Linda Ruth Williams

Summary

Bree Van De Kamp, the seemingly perfect mother of two teenagers struggling to save her marriage; Lynette Scavo, the mother of four whose husband is always away on business; Susan Mayer, the divorced mother in search of love finds love in the form of her new neighbour Mike Delfino, who has a secret of his own; and Gabrielle Solis, the materialistic ex-runway model who cheats on her husband.

Industry Facts

Production

Origins
Cherry initially had pitched the series to HBO, CBS, NBC, Fox, Showtime, and Lifetime. ABC was the only network to accept Cherry's offer, although they initially weren't satisfied with the name, suggesting titles like Wisteria Lane and The Secret Lives of Housewives instead.

Before Touchstone offered Desperate Housewives to ABC, in the original pilot, Mary Alice Young was played by Sheryl Lee; John the Gardner by Kyle Searles; and Rex Van De Kamp by Michael Reilly Burke. Lee was replaced by Brenda Strong; both had played regular roles as dead people before, Strong on Everwood and Lee on Twin Peaks. Strong also guest starred in two Twin Peaks episodes during their second season. Also, in the original pilot, when the camera is pulling away from the housewives after they found the note, there is a ghost of Mary Alice standing on her lawn looking at them.


Inspirations
One of the biggest inspirations for the show was the film American Beauty[citation needed]. The series has also been likened to other TV shows such as Knots Landing, Twin Peaks, and Sex and the City[citation needed]. In relation to its comparison with Sex and the City, Eva Longoria on Oprah mentioned that she hopes Desperate Housewives can do for married women what Sex and the City did for single women.


Opening credits
The show's opening credits contain references to famous pieces of art, including Adam and Eve by Lucas Cranach the Elder, The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck, American Gothic by Grant Wood, and Andy Warhol's Campbell's soup can. Also alluded to are the lesser known Couple Arguing and Romantic Couple by Robert Dale (drawn in a comic book style similar to that of Roy Lichtenstein) and a 1940s Am I Proud! poster by Dick Williams (showing a woman holding cans).

The show's theme is composed by Danny Elfman.


Broadcasting
Main article: Broadcasting of Desperate Housewives
Since its US premiere, Desperate Housewives has been broadcasted by the ABC network, with reruns on Lifetime Television. In addition it has been sold to over fifty countries worldwide.

Ratings
During the shows first and second season the show was rated the 4th most watched show in U.S. television, with 23.71 million viewers during season one and 22.2 million viewers during season two. Ratings dipped season three as 26% fewer viewers tuned in compared to the first season.

Case Study: Episode 314 "I Remember That"

Mike has been seeing a hypnotherapist to try to remember details of his relationship with Monique. He now recalls how they first met -- she needed a plumber. She hit on him and he said he was seeing someone. She said she was too, but he's married and she's drunk. He had to go to the store for a tool, leaving his toolbox behind. When he came back, he saw someone else was there, but, in his hypnotic state, he can only remember seeing yellow rubber gloves. He doesn't know who the murderer is, but at least now he knows it's not him. Bree tells Orson what Alma and his mother, Gloria, did to him while he was unconscious, but he refuses to go to the police. When she asks why, he replies it's time he finally told her what happened the night Monique died. We don't hear what Orson tells Bree, just her reaction. She's furious and insists that he exonerate Mike. He says he can't, or he'll implicate himself. Andrew overhears Bree telling Orson, "You've done a terrible thing" and "If you don't fix this, I will." Orson cheerfully informs Alma and Gloria that he was forced to tell Bree everything about Monique's death. Alma complains to Gloria she doesn't believe Orson will ever come back to her, so they might as well go to the police. To make sure she doesn't do that, Gloria locks her in an attic room. Bree sees a ladder leaning up against the house with what looks like the bag of teeth hanging from one of the top rungs. As she climbs up to get it, she steps on a rung that has been sabotaged -- and promptly falls. Andrew and Orson find her lying there, unconscious. Orson calls the police and Andrew examines the bag; It's full of marbles. At the hospital, where they're told Bree suffered only a mild concussion, Andrew tells Orson he knows he's behind Bree's accident. He warns the nurse not to let Orson be alone with Bree, because it's his fault she's in here. Gaby and Zach are out shopping. She's depressed because her 31st birthday is coming up and she's single. He offers to buy her jewelry and even a car, but she turns him down. She meets an attractive single man in the mattress department and he turns out to be one of Zach's lawyers, Luke. Zach shows up at Gaby's house on her birthday, saying he didn't want her to spend it alone. She tells him to shoo, Luke is showing up in 20 minutes. He says he understands, and leaves. But midway through a romantic dinner, another lawyer shows up with important papers for Luke to initial. When he looks through them, there's a note from Zach. "Gaby is mine. Sleep with her and you're fired. Leave, but don't make it look obvious." When Gaby won't let Luke leave, Zach -- who's parked outside, watching through the window -- calls him and tells him what to say, that he usually only dates women in their 20s, so she's too old for him. Infuriated, Gaby throws him out. Gaby, who's drunk by now, finds Zach leaving a present on her porch and invites him in when she sees it's a mug that reads "World's Greatest Friend." He consoles her by telling her she's only getting prettier each year. She passes out, curled up against him. Edie begs Tom to hire her nephew, Austin, at the pizzeria, saying he's been depressed ever since Julie dumped him. He agrees, but Lynette finds Austin getting high and fires him. But Tom rehires him. Without asking Tom why, Lynette insists, in front of the wait staff, that Austin needs to stay fired. Tom takes Lynette in back and explains why he rehired him: He's hot and will attract a lot of female customers. And if he stays employed there, Edie will include a menu from the pizzeria in her welcome packages. Lynette admits those are good reasons, but that, since she's the manager, he should have told her first. He tells her she can be the boss at home, but at work, he's the boss. She agrees to cooperate -- even so far as letting him yell at her in front of the entire staff. Susan attends Jane's funeral at Ian's request, even though she's worried about being known as "the other woman" to Jane's friends and family. When she overhears Lynn, a friend of Jane's, hitting on Ian, she tries to discreetly tell her that Ian's seeing someone but ends up having to admit that it's her. Lynn then gets up to address the mourners and spitefully announces that they should all be happy that Ian's found someone new. Susan attempts to sneak out, but Lynn points her out as she's walking away, so she feebly waves hello to the outraged group. After the service, Ian finds her crying in the embalming room. He thanks her for chasing Lynn away, but she's sure that everyone hates her now. He tells her he loves her and wants to marry her. She says she'd prefer a different setting, so for now she's accepting his proposal to propose later on. Mike goes back to hypnotherapy, and this time he remembers who's wearing the yellow gloves -- it's Orson! Mike rushes out of the therapist's office, and over to the hospital, where he confronts Orson in the parking garage. He tells him he's gotten his memory back. They fight and Orson is thrown against the railing. He loses his balance and falls several floors to the ground.

Advert for Analysing

Opinions Websites

http://theoryhead.com/gender/interview1.htm
http://www.msmagazine.com/spring2005/desperatehousewives.asp

Representations of Femininity

Feminism has been a recognised social philosophy for more than thirty years, and the changes that have occurred in women's roles in western society during that time have been nothing short of phenomenal. Click here for a brief set of definitions. Yet media representations of women remain worryingly constant. Does this reflect that the status of women has not really changed or that the male-dominated media does not want to accept it has changed?
Representations of women across all media tend to highlight the following:
beauty (within narrow conventions)
size/physique (again, within narrow conventions)
sexuality (as expressed by the above)
emotional (as opposed to intellectual) dealings
relationships (as opposed to independence/freedom)
Women are often represented as being part of a context (family, friends, colleagues) and working/thinking as part of a team. In drama, they tend to take the role of helper (Propp) or object, passive rather than active. Often their passivity extends to victimhood (see the discussion of the misogynistic PantyRaider below). Men are still represented as TV drama characters up to 3 times more frequently than women, and tend to be the predominant focus of news stories.
The representations of women that do make it onto page and screen do tend to be stereotypical, in terms of conforming to societal expectations, and characters who do not fit into the mould tend to be seen as dangerous and deviant. And they get their comeuppance, particularly in the movies. Think of Alex Forrest (Glenn Close) in Fatal Attraction or, more recently, Teena Brandon/Brandon Teena (Hilary Swank) in Boys Don't Cry. America seems to expect its women to behave better than their European counterparts - British viewers adored the antics of Patsy & Edina in Absolutely Fabulous, but these had to be severely toned down (less swearing, NO drugtaking) for the US remake, High Society (which was a flop).
Discussions of women's representation in the media tend to revolve around the focus on physical beauty to the near-exclusion of other values, the lack of powerful female role models, and the extremely artificial nature of such portrayals, which bear little or no relation to the reality experience by women across the planet. It would take almost a whole A-level course to cover these representations and the issues surrounding them in depth (if interested, do Womens or Gender Studies at uni), but you might want to start by reading the following:
Women's Body Image in the Media
Media Report to Women - a roundup of issues
Images of Women in Computer Games - a discussion of PantyRaider
Raw Nerve - Offensive representations
Deadly Persuasion - the power of advertising (lengthy, but worth a read)
The secrets of marketing to women - the startling econmic truth

Action Plan

WEEK ONE: Develop research strategy

WEEK TWO: Complete secondary research
visit websites
read books
search for opinions in books and websites
note what needs redoing

WEEK THREE: Complete primary research
textually analyse an episode and an image
create questionnaires & prepare focus groups
analyse results
conduct focus group & analyse findings
one to one interviews
compare and contrast results

WEEK FOUR: Evaluate and summarise
plan what needs revisiting
write notes from primary stage & summarise
revisit secondary stages, find more focused material
write up everything and organise

WEEK FIVE: Go over everything and revise, discuss with teachers, essay drafts.

Website Links

Desperate Housewives Websites

http://abc.go.com/primetime/desperate/
http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/D/desperate_housewives/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desperate_Housewives

Gender Representation Websites

http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/pth9601.html
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Modules/TF33120/gendertv.html
http://www.mediaknowall.com/gender.html
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/women_and_girls/index.cfm

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