7 behind-the-scenes facts you probably didn’t know about ‘Desperate Housewives’

Desperate Housewives (2004-2012) ruled television screens as a cornerstone for women-led dramas. Created by Marc Cherry, the soap opera dives into the hidden lives of suburban housewives. Secrets, domestic struggles, and a current of crime bubble under the surface of the idyllic, dreamy neighborhood of Wisteria Lane.

Meet the crew: Susan (Teri Hatcher), Lynette (Felicity Huffman), Bree (Marcia Cross), and Gabrielle (Eva Longoria). Between murders, suspicious new neighbors, and struggling marriages, the show's eight-season run is a testament to complicated friendships, with conflict as a central character.

From Cherry taking inspiration from his own life for the show to the show's set having a historic connection, Desperate Housewives has a lot of behind-the-scenes facts that fans might not know about.

Disclaimer: All opinions in this article belong solely to the writer. Mild spoilers ahead.

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Marc Cherry's inspiration, Wisteria Lane's history, and other behind-the-scenes facts from Desperate Housewives

1) The show is based on the creator's mother's life

The cast with Marc Cherry (Center) at PaleyFest '09 (Image via Getty)

Marc Cherry created Desperate Housewives inspired by his mother's life. She was also a suburban mother, struggling with domesticity and raising children in the 60s and 70s. However, there is another, darker event that inspired the show. In 2001, suburban mother Andrea Yates was convicted of drowning her five children.

Cherry watched the trial with his mother and realized that she understood the perpetrator's actions as a moment of desperation and had felt similarly herself. This inspired the show, and Cherry created Bree Van De Camp as an ode to her complexities.

In an interview with The New York Times on October 23, 2004, Cherry said:

“You have to understand I've always seen my mom as the perfect wife and mother, a woman who aspired to being a homemaker. That's what she wanted and that was her life. And it was shocking to find out that she indeed had moments of great desperation."

Cherry continued:

"She started telling me these stories. And I realized if my mother had moments like this, every woman who is in the suburban jungle has. And that's where I got the idea to write about four housewives."

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2) The set for Wisteria Lane has existed since 1946

The filming took place on set at Universal Studios (Image via YouTube/ Disney Plus UK)

The show's main locale, Wisteria Lane, is considered an iconic landmark in TV drama history. However, the set wasn't built just for Desperate Housewives. It has existed as Colonial Street in the Universal Studios backlot in Los Angeles for a long time, and many of the houses have been parts of other set pieces for a long time.

Fun fact: The iconic Meyer house was reused in Netflix's Never Have I Ever.

Apart from that, the other houses were constructed for different movies and then put together to create the iconic Wisteria Lane. For example, the Applewhite house is the main landmark in The Munsters, which was actually built for the 1946 film So Goes My Love. Jeff Pirtle, former director of archives and collections, NBCUniversal, told Los Angeles Magazine in 2019.

“It was a product of smart studio use of recycling sets and then realizing that you have all of these great facades around the studio and bringing them all together to make a neighborhood.”

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3) The show wasn't originally called Desperate Housewives

The show could've gotten a different name (Image via Hulu)

Creator Marc Cherry initially struggled to nail the concept of the show because he was oscillating between it being a sitcom and a full-length television drama. He later switched gears and made it way darker than it was originally intended to be. So, several names were considered for the drama, from Wisteria Lane to The Secret Lives of Housewives.

But once they settled on the theme and the name, the show took off instantly, with the pilot earning around 21.3 million views in 2004. The show has since set a record for its sheer volume: with 180 episodes over 8 years, 7 Primetime Emmys, 3 Golden Globes, and 4 SAG Awards.

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4) Tom Scavo's storyline was supposed to be different

Huffman and Savant play Lynette and Tom (Image via Getty)

Desperate Housewives is known for its mystery and shocking, dramatic twists. From a plane crashing right onto Wisteria Lane and Angie planting the bomb in Patrick's detonator, to marriages going up in flames due to infidelity and domestic drama, the show is nothing if not eventful. However, Tom and Lynette are the calm amidst the chaos.

The writers were originally planning to have Tom cheat on Lynette in season 1 of the show, but ultimately decided they needed some stability in the show. So they shifted their storyline to show a suburban marriage that actually worked out for the majority of the show.

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5) The cast took different paths to come together

The cast auditioned for other roles (Image via Prime Video)

The ensemble cast had different stories for how they got on board the Desperate Housewives. Eva Longoria was the first to be cast as Gabrielle with a more straightforward audition process. However, Felicity Huffman did not want to audition for Lynette, convinced that she was perfect for the role.

But when Cherry refused, she auditioned, nailed the role, and got cast anyway. Marcia Cross became the iconic Bree Van de Kamp, but what fans might not know is that she originally auditioned for Mary Alice Young's role. Nicollette Sheridan auditioned for Bree but got the part of Edie Britt.

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6) The show had many milestone fashion moments

The stars redefined fashion through the show (Image via Getty)

Desperate Housewives created a story with some of the best looks on TV. The outfits showed who each character really was, whether it was Lynette's disheveled clothing to show her busy life or Bree's detailed outfits crying for social approval. But the lacy pink gown that Gabrielle wears to mow her lawn in the pilot caught a particular fan's attention.

The teen fan loved the dress so much that she reached out to the producers. She asked them the name of the designer so that she could find and wear a similar dress to prom. But the show sent her the actual outfit, and made the fan's prom unforgettable.

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7) Oprah Winfrey was a huge fan

Oprah Winfrey was a part of the show (Image via Getty)

Desperate Housewives reached unprecedented popularity during its run, catching the eye of various celebrities, including Talk Show Mogul Oprah Winfrey. She visited the set in 2005 and filmed a 15-minute segment of her own talk show on the iconic Wisteria Lane, marking an epic collaboration.

“I wouldn’t mind moving into the neighborhood temporarily. I hadn’t really acted since 1998 with Beloved and I thought I was done with my acting days, but I loved being part of Desperate Housewives so much that I’m thinking I might do something else soon. So I’m open. You got any ideas?" Winfrey said, as quoted in the Chicago Sun-Times in January 25, 2005.

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Watch Desperate Housewives on Hulu.