SEX AND THE SUBURBS THE CONTROVERSY GENERATED BY ABC'S 'DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES' HAS NOT TURNED AWAY FANS.

Byline: David Kronke Television Writer

At a recent forum in Beverly Hills sponsored by the National Council for Families and Television, winsome footage was unspooled of a small boy explaining, as best he could, the content of ABC's dramedy phenomenon ``Desperate Housewives.'' ``It's about these wives - one day, they're loving these people and a few days later, they're killing them.

``I don't think parents should watch that,'' he cautions with concern. ``It's not good for them.''

Many are declining to follow the youngster's advice. ``Desperate Housewives'' is network TV's biggest out-of-the-box hit in years, reviving the fortunes of ABC, which drop-kicked longtime ratings juggernaut NBC to third place in the advertiser-important 18-to-49 demographic during the recent November sweeps.

Its most recent episode (Nov. 28), in which the neighborhood busybody was dispatched by the blunt business end of a blender, earned the series its largest audience to date, 27 million viewers, beating out ``CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'' to emerge as the week's No. 1 show. In fact, the show's age 18-to-49 demographic rating that night topped the combined 18-to-49 demo ratings of the other networks in the same 9 o'clock period.

Not surprisingly, following Hollywood's classic ``No one knows anything'' edict, creator Mark Cherry's pilot script was rejected by CBS, NBC, Fox, HBO, Showtime - and even Lifetime. Less surprisingly, once the show became a hit, it became controversial, as the poster child for the recent presidential election's red-state/blue-state, ``moral values'' debate.

The show's profile elevated exponentially after Nicollette Sheridan, who plays the show's resident slut, sporting attire (or lack thereof) usually reserved for bath-oil-products commercials, proffered her particular talents to Philadelphia Eagles superstar Terrell Owens during a promotion that introduced ``Monday Night Football.'' After a negative letter-writing campaign, the show enjoyed its greatest ratings.

Cherry, unwilling to philosophize on the zeitgeist, declined to comment for this story. But Stephen McPherson, president of ABC Entertainment, observed of the show's reticent entry into the culture wars, ``There is too much being made of it. It's an incredibly entertaining show. It has great comedy, great drama, great mystery and great intrigue. Any idea that this is a controversial series does a tremendous disservice to an entertaining show.''

Cynthia Willman runs her book/gift-basket business from her Eagle Rock home to stay close to her young daughter, but she consigns her husband to putting their daughter to bed on Sundays so she can watch the series.

``It's a little embarrassing to admit that 'Desperate Housewives' is appointment television for me. There are beautiful people to look at. There's kind of a goofy aspect, and there's a dark aspect, as well, and both of those speak to my soul. Those might be the words that define me, and the juxtaposition of those elements makes the show enormous fun.''

Suzanne Lauer, a single postproduction executive living in Valley Village, agrees, suggesting the series blends the best elements of ``Sex and the City'' and ``Twin Peaks.''

``There is fun mystery and great characters. I loved 'Twin Peaks.' It was intelligent and stylish, like nothing we had seen. 'Desperate Housewives' fills that hole and, in terms of female characters, the hole left by 'Sex and the City.' It's great to see these women interacting - I miss the support, friendship and interactions I saw there.''

Jessica Morgan of Santa Monica, who writes the witty weekly recaps of each episode for the Web site www.televisionwithoutpity.com, attributes its success to a serendipitous confluence of factors.

``It premiered fairly early in the fall, while nothing was on HBO, so it managed to catch a lot of viewers who might otherwise have dismissed it. I also think that tastes are cyclical, and that it came around at the right time. People are ready for soapy dramas again. (Viewers) appreciate that the dialogue is snappy and clever; it's well-acted, and it has fantastic production values.''

It also offers plenty of grist for discussion. Televisionwithoutpity.com's sundry message boards debate everything about the show:

Plot points: ``Mike at Mary Alice's funeral: Why? No one knew him. ... Crashing wakes? Tacky. Tacky. Tacky. This isn't a housewarming party, buddy.''

Child-rearing: ``Having (a) second boy increases the noise/destruction level - three or four times. It's why my college-age daughter has stated that she's only committing to one child. If her first is a girl she'll have another, but if it's a boy, she'll stop!''

Fashion: ``All us girls with green eyes know that green is the color to wear, but the costume designers keep putting Bree in this specific shade and it's just plain gorgeous, especially that scoop-neck sweater. Mmm!''

There's considerably less debate over the show's societal contributions, though that has become a favorite topic for pundits, particularly when it comes to characters' sexual activity. (Unhappily married characters' angst rarely gets mentioned in such discussions.)

``In this past election, sexuality hijacked the entire notion of what 'moral values' is all about,'' notes Bob Thompson, founding director of Syracuse University's Center for the Study of Popular Television. ``Though most philosophical thinkers agree there are more important things to be discussing, media sexuality seems to have become the stand-in for moral values.''

After it was widely reported that a sizable portion of voters named ``moral values'' as their overriding concern in the past presidential election, subsequent stories noted that the ``Desperate Housewives' '' bad behavior lured as many - if not more - viewers in red states as in blue states.

Frank Rich of The New York Times noted, ``It is even a bigger hit in Oklahoma City than it is in Los Angeles, bigger in Kansas City than it is in New York.'' That was, of course, before Rich - and, even more persuasively, the New Yorker's Louis Menand - revealed that pollsters misrepresented ``moral values'' as an issue among voters in the first place.

``We all have points of view, but the bottom line is appealing to a broad audience,'' says ABC's McPherson. ``Any ideas we may have about it - our hype, our spin - is negated by what America thinks. Viewers are the voters.''

David Kronke, [phone]

david.kronke(at)dailynews.com

Meet the neighbors on Wisteria Lane

For the uninitiated, ``Desperate Housewives'' peeks behind the curtains of the affluent denizens of suburban Wisteria (the rhyme with ``hysteria'' no doubt intentional) Lane. The series is narrated by Mary Alice Young (Brenda Strong) who, minutes into the first episode, commits suicide.

Surviving members of her neighborhood coffee klatch are left to make sense of her seemingly pointless death and muddle through their own miserable existences:

Lynette (Felicity Huffman) sacrificed a high-powered career to serve as a harried stay-at-home mom bullied by her four hyperactive kids; she recently became addicted to the Ritalin prescribed for them.

Bree (Marcia Cross), a cross between a Stepford wife and Martha Stewart who is virulently addicted to providing an antiseptically ideal life for her family, is thrown by said family's decisive rejection of her rampant perfectionism - her husband wants a divorce; her teenage son has become a sociopath.

Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) salves the pain of a loveless marriage to a successful if crass workaholic by canoodling with her high-school-age gardener.

And divorcee and single mom Susan (Teri Hatcher), apparently ``winning'' a fierce competition with neighborhood floozy Edie (Nicollette Sheridan), recently bedded widower Mike (James Denton), who's new to Wisteria Lane and boasts a master-bedroom's walk-in closet full of skeletons. Meanwhile, secrets swirling around Mary Alice's surviving family members make Mike look like a Good Humor man.

- D.K.

DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES

What: Sexy women behave badly in the suburbs.

Where: ABC (Channel 7).

When: 9 p.m. Sunday.

CAPTION(S):

12 photos, box

Photo:

(1) Fan Web sites have weighed in on everything from plot points to the sweaters worn by Bree, played by Marcia Cross.

(2) Nicollette Sheridan's steamy promo with Terrell Owens sparked a letter-writing campaign, but the following week's episodes received the series' highest rating ever.

(3) CROSS

(4) LONGORIA

(5) HUFFMAN

(6) HATCHER

(7) SHERIDAN

(8 -- 12 -- cover -- color) Alluring

Why `Desperate Housewives' is such a hit

Box:

Meet the neighbors on Wisteria Lane (see text)