Mary Alice Young (previously Angela Forrest) is a fictional character from the ABC television series Desperate Housewives. The character was created by television producer and screenwriter Marc Cherry and is portrayed by Brenda Strong, who also serves as the narrator of the series from beyond the grave; the character's suicide in the pilot episode served as the catalyst of the series. The narration provided by Mary Alice is essential to the tale of Wisteria Lane, as the series revolves around her sharing the secrets of her friends and neighbors. Her narration technique is akin in style to Edgar Lee Masters's Spoon River Anthology (1915).
Mary Alice is considered the most mysterious of the housewives as only parts of her story are originally known. A loving, doting wife and mother who was generous to her family and neighbors, she was the last person any of them expected to kill herself. In death, Mary Alice sees things she would not have seen when she was alive: her friends' vulnerabilities, lies, and secrets. She does not judge them so much as love them more because of their foibles, pitying them for the ways they manipulate and hurt those they care about most.
Although deceased since the pilot episode, Mary Alice continued to have a leading storyline throughout the first and second seasons of the series, with the story being led by her husband Paul Young (Mark Moses) and son Zach (Cody Kasch). Thereafter, Strong continued to make sporadic appearances as Mary Alice in flashbacks, dreams and as a ghost to other characters while narrating almost every episode of the series. Strong was the subject of acclaim for both her portrayal and narration as the character, with some critics describing her voice as one of the most recognizable on television at the end of the series. She was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for her narration as Mary Alice and received two Screen Actors Guild Awards as a cast member of Desperate Housewives.
Casting and development
In Marc Cherry's first script for the pilot of Desperate Housewives, the character was originally named Mary Alice Scott, but he was later forced to change the character's surname when the series was picked up by ABC. In the book Desperate Housewives: Behind Closed Doors, a companion to the first season of the series, he explained: "We changed Mary Alice Scott to Mary Alice Young because we couldn't get the name cleared with our lawyers. If over three people in the country have that name you're fine but with anything less than that, they make you use a different name. Apparently there was one Mary Alice Scott in the country." The role of Mary Alice was originally given to Sheryl Lee, who portrayed the character in the original pilot that was filmed for ABC, but Lee was soon replaced by Strong after Cherry and the producers decided that Lee was not right for the part."Development Update: March 3". The Futon Critic. March 3, 2010. Retrieved August 22, 2010.McDougall, Charles (January 5, 2005). "Desperately seeking a ratings hit" . The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved August 15, 2010. Marcia Cross, who would later be cast as Bree Van de Kamp, also expressed interest in Mary Alice, but after reading for the part Cherry insisted that she read for Bree instead.
Strong explained in Desperate Housewives: Behind Closed Doors that she believed there to be a "conceptual shift" after the filming of the original pilot with Lee, and "they realized they needed something different", stating: "There certainly wasn't something wrong with what [Lee] did. It was just that instead of vanilla they wanted chocolate, and I happened to be chocolate. When I walked in to audition, Marc Cherry was so sweet. He said, 'I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to close my eyes, because I really want to hear how you sound.' When I was done with the audition, he opened his eyes and this angelic smile crept across his face, and I thought, 'Oh, good. Something went right.'" The actress also explained that she watched the pilot filmed with Lee and while that was helpful for her own portrayal, she saw that what she had to offer for the role was different, saying: "It's a little strange when you watch someone else in a role you're auditioning for because his or her performance lives in your mind. It can be hard to distinguish yourself sometimes, but I had fun with it." Scenes featuring Lee were refilmed with Strong as her replacement.Audio commentary on "Pilot" with Marc Cherry. Desperate Housewives: The Complete First Season. [DVD]. Touchstone Pictures. Retrieved March 19, 2011. Strong stated years later that her role and narration as Mary Alice led to her voice becoming significantly recognizable, explaining in a 2012 interview with Entertainment Weekly that fans of the series would recognize her in coffee shops solely by her voice. The actress served as the narrator of almost every episode of the series, with the exceptions of the third season episode "My Husband, the Pig" (in which Steven Culp narrates the episode as the deceased Rex Van de Kamp) and the fifth season episode "Look Into Their Eyes and You See What They Know" (in which Nicollette Sheridan narrates the episode as the deceased Edie Britt)."My Husband, the Pig". Larry Shaw (director), Brian K. Alexander (writer). Desperate Housewives. ABC. March 4, 2007. Season 3, no. 16."Look into Their Eyes and You See What They Know". Larry Shaw (director), Matt Berry (writer). Desperate Housewives. ABC. April 19, 2009. Season 5, no. 19.
The mystery surrounding Mary Alice and her family was the main storyline in the first season of the series, and it is resolved in the first-season finale. Cherry had wanted there to be a "definite end" to the mystery, hoping to avoid similar viewer fatigue that Twin Peaks suffered after drawing out its central mystery past its first season.Audio commentary on "One Wonderful Day" with Marc Cherry and Larry Shaw. Desperate Housewives: The Complete First Season. [DVD]. Touchstone Pictures. ABC executives initially protested the writers' decision to have Mary Alice purposefully kill Deirdre Taylor (Jolie Jenkins), the woman whose child she had illegally purchased, prompting the writers to make Deirdre violent in order to justify Mary Alice's actions. Although Mary Alice and her family do not have much of a leading storyline thereafter, the mystery surrounding the character's suicide in the inaugural season is said to have informed and influenced every other season of the series. In 2006, when asked during an interview what viewers could expect from Mary Alice for the series' third season, Strong said that the character was "going to be back with an attitude", stating: "She will be a little less surreal, ethereal and a little more sassy, which means the show is going to be sassier." During the series' final season in 2011, the actress appears as Mary Alice's ghost to her suicidal friend Bree (Marcia Cross). Strong enjoyed filming that particular scene, as it was the only scene during the entire series that featured solely Mary Alice and Bree. She described the scene as one of her personal favorites and called it an "extraordinary opportunity", saying: "In a way, Mary Alice becomes [Bree's] conscience and her guide and her muse in knowing what to do with her life. And it was an exquisitely written scene and it was really, I think in my experience on the show, one of my favorite scenes I have ever shot."
Storylines First season In the pilot episode, Mary Alice introduces herself as the stereotypical American housewife to husband Paul Young (Mark Moses) and son Zach (Cody Kasch). One Thursday, she proceeds to go to her hall closet to retrieve a revolver, and shoots herself in the head.
Paul asks Mary Alice’s neighbors and friends, Susan (Teri Hatcher), Lynette (Felicity Huffman), Bree (Marcia Cross) and Gabrielle (Eva Longoria), to go through her clothes and other belongings and then pack them up, as he thinks it will be too hard for him. The women end up finding a letter addressed to Mary Alice, a blackmail note reading, "I know what you did, it makes me sick, I’m going to tell.""Pilot". Charles McDougall (director), Marc Cherry (writer). Desperate Housewives. ABC. October 3, 2004. Season 1, no. 1. Thereafter, the women make a series of discoveries concerning Mary Alice’s past and her possible motives for ending her life; she was being treated by Dr. Albert Goldfine (Sam Lloyd) where she revealed that she once went by the name Angela, and she may have had something to do with a baby that went missing."Ah, But Underneath". Larry Shaw (director), Marc Cherry (writer). Desperate Housewives. ABC. October 10, 2004. Season 1, no. 2."Running to Stand Still". Fred Gerber (director), Tracey Stern (writer). Desperate Housewives. ABC. November 7, 2004. Season 1, no. 6. Paul soon discovers who sent Mary Alice the note, their next-door neighbor struggling with financial difficulty, Martha Huber (Christine Estabrook), whom he ends up strangling to death out of pure rage and burying her body in the nearby forest."Guilty". Fred Gerber (director), Kevin Murphy (writer). Desperate Housewives. ABC. November 28, 2004. Season 1, no. 8. Meanwhile, her son Zach begins having flashbacks and is under the impression he killed a baby named Dana, who he believed to be his younger sister and reveals this to Julie Mayer (Andrea Bowen), Susan’s daughter. Paul worries over what Susan is spreading about their family, so he tells Susan in private that Zach accidentally killed his younger sister, Dana, and that he and Mary Alice covered it up to protect him. However, it becomes evident that this is not the case when Paul tells Zach that Dana is still very much alive."Fear No More". Jeff Melman (director), Adam Barr (writer). Desperate Housewives. ABC. May 1, 2005. Season 1, no. 20.