See Also: Marc Cherry (Creator) People Guide

Desperate Housewives is often compared, by fans and the media alike, to HBO's Sex and the City. However creator Marc Cherry has for the first time revealed the extent of the show's influence when it came to creating Desperate Housewives.

"I was trying to do it as a companion to Sex and the City, and I wanted it to be a half-hour show," he told Malaysia's The Star Online, where the show is making its debut next week. However Cherry soon found that he needed to change his planned structure for the show. "I put too much plot in, so by the time I introduced the first four characters, I was already into page 15. Sex and the City scripts were about 30 pages. So, I just made [my show] an hour long."

Various networks turned down Desperate Housewives before ABC picked it up, including HBO twice. Cherry revealed that one of HBO's complaints was that the show not gritty enough. However Cherry refused to make it grittier, and instead continued to shop the show around. "So it kind of ended up being a network version of what a cable show would be," he said.

Another thing the show has received attention for is the looks of its cast, but Cherry said that it wasn't deliberate. "What was funny was I did not anticipate or desire the level of attractiveness of my cast," he said. "I thought they were too pretty. I was so scared that the audience wouldn't be able to relate to those gals. It might sound bogus to some people, but I was truly concerned about this. And as it turns out, it hasn't hurt us at all and probably brought a few more male viewers than we originally planned. The truth was we opened the doors to the casting world and they were the best ones who auditioned."

As part of its coverage of the Desperate Housewives premiere, the site has also published a guide to the show. "Desperate Housewives is one of those TV shows that arrives with a bang," it begins. "No, really. Only a few minutes into the pilot, a woman takes a gun and kills herself." It also reported that a number of Desperate Housewives specials of Oprah will air in the run up to the show's premiere on July 12.

The full interview can be read over at The Star Online, where they also have the guide to the show and details on the Oprah specials..

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