Desperate Housewives - The Popular TV Soap Opera

A primetime soap with a truly contemporary take on "happily ever after," this new hour-long drama takes a darkly comedic look at suburbia, where the secret lives of housewives aren't always what they seem.

Looking down on her friends and family isn't a way of life for Mary Alice Young (Brenda Strong) ... it's a way of death. One day, in her perfect house, in the loveliest of suburbs, Mary Alice ended it all. Now she's taking us into the lives of her family, friends and neighbours, commenting from her elevated P.O.V.

Her small circle of girlfriends are wondering why one of their own would do something so rash… and so messy. There's Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher), the divorcee and single mom who will go to extraordinary lengths for love; Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman), the ex-career woman who traded the boardroom for boredom, mixed with moments of sheer panic as the mother of four unmanageable kids; Bree Van De Kamp (Marcia Cross), the Martha Stewart on steroids, whose family is about to mutiny; and Gabrielle Solis, the ex-model with everything she's every wanted a rich husband, a big house so what is she doing with John, the 17 year old gardener (Jesse Metcalfe)? And there are her neighbours, including serial divorcee Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan), whose romantic conquests have everyone buzzing.

Then there are the men: Hunky new neighbour Mike Delfino (James Denton), a supposedly widowed plumber who has Susan and Edie vying for his attention; Rex Van De Kamp (Steven Culp), who's just told Bree he wants a divorce; Gabrielle's better half, Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira), who figures he bought his wife a $15,000 diamond necklace, so she should do whatever he tells her; as for Mary Alice's newly-widowed husband, Paul (Mark Moses), there must be a reason why he's acting so suspiciously and why he's digging up the pool in the middle of the night!

From her unique vantage point, Mary Alice sees more now than she ever did alive, and she's planning to share all the delicious secrets that hide behind every neighbour's closed door in this seemingly perfect American suburb.

Marc Cherry is executive producer and writer. Michael Edelstein and Tom Spezialy are executive producers, and Charles Pratt Jr. is consulting producer of the series, from Touchstone Television.