"Desperate Housewives'" Revs Up

James Denton Talks About New Episodes

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March 28, 2008

(CBS)  Fasten your seatbelts, "Desperate Housewives" fans. When the series returns April 13, expect a revved up plot to make up for time lost due to the writers strike.

"(We'll) solve the mystery faster than we would have, I'll get out of rehab faster than I would have which is kinda nice," James Denton, who plays hunky plumber Mike Delfino told The ShowBuzz. "When we get back I will be back at home with Susan (Teri Hatcher). Bree (Marcia Cross) and Orson (Kyle MacLachlan) are living with us because their house was destroyed in a tornado and that's a little too close for comfort, so there's some good comedy to be found there."

"Desperate Housewives" and other prime-time scripted shows were forced to stop production in November after members of the Writers Guild Of America went on strike. After the strike ended in mid-February, the cast and crew started working around the clock to crank out seven new episodes.

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Photos: Eva Longoria's New Restaurant

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"We're working Monday through Saturday to get 'em in," Denton said, "which will be good for the viewers and help the crew make up a little bit of lost money because it was four months out of work for everybody."

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Photos: Teri Hatcher

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During the strike, Denton was off filming "Tortured" opposite Lawrence Fishburne, Jon Cryer, and Kevin Pollack.

He described the movie as a "great little FBI thriller" and said he plays an FBI agent who is "not necessarily a good guy." The film doesn't have an official release date, but Denton said he expected it out by the summer.

Denton also spent plenty of time on a favorite pastime: home improvement. It turns out the actor is just as handy with a toolkit as Mike the plumber and does all his own work around the house.

"Partially because I'm good at it and it's good therapy and partially because I'm cheap," he said. "For a number of reasons I do most of that stuff myself."

Denton said that he honed his do-it-yourself skills in the theater.

"You have to do all those things yourself when you work in a theater company," he said. "You have to build a set, you have to floor it and frame it and drywall it and wire it and plumb it."

His repair work doesn't always go as planned, and Denton admitted that "there are times that my wife will call somebody to fix what I've done. But I'm pretty good at it."

The only thing he won't do, he said, is electrical work.

"I just did a big kitchen remodel and anything that can kill me I'll pay somebody else to do," he said.

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