Desperate Housewives

Viewers will see Susan (Teri Hatcher) "trying, not so successfully, to settle down to domestic bliss" with Mike (James Denton), Cherry said.

Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) starts an affair with ex-husband Carlos (Ricardo Chavira).

Viewers will learn why Bree (Marcia Cross) is hiding the fake pregnancy and the lengths she’ll go to keep it under wraps.

Lynette (Felicity Huffman) will deal with cancer "in both an emotional and a funny way," Cherry said.

The writers gave Lynette non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma because it has one of the highest cure rates, Cherry said.

"What we wanted to do is examine the effects illness had on family and friends. We don’t want to do some ridiculous she-might-die thing," Cherry said. "That’s not our point in dealing with the disease. It was mostly to see what being sick does to you and the people around you. And in the second episode, we do a fascinating story that one of the women doesn’t respond well to Lynette’s illness."

Dana Delany and Nathan Fillion are joining the cast as a couple. Delany will play an old friend of Susan who infuriates the other women. Fillion plays the woman’s gynecologist husband.

"I wanted them to bring a sense of mystery," Cherry said. "And I wanted a female character to come along and shake up all the women on Wisteria Lane. She gets in everybody’s face and causes a ruckus."

Sweet, lovable Dana Delany?

"Oh, she can be mean," Cherry said.

In the early episodes, a gay couple will move to Wisteria Lane. One of the gay men will have "a hateful, fractious relationship" with Susan. Susan tries to be politically correct and misspeaks herself. The situation steadily worsens.

"I’m going to have the first male Desperate Housewife," Cherry said. "They move on the street, and they have as many issues as any couple."

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