'Desperate Housewives': Felicity Huffman, Dana Delany reflect on the show's final season

Felicity Huffman was filming on "Desperate Housewives" Friday night (Aug. 5) when she found out the show is ending -- a little bit before ABC made the official announcement on Sunday.

In those past couple days, Huffman says she's been feeling "really sad and really grateful" about the news.

"Those feelings are odd companions," she tells Zap2it. "Sad and disappointed, [because] you go, 'Aw, shoot, this sucks.' And at the same time you go, 'Wow.'"

Huffman, who won an Emmy in 2005 for playing Lynette Scavo on the series, says knowing almost at the outset of the season that things will wrap up this year is a good thing, both for fans who want to say goodbye and for the cast and crew.

"I think it's so ideal because [we're] not having to wait and see what the ratings are in year eight and maybe being on the bubble," she says. "I think ABC made a sacrifice of year nine in order to treat the show respectfully. Artistically, the writers get to work backward from the ending and choose the best way to end it, as opposed to going, 'Oh my god, they're not going to renew us' at episode 18, and scrambling to make all the ends meet."

Huffman is fully on board with "Desperate Housewives" going out on its own terms, but she does think it could have continued for another year beyond this one if ABC and Cherry had chosen that route. Her former co-star, Dana Delany, thinks so too: "I was surprised like anybody else," says Delany, who played Katherine Mayfair for three seasons on "Housewives" and now stars in another ABC show, "Body of Proof." "I thought they had at least another season in them."

Delany says she'd also "love to" reprise her character if "Housewives" wants her back for an episode or two this season. "I'd like Katherine to come back to visit, and I'd like her to come back as a happy lesbian," she says. "I think that would be nice."

As for Lynette, she ended last season possibly facing the end of her marriage to Tom (Doug Savant), and Huffman hopes the jolt to her life causes a "sea change."

"I think now she's one of those wives that's chronically discontent with what her husband does," Huffman says. "She loves him, but it's, 'No, I don't like that job.' 'No, I don't like that you're going to school.' 'No, I don't like that you're quitting school.' ... I'd like to see the pain of the separation prompt a change."

We'll see the final season begin to unfold when "Desperate Housewives" premieres on ABC Sunday, Sept. 25.