Creator Marc Cherry said he got the idea to write the series 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. "It sprang from a conversation I had with my mother, where for the first time I realized that maybe she hadn't been such a happy housewife after all," he said to Variety magazine. "That realization struck a very resonant chord with me, so I decided to write about it. In the pilot I was trying to capture the truth of my mother, and as it turns out I think I captured the truth of millions of women."

-Teri Hatcher broke two ribs while filming the scene where she stumbles into a wedding cake but insisted they didn't stop production.

-Talk show host Oprah Winfrey loved the show so much, she was invited to the set, and taped an exclusive episode of her show in which she showcased a 15 minute "mini-episode" where Oprah (as a new neighbour) learned of all the secrets of the housewives.

-"Housewives" was the first television series to win the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series for a show that had not yet completed its first season, and actress Teri Hatcher is the first person to win the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series for a show that has not yet completed its first season.

-Not all of the actresses landed their desired roles. Marcia Cross originally tried for the part of narrator Mary Alice Young, but was cast as Bree Van De Kamp. Nicollette Sheridan tried for the part of Bree Van De Kamp, but was cast as Edie Britt.
-The Scavo Brothers (Parker, Preston, and Porter) were ranked #4 in TV Guide's list of "TV's 10 Biggest Brats" (27 March 2005 issue).

-Bree's response when her son tells her he's gay is, "I'd love you even if you were a murderer," the same quote that Marc Cherry's mother told him when he came out to her.

-Producers originally believed Ricardo Chavira to be too young and not suave enough, and almost didn't cast him as Carlos Solis.

-Calista Flockhart, Heather Locklear, Courteney Cox and Mary-Louise Parker were all considered for the role of Susan, which later went to Teri Hatcher.

-The character of Mr. Shaw (Richard Roundtree) works for the Hafts Detective Agency. "Hafts" is a spin on the name of the 1970s detective "Shaft," who was played by Roundtree in the 1971 film of the same name.

-The license plates on the cars say "Eagle State," a fictional American state meant to make the setting and storylines feel more like they could take place in any American suburb.

-A young fan loved the dress that Gabby (Eva Longoria Parker) wore in the pilot so much, she wrote to the producers asking name of the designer hoping he could design her a prom dress. The producers of the show instead sent her the actual gown and she wore it to her prom.

-Tom Scavo (Doug Savant) appeared in seventeen of the program's first twenty-three episodes (missing only six episodes), yet was still listed as a guest star. However, starting in the second season he was listed as a regular.

-Susan Walters, Sharon Lawrence, Laura Leighton, Roma Downey and Jeri Ryan all auditioned for the part of Bree, which eventually went to Marcia Cross.

-The house that Bree Van De Kamp (Marcia Cross) lives in was previously used in the soap opera "Providence."

-Each hour-long episode is filmed in eight days, typically three on location, and five on the Universal Studios lot.

-Bree is based on Marc Cherry's own mother.

-Michelle Rodriguez turned down a part in "Housewives" to appear on the show "Lost." When talk show host Ellen DeGeneres asked her why, Rodriguez joked: "Because if you're not a housewife, then what's the point?"

-In April 2007 the show was reported to be the most popular show in its demographic worldwide, with an audience of approximately 115 to 119 million viewers.

-Prior to "Housewives" Cherry was best known for producing and writing episodes of Touchstone Television's hit comedy series "The Golden Girls" and its successor "The Golden Palace."

-Initially Cherry had a hard time getting any television network interested in his new series - HBO, CBS, NBC, Fox, Showtime, and Lifetime all turned his offer down. Finally, two new executives at ABC, Lloyd Braun and Susan Lyne, chose to greenlight it. Shortly thereafter, parent company Disney had both Braun and Lyne fired following their approval of another expensive new drama series: "Lost."

-The ABC executives weren't initially satisfied with the name of the new show, suggesting ‘Wisteria Lane' and ‘The Secret Lives of Housewives' instead.

-The set for Wisteria Lane, comprising mainly of facades but also of some proper houses, is located on the Universal Studios Hollywood back lot. It is referred to by film crews as "Colonial Street," and has been used for several motion pictures and television shows since the mid 1940s. Productions to have been filmed here include, among others, "Leave it to Beaver," "Providence," "Deep Impact," "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," "Gremlins," "The Munsters," "Psycho," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "The Ladykillers," and "Ghost Whisperer".

-Before the second season of "Housewives" the street got a facelift and a few teaks. Among the most noticeable of these changes was the removal of a church facade and a mansion in order to make room for Edie's (Nicollette Sheridan) house and a park.

-In December 2006 it was announced that the characters of Bree, Gabrielle, Edie, Susan and Lynette were to be made into 16 inches (410 mm) tall fashion dolls, produced by Madame Alexander. In 2007 they were released in a limited edition of 300 pieces each.

-Most of the episode titles come from songs featured in Stephen Sondheim's musicals.