Have Desperate Housewives Producers Written-Out One of Their Biggest Assets?

(Banner courtesy of richardburgi.com and Richard Burgi Fan Club)

At this point it's common knowledge that we probably won't being seeing much of Karl Mayer (Richard Burgi), the mischievous Desperate Housewives philanderer, during season three.

Street word is that Burgi has definitely not been optioned and he'll appear in only a handful of upcoming episodes. And w/ spoilers indicating that a leading cast member will be killed in a grocery store hostage shoot-out - predictably during November sweeps - viewers should gird themselves for the worst.

With Jeff Greenstein's chatter about "maximum dramatic impact" and "hot drama" and getting "up and running fast," are the producers sounding a little....desperate? And have they thrown Karl out w/ the bath water?

As the narcissistic "Karl the Cad," (origin unknown) Burgi added much needed spice to last year's Desperate Housewives, an otherwise lackluster season which veered off-course w/ the Betty Applewhite subplot.

Let's be honest: Burgi's Karl Mayer saved season two.

Burgi's impeccable comic timing and his hang-dog expressions, his ability to humanize the exasperating Karl, was laugh out loud funny. Burgi lit the screen and upstaged his cast mates on all counts - range, physicality, and chemistry w/ Teri Hatcher.

Memorably, very early in season one, Karl sits at the table in the house he once shared w/ Susan and, instead of issuing a long-overdue apology for abandoning his family, he camouflages his self-indulgence in new age, self-actualization speak. ("The heart wants what it wants" and "I don't want to go back to that ugly place - really.")

Burgi delivered his lines w/ a wink, and we could only smile because everyone knows at least one Karl.

Soon, Karl is back in the neighborhood for good - strutting on Edie's front porch, retrieving the morning paper dressed (barely) in a strategically open-to-the waist bathrobe and scratching his formidable chest like an alpha ape.

At one point, Karl lures Susan to a bar mitzvah rehearsal. He needs Susan's advice, he claims, because "Bridezilla's [Edie] got me auditioning bands" and he's not sure "if these guys have the power to help me get my groove on." Karl dances a little happy jig in a bid to win back her affections. As Susan abandons him at the alter of his manipulations, the camera pulls back for a long shot - a deflated and duck-footed Karl, arms slack at his side.

But we caught a glimpse of Burgi's 24 tough guy persona. He did after all throw Bree's scheming son Andrew up against the dining room wall and patted his cheek to show who's boss.

(Is this a signature Burgi move, along w/ the face patting? In The Sentinel pilot - and like, whoa, is that not a retro-glide back to the days of Dean Valentine's UPN tenure? - I believe Burgi flattened his co-star Garett Maggart up against some file cabinets, and I vaguely recall some face patting at one point.)

It was easy to see how Susan fell for, and had a hard time decoupling from, this lovable, handsome hunk of a jerk. Ladies, have we all not been there before?

Let's hope that Marc Cherry is only placing the character on ice and not inadvisably killing him off. But the ominous failure to option strikes fear in the heart.

Because the whole Susan/Mike ships-passing-in-the-night romance thing is stale, stale, stale. (Besides, any guy who's too dumb to see how psychotic his estranged son is should be written off immediately.) The devilish Karl is way more fun.

Comments

[Sue]

Thank you for saying what many of his fans have been saying as well. Richard Burgi was the only reason we watched "DH" this season. Season one was kind of fun, but I only watched it to catch glimpses of Burgi. He has real chemistry will Terri Hatcher, something that is sorely missing in her interactions with James Denton, who is just BLAND! He also has the best body of the supposed hunks of Wisteria Lane. Not bad considering he was the oldest! Burgi excels at making people like characters who might otherwise be considered irredemable - Karl the cad, the ex-husband on "Judging Amy," and Jim the lawyer who slept with both sisters in "In Her Shoes." If Cherry does kill off Karl, it will be one less program I have to DVR and watch.

[Nightowl]

Richard Burgi / Karl the Cad was the *only* reason I kept watching "Desperate Housewives" as all but his plotlines descended into ho-hum boredom and uninteresting silliness -- but I was willing to sit through it since I knew he was a regular and it was likely I'd get at least one scene with his perfect comic timing. But if he's not a regular, I'm not sure I have the motivation to sit through eps he's obviously not in. Lordy, the DW producers aren't desperate -- they're blind *and* stupid if they axe the one good thing left in the show...

[MJ]

Bravo! Thank God someone else noticed that Richard Burgi was the only saving grace of DH last season. His "Karl" was a weekly shot in the arm for this show which was prematurely stale in it's second season. Is this the result of the show's over-hyped success? They do so well with the critics that they shuffle the cards- a la any championship sports team, trade their most valuable players and wind up in last place the next year? Those missing Emmy noms were no surprise to me, though I think perhaps Burgi deserved a nod. Where is Marc Cherry? I thought he liked Burgi...he was crowing over this actor's comic timing in season 1, used him to the limit this past season, and now is ready to dump him? DH has always had a HUGE continuity problem- starting a storyline and dropping it when the writers get bored or get a new kooky idea- (hey, I know- Susan meets a new man! We haven't tried that one in 3 weeks.) Let's hope Karl is not going down in the big shoot out. Burgi's "Jim Ellison" would never go down in a gun fight...unless he dropped his gun, of course. Fingers crossed that Karl will rise again...though I never trust TPTB anymore to see what's right in front of their collective faces. Hopefully, someone else will have the smarts to pick Burgi up for another show.

[Rae]

I couldn't agree more. Karl was the best thing about Season 2 of DH. Funny, sneaky, incorrigible; he was the one to watch, the one to love and the one to laugh at. I say bring Karl back and let's liven up Wisteria Lane.

[Nat Taylor]

I have to agree with you, Mary. The producers of "Desperate Housewives" are crazy to not pick up Burgi's option for another season. He was like a breath of fresh air in an otherwise stale season last year. I lived for the Karl Mayer moments. I just pray it's not his character they plan to kill off in November. That would be a travesty!