See Also: 'Listen to the Rain on the Roof' Episode Guide

The official details for the season three premiere of Desperate Housewives have been released.

"Listen to the Rain on the Roof" will air on Sunday September 24 2006 at 9pm. Here are the official details:

Rain is falling on Wisteria Lane when we catch up with the ladies six months later. A baby on the way and her marriage on the rocks, Gabrielle finds herself with more than she can handle; Lynette tries to embrace her newly extended family, and Orson's mysterious past begins to unfold.

The episode was written by show creator Marc Cherry and new executive producer Jeff Greenstein, and directed by Larry Shaw.

Below is a list of the guest actors appearing in this episode:

• Laurie Metcalf as Carolyn Bigsby
• Dougray Scott as Ian Kavanaugh
• Rachel Fox as Kayla
• Kiersten Warren as Nora
• Gwendoline Yeo as Xiao-Mei
• Kathryn Joosten as Mrs. McCluskey
• Valerie Mahaffey as Alma Hodge
• Jeanne Sakata as Li Wang
• Mike Baldridge as Guy #1
• Dennis W. Hall as Clown
• Charlie Dell as Older Man
• Michael Krepack as Boy
• Terry Bozeman as Dr. Marshall
• Vernee Watson Johnson as ER Doctor

Meanwhile, following on from the two very positive reviews of the season premiere recently, more TV critics have weighed in on the episode. The reviews aren't so glowingly positive this time though, at least not in all cases.

"It's not only returning, it's reinvigorated," wrote David Bianculli at New York Daily News. He noted that "it even introduces a new buried-body mystery, a loud echo of the show's successful inaugural season—but if Housewives is going to plagiarize itself, that's the right thing to steal." In a ringing endorsement for the show, he urged readers to "pass the word: if you've given up on Desperate Housewives, it's time to return to the neighborhood."

Diane Werts at the Chicago Tribune wasn't so impressed though. "There's a pretty nifty murder mystery teased by episode's end, and the show's four core desperate dames see last spring's cliffhanger situations escalate quite nicely, too," she wrote. "But the ways in which we get there have our heroines tracing and retracing behavioral paths their pretty little high heels have clicked across many times before. Do we really need to see klutzy Susan spill something on somebody again? How many times can Gabrielle banter and prance imperiously?" But she did conceed that the show may just need a little time. "Maybe it's too soon to expect the confident bounce that made the show such an out-of-the-box hit two years back. We'll keep watching. And waiting."

Echoing Werts comments was Time Goodman at SFGate.com. "Even in the first episode, it's clear that Desperate Housewives is a vastly improved series from a year ago. The passing is better; the tone is more focused. It's funnier and more focused. But it's also still Desperate Housewives, and there's that malodorous whiff of the whole thing being past its sell-by date—of this series being from a time that has now passed. Watching the main characters in frantic motion again this year doesn't bring joy, just annoyance. For though they may have improved from a year ago, the characters are still the over-the-top caricatures of the last 44 episodes and it all seems so redundantly feckless now."

"Listen to the Rain on the Roof" will air on ABC on Sunday September 24 2006 at 9pm.

For the original press release visit The Futon Critic.

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