Welcome to Desperately Devoted.
Think of us as your favorite neighbors as we chat about life and relationships.
All while we revisit the iconic show Desperate Housewives together.
I'm Terry Hatcher, I'm Andrea Bowen.
And I'm Emerson Tenny.
Okay, welcome back everyone. I am so excited that we are here. Can you believe it's almost twenty twenty six. This is the end of a nine year cycle and we were about to go into this new, expansive, abundant era. I know, for me, I am really looking to make this twenty twenty six about community and friendship and connection.
And we have just loved seeing all of.
Your likes and comments and questions coming through our Desperately Devoted podcast Instagram, and we wanted to answer a few more of them before the new year.
So let's get into it.
This one, I think is for Andrea. Okay, from I am I Okay, So I think I'm reading this right. So this is from Marcie. We hear and see so much about being a child actor, especially in the nineties and early two thousands with documentaries like Quiet on Set The Dark Side of Kids TV. Did you have any experiences similar to the kids on these shows.
Well, so I will say that I it took me a minute to watch that documentary because I was bracing myself for recognizing familiar experiences in my own life growing up as a child actor and an actor on TV. And I will say that I was fortunate to avoid a lot of the super super dark, scary sides of the industry. But that doesn't mean that I don't have a crop of memories that now I look back on as an adult and recognize that they were not safe places for me to be. They were not safe people
for me to be around. And I think the one distinguishing thing I've known, and I knew a lot of those kids that are featured in that particular documentary or who have had those experiences, I think that it's very impossible to put a child in an adult world and not leave them vulnerable to experiences happening to them that they're not ready for. I think the difference between being on a show like Desperate Housewives was that, yes, it was a mostly adult show, and obviously my co workers
were mostly adult, you know, adults. It didn't attract adults though, who wanted to be exclusively around children. I think there's a distinction. Well, they're the shows that were on Disney or Nickelodeon or these other child centric networks. You might have some adults who are attracted to work in that working space because there are so many children there, and that I think leaves the door wide open for a
lot of scary things. I have said, I have strong feelings about my future child wanting to be in the business in a professional capacity before she's an adult, because I think it's really hard to protect children. I have amazing parents, I had amazing coworkers like Terry who were looking out for me, and I still had unfortunate experiences. I had experiences growing up with adult men who were inappropriate with me, and I was it's because I was
in a I was in that environment. It can happen anywhere, obviously, But I do think that.
I think I swore too much in front of you.
You do interesting.
I seem to recall trying to catch myself like, I don't think that's the kind of unfortunate experience.
Because I didn't have that perception.
But I also was thinking of MJ.
There is I didn't give a shit about in front of you, but like I think was five, I was like, oh shit, I shouldn't say that.
Yeah, yeah.
I think it was a delicate balance for me too, because I wanted to be seen as an equal. I didn't want to feel like I was babied. I didn't want to feel like I was treated as not a professional who was there to do a job. But when inappropriate things would happen. I was on a series before Desperate Housewives where one of the leads had made an offhanded comment about the porn Debbie Do's Dallas. I remember this really, really well, and it went over my head
at the time. I didn't get it, but they felt so terrible afterwards that they went to my mom and said, I am so sorry that I made that comment in front of your daughter. And I was so confused. I felt like what was going on because I didn't even get it at the time, and that certainly was not a damaging thing. It didn't land with me. It wasn't.
But I think there's a difference. Some people are really aware when there's a child on set, and a lot of people aren't, and a lot of people don't feel like it's their job just because there's a child on set to change their behavior.
Yeah.
Another question that came in was is TV work a nine to five? How long were you on set? Was it Monday through Friday or did you come and go throughout the week? Also, where are all the doctor's office scenes filmed?
Vanessa? You had so many questions A lot the.
Doctor's office scenes.
Well, maybe there's maybe the hospital, because we did use that. That was on a set that was on Universal.
We're all on stage in the back, and the more there would be stories where like you'll, you know, Mike ends up in the hospital, or Susan's in the hospital, or Rex's in the hospital.
Julie's in the hospital.
Yeah, Julius there it's that was a stage. I don't remember the name, but it's kind of down close to where like the Transformer ride used to be.
Yeah, and when you say stages, I just think we should clarify to use our sound stages on the Universal studios a lot. Yeah, where they build sets inside of a large room and then they're able to bring in camera crew and light it and film it like it's an actual space.
So all of those doctors slash hospital scenes were in the same sound stage.
Yes, there is no drama show, anything that is not a sitcom, and even a sitcom, there is not anything that shoots between nine and five as true. Like my girlfriend right now is doing hair on what's it called Saint Dennis Medical, and that show, she claims is a quote unquote easy show because the everyone's really nice and the producers are like very clear about stopping at like ten to twelve hours, like that's they don't do any of the crazy overtime sixteen hour days.
But she still goes to work.
At like five thirty in the morning and doesn't leave until like six o'clock at night.
Well, yeah, I mean an eight hour workday, it doesn't exist in Hollywood.
I mean it is. You are at least ten to twelve hours.
Yeah, and they're on a scene and you're right thirteen because you take away the hour for lunch, right.
And there's a union that we're a part of. And then that union has rules and structure that you have to adhere to, so you have to get things that are called like a twelve hour turnaround, so that there's twelve hours between when you wrap and when you're back on set.
And now there's no yes.
To note because I think a lot of people who aren't maybe familiar with the industry. The twelve hour turnaround is like this big built in grace cushion. But think about how many hours you sleep at night, like maybe like to sleep nine hours. Now, imagine you don't get to leave your office building, and you leave your office building at I don't know, five pm. You have to be back at five am, so.
You have to you have to drive home.
The fact the travel time, you have to take a shower, you have.
To like eat dinner, you have to deal with your life, you have to sleep, and then you have to turn around and come back like it's it's it's.
And a lot of the time, I mean, you guys were shooting eighteen hour days.
Yeah, we were. They tried to pull that back to like fifteen max. But even still the fifteen hour days a lot. And is it Monday through Friday? It usually is Monday through Friday, but you usually finish Friday at like four in the morning, and you usually have to be back Monday at like five in the morning. So they kind of like jip you of your time over the weekend. And they do that on purpose because they
that's how it works. It's a listen. It's not an easy it's not an easy gig, but you're grateful to have you.
Here's a question, a quick and easy one from Ace of Bess to you, Mom. Okay, Ace of Best says, I love Terry's glasses. Oh do you get them all from the same place? You have so many fun frames.
Oh that's so cute.
I'm so glad that you say that glasses are really Like, there's something might I tell Emerson all the time, read all the books you want to read before you turn forty, because after you turn forty and you can't see anything anymore, it's just a pain, like, you know, the simplest thing, Like you look at this like, oh I can't read that without my glasses, you know anyway. But at least you look good, dude, Oh thank you? And I do.
Typically there is one shop in Los Angeles that I've been going to for a long time and seeing them for a long time. I have a lot of Chanel, and typically I don't I'm not like a you wouldn't say, I'm not like a snooty brand. No, you're not really sign I'm not a designer person. But I do have a few pair of Chanelle's I do love showing my personality through my glasses since I'm stuck with I.
Recently got into the glasses game myself after updating my prescription for the first time in a decade and finding out that my vision is not so good anymore. And I agree it's really fun to express your fashion through your glasses.
Well, I have one more question that I want to ask, and it's to both of you.
It's a two hander.
This is from Georgia Kay, and she says, thanks so much for listening and for watching the show so many times with your mom.
That must be to me. Uh, she says, we love that question.
Were there people that you knew in your life who you put into your character? This is for Andrea and for Terry. Did you have a mother figure that you put into your character that you were emulating? Were there mannerisms from people in your actual life that you felt yourself imbuing into your character.
Unlike Terry, where we've said there's some really obvious differences between Susan and Terry, like some really really clear ones. I would say there's a chunk of crossover between Andrea and Julie, and so I didn't necessarily draw on a ton of other people to bring into that character, but I did kind of let myself come into that character
a lot as we continue to rewatch. I do remember there being a real departure at a certain point where I felt like Julie's storyline was going in a really different way than what I would ever do, but also than what I thought Julie would do. And that was kind of an interesting thing.
And maybe when that happens, Yeah, because you feel so connected to your character and why you acting that way, feel ownership of yeah, your character, But.
What do you think did you bring in other people into the crafting?
But I understand that question. I mean it's not like something that I haven't thought of or sort of applied to maybe other characters. But I don't think I felt that I needed to do that here. Well, I felt pretty locked in and familiar with the vulnerability of Susan with you know, being a mother, being a single mother. Of course I'm a very different kind of mother, but like, I felt really locked into that, and I also just really appreciated finding the comedic moments in it. Yeah, so I love that.
Yeah.
Well, the one thing I just want to add this was a question to me from Rita H. That we didn't get to get to, but I think it is important to say that Rita H. I was actually never jealous of Andrea and the time she got to spend with my mom. As an only child, it was really special for me to feel like I had some version of a simulated sister, and my mom gave me so much of her attention when she wasn't on set.
But I thought that was a really cool question. Thanks again for sending.
In your questions and for your kind comments, and for your devotion to our podcast. We are desperately devoted to all of you, our listeners, and we look forward to being with you again in the new year. Let's have an amazing twenty twenty six