Desperate Housewives is an American television series developed by Marc Cherry, and is broadcast on ABC (American Broadcasting Company). The series focuses on the lives of several residents living on Wisteria Lane in the fictional town of Fairview, Eagle State. Teri Hatcher stars as Susan Delfino, one of the four protagonists of the series. Many characters that have been introduced in the series play important roles in Susan's storylines. Most notably, James Denton portrays Mike Delfino, Susan's main love interest whom she marries twice in the series, and Andrea Bowen appears as Susan's daughter Julie Mayer, with whom she shares a close bond. The following is a list of Susan's relatives, love interests, and other characters that are relevant to her storylines.
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Mike Delfino (James Denton) is Susan's second husband and most prominent love interest in the series. In the pilot episode, Mike has just moved to Wisteria Lane with a secret agenda.[1] Throughout the first season, Mike attempts to solve the mystery of his former girlfriend's disappearance while maintaining an on-and-off relationship with Susan. The couple marry in season three.[2] Soon after, Susan gives birth to their son, Maynard James, nicknamed M.J.[3] Susan and Mike divorce during the five-year time jump in between seasons four and five; however, they rekindle their romance soon after and remarry in the season six premiere.[4]
Karl Mayer (Richard Burgi) is Susan's first husband and the father of Julie Mayer, as well as a successful lawyer of family law. The couple divorced a year prior to the series as a result of Karl's affair with his secretary, Brandi.[1] In the season one episode "Move On", Karl ends his relationship with Brandi and asks Susan for a second chance, but she declines because of her commitment to Mike.[5] By the second season, Karl has been dating Susan's neighbor and frenemy Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan) for several months and is now living with her.[6] Throughout the season, Karl continues to pursue Susan and even sabotages her romances with Mike and Ron McCready (Jay Harrington).[7] When Susan needs a splenectomy operation, Karl offers to remarry her so she can take advantage of his medical benefits.[8] When Edie learns of their sham marriage, she demands that Karl propose to her and throw her a lavish wedding;[9] however, Karl leaves her soon after.[10]
In the fourth season episode "Opening Doors", Karl is newly married to a law professor named Marissa (Sunny Mabrey) and expecting a child with her.[11] In the fifth season, following a five-year time jump, Karl reveals that Marissa has left him and their son, Evan (Sawyer Church), because of the stresses of motherhood.[12] Bree Hodge (Marcia Cross), Susan's friend and neighbor, hires Karl as her divorce lawyer.[13] When Bree's husband, Orson (Kyle MacLachlan), blackmails her into staying in the marriage, Karl and Bree begin an affair.[14] Their affair continues into season six until Karl dies when a small airplane crashes onto Wisteria Lane.[15][16] In his will, Karl leaves Susan his partial ownership of a local strip club.[16]
According to Cherry, casting the role of Karl was difficult because he "wanted a guy that was nice looking and seemed like he would have been married to Teri, but was also someone you wouldn't like."[17] The character was portrayed by another actor in a series of non-speaking flashbacks in the pilot episode, but the role was recast once the direction of the character changed.[17]
Julie Alexandra Mayer (Andrea Bowen) is Susan and Karl's daughter. They share custody of Julie,[18] although she chose to live primarily with Susan.[19] Julie is characterized as "bright and self-sufficient and extremely mature for her age."[20] Julie often acts as the parental figure in her relationship with Susan, especially following Susan's divorce from Karl.[21][22]
In the first season, Julie begins dating Zach Young (Cody Kasch), the troubled son of Susan's deceased friend, Mary Alice (Brenda Strong). Julie harbors Zach in her room when he escapes from a mental institution for teenagers.[23] Susan eventually discovers Zach hiding in her house and sends him back to his father, which Julie considers an act of betrayal.[20][22] Eventually, Susan bans Zach from seeing Julie due to his increasingly disturbing behavior, but the two continue dating in secrecy.[24] Soon after, Julie breaks up with Zach because of his sadistic mentality.[25] In the second season, Julie recognizes that Zach has changed and rekindles their romance until Zach's father, Paul (Mark Moses), forbids Zach from speaking to Julie out of fear that Zach will discover Mike is his biological father.[26]
In the second season Julie was the voice of worry for Susan's re-marriage to Karl, but agreed to it because she wanted Susan to have her surgery to remove her wandering spleen. As an act of kindness towards Zach and Mike, she invited Zach bowling with them, to try and help Mike and Zach bond. Their friendship was ruined when Paul Young forbid Zach to ever speak to them ever again. She also catches Susan in bed with her dad Karl, and she is forced to sleep in a small van with Susan when their house is burned down by Edie Britt, Karl buys them a new house, but Susan refuses.
In the third season, Julie befriends Edie's nephew, Austin McCann (Josh Henderson), who has moved in with his aunt.[27][28] After the two are held hostage in a grocery store, they begin dating.[29] Julie loses her virginity to Austin in an attempt to keep him interested in the relationship;[30] however, when Julie learns that Austin had been cheating on her with her close friend, Danielle Van de Kamp (Joy Lauren), she breaks up with him.[31] Eventually Julie agrees to give him a second chance, but when Danielle learns that she is pregnant with his child, her stepfather, Orson, instructs Austin to leave town.[32] Throughout season four, Julie is suspicious of her childhood friend, Dylan Mayfair (Lyndsy Fonseca), who has moved back to Wisteria Lane and has no recollection of her childhood.[33] She also adjusts to having Mike as her stepfather.[34] In the fourth season finale, Julie is accepted to Princeton University.[35]
After the five-year time jump, Julie reappears in the fifth season episode "City on Fire" and introduces Susan to her boyfriend, her thrice-divorced college professor, Lloyd (Steven Weber). Susan is uncomfortable with Lloyd's intention on proposing to Julie, but Julie rejects his proposal, stating that she does not believe in the concept of marriage following her mother's string of bad luck.[36] Julie returns to Wisteria Lane for the summer in season six to help her mother prepare for her and Mike's second wedding, during which time she forms a relationship with Danny Bolen (Beau Mirchoff), who has moved in across the street with his parents. The relationship is short-lived and when Julie is strangled outside her house and becomes comatose, Danny is arrested.[4][37] As the other characters work to reveal the identity of Julie's attacker, her affair with Danny's father, Nick (Jeffrey Nordling) and a related pregnancy scare prior to the attack are exposed.[38] Several months after waking up from her coma, Julie decides to visit her relatives on the East Coast until her attacker is caught.[39] In the episode "Epiphany", Julie's attacker is revealed to be Eddie Orlofsky, who mistook her for Susan and was planning on punishing Susan for rejecting him and marrying Mike.[40] Julie is not seen again until the seventh season episode "Where Do I Belong" when she visits Susan in the hospital after she has her kidney removed.[41]
Prior to being cast in the role, Bowen did not think she would get it, explaining, "they were looking for a 12-year-old brunette ... and I was a 13-year-old blonde."[42] As a result, Bowen was asked to dye her hair for the role.[42] Bowen was initially attracted to the series because of the amount of attention paid to the younger characters. She stated, "If you watch a lot of other television shows, the kids don't have that much [of a] part in it. On this show, the writers give us each our own individual storylines that have a lot of layers to them."[42] For the show's third season, the character's storylines began revolving around rebellion and angst. Bowen commented: "She’s going to have, you know, primarily one love interest, and he’s a bit of a bad boy. We’re going to see if she has a positive effect on him, or if he has a negative effect on her. I’m definitely very excited about it ... because you kind of get to see a different side to her."[43] At the beginning of the series' fourth season, Bowen commented on the possibility that her character would be leaving the show for college, stating that the writers had briefly alluded to the character's departure early in the season but removed it from the script. She continued: "Do I want my character to go off to college? No, I'm very happy where I am but I wouldn’t be too devastated if it happened because none of us feel too secure with their jobs being that people get killed left and right. I think we all live with the suspicion that we're going to be going."[44] The Julie character was written off the series for the fifth season. Hatcher expressed disappointment in the decision, but Cherry promised that Bowen would return to the series.[45] Bowen returned to the series for one episode during season five and rejoined the main cast as a series regular for the sixth season.[46]
Bowen's performance throughout the course of the series has received mixed reviews. Entertainment Weekly's Annie Barrett identified Julie as a TV character she irrationally hates. She criticized the character as being one-note and inconsequential and opined that Bowen "started off the series in an awkward phase and then we realized the awkward phase was going to last her entire life."[47] Following the announcement that Bowen would be rejoining the cast for the sixth season, Michael Slezak of Entertainment Weekly wrote that Bowen's performance is "so deeply unconvincing [that she risks] getting upstaged if there's so much as a house plant in a scene with [her]."[48] He also criticized the performances of other young actresses on the series and raised the question, "how come Desperate Housewives has such a dreadful track record with younger actresses?"[48]
Maynard James "M.J." Delfino (Mason Vale Cotton) is Susan and Mike's son. He is born on Mother's Day in the fourth season episode "Mother Said", shortly before the five-year time jump. His first name honors Mike's maternal grandfather while his middle name comes from Mike's paternal grandfather.[3] M.J. struggles in school, which prompts Susan and Mike to enroll him in private school.[49][50] When Mike begins dating Susan's friend and neighbor, Katherine Mayfair (Dana Delany), M.J. resents their relationship;[51] however, he grows fond of Katherine as her romance with Mike progresses.[52] M.J. becomes the target of a murder scheme when Dave Williams (Neal McDonough) attempts to get revenge on Susan for killing his wife and daughter in a car accident several years earlier.[13] However, Dave spares M.J.'s life after experiencing overwhelming guilt.[14]
Sophie Fickman (Lesley Ann Warren) (née Bremmer) is Susan's neurotic mother. She is obsessed with youth,[53] and she often tells others that she and Susan are sisters.[54][55] She is characterized as "a drama queen who tends to exaggerate."[53] Sophie became pregnant with Susan as a teenager and raised her alone. Throughout her childhood, Sophie told Susan that her father was a United States Merchant Marine who died in the Battle of Hanoi during the Vietnam War.[56] Prior to the beginning of the series, Sophie has been married four times, including two marriages to the same man.[57] She first appears in the first season episode "Children Will Listen". She decides to stay with Susan indefinitely after alleging that her boyfriend, Morty Fickman (Bob Newhart), became violent during an argument.[54] Her visit becomes an imposition for Susan, as Sophie continually flirts with strange men and tries to set up double dates for her and Susan.[55][58] Eventually, Sophie and Morty reconcile and become engaged.[57] In season two, Sophie and Morty marry. At their wedding reception, Sophie admits to Susan that her father did not die in the Vietnam War and is actually local businessman Addison Prudy (Paul Dooley), with whom Sophie had an affair while working as his secretary.[56] Sophie reappears in the seventh season episode "Where Do I Belong?", while Susan is in the hospital awaiting a kidney transplant. Susan feels betrayed when her Sophie does not volunteer to be her kidney donor; however, Susan soon discovers that Sophie has breast cancer and does not want Susan to know because she is trying to make up for years of being self-centered.[41]
Warren was cast in the role because of her similarities to Hatcher, who commented, "It's almost scary how much we are the same person."[59] Series creator Marc Cherry, who had become a fan of Warren following her performances in Cinderella and Victor Victoria, deemed her "the Teri Hatcher of the '70s".[53] James Denton recalled that "Lesley Ann looked at some episodes, came in and basically is Susan."[59] Warren was initially turned off by the thought of portraying the mother to Hatcher's character, as there is only an 18 year age difference between the actors; however, she was comforted when Cherry assured her that Sophie "would be portrayed as girlish and flirtatious."[59] Entertainment Weekly's Ann Hodgman criticized Warren's four-episode storyline in the first season, opining: "Every time she's on screen ... the show devolves into generic sitcom and becomes an old Bewitched episode where Endora drops in uninvited."[60] Hodgman stated that guest actors "breach the security" of the "claustrophobic, sealed-in quality" of the series.[60] Tanner Stransky of Entertainment Weekly praised the return of Warren as Sophie in the seventh season and called her final scene in the episode "touching."[61]
Morty Fickman (Bob Newhart) is Sophie's boyfriend and later fifth husband. He speaks with a stutter. In the first season, Sophie leaves Morty after he throws a book at her. When Susan attempts to help the couple reconcile, Morty says he has grown tired of Sophie's antics and wants to focus his attention on his growing pancake restaurant chain.[54] Nevertheless, Morty proposes to Sophie soon after.[57] In the second season, Morty and Sophie marry.[56] Newhart is one of Cherry's comedic idols and he was the first choice for the role.[53] According to Cherry: "Morty had to be played by someone who you couldn't believe would actually hit a woman—an actor where, once you saw Morty, you just laughed, and that's why he was perfect."[53]
Addison Prudy (Paul Dooley) is Susan's biological father. He is a philanderer and has admitted to cheating on his wife several times.[62] When Sophie was 18, she worked as Addison's secretary and the two had an affair, resulting in her pregnancy with Susan. Sophie raised Susan alone after receiving child support from Addison. She told Susan that her father was a Merchant Marine who died in the Battle of Hanoi in the Vietnam War. However, Susan eventually learns the truth.[56] In the episode "That's Good, That's Bad", Susan applies to work at Addison's horse feed and supply store in an attempt to get acquainted with him. Upon revealing her identity, Addison suffers a heart attack.[62] Addison is hesitant to embrace Susan's attempts to form a relationship, which are complicated when Addison's wife, Carol (Joyce Van Patten), suspects Susan of being Addison's mistress. In "Coming Home", Addison tells Susan that he needs to repair his marriage but hopes to form a relationship with her in the future.[63]
Carol Prudy (Joyce Van Patten) is Addison's wife, on whom he has cheated several times.[56] When she sees Addison spending time with Susan, she suspects that the two are having an affair. She eventually learns that Susan is Addison's daughter when she confronts Susan at the supermarket.[63]
Nick Delfino (Robert Forster) is Mike's father. He appears in "Now I Know, Don't Be Scared" when a pregnant Susan learns that he is alive and incarcerated, having previously been told by Mike that he was dead. Susan demands that they visit Nick in prison, where Nick reveals that he killed his boss. Susan accuses Nick of being evil, as he seems to show no remorse or guilt. When Susan visits Nick again, he says that he ignores his guilt over the murder but does feel bad that his conviction affected Mike's childhood so heavily.[64]
Adele Delfino (Celia Weston) is Mike's overbearing mother. She appears in the episode "Mother Said" in order to spend Mother's Day with Susan and Mike and help prepare for M.J.'s birth. Her traditional Southern values and ideals clash with Susan's shortcomings, including her poor housekeeping and cooking skills. Adele decides to move in with the couple, to which Susan protests greatly.[3]
Tim Bremmer (Chris Carmack) is Susan's cousin who appears in the episode "Sunday" to help Susan with her taxes. During his visit, he and Katherine rekindle an affair they had while he visited once summer when he was 16, though Susan suspects that he is instead sleeping with Katherine's underage daughter, Dylan (Lyndsy Fonseca).[65] Entertainment Weekly's Gretchen Hansen called the character and his storyline "creepy," though acknowledged that it "was good for one thing, filling in some Mayfair mystery blanks."[66]
Marissa Mayer (Sunny Mabrey) is Karl's second wife. She is a law professor and an author. She appears in the fourth season episode "Opening Doors" when both she and Susan enroll in the same Lamaze class.[11] In the fifth season, Karl reveals that Marissa left him and their son, Evan, because she was overwhelmed by the stresses of motherhood.[12]
Evan Mayer (Sawyer Church) is Karl and Marissa's son. He is first introduced in the fifth season episode "A Spark. To Pierce the Dark." when Karl inadvertently enrolls Evan in Susan's art class at Oakridge Academy. As a result of his mother leaving him, Evan illustrates violent images in the class.[12] In "Bargaining", Karl attempts to secure Evan an invitation to M.J.'s birthday party after M.J. accuses Evan of being a bully.[13]
Claire Bremmer (Valerie Harper) is Susan's aunt and Sophie's sister. She appears in the episode "Where Do I Belong" when Susan awaits a kidney transplant. She informs Susan about Sophie's breast cancer but begs her not to mention it to Sophie, who is keeping her condition a secret in an attempt to stay out of the center of attention.[41] Tanner Stransky of Entertainment Weekly enjoyed the casting of Harper but argued that the character's introduction was pointless: "And the casting of Valerie Harper as Susan’s aunt Claire was a smart move, too, although at first I couldn’t help but think: Why is Claire even here?"[61]
Ron McCready (Jay Harrington) is a surgeon whom Susan briefly dates in the second season.[67] Ron informs Susan that she has a wandering spleen and will need surgery, for which she has no insurance. Eventually, Ron learns that Susan has remarried Karl; simultaneously, while under anesthesia before her surgery, Susan admits to having feelings for Mike.[68] Susan assures Ron that there are no romantic feelings between her and Karl and that she only remarried him for insurance coverage. She also denies knowing a Mike, but when Ron discovers she is lying, he breaks up with her.[7]
Ian Hainsworth (Dougray Scott) is Susan's British boyfriend and later fiance whose wife, Jane (Cecily Gambrell), is in a coma following a horseback riding accident. He meets Susan in the hospital after Mike falls into a coma after a hit-and-run accident.[69] He pursues Susan, despite her hesitation to abandon her relationship with Mike.[27] When Mike awakens from his coma with a case of retrograde amnesia, he rejects Susan's attempts to rekindle their romance;[70] Mike turns Susan away when she returns to Fairview.[71][28] as a result, she begins dating Ian once more.[72] When Mike is arrested for the murder Monique Polier (Kathleen York), Susan insists that he is innocent. Frustrated with Susan's unwavering commitment to her ex-boyfriend, Ian offers to pay for Mike's attorney as long as Susan does not speak to him again.[73]
Following Jane's passing, Ian and Susan become engaged.[74] Once Mike is acquitted for the murder charges,[75] he begins to regain the memory of his relationship with Susan. He challenges Ian for Susan's affections in a game of poker, which Ian wins.[32] When Susan learns of this betrayal, she banish both men from her life.[76] Eventually, she chooses to forgive Ian and they renew their engagement; however, when Ian realizes Susan will never truly stop loving Mike, he breaks up with her.[77]
Casting for the role of Ian, which was originally supposed to last only six to eight episodes, took place in June 2006.[78] With the Ian storyline, the writers intended "to get [Susan] into a bona fide romantic-comedy kind of relationship that threatens her preexisting relationship with Mike."[79] Scott described the character as "bumbling at time ... He kind of blossoms after he rediscovers his romantic juices with Susan."[80]
Jackson Braddock (Gale Harold) is Susan's boyfriend throughout the fifth season. He is briefly introduced at the end of the fourth season finale, which flashforwards five years into the future.[35] The couple continues dating in the fifth season. The origins of their relationship are explained in a flashback in "Mirror, Mirror", in which Susan, having just divorced Mike, engages in casual sex with Jackson, her house painter.[81] Initially, Susan insists on keeping their relationship a secret.[82] However, Mike and M.J. soon learn of the relationship and are both supportive.[83] Jackson sustains serious injuries in a nightclub fire after Dave Williams, who set the fire, traps him in the club's restroom.[36][84] After recovering, Jackson decides to move to Riverton and pursue a career opportunity at a college in Riverton and invites Susan to come with him.[85] Susan ultimately decides not to go with him.[86] Jackson returns later in the season and asks Susan to marry him, as his visa has expired and he must marry an American citizen to avoid being deported to Canada.[13] Dave fears that Jackson could inform police of his involvement in the club fire and reports him to immigration officials. Jackson is subsequently deported.[87]
On October 14, 2008, Harold entered intensive care after a motorcycle accident. He sustained several injuries, including brain swelling and a fractured shoulder.[88] While Desperate Housewives were required to rewrite one scene in the episode "City on Fire", Gale's absence did not delay production.[89][90] Originally, the writers had planned to end the character's storyline around midseason, but Harold's accident forced them to push the storyline's resolution to the end of the season.[91] Following the accident, Harold recorded dialog for an offscreen speaking part in the January 2009 episode "Home is the Place".[92] In April 2009, Harold returned to the series six months following the accident to continue his character's storyline.[93] While reviewing the fifth season, TV Guide's Matt Roush commented the introduction of Harold, as well as other new cast members, "make Wisteria Lane once again an irresistible place to revisit."[94]
Deirdre Taylor (Jolie Jenkins) is Mike's ex-girlfriend. Her death occurred before the series' timeline and plays an integral role in the first season mystery, which focuses on Mary Alice's suicide. Deirdre came from a wealthy family, but rejected it after becoming addicted to drugs as a young adult.[57] During this time, she dated Mike, a drug dealer at the time. Their relationship ended after Mike was incarcerated for killing a corrupt police officer who attempted to rape Deirdre.[57] Soon after, Deirdre gave birth to Mike's son without his knowledge. She later sold her son to Mary Alice, who worked as a nurse in a rehabilitation facility in Utah.[95] Mary Alice and Paul fled town and raised Deirdre's child as their own. Years later, Deirdre tracked down the Young family and attempted to take the child, Zach, back, but Mary Alice killed her in an attempt to stop her.[95] Mary Alice and Paul chopped up Deirdre's body and buried it underneath the cement of their swimming pool.[95] Although Jenkins did not appear onscreen until the first season finale, which was filmed in April 2005, she was cast in the fall of 2004 because earlier episodes required photographs of the Deirdre character.[96] Because no material had been written for the character at the time of casting, Jenkins did not have to audition for the role.[96]
Noah Taylor (Bob Gunton) is Dierdre's father who holds a vast fortune and heavy influence over several police officers in the city. In the first season, Noah finances Mike's mission to discover what happened to Dierdre. Throughout the first season, he often checks on Mike's progress, and briefly fires Mike when he feels his focus has been pulled.[97] He simultaneously discovers that he has a cancerous tumor and only has one more year to live.[97] In the second season, Noah is on bed rest as his imminent death draws near.[67] Eventually, Noah learns that Mike has been keeping Zach's existence a secret.[8] He demands to see Zach, but Mike stalls until Zach and Paul can leave town.[98] In retaliation, Noah orders a rogue cop named Detective Sullivan (Nick Chinlund) to kill Paul, but he is unsuccessful.[68] When Paul is framed for Felicia Tilman's (Harriet Sansom Harris) murder, Zach attempts to secure his bail money from Noah, who refuses to provide it. This prompts Zach to shut off Noah's life support and subsequently inherits his entire fortune.[99] The character was named after John Huston's character, Noah Cross, in the film Chinatown.[100] Gunton was selected for the role because of his performance as Juan Perón in the original Broadway production of Evita.[100]
Kendra Taylor (Heather Stevens is Deirdre's sister and Noah's daughter. She first appears in the episode "Anything You Can Do" as a mysterious woman from Mike's past. Susan mistakes her for a former girlfriend, but she clarifies that she and Mike are just friends.[101] She appears once more in "Sunday in the Park with George" when she begs Noah and Mike to abandon the search for Dierdre, who she claims turned her back on their family. Kendra also informs Susan about Mike's past when Susan attempts to piece together clues.[57]
Detective Copeland (Conor O'Farrell) is the lead investigator in the murder case of Susan's neighbor, Martha Huber (Christine Estabrook).[5] He suspects Mike is the murderer and questions Susan twice about her relationship with Mike.[97][102] Upon the second interrogation, Copeland informs Susan of Mike's criminal record, which includes convictions for drug trafficking and manslaughter.[102] Copeland has been married four times.[102]
Detective Sullivan (Nick Chinlund) is a corrupt police officer whose loyalty lays with Noah Taylor. He first appears in "Impossible", when Noah bribes him to derail the investigation once Mike becomes a primary suspect.[102] Later, Noah pays him to steal Dierdre's missing person case file and give it to Mike.[55] After learning that Mike has been keeping the identity of Dierdre's son a secret, Noah hires Sullivan to threaten Mike and reveal the information.[8] In "There Is No Other Way", Sullivan agrees to arrest Paul Young under false pretenses in an attempt to kill him.[68]
Principal Hobson (John Rubinstein) is the Principal at the school where Susan worked, and M.J. Delfino and Juanita Solis attend. In the Season 7 episode "Excited and Scared", he fired Susan for her "after school job".
Maxine Rosen (Lainie Kazan) is Susan's landlady, after moving out of their home. She tempts and eventually hires Susan into working for her company, where women do housework in their lingerie. She later fires Susan for driving away a customer.
Andre Zeller (Miguel Ferrer)
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