50 Fun Facts About Desperate Housewives

Before playing Susan Mayer, which of the show's leads was best known as Lois Lane on Lois & Clark?

She also played Bond girl Paris Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies, and a 1995 photo of her in nothing but Superman's cape was reportedly the most downloaded image on the early internet.

Which actress plays the perfectionist homemaker Bree?

Cross had originally read for the narrator's part before Marc Cherry insisted she try Bree instead.

Which actress plays Gaby, the former model?

She was the first lead cast, and admitted at her audition that she had only read her own part of the script, which Cherry called 'such a Gabrielle thing to say.'

Who provides the voice of the late Mary Alice Young, the show's narrator from beyond the grave?

Fans came to recognise her in coffee shops by voice alone, and she earned two Emmy nominations for the narration in a category normally dominated by cartoons.

What is the name of the fictional town where the show is set?

The town sits in an equally fictional state, and the show never pins it to any real region of the country.

What shocking event in the pilot episode sets the entire series in motion?

The women only start digging into their friend's secrets after they find a blackmail note among her belongings.

What does new neighbor Mike Delfino claim to do for a living when he arrives on the lane?

The trade is a cover: he is really a private investigator hired to find out what happened to his missing ex-girlfriend.

How far forward did the story jump between the end of season 4 and the start of season 5?

Marc Cherry later said the leap 'worked well' because it let every character start from scratch.

Which actress plays Renee Perry, Lynette's old college friend who moves onto the lane in season 7?

She won an NAACP Image Award for the role in 2011 and another for the final season.

What does Susan do for a living?

Her first book was called Ants in My Picnic Basket; the other three jobs belong to Edie, Lynette and Bree respectively.

In which weekly timeslot did the show air for its entire run?

It kept that slot for all eight seasons, and the finale in the same slot beat both the Survivor reunion and Celebrity Apprentice.

Marc Cherry was best known for writing and producing which sitcom before creating the show?

He also created three short-lived sitcoms of his own, none of which lasted more than a year.

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

Orson is the driver who ran Mike down in the season 2 finale, and he later serves prison time for it at Bree's urging.

Which of the four leads won the 2005 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series?

The same year she earned an Oscar nomination for Transamerica, and Cherry called it a 'horrendous error' that Longoria was the only lead not nominated.

Which Oscar-nominated actress played Betty Applewhite, who keeps someone locked in her basement?

Her house was the old Munsters home on the backlot, remodeled once the crew stopped avoiding it.

Dana Delany turned down the role of Bree three times, then joined the cast in season 4 as which character?

Critics credited her arrival with the show's season 4 rebound; her character's family was that year's central mystery.

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

Carlos kills him in the season 7 finale, and Bree soon receives a blackmail note eerily like the one sent to Mary Alice.

What was the total number of episodes across the show's eight seasons?

Season 4 was the shortest at 17 episodes because of the 2007–08 writers' strike.

On what date did the two-hour series finale air?

It was Mother's Day in the United States, and the finale wrapped with a wedding, a birth and a death.

Kathryn Joosten won two Emmys for playing which resident of the lane?

She was still billed as a 'guest actress' by the Emmys in 2010 even after being promoted to the regular cast.

Which former First Lady told a 2005 dinner audience, 'Ladies and gentlemen, I am a desperate housewife'?

The line came during a comedic speech at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, at the height of the show's first-season buzz.

How does Edie Britt die in season 5?

She crashes into a power pole moments after uncovering her husband Dave's secret, and Nicollette Sheridan later narrated one episode as Edie's ghost.

Where do Lynette and Tom end up living after the series finale?

Lynette becomes a CEO and the couple grow old with six grandchildren; the other homes belong to Bree and to Gaby and Carlos.

Who sent Mary Alice the blackmail note that drove her to take her own life?

Paul Young later strangles her in a rage, and it is her sister who arrives on the lane to find out what happened.

What was Lynette's cancer diagnosis at the end of season 3?

She hid the chemotherapy under wigs, and her estranged mother Stella moved in to help, marijuana brownies and all.

Marc Cherry conceived the show while watching news coverage of which criminal case with his mother?

When he asked how a mother could be that desperate, his mother replied, 'I've been there.'

Which musician composed the show's Emmy-winning opening theme?

The regular episode score is by Steve Jablonsky, and ex-Police drummer Stewart Copeland scored the third episode.

The show's fictional town lies in which equally fictional part of America?

The production designer aimed for a street that was 'neither a red state nor a blue state' but 'a pink state.'

Most of the show's episode titles are taken from the lyrics of which composer?

'Something's Coming', 'Free' and the finale's title are all songs of his.

What is the title of the series finale?

It was the 180th episode; 'One Wonderful Day' was the first-season finale instead.

The set for the lane sits on which studio's Hollywood backlot?

The crew call it Colonial Street, and it has hosted films from Psycho to Gremlins since the 1940s.

The crew avoided filming one house in season 1 because it was too recognizable from which classic sitcom?

It was remodeled and became the Applewhite house in season 2, and later home to Bob and Lee.

How many viewers watched the first-season finale, the most-watched episode in the show's history?

The show finished its debut year as the fourth-most-watched series in America, averaging 23.7 million a week.

How many episodes made up season 4, cut short by the Writers Guild strike?

The strike hit right after the two-part tornado story wrapped, and seven more episodes were shot once it ended.

For how much did Nicollette Sheridan sue Marc Cherry and ABC in 2010?

The battery claim was thrown out, the wrongful-termination trial ended in a hung jury, and appeals ran until 2014.

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

ABC apologized, but the FCC ruled the skit did not break decency rules since it had no nudity or foul language.

Bree is a card-carrying member of which organization?

She owns four guns, votes Republican and was nicknamed 'Nancy Reagan' by her neighbors.

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

She moves to Louisville with third husband Trip, played by Scott Bakula.

Gaby grew up in which Texas town, to which she returns in season 7?

She ran away to New York at fifteen to model, and her family roots are in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Who kills Mike Delfino in the final season?

He is gunned down while trying to protect Renee's fiancé Ben from the man's debts.

Marc Cherry made a cameo in the very last scene of the finale playing what?

It fits: the closing minutes have Susan driving off the lane while the ghosts of everyone who died there look on.

Which actress-producer backed the 2025 Onyx Collective sequel set on the same street?

Announced in 2025, it is written by Natalie Chaidez of The Flight Attendant, and Marc Cherry was not directly involved at the time.

Under what name did Mary Alice live before she fled to the lane and reinvented herself?

She was a rehab nurse in Utah who bought a heroin addict's baby, then stabbed the mother when she came back for him.

How many viewers watched the series finale in its original broadcast?

DVR playback added another 2.1 million within the week, and it beat the Survivor reunion on CBS.

Kathryn Joosten died of lung cancer how many days after her character did the same on screen?

She had already been submitted for a supporting-actress Emmy for the finale when she died in June 2012.

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

Her replacement explained the change as 'instead of vanilla they wanted chocolate.'

What surname did Mary Alice have in Cherry's first script before lawyers made him change it?

Only one person in the country had the name, and clearance rules require more than three.

Which game show did Marc Cherry win $15,000 on in 1986, prompting his move to Hollywood?

He then broke in as Designing Women star Dixie Carter's personal assistant, and later cast her as Orson's mother.

What was the name of the official fragrance Coty launched for the show in 2006?

Its notes included apple and wisteria; a later set of four scents was named for each lead character.

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.