Trivia

- Creator Marc Cherry said he got the idea to write the pilot after a conversation with his mother. She told him that raising Cherry and his siblings with their father away most of the time made her feel “desperate” sometimes.

- At first, the show was pitched as a female driven comedy. All the networks turned it down. It was then slightly rewritten and pitched as a nighttime soap opera and it sold.

- Teri Hatcher broke two ribs filming the scene where she stumbles into a wedding cake and insisted they didn’t stop production.

- Originally started off as a comedy pilot, and was rejected by every network including Lifetime and HBO. ABC expressed an interest, and it was retooled to its current format of a dark comedy/drama.

- Oprah Winfrey loved the show so much, she was invited to the set, and had an exclusive show in which she showcased a 15 minute “episode” where Oprah (as a new neighbor) learned of all the secrets of the housewives.

- The first television series to win the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series for a show that had not yet completed its first season.

- Marcia Cross originally tried for the part of Mary Alice Young, but was cast as Bree Van De Kamp. Nicollette Sheridan tried for the part of Bree Van De Kamp, but was cast as Edie Britt.

- The characters The Scavo Brothers (Parker, Preston, and Porter) were ranked #4 in TV Guide’s list of “TV’s 10 Biggest Brats” (27 March 2005 issue).

- Bree’s response when her son tells her he’s gay is, “I’d love you even if you were a murderer,” the same quote that Marc Cherry’s mother told him when he came out.

- Producers believed Ricardo Chavira to be too young and not suave enough, and almost didn’t cast him as Carlos Solis.

- Calista Flockhart, Heather Locklear, and Mary-Louise Parker were considered for the role of Susan. Courteney Cox was also considered for the role of Susan. Marc Cherry didn’t ask her because at the time she was pregnant with her daughter Coco and had expressed interest in taking some time off to raise the baby.

- Miranda Richardson turned down a significant guest part in the second season of the show.

- The character of Mr Shaw, played by Richard Roundtree, works for the Hafts Detective Agency. “Hafts” is an anagram of Shaft, who was played by Richard Roundtree in the 1970′s film of the same name.

- All episodes except the pilot are named after songs and in the first season, all the song titles were from songs written by Stephen Sondheim. At Sondheim’s birthday celebration, the cast filmed a segment specifically for the party, featuring the titles.

- Teri Hatcher’s character Susan Mayer is a children’s illustrator. Her first book was called “Ants in My Picnic Basket”.

- The license plates on the cars say “Eagle State”.

- Lynette’s boss’s name is Ed Ferrara. In real life, Ed Ferrara is writer and producer Kevin Murphy’s former writing partner of several TV shows including Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show and Weird Science.

- Dana Delany auditioned for the role of Bree and was offered the part. After thinking about it, she declined the role. Her reasoning was that she had played a similar role in the soap Pasadena, and felt she would be repeating herself.

- Jeanne Tripplehorn and Alex Kingston auditioned for the show.

- Sheryl Lee was originally cast as Mary Alice Young and actually shot the pilot but at the last minute Brenda Strong was cast in the role and Mary Alice’s scenes had to be re-shot.

- A fan loved the dress Gabrielle wore in the pilot and so much she wrote to the producers asking name of the designer and if he could design her a prom dress. The producers instead sent her the actual gown and she wore it to her prom.

- Teri Hatcher is the first person to win the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series for a show that has not yet completed its first season.

- Tom Scavo (Doug Savant) appeared in seventeen of twenty-three episodes (missing only six episodes), and was still listed as a guest star. However, in the second season he will be listed as a regular.

- Susan Walters, Sharon Lawrence, Laura Leighton, Roma Downey and Jeri Ryan all auditioned for the part of Bree.

- Roselyn Sanchez lost the part of Gabrielle to Eva Longoria at the final auditions.

- According to the book Desperate Networks, show creator Marc Cherry insisted every actor had to audition for a part. Several actresses up for the part of Susan, including Mary-Louise Parker, Calista Flockhart and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, declined to audition and passed on the role. Felicity Huffman also declined to audition for the role of Lynette, preferring to be offered the role instead. Her agents convinced her otherwise, and she agreed to audition. Marc Cherry was so impressed with her performance, that he offered her the part on the spot.

- The house that Marcia Cross (Bree Van De Kamp) lives in was previously used in the NBC drama Providence.

- Each hour-long episode is filmed in eight days, typically three on location, and five on the Universal Studios lot.

- Bree is based on Marc Cherry’s own mother. Dana Delany was the original consideree for the part, declining it three times.

- Michelle Rodriguez turned down a part in “Desperate Housewives” to do Lost. When Ellen DeGeneres asked her why on her chat show, Rodriguez joked: “Because if you’re not a housewife, then what’s the point?”

- 4351 Wisteria Lane, the house in which Betty Applewhite lived with her family, was originally the house at 1313 Mockingbird Lane in which The Munsters lived and was the address for the invisible rabbit’s friend Elwood P. Dowd in the movie Harvey.

- Eva Longoria and Jesse Metcalfe are only 3 years apart, Longoria being the older one. However in the first season, she was accused of having an affair with a minor.

- According to her gravestone, Mary Alice Young was born on 18 November 1965 and died on 26 September 2004.

- Gabrielle’s under-aged lover calls her constantly “Mrs. Solis”. It’s a clear reference to the relationship of Benjamin Braddock and Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate, since both situations are very similar.

- Xiao-Mei would never be able to be a surrogate without having a child of her own first. All reputable surrogacy agencies in the US require their surrogates to have had at least one full-term, live birth before becoming a surrogate.

- Three actresses on the show have played Lois Lane: ‘Leslie Ann Warren’ (Susan’s mother) in Superman, Teri Hatcher in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and ‘Dana Delaney’ provided her voice for the animated series Superman.

- In April 2010, Nicollette Sheridan sued series creator Marc Cherry for $20 million on charges of assault and battery, gender violence, wrongful termination, and “intentional infliction of emotional distress”. She said that Cherry created a hostile working environment and behaved unprofessionally towards her on and off-set.