Papi Chulo's BLOG

"Desperate" Time Jump :: Wisteria Lane Won't Ever Be the Same!

Desperate Housewives ended its fourth season last night with one hell of a cliffhanger ...

In last night's two-hour extravaganza the Katherine Mayfair season-long mystery was wrapped up ... and in the final moments of the episode ... the story flashed five years into the future ... and that's where it will stay at the start of its fifth season ...

Marc Cherry (Desperate Housewives' Creator): "One of the problems I had with Season 2 was that I had to keep going with the previous year's stuff. I learned you have to go back to square one to build up the tension again. Finally, this year I said, 'Why don't we really mix it up?'"

And boy did he mix it up ... Bree is a Martha Stewart-type celebrity ... Katherine is still on the lane ... Lynette's children have grown into juvenile delinquents ... Gaby is still caring for a blind Carlos and their two children ... and has let herself go ...

Eva Longoria Parker (Gaby): "It's a great way to push the reset button."

But the biggest shocker came during the final 15 seconds of the episode ... Susan is seen arriving at her home and kissing a mystery man ... played by Gale Harold (Queer As Folk) ...

Here is a clip of the final moments of Desperate Housewives' season finale ...

Teri Hatcher (Susan): "[The women's new looks] are reflective of where the characters are. It will be revealed over episodes, maybe through flashbacks, what has been happening to everybody."

Cherry plans on ending the series after seven seasons in 2011 ...

~Papi Chulo~

UPFRONTS :: ABC Adds Two New Shows

ABC unveiled its 2008-2009 television schedule earlier this week ... and the schedule appears very similar to its 2007 fall schedule ... That is a testament to ABC's strong 2007-2008 television season ...

ABC officially announced the cancellations of ... Men In Trees, October Road, Big Shots, Women's Murder Club, Cashmere Mafia, Carpoolers, Cavemen, Miss/Guided, and Notes from the Underbelly ...

Freshman series that have been renewed for a second season include ... Samantha Who?, Eli Stone, Pushing Daisies, Private Practice and Dirty Sexy Money ...

There are two new shows debuting in the fall ... Opportunity Knocks is a Extreme Makeover/Who Wants to Be a Millionaire-hybrid ... The game show will visit a contestants home and the contestants will play the game in their front yard ... The show will be hosted by J.D. Roth and is produced by Ashton Kutcher ...

The other new show is an American adaptation of the BBC drama Life on Mars ... The show features a detective from the present-day who travels back to the 1970s ...

For midseason ... ABC will debut The Goode Family ... an animated series from Mike Judge ... The Goode Family is obsessed with doing the "right" thing ... The show will air Tuesday nights once Dancing With the Stars ends its fall cycle ... Also on Tuesdays after DWTS ABC premieres Scrubs' final season ...

An untitled Ashton Kutcher/Tyra Banks beauty pageant will air at midseason ... as will a new edition of The Bachelor ... and new seasons of According to Jim, Primetime: What Would You Do? and LOST ...

Also likely returning are Dance War and Here Come the Newlyweds ...

Here is ABC's new schedule ...

:: MONDAYS ::
8:00 DANCING WITH THE STARS
9:30 SAMANTHA WHO?
10:00 BOSTON LEGAL/THE BACHELOR

:: TUESDAYS ::
8:00 OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS
9:00 DANCING WITH THE STARS RESULTS SHOW / SCRUBS & THE GOODE FAMILY
10:00 ELI STONE

:: WEDNESDAY ::
8:00 PUSHING DAISIES
9:00 PRIVATE PRACTICE
10:00 DIRTY SEXY MONEY

:: THURSDAY ::
8:00 UGLY BETTY
9:00 GREY'S ANATOMY
10:00 LIFE ON MARS

:: FRIDAY ::
8:00 WIFE SWAP
9:00 SUPERNANNY
10:00 20/20

:: SATURDAY ::
8:00 SATURDAY NIGHT COLLEGE FOOTBALL / MOVIES

:: SUNDAY ::
7:00 AMERICA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS
8:00 EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION
9:00 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES
10:00 BROTHERS & SISTERS

~Papi Chulo~

Coming Soon :: "Desperate" Time Jump

Wisteria Lane may never be the same after the end of this season ... Desperate Housewives has a five-year time jump planned for the final minutes of this season's finale ...

There is already speculation that Nicollette Sheridan's Edie Britt may not make the jump ... During an interview James Denton gave some dirt on the twist ...

James Denton: "Other than the four main women, nobody is really too secure. I don't know if you've [heard] there's supposedly a big time jump at the end of this season, either forward or backward a number of years. So we'll lose some castmembers. That's what we've been told, so none of us are feeling too smug. We're just waiting to see how it shakes out. If they go backward [in time], you know, Delfino wasn't even there yet. If they go forward, by then Susan's baby will be 6 or 7 years old and all that stuff, so it's going to be tricky. But I think it'll enable the writers to do some really creative things and sort of reset the show."

But what of Nicollette?

James Denton: "I don't know. Maybe Nicollette's renegotiation is coming up and they're leaving the door open just in case it doesn't go as planned!"

~Papi Chulo~

"Desperate" Scoop :: Is Edie Going to Die ???

Desperate Housewives returns with 7 new episodes (including a 2-hour season finale) this Sunday ... with an episode appropriately titled "Sunday" ...

But the current rumor has one of Wisteria Lane's bitchiest (and enjoyable) residents getting a horrible demise in episode 5 ...

Nicollette Sheridan's days may be numbered on the show ... The actress recently laughed off reports that her character is getting killed on the series ... But creator Marc Cherry did give a rather ominous peek at what's in store for Sheridan's Edie Britt ...

Marc Cherry: "Edie is going to cross a huge moral boundary that she's never crossed before on the show and it will have devastating consequences for her and lead to a shocking conclusion to her time on Wisteria Lane."

The key phrase is "shocking conclusion to her time on Wisteria Lane" ... That kind of sounds like she's dying ...

I guess we will just have to wait and see what's in store for Ms. Britt and the rest of the Wisteria Lane gals ... Let's just hope that Edie survives until next season so that she can cause more drama on the lane ...

~Papi Chulo~

Desperate Housewives :: "Everything You Need to Know ..."

The fifth season of Desperate Housewives will include 23 episodes ... The remainder of the fourth season launches on April 13 ...

Here is a brief recap of the entire series to catch everyone up on all the dirty laundry ...

~Papi Chulo~

Desperate Housewives :: Season Finale Twist Leaked ?!?

This season has seen ABC's Desperate Housewives return to being the ratings phenomenon it originally was ...

Now TVGuide.com has gotten the scoop on just how big of a bang the girls from Wisteria Lane plan on going out with this season ...

Apparently when the show returns on April 13 it will advance the storylines by "several months" ... but the biggest shocker will occur in the season finale ... the show will advance five years in the closing moments of the fourth season finale ... and continue from there for the duration of the series ...

Check out the news from TVGuide.com ...

Some of the roles would need to be recast ... and how are are they going to explain what happened during those five years? ... Flashbacks à la LOST?

Also ... it is hinted that this plan hasn't been fully mapped out and another possibility is taking the show back five years to the past when Mary Alice was still alive on the lane ...

I prefer the housewives going into the future ... because we pretty much have learned about the women's pasts in previous episodes that have featured flashbacks ...

~Papi Chulo~

ABC Announces Series Returns!

The housewives ... doctors ... lawyers ... fashion editors ... and amnesiacs are returning to television on ABC ...

ABC announced Wednesday its new post-writers' strike spring schedule ...

Desperate Housewives returns on April 13 with 5 all-new episodes ... plus a 2-hour season finale on May 18 ... Grey's Anatomy returns to its regular timeslot on April 24 with 5 additional episodes ... Boston Legal returns on April 8 with 6 new episodes ... Ugly Betty returns on April 24 with 5 more episodes ... Freshman hit Samantha Who? returns on April 7 with 6 brand-new episodes ...

Also returning ... Brothers & Sisters will get 4 additional episodes ... Those episodes will start airing on April 20 ... and LOST will get an additional 5 episodes added to the current batch ... The series will go on hiatus after episode 7 (on March 13) and return on April 17 with episode 8 at its current timeslot ... Then it will move to 10pm on April 24 to air the 5 additional episodes ...

~Papi Chulo~

ABC Renews 9 Series for '09

With the writers' strike pretty much over ... ABC is getting back to work ...

The network announced that nine fan (and advertiser) favorites will be returning in the fall with full-season renewals ... Grey's Anatomy ... LOST ... Ugly Betty ... Desperate Housewives ... Brothers & Sisters ... Private Practice ... Pushing Daisies ... Samantha Who? ... and Dirty Sexy Money ...

Stephen MacPherson (ABC Entertainment President): "The strength of our schedule this fall was unprecedented. We're looking forward to building on that success."

But for the remainder of the spring ... Grey's Anatomy ... Desperate Housewives ... LOST ... Brothers & Sisters ... Ugly Betty ... and Samantha Who? are definitely returning to the small screen ...

The fate of Boston Legal ... Men in Trees ... October Road ... and Women's Murder Club is in limbo ...

But it's pretty safe to say that Cavemen and Carpoolers are headed for official cancellation ...

As for the new midseason series ... Cashmere Mafia and Eli Stone ... Their fate is still undecided ...

~Papi Chulo~

Writers' Strike :: Almost Over ???

"We are 99.9 percent of the way there" ...

The New York Times ... The Associated Press ... E! News ... and TV Guide are all reporting that the major roadblocks between the striking Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have been eliminated ... Meaning that a tentative agreement could be made sometime this week ...

One of the most important issues has been the matter of revenues from Internet distribution ... and that breakthrough came Friday after two weeks of productive talks between both sides ...

But what does this mean for our favorite shows?

Well with a tentative agreement between the WGA and the AMPTP ... television shows could go back into production ... So far the folks over at Grey's Anatomy have said that with this tentative agreement they expect to resume production in early March ... The plan is to shoot four or five episodes to air in April and May ... The same is said to be happening to Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters ...

Freshman series that have already been given full-season pickups (like ABC's Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, and Samantha Who?) will more than likely restart production over the summer ahead of the fall season ...

CBS, NBC and FOX will more than likely follow ABC's move ... Hits will return ASAP and new series will return in the fall ...

The fate of serialized programming (like LOST, Heroes and 24) remains unclear ...

~Papi Chulo~

Mickey and Teri in Disney's "Dream Suite"

Disney park guests selected randomly will be given the chance to spend a night inside Disneyland during the "Year of a Million Dreams" celebration ... The contest started on January 31 ...

The "Dream Suite" includes a living room ... two bedrooms/two bathrooms ... an open-air patio ... and a private balcony overlooking New Orleans Square and the Rivers of America ...

Disney sent out some promotional photographs of the suite featuring Mickey Mouse and Desperate Housewives' Teri Hatcher ...

Here are a couple shots from the shoot ...

~Papi Chulo~