AFTER EIGHT SEASONS and 180 episodes the wives of Wisteria Lane said goodbye last night as ABC aired the two-hour series finale of Desperate Housewives in the US.

The double-bill episodes tied up a lot of loose ends – don’t worry we won’t reveal any spoilers – but if you do want to know the final outcomes of the housewives all is revealed here.

The Washington Post reports that fans were not disappointed with the final episode, saying that the eighth season ended with an “affectionate send-off”.

It wasn’t just viewers that were sad to say goodbye but the stars too. The actresses took to Twitter to say how they were feeling:

The series followed the lives of four close friends and their racy lives in suburbia. The housewives went through a lot over the years – the suicide of their friend, the break-up of marriages, the death of husbands and also the covering up of murder – all made it through with the help of each other.

RTE is currently running four episodes behind the States, so fear not we still have a few more weeks before we have to say goodbye. ‘Lost My Power’ and ‘The People Will Hear’ episodes are to be aired here before we get to see the double-finale episodes ‘Give Me the Blame’ and ‘Finishing Hat’. After that, there is no more.

When Desperate Housewives came onto our screens in 2004 it was a huge success taking the place of Sex and the City which had concluded that year. The series was rewarded in both 2005 and 2006, winning Golden Globes for Best Television Series.

So as we have a few more weeks with our favourite housewives here are a few things you might not have known about the girls of Wisteria Lane:

• ‘Desperate Housewives’ was not the original title for this popular series. The other two titles considered were The Secrets of Westeria Lane and The Secret Lives of Housewives.
• In the scene where Susan Mayer stumbles and falls into a wedding cake, Teri Hatcher who plays Susan, really had a bad fall and broke two of her ribs.
• Nicollette Sheridan, who played Edie Britt, originally auditioned for the role of Bree but was told she suited Edie better. Sheridan later sought $6 million for wrongful termination after she was killed off.
• The role of Susan Mayer was offered to Courtney Cox who played Monica in Friends, but she couldn’t take it because she was pregnant.
• Series creator Marc Cherry said he got the idea to write the pilot after a conversation with his mother. She told him that raising Cherry and his siblings with their father away most of the time made her feel “desperate” sometimes.
• Dana Delaney auditioned for the role of Bree and was offered the part. After thinking about it, she declined the role. Her reasoning was that she had played a similar role in the soap Pasadena, and felt she would be repeating herself. She later played the role of Katherine Mayfair.
• Each hour-long episode is filmed in eight days, typically three on location, and five on the Universal Studios lot.

(via ShareTV.org,Wendymag.com, Magforwomen.com)

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