Development and Casting
The character of Orson Hodge was originally planned as a romantic interest for Susan Mayer (Teri Hatcher), according to executive producer Tom Spezialy, until Cherry decided to pair Orson with Bree Van de Kamp (Marcia Cross). For the third season's mystery, series creator Marc Cherry wanted to incorporate more of the series' regular characters rather than bringing in various new ones, like they had done in the second season with Betty Applewhite (Alfre Woodard) and her family. They developed the Orson plot line around the "idea that one of our women marries a guy who has dark secrets and possibly a violent streak." Cherry opined: "I thought there was something exciting about that, but real and relatable." Greenstein commented that the writers worked backwards from the second season's cliffhangers to develop the Orson storyline, forsaking the original material that had been developed earlier. The cast responded positively to the new material for the season.
When Orson was introduced toward the end of the second season, he was originally to be a con artist. A character portrayed by Julie White appeared in the second season finale and would have been Orson's accomplice, but the entire storyline was discarded in favor of the mysterious disappearance of Orson's wife and White's character was not seen or mentioned again. MacLachlan commented that his character is "desperate to make this relationship with Bree work. Anything that tries to knock that apart becomes a threat." Cherry called Orson Bree's perfect match, but added that their similarities "will ultimately prove to be the downfall of the relationship."
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