The Daily Star - Stay Tuned
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The Daily Star, Oneonta, N.Y., Friday, September 23, 2011 2 coverstory Beginning of the end 'Housewives' starts its fi nal season off with a bang By Kyla Brewer TV Media T he chips are down and the stakes are high for the ladies of Wisteria Lane. A murder, a cover up and a sexy new neighbor have the gal pals all in a tizzy, making for a season like none before. Sadly for fans, Sunday, Sept. 25, marks the beginning of the end for ABC's "Desper- ate Housewives." In the season premiere, friends Gaby (Eva Longoria), Lynette (Felicity Huffman), Su- san (Teri Hatcher) and Bree (Marcia Cross) are still reeling from the revelation that Car- los (Ricardo Antonio Chavira) killed Gaby's evil stepfather. Determined to protect their friend, the women band to- gether to do what is neces- sary to cover up the murder. Meanwhile, Renee (Vanes- sa Williams) is intrigued when hunky Ben Faulkner (Charles Mesure) moves to the neigh- borhood. Billed as a prime-time soap, "Desperate Housewives" takes a darkly humorous look at life in suburbia through the lives of Wisteria Lane's seem- ingly perfect housewives. The story is told through the eyes of deceased housewife Mary Alice Young, who took her life in the very first episode, which aired on Oct. 3, 2004. The groundbreaking show caused a stir when it pre- miered, mixing both comedy and drama in a way that had rarely been seen in prime- time network television. Cre- ated by Marc Cherry, it very quickly came into its own, drawing more than 20 million viewers for the debut, and 30 million for the inaugural sea- son's finale. The show has won numer- ous awards, including Golden Globes in 2005 and 2006 for Best Television Series. It has been a critical darling since its premiere. But viewership has fizzled the past couple of sea- sons, likely leading to the de- cision to end "Desperate Housewives" while the going was good. "I just wanted to make sure that this show that sort of put this network on the map had its victory lap," said ABC pres- ident Paul Lee. "(We) had a chance to really set out every episode and build an arc for those 22 episodes so that we could say goodbye to this iconic show." The show may have come in like a lion, but it certainly isn't likely to go out like a lamb. The hype behind this fi- nal season could draw more viewers back to the fold. Writ- ers and producers plan to make this season accessible to those who may have lapsed in their viewing. That could be a good thing to ap- pease viewers who might be confused about the show's Teri Hatcher stars as Susan in "Desperate Housewives" timeline. After Season 4, the story jumped five years from the previous season's finale. Offering viewers a more straightforward storyline may be a smart move strategically, but one that may not pan out in the end. Soaps, prime time and daytime, appear to be losing their appeal to TV audi- ences in recent years. Such contrived romantic dramas have been part of the televi- sion landscape since its very beginnings, but today's jaded audiences either aren't inter- ested or don't have the atten- tion spans for such drawn-out plots. Evidence can be found all over daytime television with some of the medium's most iconic series dropping like flies. CBS's "Guiding Light" premiered on television in 1952, but ended its run in A/Auto Boutique B/The Green Giraffe 2 x 2 2009 due to lackluster rat- ings. Not long after, CBS an- nounced it had canceled its sister show, "As the World Turns," which stopped rotat- ing in September of 2010. This week, ABC is set to re- place another long-running daytime drama with the new talk show "The Chew." After more than four decades on the alphanetwork, "All My Children" aired its final epi- sode on Friday, Sept. 23. Luck- ily for fans of the show, the rights have been sold to Pros- pect Park, a production com- pany that plans to continue the storylines either in webi- sodes on the Internet or pos- sibly on cable. Prospect Park has also picked up the rights to "One Life to Live," another ABC soap that's headed for the chopping block in January 2012. Such cuts will leave plenty of actors and actresses out of work, but after being part of the hit ABC prime-time soap, the "Housewives" are any- thing but desperate. This season may be the end for the American cast, but an- other country is about to get its first taste of the "Desper- ate Housewives" phenome- non. In August, the Walt Dis- ney Company announced plans for a Turkish version of the series, though no airdate has been announced. Until then, truly "Desper- ate" fans can tune into ABC Sundays for a final dose of Wisteria Lane. Chirstopher's Coins 2 x 2 hollywoodQ&A By Adam Thomlison TV Media Q: I just watched the DVD for the TV series "Chris- ty." The last episode left a lot of unanswered ques- tions. Was there another season? A: If you were watching it on DVD, then no, there wasn't another season -- the only DVD release that was made was a complete-series boxed set. However, the story did carry on. The PAX network, now ION Television, made three telefilms to carry on the story after the less-than-neat end- ing of the CBS series. The first, "Christy: Return to Cutter Gap," premiered in November 2000. It was set at the dawn of the 20th century and featured Christy encouraging the residents of the small town to change with the times. The following two were created as a two-installment miniseries, called "Christy: Choices of the Heart." The first part, "A Change of Seasons," and second part, "A New Be- ginning," aired on May 13 and 14, 2001. The films told of a typhoid epidemic that comes to Cutter Gap. But as a fan of the original series, you might be a little dis- concerted when you watch the films. Both Kellie Martin, who played the titular Christy, and former "Cagney and Lac- ey" star Tyne Daly, who played Alice Henderson and won an Emmy for it, did not return for the telefilms. A/Crazy Tom's B/Allstar Auto Wash 2 x 3 Have a question? Email us at questions@tvtabloid.com. Please include your name and town.