Even Oprah can't resist 'Housewives'
BY PHIL ROSENTHAL TELEVISION CRITIC
January 25, 2005
LOS ANGELES -- She's neither desperate nor a housewife, but Oprah
Winfrey felt right at home on Wisteria Lane.
"I wouldn't mind moving into the neighborhood temporarily,"
Winfrey said Sunday.
For an upcoming edition of her own Chicago-based talk show, Winfrey
filmed some scripted segments late last week with the characters of
"Desperate Housewives" on the hit ABC show's San Fernando
Valley set.
"I hadn't really acted since 1998 with 'Beloved' and I thought
I was done with my acting days, but I loved being part of 'Desperate
Housewives' so much that I'm thinking I might do something else soon,"
Winfrey said. "So I'm open. You got any ideas?"
While there are no plans yet for the daytime diva to do a guest shot
on "Housewives," series creator Marc Cherry, who wrote the
segment for Winfrey, is more than receptive to the idea.
"Oprah can do anything she wants, and I'll write anything she
wants," said the former "Golden Girls" staffer, who
up until recently couldn't get a call returned in Hollywood and now
is the hottest writer in television. "I just love Oprah.
"I've had so many amazing things happen to me in the past few
months. But I've got to say hanging out with Oprah Friday night was
pretty damn cool. That's right at the top of the list. ... It was just
as fun as all get out. So anything she wants to do I'm there for her."
The phenomenal success of "Housewives" has revived and energized
more than Cherry's social circle, his career, the ABC network and overall
interest in scripted shows.
Teri Hatcher, who plays frazzled single mom Susan Mayer on the darkly
comic soap, readily admits she was written off as a has-been before her
new show took off, and other castmates are adjusting to the fame that
comes with being on a top-rated show.
"I've gotten reactions at my children's school," said Felicity
Huffman, who plays harried mother of four Lynette Scavo.
Even Brenda Strong, whose Mary Alice Young was killed in the first
episode but lives on as the unseen narrator, can create a scene
among those hard-pressed to identify her face.
"If I go to Starbucks or something, I'll be in line and I'll
order my drink and all of a sudden heads start turning," Strong
said. "I can hear whispering."
Another favorite thing
Eva Longoria, the adulterous former model Gabrielle Solis, uses
Oprah's fans as her own barometer. A visit by the "Housewives"
stars earlier this season in Chicago told her everything she needed.
"The [studio] audience for Oprah doesn't know who's [going to
be the guest] on the show. ... You know they're hoping it's 'Oprah's
Favorite Things,' so they're a little disappointed," Longoria
said. "But when they said, 'We have the cast of 'Des-,' the
audience went insane. They didn't complete 'Desperate Housewives.'
They said, we have the cast of 'Des-' and [the crowd] just went
crazy. ... That was overwhelming. I cried."
People respond to "Housewives" on many levels. There's the
soap opera, of course, but also the mysteries, the humor, the eye candy.
There's a little bit of everything, and it can be taken as seriously or
lightly as you want.
Asked to compare her new soap to her old one, "Melrose Place"
alum Marcia Cross, who plays tightly wound Bree Van De Kamp, said "
'Melrose Place' [was] like Andy Warhol and I think of this as like
Kandinsky or Francis Bacon."
"I'd be complimented, if I knew who they were," Cherry said.
"One was like pop art," Cross explained, "but this is
much more complicated and rich and interesting."
It's so complicated, rich and interesting, in fact, that Cherry is
going through material at a breakneck pace. Going into this season,
he told ABC boss Steve McPherson he thought he knew where the show
would be going for the next few years.
"The sad surprise has been the things I thought would take a
whole season to reveal, I kind of revealed by episode six,"
Cherry said. "This machine just keeps eating up what little
creativity I have. ... I first talked to Steve about, 'Oh, I've got
ideas into season three.' Sadly, he doesn't know that that just aired
last night. I'm fresh out.
"The killing of Mrs. Huber and Mike and Susan getting together,
I kind of thought I was going to delay that till around episode 13,
and then I got a directive: 'Remember sweeps!' "
So November arrives and mystery man Mike Delfino and Susan get cozy
and no more Mrs. Huber, the nosy neighbor of Wisteria Lane. Not that
there is any shortage of fussbudgets out there.
Football wasn't ready for her
Nicollette Sheridan, who's predatory divorcee Edie Britt, was taken
aback by the controversy over her "Monday Night Football"
pre-game sketch in which she seduced the Philadelphia Eagles' Terrell
Owens in the locker room.
"It taking precedence over the major underlying problems of the
world was absolutely absurd," she said.
While ABC's McPherson conceded "the heat of it definitely surprised
me," he believes the skit, which even drew fire from outgoing
Federal Communications Commission chief Michael Powell, "was a
whole lot of nothing."
Who knows if people would have been so upset had "Monday Night
Football" gone with Cherry's original idea, having Edie setting
her sights on plus-size announcer John Madden?
"A woman as glorious-looking as Nicollette Sheridan throwing
herself at John Madden is just funny," said Cherry, who felt
bad about the brouhaha and didn't mean to incite anyone. "I didn't
realize 'Monday Night Football' was such a family viewing experience.
You know, I wouldn't let my 5-year-old watch beer commercials and
big-breasted cheerleaders every Monday, but that's me."
Obviously there's still plenty of sass in the onetime sitcom writer
calling the shots on Wisteria Lane, now that he's no longer desperate himself.
"Felicity and I talked about this one time," Cherry said.
"You kind of go through your career and people are not answering
the phone and even might say hurtful things to your agent, and when
the success comes along, you have that choice: Do I just smile and be
gracious, or do I go, 'Yeah, you mother ...'? "
"I'm trying my damnedest to just be gracious about the whole thing,
but, yes ... there is part of me going, 'I hope some of those folks are
feeling sorry that they picked on poor Marc Cherry.' "
He's hanging out with Oprah. They're not.
© Chicago Sun Times 2005. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/rosenthal/cst-ftr-phil25.html