How 'Desperate Housewives' became groundbreaking, must-watch TV and is now finding new audiences

The show aired for eight seasons on ABC from 2004-2012
Updated 3 hours ago
It was a massive hit on ABC from 2004-2012.

Now, new audiences are getting introduced to "Desperate Housewives."

The show aired for eight seasons, earned 38 Primetime Emmy Award nominations and won seven awards.

It made global superstars out of its actors, including Teri Hatcher, Eva Longoria, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross and Brenda Strong.

On The Red Carpet caught up with Strong (Mary Alice Young, the show's narrator), and cast members Steven Culp (Rex Van de Kamp) and Max Carver who played a young Preston Scavo at a special event held right on Wisteria Lane, where they filmed the show.



"'Desperate Housewives' was my first job ever. I'd never acted before anything. So the whole experience for me was a trip. But this is actually, the first time I was ever on camera was running through this door," said Carver as he stood outside the Scavo home on Wisteria Lane.

We also caught up with show creator Marc Cherry.

"When we premiered, there was not another show with 'Housewives' in the title," he said. "There was something about the title 'Desperate Housewives' which must have appealed to a lot of people in the country because we were the number one show in the county the week we premiered and we got a lot of attention.

"I think it was a life-changing experience for all of us," said Strong. "I think it kind of took all of us by surprise. I mean you're never surprised when you read good writing, you go 'oh, I hope this goes.' But I think the velocity that it became this behemoth really surprised all of us."

Culp noted that the show was a trendsetter in terms of tone.



"You can still see it in the way this sort of interesting mixture of comedy and drama and mystery that at that time nobody else was doing," he said. "And when we started filming it in season one, it was a real task to find the tone of the series. And we realized when we were finding the right tone, it was very exhilarating."

Now, thanks to streaming, "Desperate Housewives" is captivating a new audience and still thrilling the original fans.

"It's nice to know that people are still enjoying the show this many years after the premiere. We're coming up on 22 years since the show premiered and I'm really proud of the fact that we made such an impact and that we still have our fans," he said.

All eight seasons of "Desperate Housewives" are streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.

The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of Hulu and this ABC station.
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