Martha Huber
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"Martha Huber waited her whole life for something to happen to her. But the years had gone by and still nothing exciting had ever happened to Martha. Until the night she was murdered..."
Martha Huber first appeared in the pilot episode as the snoopy neighbor who first discovered Mary Alice Young's suicide after hearing a loud sound which she investigated, pretending to return Mary Alice's blender.
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[edit] Season One
When Edie's house burns down, Martha discovers a measuring cup that does not belong to Edie in the ruins. When she snoops through Susan's groceries and discovers a new measuring cup, she jumps to the conclusion that Susan burned Edie's house down in order to kill Edie. Martha, who was undergoing financial difficulties because of her husband's death and her mother's hospitalization, consequently blackmails Susan. Susan and her daughter Julie break into Martha's home, steal the measuring cup and destroy it. On a visit to her sister Felicia Tilman's home, Martha discovers that "Mary Alice's" name is Angela Forrest, and that she stole a baby in Utah and moved to Wisteria Lane to escape her past. Martha decides to solve her financial difficulties by blackmailing Mary Alice sending her a letter. After Mary Alice receives the letter, she commits suicide. The housewives of Wisteria Lane find the note in Mary Alice's clothing and give it to Paul Young. He hires a private eye/hitman to discover who sent the note and to kill him or her. Paul discovers that Edie has the same stationery, and a misunderstanding ensues until it becomes clear that Edie stole the stationery from Martha. Paul confronts Martha at her home, and Martha explains that she was desperate for money and that Mary Alice killed herself because of "what she did to that poor baby", Zach Young, whose true identity is Dana Taylor. In a rage, Paul kills Martha-with the same blender she "borrowed" from them..
[edit] Death
Fans were devasted to see Martha go - if only because she was so much fun to watch. Mrs Huber said the things everyone was thinking. (but no one wanted to say) and she did it with a smile, pleasantly diabolical. It wasn't to surprising that Mrs Huber was Mary Alice's blackmailer, since she had already tried to blackmail Susan. Mrs Huber never viewed her actions as anything less than necessary, putting her own needs before pain and anguish she might cause others.
Mrs Huber's most infuriating quality was her honesty - honesty to the point of recklessness. She had mocked Edie's loose ways, told Lynette how to raise her children, and made the fatal mistake of telling Paul Young why Mary Alice deserved to die. When he hit her with the blender and then choked her to death, it begged the question just who on Wisteria Lane was going to tell the God's honest truth.
[edit] Other Appearances
Martha makes no more appearances after season one until finally in season 5 she reappears in a flashback gossiping about finding Mary Alice dead.
[edit] Trivia
- Martha was originally planned to be called 'Edith Huber'.
- After the first draft of the pilot was written, Marc decided to make the nosey neighbor Asian. Her name would be Mrs. Chang. After that didn't work out, Marc went back to his original idea and made her Caucasian and named her 'Martha Huber.'
- As revealed in the Desperate Housewives Season One companion book, the character of Martha was not originally intended to die, instead she was going to be 'murdered' by Paul only to return later on in the season alive and well. This idea was scrapped after the network felt that it was unrealistic and the network didn't approve of making Martha a regular in season 2.
- 'Martha', was given the name of Marc Cherry's mother
- On the Series One Commentary, Marc Cherry claims that he wrote the role of Martha Huber especially for Christine Estabrook. All other characters had open auditions, leaving the roles open for debate.
[edit] An Interview with Christine Estabrook
Marc Cherry ran into me at a deli in L.A in 2002 and he said, "I'm writing a part for you." Two years later he calls me on the phone and says, "Listen, I've finished this pilot. It's Mrs Huber and I want you to come in and read it." A month goes by and I don' hear from him and then it comes out in the breakdown that they're going to make the woman Asian. Her name has been changed to Mrs Chang. So I called him and he said the network wanted the cast more ethnically diverse. Another month goes by and he calls me and says, "Can you come in and audition tomorrow?" So I went in and read for Mrs Chang and I got it.
I really liked this character. I thought she had quite an interesting set of ethnics. I think that she feels when there's wrongdoing, like with Susan not coming forward about setting fire to Edie's home, that it's a fair game. It's better to blackmail someone who is nasty or who's done something wrong than someones who's a good person.
[edit] Notable Relatives
Siblings: Felicia Tilman (sister)
