Characters coming back from the dead! Season finale shockers! The fate of Michael and Susan! Seriously, this TV Addict did not expect notorious spoiler-phobe Marc Cherry to be so quick to dole out the spoilers. But dole out he did, as you’ll read in this TV Addict’s report from Saturday’s DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES panel at Paley Fest ’09
Shocker: Mary Alice has an evil twin sister!
Okay, not really. But actress Brenda Strong who plays dearly departed Wisteria Lane resident Mary Alice in addition to narrating almost every single DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES episode does have an idea as to how she might get a little more on-camera screen time for her character. “I always thought maybe some woman just magically moves onto Wisteria Lane who looks uncannily like Mary Alice!” jokes Strong at yesterday’s Paley Festival. Too bad for Strong, creator Marc Cherry explained that, “I’ve had several actors over the course of the series who have suggested a sibling who looks an awful lot like them but it’s something I have resisted because it’s such a staple of daytime soaps.”
OMG: Marc Cherry’s Killer Regret!
Sadly, it’s not killing Edie Britt (more on that later). It’s offing Christine Estabrook who played Martha Huber way back in the first season of HOUSEWIVES. “I love Christine is a friend of mine, a I had done a series with her in the mid-ninties and I said to her during the pilot that I’m going to be killing you in sweeps, sort of my motto,” explained Cherry when asked who he regrets killing off the most. “But by the time it had come to do that plot-line I was really regretting it because she had popped so much.”
Spoiler Alert: The one housewife who will never die is….
Kathryn Joosten, who plays everyone’s favorite curmudgeon Mrs. McCluskey. Explains Cherry, “I remember talking to Kathryn on set one day about THE WEST WING [Cherry is a huge fan] and you [Kathryn] indicated to me that you were a little irritated that Aaron Sorkin killed you off [Adds Joosten, “A little?”] And in a moment of weakness, maybe I was feeling bad or I didn’t want her to be mad at me like she was at Aaron I said I’ll never kill you off. And as soon as the words left my mouth I thought, I don’t usually make that promise. But I have made it and she is the one character who will never be killed off on DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES.
A Scavo Split Up Shocker!
At least that’s what actor Doug Savant was worried about when moderator Will Keck started sniffing around about the much buzzed about MELROSE PLACE re-boot that just so happens to star Savant’s real-life wife Laura Leighton. Said Savant, “If they were interested in having me back [to MELROSE PLACE] I would entertain the idea…. is there something I need to know [looking over at HOUSEWIVES creator Marc Cherry]…. have I been voted off the island?”
A DESPERATE ratings ploy?
“LOST had gotten so much attention for their fast forward and I though we needed to do something kind of like that. Something shocking,” recalled Cherry when asked about why the five year time jump, which according to executive producer Bob Daily was originally going to be 10 years until Cherry remembered, “Oh wait… I have actresses!”
Breaking News: Susan is never leaving Wisteria Lane!
Or so promises actress Teri Hatcher when asked by moderator Will Keck why she has pledged to never move away from Wisteria Lane, “I love the job, the character and the people I work with.” Too bad the same can’t be said for Eva Longoria-Parker, who it seems is a goner the moment creator Marc Cherry decides to move on. “Marc touches every word of every script. He’s on set everyday and to think of another person doing that…” explains Longoria-Parker, “I’d have reservations about carrying on with the show without Marc.”
Extra! Extra! Mike and Susan together forever eventually!
“This is the traditional problem in doing soap operas is that happily married couples are the death of drama,” explained Cherry on when fans can expect their favorite Wisteria couple to get back together. “Right now it’s interesting exploring a relationship between these two divorced characters and their child. But if Disney makes deals with all of us [as expected] it looks like we’ll get a few more years to play this out and I would imagine at some point in the continuum Susan and Mike will find their way back together.
Spoiler Alert! Get ready for the return of wicked Kathryn Mayfair!
“What you’re going to start to see as Kathryn starts growing closer to MIke yet still has reservation about his connection with Susan is that Kathryn will start doing some very Machiavelli things to keep him closer.” Adds Dana Delaney, “You never quite know about Kathryn, is he telling the truth, lying or just being really nice.”
Wisteria Whaaat? Guess who Mrs McClusky has her eye on!
“I have my eye on the [Scavo] twins!” joked actress Kathryn Joosten when asked by moderator Will Keck who Mrs. McClusky would like to hook up with if given the option! Adds Cherry on a more serious note, “I was just recently talking to Kathryn about a love interest for next season and she actually had a couple of interesting ideas which were somewhat shocking to me. She’s not the conservative older woman you would think she would be. There’s a wildcat in there!”
Killing off Nicollette Sheridan: Cherry comes clean
“Nicollette played Edie better than anyone in this town ever could have and I respect her so much,” explained Cherry. “But when a show goes on for years and years, I have a desire to keep you guys in engaged and to do that I have to keep this thing fresh, surprise you and come up with new characters that intrigue you. Creatively, my writers were starting to run out of ideas and the hope is that by killing off a beloved character, we get the opportunity to bring some new freshness to the lane.” Adds Cherry, “On tonight’s episode, we actually did something I’ve never done before. We did a whole episode about one character as Edie Britt deserves her due. She even gets the voiceover.”
Spoiler Alert! Gale Harold returns
According to Cherry, “In two Sundays, Harold will return and complicate Susan’s life in the most surprising of ways.” Not enough intel? Click here for more scoop.
More Spoilers! Nathan Fillion…..
… does not return. But that’s only because he’s otherwise occupied with his own ABC series CASTLE. A scheduling snafu that often plagues the show, with Cherry explaining that he’d also love to bring back Mark Moses who played Paul Young, but can’t due to Moses commitment to MAD MEN.
Finale Spoiler! Cherry teases the final five minutes.
“A major character from the first two seasons will be featured in the last five minutes of our season finale,” teases a surprisingly spoiler happy Cherry. “I think it will be a big shock who we decided to bring back.” [For the record, theTVaddict is thinking that Zach Young will be making a return, as John the gardner is way too obvious] 
