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In retrospect, he realizes
that all along he had the makings of a writer, not an actor.
The Theatre Department‘s “[professor emeritus]
Gretchen Kanne always let me know I didn’t have what
it takes to be an actor,” he says. “I was always
analyzing rather than being in the moment. That’s wrong
for an actor but right for a writer. The department was also
where I developed my chops in terms of analyzing plays and
theatrical structure.”
Those are useful skills because as
executive producer of “Desperate Housewives,”
he now writes at least half of every script, supervises the
writing team, and is involved with editing, casting, merchandising,
publicity, and even costume approval. “I’m embarrassed
at how long I work,” he says -- about 70 hours a week,
including 12-hour shifts Monday through Friday and five or
six hours each Saturday and Sunday. He’s quick to note
that he’s well paid for his time.
Cherry’s inspiration for the
show was a conversation with his mother about the real-life
case of a woman who drowned her children. His mother said
she could understand from her own experience the desperation
behind the act. That remark stunned Cherry because, he says,
“I had always thought my mother loved her life.”
He told a meeting of television critics in January, “I
was just trying to write the truth of one woman. But I felt
if I wrote it well enough, I might be able to capture the
truth of maybe many, many women.”
Pieces of his mother show up in most
of the show’s female characters. The one he enjoys writing
for most is Bree, the tight-lipped perfectionist, because
“I get to use my vocabulary. Both she and her husband
are very articulate, the way my mother and father were.”
He is also intrigued by Eva, the former runway model, whom
he calls “selfish and materialistic but still charming.”
He included Eva in the cast list to add some glamour. “I
had thought that three of the women would be very ordinary
looking,” he recalls. “The fact that it was cast
with all these beautiful women gives it an extra dimension.”
Now that “Desperate Housewives”
has achieved mega-success, the frustration that Cherry went
through to create it has been supplanted by satisfaction.
“I wrote this script on my own, in my home, without
any collaboration with a network. What the network got was
my complete vision. They treated me with respect because they
saw I knew what I was doing. Executives want you to prove
you can go some fantastic place with your writing.”
Every Sunday evening for 60 minutes (less commercials), Marc
Cherry shows that he can. 
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