Are the creators of Desperate Housewives fans of Sondheim?

[ProducersFan]

Posted: 3/26/05 at 7:03pm

I might be really slow on the uptake and this has probably been discussed before... but has anyone else noticed that all the titles of the Desperate Housewives episodes (or at least the vast majority) are taken from song titles written by Sondheim?

I thought it was an interesting coincidence when one of the first episodes was titled "Pretty Little Picture" but when I saw that tomorrow's ep is "The Ladies Who Lunch" I got really curious and decided to do some searching on IMDB.com

Here's a list of all the episodes that IMDB.com lists - how many of them are Sondheim songs as well? I thought it was a neat observation!

"Ah, But Underneath"
"Pretty Little Picture"
"Who's That Woman?"
"Come in, Stranger"
"Running to Stand Still"
"Anything You Can Do"
"Guilty"
"Suspicious Minds"
"Come Back to Me"
"Move On"
"Every Day a Little Death"
"Your Fault"
"Love Is in the Air"
"Impossible"
"The Ladies Who Lunch"
"There Won't Be Trumpets"
"Children Will Listen"
"An Unexpected Song"


~Jessica

[chinkie azn jai]

Posted: 3/26/05 at 7:07pm

haha that is neat!

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 3/26/05 at 7:11pm

there was an article a while back where creator Marc Cherry said that he based all the episode titles on showtunes...

[GovernorSlaton]

Posted: 3/26/05 at 7:12pm

Yes, Cherry is a Sondheim fan. 11 of those are Sondheim songs.

[ashley0139]

Posted: 3/26/05 at 8:26pm

How cool is that?!?!

[pab]

Posted: 3/26/05 at 9:26pm

The following is from a page called CineMatrixes:

"I've been nosing around the Desperate Housewives boards because I'd like to write a DH spec script and I'm trying to get a better handle on the show. From what I've learned Marc Cherry uses song titles for each episode, except obviously the pilot.

With a bit of detective work, I realized that Marc Cherry is a huge Stephen Sondheim fan since most (but not all) of the episode titles are taken from songs from Sondheim's library.

SONDHEIM:

Episode 2 -- "Ah, But Underneath" -- from "The Follies"
Episode 3 -- "Pretty Little Pictures" -- from "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum"
Episode 4 -- "Who's That Woman?" -- from "The Follies"
Episode 11 -- "Move On" -- from "Sunday in the Park with George"
Episode 12 -- "Every Day A Little Death" -- Not sure where this is from, but I know it is one of Sondheim's.
Episode 13 -- "Your Fault" -- from "Into th Woods"
Link

Updated On: 3/27/05 at 09:26 PM

[CastAlbumFan]

Posted: 3/26/05 at 10:05pm

"Every Day a Little Death" is from my second-favorite Sondheim musical A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC.

[Madame X2]

Posted: 3/26/05 at 10:16pm

But some are by other composers.

"Impossible"- Rogers and Hammerstien's Cinderella

"An Unexpected Song"- Andrew Lloyd Webber- "Song and Dance"

[Chip1012]

Posted: 3/26/05 at 10:26pm

At Wall to Wall Sondheim last week Sondheim was asked what he thought of this and he just laughed and said "I havn't seen the show."

[jjdude2000]

Posted: 3/26/05 at 10:29pm

Dont forget "Anything You Can Do" ~Irving Berlin, Annie Get Your Gun

[ProducersFan]

Posted: 3/26/05 at 10:51pm

I thought "Impossible" was also from Forum. I guess only Marc Cherry knows for sure!

I love this idea for episode titles. DH has become one of my obsessions and is slowly edging out Monk (which has been pretty poor since Bitty left) as my favorite show. Of course, anything that involves Roger is definitely worthy!

~Jessica

[Footlooser]

Posted: 3/26/05 at 11:13pm

That is so cool!

[GovernorSlaton]

Posted: 3/26/05 at 11:17pm

Impossible is from Forum.

[Feathah]

Posted: 3/26/05 at 11:36pm

Wow! So cool! I'm a fan of the show but never noticed!

[bwaylyric]

Posted: 4/21/05 at 3:01pm

Here are other recent titles:
4/10: Children Will Listen
4/17: Live Alone and Like It (AKA "An Unexpected Song")

And for upcoming episodes:
5/1: Fear No More
5/8: Sunday in the Park With George
5/15: Goodbye For Now

[grownupgroupie]

Posted: 4/21/05 at 3:32pm

Very cool. From what I've seen of Cherry, I'm not surprised.

"Running to Stand Still" is a U2 song, but then again, Bono has recently busted into "Send in the Clowns" in the midst of "Electric Co" on tour, so maybe there's some cosmic connection here:)

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 4/21/05 at 3:43pm

Thanks for posting that! It's awesome!

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 4/21/05 at 5:38pm

"Sunday in the Park With George"

Ooo, does that mean that Bree and George may have another date? Preferably without a handgun this time? Wait, I don't want to know, I hate spoilers.

I did know about the showtunes trend in the DH episode titles and loved the idea. Much better than The One Where...

[neomystyk29]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 9:51pm

just thought I'd say that tonight's episode was "I know things now".

[notabb]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 10:28pm

I can't remember which one but at one of the Sondheim tributes there was a brief film clip sent by Desperate Housewifes.You went to Wisteria Lane and the various characters told you their favorite Sondhiem song.There were some great choices.It was very funny but I can't remember even one now.

[mateo]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 10:28pm

That is better than Degrassi ep titles named after 80's songs.

If i had a show, I would probably do lil things like that aswell.


There was a sondheim reference in an episode once, and i thought it was just my imagination... sadly I cant remember what it was.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 5/7/06 at 11:06pm

A guy dies and goes to heaven. He's standing in a very long line waiting to get through the pearly gates when a man with a flowing white beard in a flowing white robe walks by muttering "Another hundred people just got off of the bus and are looking around at another hundred people who got off of the plane and are looking at us who got off of the train and the plane and the bus maybe yesterday..."

"Wow" the guy says to the man next to him. "Was that....?"

"Yup" the other guy says "That's God. Thinks he's Sondheim."

[BWIDB Charlie]

Posted: 5/8/06 at 1:07am

In addition, one of the Executive Producers (who also writes for the show) is Reefer Madness: The Musical's Lyricist & Co-Book Writer, Kevin Murphy.

- Charlie
[e-mail]

[MarymountBoy]

Posted: 5/8/06 at 7:11am

This is very cool. And I'm sure more is put into the show that's theatre related: just a few weeks ago there was an episode where one of the housewives gets drunk and passes out in a mall dressing room- she is wearing this dress and she runs to the door but there are gates up over the doors and so the dress/gate/lighting- the whole picture looks VERY familiar to the gate and Clara near the end of LITP. It was obvious to me and quite cute.

[xM3L24x]

Posted: 5/8/06 at 7:41am

That's really cool, I should start watching the show.