Desperate Housewives

[Brontodon]

My wife and I tend to watch older TV series.  Currently we're watching "Desperate Housewives."  In Season 4, episode 10, one of the characters finds an incriminating note, tears it up, and throws it into the fire.  In episode 11, another character finds some partly-burned pieces of the note and puts them together to be able to read it.  This reminded me of a Sherlock Holmes story, which led to an interesting coincidence:

In "The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge," the character Garcia rolls up a disturbing note and throws it into the fire.  Inspector Baynes finds part of the note unburned in the fireplace, and it becomes instrumental in solving the case.

If you know anything about "Desperate Housewives," you know that it takes place on.. Wisteria Lane!  Obviously, Doyle didn't write his story anticipating "Desperate Housewives," but did the writers of "Desperate Housewives" intend this as an homage to the Holmes story?

[Carol the Dabbler]

That does sound truly suspicious!

What's your reason for watching mostly older shows?  (Not arguing with you -- my husband and I have similar habits.)

 

[Brontodon]

I guess there are just a lot of shows that we missed over the years and streaming services allow us to catch up on them.  Also, there are so many of the newer shows that we have not heard of, and don't know if they are any good.  (Also, a lot of the newer stuff just doesn't appeal to us.)  Here are some of the shows we've watched over the last few years:

• Monk
• Castle
• Lucifer
• Firefly (you can tell we're Nathan Filion fans)
• Shark
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• The Rookie
• Newhart
• Numb3rs
• Bones
• Body of Proof
• The Flash
• Daredevil
• (We started watching "Murder, She Wrote," but rapidly lost interest.)

And probably a whole bunch of others I can't think of at the moment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

3 hours ago, Brontodon said:

... there are so many of the newer shows that we have not heard of, and don't know if they are any good.  (Also, a lot of the newer stuff just doesn't appeal to us.)

We're pretty much in the same boat as you.

Monk is one of our favorite shows too.  We discovered it on one of those broadcast rerun channels, though (because high-speed internet isn't really available here, so we don't do much streaming), and then bought the DVD set.  From the rest of your list, the only shows I'm familiar with are Newhart and Murder, She Wrote (both of which we watched when they were on network TV).  We didn't like Newhart nearly as much as the earlier Bob Newhart Show (where he plays a psychologist), which we also have on DVD.  We also liked Murder, She Wrote well enough to buy the DVDs -- though I must admit that reading this spot-on parody has interfered somewhat with my ability to enough the show!  (If you enjoy that parody, be sure to read the readers' comments as well.)

 

[Brontodon]

The parody had me laughing! I didn't watch enough of the show for it to become formulaic, but I can see how it would have headed in that direction. 

I think I probably liked The Bob Newhart Show better than Newhart, but when we watched the latter a few months ago, I was laughing out loud during every episode. (There's a line from the earlier show that has always stuck with me:  when Mr. Carlin says to the therapy group, "You're all out to get me just 'cause I'm paranoid!" I thought that was brilliant.)

As far as the other shows, if you liked Monk, you might like Castle, and if you like Castle, you might like Shark! 

[Carol the Dabbler]

6 hours ago, Brontodon said:

I didn't watch enough of the show for it to become formulaic

I had never realized it was formulaic till I read that parody.  Watching the show since then, I tend to giggle occasionally and/or mutter "Watch out for the murder moss!"

6 hours ago, Brontodon said:

Mr. Carlin says to the therapy group, "You're all out to get me just 'cause I'm paranoid!"

Mr. Carlin was a terrific character, well played by the late Jack Riley.  I guess that's why he was often added to other group sessions, even those that he didn't seem eligible for.

 

[Brontodon]

Mr. Carlin made a "cameo" appearance in season 7, episode 4 of Newhart.  Jack Riley plays a patient of the psychologist that Dick and Joanna visit, and the psychologist states that it has taken her years to undo the damage done to him by "a therapist" he used to see in Chicago (obviously a reference to Dick's alter ego Bob Hartley.) It was hysterical if you recognized Mr. Carlin and knew about The Bob Newhart Show! 

[Carol the Dabbler]

One reason I prefer The Bob Newhart Show is that it did NOT have Larry, Darryl, & Darryl.  That bit was hilarious the first time and funny the second time, but rapidly became tedious after that -- yet was still treated as obligatory.  Same type of thing that eventually ruined Good Times for me.

 

[Brontodon]

I have to say, I did like Larry and the Darryls.  The show generally kept their appearances frequent but their screen time short.  I could swear that I saw somewhere that they were all three originally supposed to have the same name, but I can't find the reference -- I've tried various search engines, and even AI queries.

[Carol the Dabbler]

On 3/11/2025 at 7:24 PM, Brontodon said:

I could swear that I saw somewhere that they were all three originally supposed to have the same name

I tried (briefly) to find anything about that (and failed).  But I did find this:  The trio were characters in the original Baldur's Gate.  My husband used to spend hours on that game, but I don't recall him ever encountering them.  Maybe he never happened to go where they were.

.

[Brontodon]

I didn't know what Baldur's Gate was until I clicked the link.  I suppose I should know more about video games since both of my boys are into them...

I thought of another old TV show we watched -- Dexter.  Quite good, but (as so many shows do) it faded near the end.

[Caya]

They were very easy to miss in Baldur‘s Gate - on the edge of a map way down south which you didn’t even need for the main quest iirc (it’s been a couple decades). Was a brief encounter too so he didn’t really miss out.

[Carol the Dabbler]

2 hours ago, Caya said:

Was a brief encounter too so he didn’t really miss out.

Woulda been a nice break from the tedious main cast, though!