The season's biggest TV mystery goes through Utah — although exactly how or why, I have no idea.
In last week's episode of the smash hit "Desperate Housewives" (Sunday, 8 p.m., Ch. 4), the late Mrs. Huber's sister, Felicia Tilman (Harriet Sansom Harris), went to the home of the late Mary Alice Young, whose suicide in the first few minutes of the first episode of the show set off the season-long guessing game.
Felicia recognized a picture of Mary Alice on the Youngs' refrigerator, remarking, "That's Angela!" (And we already know from a previous episode that Angela was Mary Alice's real name.)
Mary Alice's husband, Paul (Mark Moses) tried to hide the picture, but Felicia persisted, insisting the woman in it was, "Angela Forrest. We worked together in Utah. It must be 15 years ago."
"I'm afraid you're mistaken," said Paul. "My wife's name was Mary Alice. She's never been to Utah."
But we also know that Paul is a big honkin' liar who's hiding something, so if he says it's not true it must be true.
Later, Felicia found a picture of herself, Mary Alice/Angela and other staffers at something called the Dorothy Drake Rehabilitation House, presumably in Utah.
Which obviously means that the unidentified remains in that chest are those of Paul's polygamous wife.
Just kidding. I have no idea what this means. Except that Utah is apparently part of the mystery.
THE TITLE ISN'T the only thing weird about "Robot Chicken." This new stop-animation series, which makes its debut Sunday/early Monday at 12:30 a.m. as part of the Cartoon Networks' "Adult Swim" is just plain weird. Occasionally offensive.
And, more often than not, absolutely hilarious.
Using dolls and action figures, "Robot Chicken" pokes fun at just about everything and everybody. Santa Claus. George W. Bush. Anti-drug campaigns. Prostate cancer warnings. Reality shows. MTV. Politics.
Most of them done with action figures adapted for the stop-animation process.
Executive producer Seth Green describes the show as "fast and furious," which it is.
Executive producer Matt Senreich described the show as " 'Saturday Night Live' with action figures." Which is accurate — it's basically stop-action sketch comedy with some hits and some misses.
It's shorter than "SNL" (at only 15 minutes). And with a much higher proportion of laughs.
This could well be the funniest 15 minutes on TV.
Oh, and the title comes from what the writers ordered for lunch one day. Really.
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com