Desperate Housewives/Sondheim References in Episode Titles

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 5/18/08 at 5:17pm

I read somewhere that Marc Cherry, the creator of Desperate Housewives, names every official episode of Desperate Housewives after a Sondheim song. I noticed that in some of the episode titles ("Getting Married Today," "Children and Art," "You Could Drive a Person Crazy," "What Would We Do Without You," and "Into the Woods" for example). I'm not an expert on Sondheim's work, so didn't make the connection earlier on, but I'm very interested at the reasoning behind this. Thanks!

[TomMonster]

Posted: 5/18/08 at 5:36pm

Either songs or lyric snippets...

And it's because Cherry is a HUGE fan of Sondheim's.

[JulianHookbucks]

Posted: 5/18/08 at 5:39pm

on IMDB there is a listing of every Sondheim related title. There's only 10 or 15 out of the entire 4 seasons that don't have Sondheim related titles.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 5/18/08 at 6:07pm

There was a thread about this before, too lazy to look for it.
It started with Sondheim titles, now most are lyrics, or non-Sondheim related. I love the episode titles, they actually fit the episode contents pretty well.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 5/18/08 at 6:10pm

I don't think that there's any real reason for it other than the fact that it's fun!

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 5/18/08 at 6:14pm

Well, Marc Cherry is indeed a Sondheim fan, and a musical theater fan in general. He was at a recent Sondheim benefit in which Felicity Huffman played the interviewer when an actor sang "Franklin Shepard Inc" (can't remember who).
Cherry has said that when DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES is over in 2011-ish, he hopes to write the book to a new Broadway musical.

[aliciag]

Posted: 5/18/08 at 6:16pm

Well I certainly never noticed that. Awesome. It almost makes me love the show even more!

[chinkie azn jai]

Posted: 5/18/08 at 6:33pm

Why does he think he'll be done with Desperate Housewives in 2011?

[nitsua]

Posted: 5/18/08 at 6:41pm

Check 'em out for yourself!
Desperate Housewives Episode List

[Weez]

Posted: 5/18/08 at 7:33pm

And this is why I couldn't watch the show; I'm a demon for needing to know episode names, and I'd just get songs stuck in my head constantly. XD

Not that this has anything to do with anything, but I used to be the Sci-fi queen at a bookstore, and everytime I shelved Iain M Banks books, I'd get 'Putting It Together' stuck in my head, because of the slim yellow volume entitled 'State Of The Art'. ^_^

Updated On: 5/18/08 at 07:33 PM

[keen on kean]

Posted: 5/18/08 at 7:51pm

Wow - some of these are wonderfully obscure like Kanagawa.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 5/18/08 at 8:09pm

Cherry just said this past week, that he doesn't want the show to last too long because he feels the audience is going to be done with it by then, so he wants the show to end around season 7. He apparently really regrets Season 2 and doesn't want that to happen again.

[heathurrr]

Posted: 5/18/08 at 8:53pm

According to Wikipedia, tonight's episode is called 'Gun Song'!
Hurray Assassins :)

[TheaterAddict7652]

Posted: 5/18/08 at 9:11pm

At Sondheim's 75 birthday concert back in 2005, there was a filmed segment in which different characters from Desperate Housewives named their favorite Sondheim song. It's pretty funny, you can find it here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=84vGWVenlTk

Updated On: 5/18/08 at 09:11 PM