DH Promotion Press

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USA Today

Critic’s Corner
Robert Bianco
What to watch this weekend

(snip)

On the other hand, some returns are more than welcome, such as a repeat visit by this week's fabulous episode of Desperate Housewives (ABC, Saturday, 10 p.m. ET/PT). If you missed it once, don't make that mistake again. The script bounces gleefully from comedy to drama to satire to soap, and the stars make each change in pitch ring true, led in this episode by Teri Hatcher, who is giving the performance of her career. (Keep an eye, too, on Christine Estabrook as TV's funniest nosy neighbor.) And to make things even better, you get a second, new episode Sunday (9 p.m. ET/PT). Now that's a great TV weekend.


Find this article at: http://www.usatoday.com/life/columnist/criticscorner/2004-10-14-critics-corner_x.htm

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http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20041015/1056835.asp

Entertainment

Front Page > Entertainment > Gusto > Features


Elizabeth's HOT SHEET

What's cool now

10/15/2004


HOT OSCAR BUZZ: Jamie Foxx is gathering raves for his portrayal of Ray Charles in the upcoming movie "Ray."

HOT BLOGS: Even celebrities are getting into the online journaling trend. Check out gardenstate.typepad.com (Zack Braff), margaretcho.net/blog/ (Margaret Cho) and www.moby.com (Moby) to see what's on the minds of these entertainers.

HOT COMEBACK: Teri Hatcher looks better than ever on TV's "Desperate Housewives."

HOT SLAPDOWN: ABC has put a muzzle on Star Jones' incessant promoting of her wedding vendors on the air.

- Elizabeth Barr

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ttp://www.tvguide.com/news/entertainment/041019.asp

TV Guide Online
Entertainment News
19th October 2004
Michael Ausiello

“HOUSEWIVES STILL HOT: ABC's Desperate Housewives shows no signs of slowing down, notching new ratings highs Sunday. Buoyed by Teri Hatcher's flashdance on Friday's Oprah, the third episode attracted 20.5 million viewers and was up 10 percent over last week among adults 18-49. Now, will someone tell me where the heck Nicollette Sheridan disappeared to?”

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An in-depth review from the UK’s Guardian newspaper:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguide/columnists/story/0,14669,1328227,00.html

Aerial view of America

Dirty soap
Jonathan Bernstein
Saturday October 16, 2004
The Guardian

Everybody's talking about Desperate Housewives!

A high-octane, high-camp semi-spoof on the long-mouldering night-time soap genre set in a suburban cul-de-sac rife with suicide, secrets, adultery, bloodshed, dysfunction and lust, the ABC series garnered enthusiastic advance buzz, but the kind of buzz meted out to a programme destined to inspire a large and loyal cult following. Then, last week, it debuted to numbers hefty enough to make it the Number One show in America. Suddenly, everything everyone thought they knew about the state of TV turned out to be wrong. The dead-in-the-water ABC network had just performed the most auspicious comeback since the resurrection. Joey and CSI: New York, the two underinspired spin-offs previously adjudged the new season's can't-miss ratings toppers, were both left blinking in the distance.
Teri Hatcher - the Sarah Jessica Parker of the show's quartet of female stars - rebounded from the "Where Are They Now?" column to the cover of the majority of the nation's entertainment magazines. Even the bosses at NBC, CBS and Fox were seen to raise a congratulatory glass to the success of Desperate Housewives, declaring that its huge opening was a reaffirmation of faith in network television's unmatchable power in galvanising a mass audience and thus a victory for all of them. (Of course, they were less quick to acknowledge that they'd all passed on the show when it was offered to them.)
Timed perfectly to air at almost the exact moment disgraced domestic diva Martha Stewart began her prison sentence, Housewives' tone is set in its opening moments when prim and proper homemaker Mary Alice finishes cooking a delicious batch of waffles and then blows her brains out. Voice-overing from beyond the grave Mary Alice guides us through the turbulent lives of her former coffee morning comrades from picture-perfect Wisteria Lane. Susan (Hatcher) is a miserable divorced mom pining for the rugged plumber who's just moved into the neighbourhood. Bree ('Place alum Marcia Cross) is a Stepford psychopath who tries to poison her husband when he asks for a divorce. Gabrielle (the ridiculously hot Eva Longoria) is an ex-model who married for money, and lives for her afternoon trysts with the gardener. So much so that when her husband threatens to fire him for shoddy workmanship, she sneaks out of a posh party and rushes home to mow the lawn. Lynette (Felicity Huffman), is a former businesswoman turned baby machine now stuck at home and driven batty by her wrecking crew of a brood.
Here's where I have to let go of my reliable lifebelt of hyperbole and description and actually deliver an opinion. I don't believe that in the entire run of Sex And The City anyone ever said, did or typed anything even remotely funny. I had the same sinking feeling during Desperate Housewives. On the other hand, I remember the enduring emotional investment I made in the late-1980s to cul-de-sac-set soap Knots Landing (one of whose ensemble, Nicolette Sheridan, shows up here as the neighbourhood slut) and in the way Desperate Housewives weaves together the mundane and the sinister, I recognise the homage paid to that show. Which is to say, I'll be hanging around Wisteria Lane for at least a few more weeks. Partly because the first show ended with a big clanging question mark about the real reason for Mary Ann's splattery exit (and why her husband and son are digging up their swimming pool in the middle of the night), but also because it's a relief to come across a network offering that isn't a gritty police procedural.
There hasn't been a night-time soap of any consequence since the demise of Melrose Place. Reality TV's bottomless supply of bitches, villains and will they/won't they couples filled a void but created a new one. Empty, addictive escapist fluff - the bedrock of American television - has been conspicuously absent from the airwaves for too long. The advent of Desperate Housewives has the nation happy to switch its brains off and get its hands dirty again.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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The Guide

Lost Desperate Housewives

October 14, 2004

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Two of the more promising shows from the new US season are heading to E4/C4 in January.
Soap/mystery/sitcom/suburban bitchfest Desperate Housewives looks set to resurrect Teri Hatcher's career (if only they'd put her, Jennifer Beals and Heather Locklear in a show together…);
while JJ "Alias" Abraham's latest, Lost has Matthew "Party Of Five" Fox shipwrecked on an island full of odd stuff. Don't think there are any kids for him to emote over this time…

Posted by Richard Vine at 11:14 AM
TV and radio

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004