Situation of Discourse

Disclaimer: This post is extremely boring and if I were you, I wouldn’t read it unless you are Dale. Thank you.


The creator of Desperate Housewives is Marc Cherry. Since, I don't really know anything about him or his personality, I will write about an implied author of the show. For this kind of show, I would have thought that the writer would either be a woman that has been involved in many of the same experiences that are shown on the show. Or, perhaps the writer is a man who is either gay, or has many people around him that resemble those characters on the show. (Either way, these story lines and personalities have to have been inspired by real people.)

I found out that Marc Cherry was indeed gay and many of the women on the show were modeled after people he grew up around. Marc Cherry does have a very good ethos. He has been nominated and won various awards for his creation of Desperate Housewives and other shows as well. Since the show first aired it has brought ABC’s ratings up more than anything in the past. Cherry is well known in Hollywood and is a very respectable name.

The implied audience for this show is most likely women, who may or may not be housewives. (Or, for the men that tune in just to see Eva Longoria in her lingerie.) I think that the goal of the show’s creators is just to entertain an audience and create suspense with a bit of a mysterious story line to keep people watching. Some of the shows do have some sort of “moral” to it, but it may be hard to decipher as it is hidden beneath sex scenes, murder, and other racy and controversial story line elements.

As an audience member, I just watch the show for its entertaining plot and I have become attached to some of the characters as well. I can never miss a week because I have to know what happens in all of their lives. It is as if it has some sort of impact on me, when in reality it doesn’t at all. This could also be the intention of the writers, to keep people hooked and wanting more. They make the characters so lovable (or love to hate) that the avid watchers need to know what is going on with them. This sounds silly, since it is a fictional television “dramedy”, but it seems to me that a huge group of people are just like I am. They need to watch the show every week for whatever other reasons they may have. Some watch it because they can relate to the characters or story line. Others watch because they want to see what kind of controversy comes up next. Men watch it because their girlfriend or wife makes them. Then there are people like me who watch it for pure entertainment on Sunday nights.

The goal of this show is to maybe bring some awareness about different types of women who are classified as “desperate housewives” in their community. It shows a bunch of different stereotypes and brings light to what they are really like and what they go through (with exaggeration of course, and to a certain extent). For people who have never seen the show, they may get a very different idea about what goes on, like a lot of sex, cheating, cooking, cleaning, shopping, and so on. Granted these things do go on, but that’s not what the show is about. This show just portrays life as a housewife and different things that go on in a community.

There are many emotional and logical appeals to the audience in Desperate Housewives. The emotional appeals are the very complex story lines that draw you in and make you feel for the different characters. The different situations the characters are in can make anyone feel some sort of connection to show and is enough to make someone sit down and watch a whole episode or season. The language used has a lot of passion and viewers can relate very easily to any of the characters. The logos in Desperate Housewives isn’t as strong as the pathos, but it is present. Some things that the characters do in the show don’t really show an immense amount of logic when trying to solve their problems, and the unfolding mysteries aren’t very logical either. However, logic is apparent when the narrator explains some sort of moral of the episode and the end of each show.

The occasion of this show is for pure enjoyment of drama from the audience, with some underlying message in every episode. I think that the occasion of any television show is for some entertainment (or else no one would continue to watch them). However, the definition of entertainment is different for everyone. Some people can be entertained by watching the history channel, and others by watching reality television or other types of “guilty pleasure” television shows. Everyone gains from television shows in my opinion. The people who make them make money off of it, and the viewers get the enjoyment of watching them and also may even learn something from them. Television shows can also provide another view on things that people haven’t thought about, raise awareness about certain issues, teach and important lesson, and many other things. Whatever the reason, most everyone gains from TV shows. (I can’t think of anyone that doesn’t gain.)