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The first season of Desperate Housewives, an American television series created by Marc Cherry, commenced airing in the United States on October 3, 2004, concluded May 22, 2005, and consisted of 23 episodes. It opens with the mysterious suicide of Mary Alice Young, and introduces her four friends Bree, Lynette, Susan and Gabrielle, who all live on the suburb of Wisteria Lane. While trying to be good wives and mothers, the four friends also try to find out why their friend committed suicide.

Desperate Housewives' first season aired in the United States on Sundays at 9:00 pm on ABC, a terrestrial television network. In addition to the 23 regular episodes, a special, Sorting Out the Dirty Laundry aired on April 24, 2005. The season garnered an average of 23.7 million viewers in the U.S. per all 23 episodes, ranking as the fourth most-watched television series during the 2004-05 American television season. In the United Kingdom, the season premiered on January 5, 2005 and subsequently aired Wednesdays at 10 pm on Channel 4. It aired in Canada on CTV Television Network and in Australia on the Seven Network.

The season was released on DVD as a six-disc box set under the title of Desperate Housewives - The Complete First Season on September 20, 2005 by Buena Vista Home Entertainment in Region 1, in Region 2 on October 10, 2005 and in Region 4 on November 28, 2005. The season is also available for purchase by registered users of the iTunes Store.

Production
This season was produced by Touchstone Television (now ABC Studios) and Cherry Productions and aired on the ABC network. The executive producers were creator Marc Cherry, Michael Edelstein, Charles Pratt Jr. and Tom Spezialy with Pratt Jr., Chris Black, Oliver Goldstick, Joey Murphy and John Pardee serving as consulting producers. The staff writers were Cherry, Goldstick, Spezialy, Pardee, Murphy, Black, producers Alexandra Cunningham, Tracey Stern, Patty Lin, co-executive producer Kevin Murphy, Jenna Bans, David Schulner, Adam Barr, Katie Ford and Joshua Senter. Regular directors throughout the season included Charles McDougall, Arlene Sanford, Larry Shaw, Jeff Melman, Fred Gerber, David Grossman and John David Coles. Its orchestral score was composed by Steve Bartek and Steve Jablonsky, while the series' theme was composed by Danny Elfman. Cherry also served as the season's show runner.

Cast
The initial season had thirteen roles receive star billing. Brenda Strong narrated the series as the deceased Mary Alice Young. Teri Hatcher portrayed the klutzy, lovable divorced mother in search of love, Susan Mayer. Felicity Huffman played former career woman turned full time mother of four, Lynette Scavo. Marcia Cross acted as Bree Van de Kamp, the uptight, perfectionist homemaker and mother of two teenagers, struggling to save her marriage. Eva Longoria Parker starred as Gabrielle Solis, the materialistic ex-fashion model who cheats on her husband. Nicollette Sheridan played the neighborhood slut and Susan's rival, Edie Britt. Steven Culp played Rex Van de Kamp, Bree's emasculated, sexually dissatisfied husband. Ricardo Antonio Chavira starred as Gabrielle's neglectful, high-powered executive husband, Carlos Solis. Mark Moses portrayed Mary Alice's mysterious widower, Paul Young. Andrea Bowen played Susan's knowledgable, level-headed daughter, Julie Mayer. Jesse Metcalfe played the Solis' gardener and Gabrielle's adulterous lover, John Rowland. Cody Kasch played Mary Alice's and Paul's mentally unstable son Zach Young, and James Denton portrayed the neighborhood plumber and Susan's love interest, Mike Delfino, who has a secret of his own.

Numerous supporting characters have been given expansive and recurring appearances in the progressive storyline, including: Doug Savant as Tom Scavo, who later became a series regular in the second season, Richard Burgi as Karl Mayer, Shawn Pyfrom as Andrew Van de Kamp, Joy Lauren as Danielle Van de Kamp, Lupe Ontiveros as Juanita 'Mama' Solis, Kathryn Joosten as Mrs. McCluskey, Christine Estabrook as Martha Huber, Richard Roundtree as Detective Jerry Shaw and Roger Bart as George Williams.

Viewership and reviews
The pilot episode garnered 21.6 million viewers when it aired on October 3, 2004, winning its timeslot of 9:00pm Eastern Standard Time / 8:00pm Central. It had the most viewers for any ABC season premiere since 1996's Spin City. After airing three episodes, ABC picked up Desperate Housewives for a full season. Overall, the first season averaged 23.7 million viewers for all 23 episodes in the U.S., with the season's largest audience of over 30 million viewers tuning in for the season finale. Out of all regular primetime programming that aired during the 2004-2005 American television season, Desperate Housewives ranked #4 out of #156 according to the Nielsen Ratings system.

Critical reception was generally favorable. Robert Bianco of USA Today gave the pilot a score of four stars out of four, calling it "[r]efreshingly original, bracingly adult and thoroughly delightful" going on to say that "[Desperate] Housewives is a brightly colored, darkly comic take on suburban life, sort of Knots Landing meets The Golden Girls by way of Twin Peaks." Tim Goodman of the San Francisco Chronicle thought that Desperate Housewives was "a brilliantly conceived and relentlessly entertaining new drama." Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe commented that the series had "marvelous tonal elasticity." Peter Schorn of IGN felt that season one was "blessed with an attractive cast (sing the praises of older women!), sharp writing and a funky vibe of its own" and that "Desperate Housewives was able to take some of the oldest formulas in the book and infuse them with their own subversive twists to whip up a frothy confection of sly wit and dark motives." Schorn gave the season a score of 9 out of 10.

Some critics were not as enthusiastic, however. Upon reviewing the DVD release of the season, Entertainment Weekly's Dalton Ross gave it a B+ grade, selecting the pilot, "Who's That Woman?", "Guilty", "Children Will Listen" and the season finale "One Wonderful Day" as the season's best episodes, while selecting "Suspicious Minds", "Your Fault" and "Love is in the Air" as the season's worst. Similarly, Heather Havrilesky of Salon.com felt that after a few episodes, "this dark exploration of the lives of women has not only slid quickly into clichés, but the acting feels forced and overplayed, the stories are wildly unrealistic, the direction is stuck in some awkward nowhereland between campy and leaden, and the voice-over is so grating and so peskily imitative of "Sex and the City" that the whole package is almost unwatchable."

Awards
Season one was nominated for a total of fifteen Primetime Emmy Awards. Six of the fifteen nominations were won. They were in the categories of Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing For A Comedy Series, Outstanding Main Title Theme Music which was awarded Danny Elfman, Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series which was awarded to Felicity Huffman for her portrayal of Lynette Scavo, Outstanding Guest Actress In A Comedy Series which was awarded to Kathryn Joosten for her portrayal of Mrs. McCluskey, Outstanding Directing For A Comedy Series which was awarded to Charles McDougall and Outstanding Casting For A Comedy Series. Teri Hatcher picked up a Golden Globe Award in the category of Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Musical or Comedy for her portrayal of Susan Mayer. The season received four other Golden Globe nominations, winning one for Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy. The season also won two Screen Actors Guild Awards; one was awarded to Teri Hatcher in the category Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series and the other was awarded to the series cast under the category of Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.

Episodes
The first season's episodes are approximately 997 minutes long.

DVD release
The DVD release of season one was released by Warner Bros. in the US on October 26, 2004, after it had completed broadcast on television. As well as every episode from the season, the DVD release features bonus material including a preview of the second season, deleted scenes, audio commentary and behind-the-scenes featurettes.