CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Lynette Scavo

fictional character on Desperate Housewives

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ536140 ↗
Source-derived summary

Lynette Scavo is a fictional character from the American comedy drama television series Desperate Housewives, which aired on ABC from 2004 to 2012. Developed by series creator Marc Cherry, Lynette was portrayed by Felicity Huffman. Lynette is introduced as a frustrated stay-at-home mother of four children, who she had with her businessman husband Tom (Doug Savant). Formerly a high-powered businesswoman herself, Lynette aspires to return to working life as she struggles with the day-to-day tasks of motherhood, whilst also surviving cancer post season 4.

While show creator Marc Cherry based Bree Van de Kamp's family on his teenage years, he based Lynette's on his childhood life. Other actresses who claim to have auditioned for the show include Alex Kingston, who was apparently turned down for being too curvy. Huffman won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for the role in 2005, and was nominated for Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy for 2005 to 2007.

Storylines

Backstory

Lynette Lindquist was born on July 22, 1967, as the eldest of three daughters born to Stella and her husband, Mr. Lindquist. After he died, their mother had a series of unpleasant and unstable boyfriends and a drinking problem.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Lynette Scavo” is fictional character on Desperate Housewives. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Lynette, Scavo and fictional, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2004, 2012, 2005, 2007—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1963-01-01. For this dossier, Lynette, Scavo and fictional is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “fictional character on Desperate Housewives” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q536140. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2004, 2012, 2005 and 2007.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Lynette Scavo”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Lynette Scavo primary sources, Lynette Scavo archive and Lynette research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Lynette Scavo”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Lynette Scavo” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.