Desperate Housewives showrunner Marc Cherry knows that Real Housewives may have been inspired by his ABC show, but he isn’t upset about the Bravo franchise’s success.
The writer-producer revealed to People that he understands why the Real Housewives production team developed the show, which premiered in 2006 in Orange County, California, following the success of Desperate Housewives, which ran for eight seasons from 2004 to 2012.
“They didn’t crib my name, to be fair to them,” Cherry said about the Bravo franchise in a story published Thursday. “They just used the word. Our show came out, and they capitalized on that. And you know what? That’s the capitalistic system.”
The showrunner added that people often confuse the two shows because the Real Housewives franchise “continues to be out there,” producing new series and spinoffs. Cherry lists Tommy Tune as one of the celebrities who accidentally swapped the two series in conversation.
“Tommy got confused and said, ‘Oh, so do you produce all the various cities?’ And I looked at him — I had no idea what he was talking about,” Cherry said. “And then I realized, ‘Oh, you think I created the real-life Housewives franchise?’”
Set on the idyllic street of Wisteria Lane, Desperate Housewives followed the sometimes scandalous lives of four neighbors played by Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross and Eva Longoria. The ABC series won multiple Emmy, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards during its eight-season run.
Cherry explained that he is satisfied with Desperate Housewives’ ending — he felt “the time had come to pull the plug” in 2012 — but he does have a little bit of jealousy surrounding the Real Housewives’ longevity.
“I envy the fact that they’ve kept that franchise going,” Cherry said. “I certainly envy the good folks who produce that show because it’s a train that keeps on chugging. So good for them.”
Cherry added that “distance of time” has helped him reflect on some of his creative choices. The producer developed the pilot episode of Desperate Housewives over the course of 16 months and had eight working days to finish each episode thereafter. Cherry is open to rebooting the series, if he had “a really good artistic reason to do it.”
“The trick for me artistically is — is there still stuff that needs to be said?” he shared. “You know, they always want to move on to the new and the fresh. But if you do a reboot, you have to have a really good artistic reason to do it.”
“If I ever dipped my toe in those waters again, I would want to make sure I had a really good reason,” Cherry concluded.
Mariel Turner
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