See Also: Steven Culp (Rex van de Kamp) People Guide

After acing his Desperate Housewives audition, Steven Culp must have felt certain the role of Rex van de Kamp was his -- until filming for Star Trek: Enterprise forced him to miss a meeting with ABC executives, and the network unceremoniously dumped him for another actor.

For the past several years, Culp has been appearing on several television shows at the same time, including JAG, ER, The West Wing and Enterprise. His character was written out of JAG last year, and the scene Culp was scheduled to film during his meeting with ABC brass featured the death of his character, Major Hayes. But that failed to mollify ABC, who instead cast actor Michael Reilly Burke in the role of Rex -- only to fire Burke after completion of the pilot, and bring back Culp again. "I guess some things are meant to be," Culp told ABC News.

It's possible that Culp would have tried harder to get out of his Enterprise commitment had he known what a success DH would become, but at the time, he was convinced the show would bomb. "At first I thought, 'ABC is never gonna pick up this pilot,'" he said. "Then I thought, `OK, they picked it up, but it's too quirky to succeed.' Then the critics gave it raves and I thought, 'Great, we'll get one or two seasons out of it and then move on, with the cachet of having been on this cool show. I'm delighted to be so wrong!"

In hindsight, Culp found it easy to explain why the show has been so successful. "It's very entertaining, and it moves fast. Beyond that, there are things about the characters that people recognize, and that resonate in their own lives."

Meanwhile, what happened to Michael Reilly Burke, the other Rex van de Kamp actor? In an ironic twist of fate, his first two roles after the DH pilot turned out to be that of the Vulcan Koss on a three-part story arc on Star Trek: Enterprise, and of Commander Adam Kohler, on Culp's other former show JAG.

More from Culp, including his thoughts on the relationship between Rex and Bree, as well as some insight in the way the actor approaches his character, head over to ABC News. Meanwhile, Culp will also be making an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Monday, the day after the Desperate Housewives season finale is scheduled to air.

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