Fall TV Blog

They’re back! The ladies of Wisteria Lane returned to TV Sunday night and so did the drama. Lynette is expecting twins but felt no motherly love for her babies on the way. Gaby dealt with her teen terror niece, who liked to dress skimpy and sneak out to go clubbing downtown. Bree’s affair with her divorce attorney Karl was about to go to the next level, but the housewife had a list of details (hotel room, clean sheets) that she required for their first time to be special. The new family on the block, led by Angie (played by Drea de Mateo) who has some disturbing scaring on her back, had something to hide. The blushing bride under the veil turned out to be Susan, who tied the knot with Mike and made a public apology to Katherine at the church. But Katherine donned a wedding dress too — Susan’s — while making a bubbling batch of bright red tomato sauce. The premiere episode ended with a kicker as Susan’s daughter Julie was attacked. But whodunit?

Florian Schneider/ABC

Wisteria Lane is losing one of its longtime residents.

Shawn Pyfrom, 22, who plays Desperate Housewives‘ Andrew Van De Kamp, the troubled son of Marcia Cross’s character, won’t be coming back full-time, PEOPLE has learned exclusively.

“Shawn’s not returning for a full season next fall,” a source tells PEOPLE. “But he’ll come back and make a few guest star appearances.”

The source says it was a tough call for the actor to make. “His decision didn’t come easy,” the source says, “but he wants to pursue new television and film opportunities.”

Desperate Housewives returns to ABC on Sept. 27. –David Caplan

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The cast of Desperate Housewives has initiated their newest resident — Drea de Matteo — into Wisteria Lane.

Teri Hatcher tells PEOPLE that the new cast member found herself in the middle of a messy scene involving powdered sugar.

“We were all covered in powdered sugar and at one point Drea had a lot of powder,” she told PEOPLE while promoting DVD release of her movie Coraline at Comic-Con in San Diego. “That was her hazing.”

De Matteo plays the head of a new Italian family that moves on the block in the upcoming season. Who she’ll butt-heads with is still mystery.

“So far it’s not set up that it’s any one person and I think it could be Susan, it could be Gaby, it could be Katherine,” Hatcher said. “I’m not sure.”

Fans are going to have a lot to look forward to on the new season, Hatcher said, including the return of Andrea Bowen, who plays Hatcher on-screen daughter.

“I feel like there’s a neighborhood of troubled people,” she said. “And I think you’re going to come to like all of those characters and want to see how that all interacts.” –Esther Zuckerman with reporting by Scott Huver

Tell us: Are you looking forward to the new season of Desperate Housewives? What are your predictions?

Hellmuth Dominguez/Pacific Coast News;Chris Polk/Film Magic

An Emmy winner for her role as Adriana, the put-upon — and put-down — girlfriend of Christopher (Michael Imperoli) on The Sopranos, and sister Gina on the short-lived Joey (with Matt LeBlanc), Drea de Matteo proves once again she’s one of the hardest working actresses on TV. Her next stop: Wisteria Lane.

EW.com reports that de Matteo, 37, will join the cast of Desperate Housewives as the head of a new Italian family that moves on to the block. Also inhabiting her house: a landscape architect husband and a neurotic son. (Their casting is still to come.)

Last season, the show, which premiered in October 2004, lost series regular Nicollette Sheridan, who played the bombshell Edie. – Stephen M. Silverman

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The Housewives each had to deal with their own unwelcome surprise on Sunday’s season finale. But the biggest turn of events came for Mike, Katherine, Susan and Dave, whose destinies were changed by one fateful fishing trip. But let’s begin with Lynette… (more…)

Some masks are worn once a year on Halloween. There are ones people wear to hide their insecurities. Then there are others used to veil hidden agendas. Well, the masks came off Sunday on Wisteria Lane.

Bree
Karl arrived at Bree’s house just after sundown to discuss how she was going to hide her assets from Orson. He suggested a secret bank account and a second set of books. She agreed to everything… until he suggested robbing her own house. She didn’t want some thug to stage a break-in, but once he painted a picture of Orson with half of her assets that sealed the deal. During Susan’s engagement party, Bree and Karl staged the robbery. While Bree was neatly tipping items over, Karl told her she had to make it look believable as he knocked things to the floor. “You want to be a Neanderthal, fine! I prefer to act with class and dignity,” she said, “Now, can we please finish robbing my home?” When Orson and Bree got home from the party later that night to see the house had been “robbed,” Orson volunteered, “It wasn’t me. I swear.” Thinking maybe this was karma for all of the things he had stolen from other people, Orson told Bree how much she meant to him. Bree got cold feet about divorcing Orson and went to talk to Karl, who reassured her she was doing the right thing. But Bree hadn’t planned on one little snag: Orson answered a phone call from a storage facility, the one housing all of Bree’s “missing items.”
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On Wisteria Lane, bargaining begins at sunrise, and everyone in the neighborhood gets into the act — even the youngest of residents.

Bree
Bree met with a divorce lawyer who told her that Orson will get half of everything she’s worth. She decided she needed a different lawyer, one who could help her protect her assets. While the Housewives were playing cards, Susan reminded Bree that Karl is a divorce lawyer and a shark. So Bree went to see Karl about her divorce, but he wanted something from her first — a favor. MJ was having a sleepover party, and he wanted Bree to get his son Evan an invite. Bree buttered up MJ with homemade macaroons, and asked him to invite Evan to the party. “He’s a bully,” he replied. “He hit me with a dead squirrel!” MJ finally relented after Bree told him that she has someone who hits her with a dead squirrel every day. Since Bree held up her end of the bargain, Karl agreed to help her. He told her she’d need to be manipulative and scheming. She replied that she would do whatever needs to be done. And that’s how the perfect lawyer-client relationship began.
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Could Eva Longoria Parker’s hunky gardener Jesse Metcalfe be the mystery character returning for this season’s finale of Desperate Housewives?

“I love Jesse, I love Jesse,” Longoria Parker, 34, told PEOPLE at Friday’s Rally for Kids with Cancer Scavenger Cup “qualifiers” party in Hollywood. “That would be a fun thing.” Metcalfe had played Longoria Parker’s then-teenage paramour John Rowland.

Housewives costar Brenda Strong, who also attended Friday’s fund-raiser, added with a smile, “It’s always nice to see Jesse, particularly when it comes to Eva’s storyline, to throw a little tension in there. I’m as excited as anybody else to find out who it is.” (more…)

Once again, everyone on Wisteria Lane had something to hide — everyone but Susan that is. Trying to be empathetic, she told Dave that she was the one driving in the fatal accident she had with Mike years ago. While Carlos and Lynette had an awkward encounter, Gaby meddled in Lynette and Tom’s marriage, while Bree thought it may be time to end hers and Andrew was there to help.

Bree
After Orson gets whacked on the head trying to steal Rose’s knickknacks, the doctor told Bree that she could take her husband home from the hospital. “Really, that soon?” she asked, suspicious that he might be lying again. Bree decided she’d give Orson one last chance, but Andrew started researching divorce lawyers. At home, Orson’s head still hurt and he still didn’t tell Bree the truth about his injury. Bree told Andrew that Orson was lying and that she thought she wanted a divorce.

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Desperate Housewives said goodbye to resident bombshell Edie Britt, a character from the past is returning.

“A major character from the first two seasons will be featured in the last five minutes of the season finale,” series creator Marc Cherry hinted during a panel discussion Saturday at the Paley Center for Media’s Annual William S. Paley Television Festival. “The cast doesn’t even know who.” Could it be Gaby’s boy-toy gardener, played by Jesse Metcalfe? Cherry’s sly smile revealed little, but the crowd cheered at the possibility.

Other Housewives dish revealed by Cherry and the cast: (more…)