the Desperate Housewives pilot?

Sheryl Lee filmed the part before producers recast it; her replacement put the change down to taste: 'instead of vanilla they wanted chocolate.'

Which disaster tears through Wisteria Lane midway through season 4 of Desperate Housewives?

A tornado destroys homes and lives across two episodes, and Bree's house is so badly damaged that she and Orson have to move in with Susan and Mike.

On which game show was Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry a winning contestant before he moved to Hollywood?

The $100,000 Pyramid winnings went with him to Hollywood, where his first job was as personal assistant to Designing Women star Dixie Carter.

What was the name of the official Desperate Housewives fragrance that Coty launched in 2006?

Forbidden Fruit echoes the show's titles, where Eve picks an apple and a giant one flattens Adam; the scent itself blended apple with wisteria, the flower of the famous lane.

At a 2006 ChildLine charity auction, a walk-on part on the show fetched £17,000, beating which item?

That year a survey of twenty countries ranked it the third-most-watched TV series in the world.

Which talk-show host devoted an episode of her own show to a visit to the Desperate Housewives set?

Oprah Winfrey called herself a fan and built an episode of her show around a trip to Wisteria Lane. The newcomer finished its first season as the fourth-most-watched series in America.

Madison De La Garza, who plays Juanita Solis on Desperate Housewives, is the younger half-sister of which pop star?

Demi Lovato is one of her two older half-siblings, and Madison once played a younger version of Demi's character in an episode of Sonny with a Chance.

The five children Lynette and Tom Scavo have together on Desperate Housewives all have names starting with which letter?

P is the pattern: twins Porter and Preston, then Parker, Penny and baby Paige. Only Kayla, Tom's daughter from a one-night stand, breaks it.

Marc Cherry described Desperate Housewives as a mix of the soap Knots Landing and which film about suburbia?

American Beauty, the 1999 Best Picture winner about misery behind tidy lawns, was one half of Cherry's formula for the show.

Which card game do the four housewives of Wisteria Lane play together one last time in the Desperate Housewives finale?

Poker is the friends' weekly ritual, and in the finale they vow that this game will not be their last. Mary Alice's narration reveals that it was.

As Susan drives around Wisteria Lane for the last time in the Desperate Housewives finale, who is watching her go?

Ghosts of the dead line the street as she passes, Mary Alice and Mike among more than a dozen neighbors who died across eight seasons.

Out-of-work Tom Scavo follows a lifelong dream in season 3 of Desperate Housewives by opening which kind of restaurant?

A pizzeria called Scavo's is the dream, and he signs the lease without consulting Lynette. She ends up quitting her own job to work there with him.

Which 1989 Tom Hanks comedy was shot on the backlot street that became Wisteria Lane in Desperate Housewives?

The 'Burbs had the whole street overhauled in 1988. The same backlot houses had already appeared in Leave It to Beaver and Gremlins.

The ABC executives who approved Desperate Housewives were fired after also backing which drama of the same season?

Lost was approved by Lloyd Braun and Susan Lyne, and Disney dismissed them both. Together with Desperate Housewives it went on to turn the network's fortunes around.

ABC reportedly backed Desperate Housewives after which 2003 teen drama proved prime-time soaps could still work?

The O.C. had premiered on Fox, and its success reportedly persuaded two new ABC executives that a soap could work in prime time. Six other networks had already said no.

Edie Britt, Susan Mayer's first-season rival for Mike Delfino on Desperate Housewives, works in which profession?

Real estate agent Edie never made the opening credits' group portrait, although the actress who played her thought of the character as the fifth main housewife.

Which Desperate Housewives character dies when a plane he hired for a marriage proposal crashes into the lane?

Karl Mayer hired the plane to fly a proposal to Bree, his secret lover, over a Christmas festival. The crash kills him and leaves her husband paralyzed.

Felicia Tilman frames Paul Young for her murder in season 2 of Desperate Housewives by cutting off what?

Two fingers and a kitchen splashed with her own blood are enough to fake her death, and Paul goes to jail for a killing that never happened.

Orson Hodge, who becomes Bree's second husband on Desperate Housewives, is introduced working in which profession?

Dentist Orson was first planned as a love interest for Susan, until Marc Cherry decided he was the perfect match for Bree.

Victor Lang, whom Gabrielle marries at the end of season 3 of Desperate Housewives, wins election to which office?

Mayor Victor Lang has a higher office in his sights, and his bride overhears him admit that he married her to win the Latino vote.

Who is the drunk driver who runs over Carlos's mother Juanita Solis in the first season of Desperate Housewives?

Andrew Van de Kamp hits her moments after she photographs her daughter-in-law with a lover. Years later the secret is used to blackmail Bree out of her company.

Before staying home with four children, Lynette Scavo of Desperate Housewives was a rising star in which industry?

Advertising was her world: she was almost a vice president when she left. In season 2 she goes back, and Tom stays home with the children instead.

What do Gabrielle and Carlos Solis learn about their daughter Juanita in season 7 of Desperate Housewives?

She was switched at birth with a girl named Grace, a mix-up the hospital admits years later. Carlos at first hides the news to spare his wife the pain.

Hurt in a riot on Wisteria Lane in season 7 of Desperate Housewives, Susan Mayer soon needs which organ transplanted?

Kidney failure follows the riot: doctors have to remove one because of her injuries and put her on dialysis while she waits for a donor.

Which actor plays Mike Delfino, the new neighbor Susan Mayer falls for in the first season of Desperate Housewives?

James Denton won the part because Marc Cherry found him wholesome: viewers want Mike to be a good guy even while he is not acting like one.

Which Sopranos actress joined Desperate Housewives in season 6 as Angie Bolen, a mother hiding her family's past?

Drea de Matteo, who had played Adriana on the mob drama, was offered the part at once. Angie's secret is her past in a band of eco-terrorists whose bomb killed a man.

Which Glasgow-born actor plays Patrick Logan, the eco-terrorist hunting the Bolens in season 6 of Desperate Housewives?

John Barrowman, Captain Jack of Torchwood, plays the biological father of Angie's son. He left Scotland for Illinois with his family at the age of eight.

Which Quantum Leap star plays Trip Weston, the lawyer who defends Bree at her murder trial in Desperate Housewives?

Scott Bakula joined for five episodes of the final season, and Trip ends the series as Bree's third husband.

Which Roseanne star was Emmy-nominated as Carolyn Bigsby, who takes hostages in season 3 of Desperate Housewives?

Laurie Metcalf plays a wife who learns of her husband's affair and opens fire in the grocery store he owns. Her husband at the time, Matt Roth, plays one of her hostages.

The Desperate Housewives actors behind Tom Scavo and Bree Van de Kamp first shared a cast on which 1990s soap?

Melrose Place had them both from 1992 to 1997, as Matt Fielding and Kimberly Shaw. Matt was one of the first openly gay lead characters on a television series.

Which 2005 film brought the actress who plays Lynette Scavo an Oscar nomination during her run on Desperate Housewives?

Transamerica also won her a Golden Globe. She plays a transgender woman who learns she has a teenage son, a runaway she bails out of a New York jail.

Before Desperate Housewives, the actress who plays Gabrielle Solis spent two years on which daytime soap?

The Young and the Restless cast her as Isabella Braña from 2001 to 2003, the role that first made her popular with television audiences.

Which sitcom legend guest-stars on Desperate Housewives as Morty Flickman, the boyfriend of Susan Mayer's mother Sophie?

Bob Newhart plays Morty in three episodes across the first two seasons. Sophie moves in with Susan after a row with him, and the pair later become engaged.

Which comedy legend guest-stars on Desperate Housewives as Eleanor Mason, the stepmother Bree never got along with?

Carol Burnett plays the woman Bree's father married after her mother died. Bree once said she had to work for every kind word Eleanor ever gave her.

Which addiction does the newly widowed Bree Van de Kamp battle in season 2 of Desperate Housewives?

Alcohol becomes her crutch, and she joins a recovery group only to stop her son claiming his trust fund. A blackout in a shop changing room makes her take it seriously.

Which cable network launched its own reality "Housewives" franchise in 2006 on the back of Desperate Housewives?

Bravo launched The Real Housewives of Orange County in the wake of the craze, and editions set in Atlanta, New York and New Jersey followed.

Which Marc Cherry series launched the year after Desperate Housewives ended, with one of its stars as a producer?

Devious Maids follows four Latina maids working in Beverly Hills. ABC, the housewives' own network, passed on the pilot, yet the series ran for four seasons elsewhere.

Susan Mayer and Mike Delfino's son on Desperate Housewives, named after Mike's late grandfather, goes by which initials?

M.J. is short for Maynard James. Susan hated the name and secretly tried to change it to Connor before Mike explained how much he had admired his grandfather.

Freed from prison in season 2 of Desperate Housewives, Carlos Solis grows close to which new rival of Gabrielle's?

A nun, Sister Mary Bernard, helps him win early parole and invites him to follow her to Botswana. The two women have a fight before the sister is transferred away.

Xiao-Mei, the Solises' housekeeper in Desperate Housewives, avoids deportation in season 2 by agreeing to become what?

A surrogate mother could not be deported while carrying an American citizen, Gabrielle reasons. The baby Xiao-Mei delivers turns out not to be the couple's at all.

Which country's medical schools were mocked in the season 4 premiere of Desperate Housewives, prompting an ABC apology?

The Philippines took offense when Susan doubted her doctor's diploma. A petition drew 30,000 signatures in three days, and the line was cut from repeats and DVDs.

Paul Young provokes a riot in season 7 of Desperate Housewives by planning to open what on Wisteria Lane?

A halfway house for released convicts is his revenge on the neighbors who shunned him in prison. He quietly buys up homes on the lane to win the residents' vote.

On which night of the week did ABC air Desperate Housewives at 9 pm for all eight of its seasons?

Sunday at 9 pm was its home from the day ABC announced its 2004 schedule, and the show never moved in eight years.

Which late character replaces Mary Alice Young as narrator of the Desperate Housewives episode "My Husband, the Pig"?

Rex Van de Kamp, who died in the first season, takes over the voice-over for that one episode. The only other stand-in narrator is Edie Britt, after her own death in season 5.

Who is revealed in season 7 of Desperate Housewives as the shooter of Mary Alice's widower, Paul?

Zach Young, the son he raised, pulled the trigger while sunk in drugs and gambling. Paul and Mike end up taking him to rehab together.

In the Desperate Housewives finale flash-forward, Gabrielle Solis lands her own show on which kind of TV network?

A shopping channel, the Home Shopping Network, signs her up after she and Carlos start a personal shopping website. The couple then move to a mansion in California.

Film crews know the backlot set that plays Wisteria Lane in Desperate Housewives by which older name?

Colonial Street has been used for films and television since the mid-1940s. For season 2 a church facade was removed to make room for Edie Britt's house.

A local remake called Desperate Housewives Africa aired in 2015 on EbonyLife TV, a network based in which country?

Nigeria followed Argentina, Brazil and Turkey in making its own version. Announced with Disney in 2013, it aired a single season.

Which sitcom star wanted to play Susan Mayer on Desperate Housewives, only for network executives to rule her out?

Julia Louis-Dreyfus expressed interest, but executives felt she was not right for the part. The winning audition was the best Marc Cherry said he had ever seen in network television.

Which cable network was among the six that rejected Desperate Housewives yet aired its reruns from 2006?

Lifetime had turned the script down, as had HBO, CBS, NBC, Fox and Showtime, yet it carried the repeats from 2006 to 2012.

Which Dallas legend appears in season 7 of Desperate Housewives as Frank Kaminsky, the rich husband of Lynette's mother?

Larry Hagman played Frank in two episodes. Stella admits she is marrying him for his money, because that is easier than admitting she is lonely.

On Desperate Housewives, Betty Applewhite and later Bob and Lee all reach Wisteria Lane from which Midwestern hometown?

Chicago is the city the Applewhites left behind before turning up on Wisteria Lane. Bob and Lee move from there in season 4, knowing a secret about a neighbor's husband.

Which Mad Men star plays Victor Lang, who becomes Gabrielle's second husband on Desperate Housewives?

John Slattery began the role in March 2007, the same year Mad Men made him Roger Sterling. Mike Farrell played his father, Milton.

Kathryn Joosten, a two-time Emmy winner on Desperate Housewives, was already known as Mrs. Landingham on which drama?

The West Wing cast her as the president's secretary from 1999 to 2002. She had only begun acting in community theater at the age of 42.

Betty Applewhite, the secretive newcomer in season 2 of Desperate Housewives, is a gifted performer on which instrument?

Piano was once her profession: she is a former concert pianist who grew up in a very religious household.