Line #154 Characters/AmericanHousewife


1	[[foldercontrol]]
2
3	!!The Ottos
4
5	[[folder:Katie Otto]]
6	->'''Played by:''' Creator/KatyMixon
7
8	The titular American Housewife, and the second-fattest housewife in Westport. Forced to move to Westport because it has a public school with one of the best special needs programs in the country, she spends the series valiantly attempting to prevent her family from becoming corrupted by the materialism, vanity, and greed of the people who live there.
9
10	* BewareTheNiceOnes: Katie's generally a nice person. But, if you make her mad, ''run.''
11	* BreakTheHaughty: Katie makes it her mission in life to take smug people down by a few pegs and, living in Westport, she is spoiled for choice when it comes to targets.
12	* FormerTeenRebel: In her teenage and college years, Katie was a hardcore partier who drank, got high, pulled pranks, ditched class and [[ReallyGetsAround really got around]]. She says her high school nickname was "Anything Goes Katie" among her peers and she kept several boxes of old mementos of the many guys she dated, even though she admits she only remembers a handful of their names. (She threw said boxes out for Greg as it made him uncomfortable.) One of her old college guy friends commented on how she's changed since their party years and is more mature and responsible than her younger self.
13	* FreudianTrio: Katie is TheKirk, forced to choose between Doris and Angela and their (usually contrasting) advice. She'll generally choose to listen to ''neither'' of them, ironically enough, when they're actually in agreement about something.
14	* FutureLoser: Katie was a thin and popular AlphaBitch in high school, making fun of and icing out less popular girls. Now, in a real life HourglassPlot, she is a fat housewife who is regularly ostracized and made fun of by the {{Alpha Bitch}}es of her RichBitch town.
15	* HappilyMarried: Despite their many differences, and finding some of his interests boring, Katie adores Greg and can always count on him to support her. In season 1, she even admits that "there's nobody else for her" and he's the only one for her.
16	* HarmfulToMinors: She's very lenient towards Anna-Kat, allowing her youngest to watch films with mature themes (such as horror and war movies and adult TV shows) in secret with her, to Greg's chagrin.
17	* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: She sees living in Westport as this, saying she used to be quite popular back home but is an outsider here. The only reason she and her family moved there was for the special ed program and effective teacher they had for Anna-Kat and her OCD behavior.
18	* MamaBear: She's not afraid to take you to the ground, as Oliver's ballet teacher learned when she relentlessly picked on Oliver, assuming he was yet another spoiled Westport brat.
19	* ParentalSubstitute: Finds out she's this to Cooper (Oliver's spoiled yet well-meaning friend) in Season 2. She can't stand him, but slowly grows fond of him when realizing he hangs out at the house so much because of his absentee parents and that he loves it when she's hard on him because it makes him feel like he has a real parent in his life.
20	* SitcomArchNemesis: Katie is known for her large number of feuds with various people. The two biggest and oldest thorns in her side are Tara Summers and Chloe Brown Mueller.
21	[[/folder]]
22
23	[[folder:Greg Otto]]
24	->'''Played by:''' Creator/DiedrichBader
25
26	Greg is a college history professor who met and fell in love with Katie when she was a student taking a course he was a TA for. Although the two are polar opposites - he is lean, well-read, polite, considerate, and mild-mannered - they are very fond of each other and have each other's backs through the ordeal of raising three difficult children in their crazy town.
27
28	* BewareTheNiceOnes: Greg is much more easygoing than Katie, but push him far enough and he ''will'' make you regret it.
29	* CluelessChickMagnet: He has no idea, but a lot of the women in Westport are attracted to him. They love how nice he is, how genuinely loving he is with Katie and their kids, and are hoping she dies relatively young so they have a chance at snatching him up for themselves.
30	* EndearinglyDorky: Greg is endearingly awkward and has certain character tics that Katie finds amusing.
31	* EpicFail: In "Boo-Who?", he attempts to tell off Chloe Brown Mueller for making Katie feel bad. However, in addition to being nervous, he was in a Frankenstein's monster costume at the time, so he was pretty tired and sweaty by the time he got to Chloe's store. Some of the costume's make-up got in his eyes, he tripped, and caused a chain of accidents that destroyed the store merchandise. Unsurprisingly, Katie is nonetheless thrilled by that.
32	* FriendToAllLivingThings: Greg bought a special grill to roast a pig, but he didn't have the heart to kill and cook the little guy and ended up buying him as the family pet.
33	* HappilyMarried: Although Katie pushes him around sometimes and they naturally have little spats, it's clear they truly love each other. In one episode, Katie becomes worried that Greg may eventually leave her due to her mean attitude. He lovingly reassures her that she's his best friend and he has no intention of ever leaving her.
34	** In season 4, Chloe (under the mistaken belief her husband is having an affair with Katie due to a misunderstanding) tries to seduce Greg to get back at Katie and attempts to initiate a hook-up. He isn't at all tempted and tells her to stop and pushes her away.
35	* HenpeckedHusband: So much so that "The Pig Whisperer" sees everyone acknowledge that he always caves in to Katie, and he is determined to stand his ground for once.
36	* NiceGuy: Greg's genuine kindness and attentiveness as a husband and father have garnered the attention of more than a few Westport women compared to their inattentive and insensitive husbands. Apparently, Doris gets the first crack at him in the event Katie dies young.
37	* TeacherStudentRomance: He met Katie in college when he was her TA for a class she had. He recounts how he developed a huge crush on her (and gave her good grades she didn't always deserve because of so) and that, despite her being his polar opposite, was deeply attracted to her for her "vivacious" personality. Due to her being his student, though, it was "strictly forbidden" for him to ask her out. However, he "broke the rules" and asked her out anyway, which she accepted. They started dating afterward and, of course, we know the rest.
38	* WellDoneSonGuy: "Family Secrets" shows him quite eager to please his parents, but he desperately wants the approval of his father, Thomas. (Katie reveals that Thomas gave Greg much grief about marrying her because [[DatingWhatDaddyHates he didn't approve of her]].) It gets progressively deconstructed, as Thomas continually proves cold to Greg's overtures and nothing he ever does is good enough for him. Then it's revealed that Thomas had an affair in England and has had a secret second family for 20 years, which includes a son, making Greg finally blow up at him for his hypocrisy.
39	-->'''Greg:''' My whole life, I've looked up to you. In my eyes, you couldn't do anything wrong. In your eyes, I couldn't do anything right! Well, it turns out ''I'' did everything right!
40	** In a rare example of an unhappy ending for this show, two years later when he finally meets his half-brother in person it's noted that Greg has not spoken with his father ever since and is still holding a grudge.
41	[[/folder]]
42
43	[[folder:Taylor Otto]]
44	->'''Played by:''' Creator/MegDonnelly; Creator/JohnnySequoyah (pilot only)
45
46	The oldest child of the Ottos, whose arrival was unexpected. Beautiful and athletic, Taylor is substantially the dumbest person in her family, easily outwitted by both her parents and her younger siblings. Katie's eternal fear is that she will be corrupted by her wealthy friends (and later her wealthy boyfriend) to prefer a life as arm candy rather than try to make something of herself.
47
48	* BrainlessBeauty: A pretty girl, no question, but she ain't the sharpest tool in the shed.
49	* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Realistically portrayed. She's reached an age where she wants much more independence but her parents are reluctant to grant it so they clash. Katie even spends an entire episode wondering what happened to the sweet little girl Taylor used to be and [[spoiler: decides to infect her own daughter with head lice to force mother-daughter bonding time]].
50	* TheDitz: There's no way of getting around it: Taylor's really dumb.
51	* DumbBlonde: Subverted - she's a natural brunette and began the series as one, and wasn't any smarter then.
52	* EveryoneLovesBlondes: Dyes her hair blonde in one episode without Katie's permission.
53	* HiddenDepths: In Season 1, she befriends Viv not because of the snobbish lifestyle, but out of sympathy. Viv's husband is never around and the stepchildren revile her.
54	* LastHetRomance: Taylor is this to her first boyfriend, Eyo. After they break up, he starts dating Bruce Westfield, the (male) co-captain of the water polo team.
55	* SurprisePregnancy: Katie and Greg hadn't intended on having their first child so soon after they were married, but Taylor had other ideas.
56	* WhatTheHellHero: After she ditches her one true friend in Westport to hang out with popular girls, Greg gives her an angry dressing down, saying that her actions showed a fault in her character.
57	[[/folder]]
58
59	[[folder:Oliver Otto]]
60	->'''Played by:''' Creator/DanielDiMaggio
61
62	The Ottos' middle child and their only son. Obsessed with money, he often schemes to get rich quick, and comes up with some pretty devious ways to do so. As the series begins, Katie laments that they have screwed up completely with Oliver, but over the course of the series he discovers (much to his own shame and disappointment) that he does indeed have a conscience, one of the many things he blames his parents for burdening him with.
63
64	* AlliterativeName: '''O'''liver '''O'''tto. Played by an actor with one as well: '''D'''aniel '''D'''[=iMaggio=].
65	* AmbiguouslyGay: The subject of the first-season episode "The Otto Motto", where Katie discovers an "attainment board" attached to the inside of Oliver's closet door, with lots of pictures of shirtless models and athletes (and his best friend, Cooper Bradford), leading her to assume he's gay. (Angela, a lesbian, remarks that his unpleasant personality could be due to the emotional toll of being an ArmoredClosetGay.) When Katie and Greg discover he's enrolled in ballet classes they're convinced, but it turns out Oliver's taking ballet strictly to get into Harvard (though he does come to enjoy it) and the "attainment board" is full of pictures of people Oliver wants ''to be like''. This subject is revisited several times in later seasons, with the RunningGag of Katie hoping Oliver ''is'' gay so that they can take a mother-son gay cruise together.
66	* BalletEpisode: Takes up ballet in Season 1 purely as a strategic move to earn a scholarship to Harvard. Actually enjoys doing it, however, and, as of Season 2, is attending more advanced classes in Norwalk. Unfortunately he has to stop doing ballet at the beginning of Season 4 due to a CareerEndingInjury, forcing him to find other extracurriculars.
67	* BreakTheCutie: Oliver gets hit with a surprising amount of this throughout the show's run. All three of his major love interests dump him (Alice by two-timing him and then staying away after Anna-Kat threatens her, Gina by refusing to pass up the opportunity to attend an elite ballet school, and Brie by breaking up with him in solidarity with her friend dumping Cooper). Spencer Blitz, his mentor, abruptly passes on. He is injured, putting a premature end to his ballet career (and his planned ticket into Harvard). It even looks like his best friend Cooper might leave him, though ultimately he does not.
68	* CharacterDevelopment: Oliver goes through more of this than any other character on the show. His (grudging) evolution into a good person is so complete that Katie, feeling genuine pride in her son's compassion, eventually comments that "it's like your soul is going through puberty".
69	* {{Expy}}: Early Oliver is ''very'' reminiscent of [[Series/FamilyTies Alex P. Keaton]].
70	* HeelRealization: In Season 2, he seeks to befriend Spencer Blitz, a disgraced but wealthy former investor, in the hopes of getting into his will. "Family Secrets" shows that it's working, but hearing Spencer refer to him as like family causes Oliver to feel guilty about what he's been doing.
71	* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Cooper. In the CastCalculus Cooper tends to function as a "love interest" to Oliver (analogous to Trip for Taylor and Franklin for Anna-Kat) although both characters are ([[AmbiguouslyGay or at least claim to be]]) straight and Oliver ''has'' had multiple girlfriends, most of whom are far less prominent as characters than Cooper is.
72	* IntergenerationalFriendship: He becomes quite close to Spencer Blitz, enough for the older man to declare that Oliver is his family.
73	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Oliver can be a brat at times, but he cashed out his business partner, Viv's housekeeper Luz, using his cherished savings so she could return to her native country and be with her young daughter.
74	* LikeFatherUnlikeSon: A number of episodes highlight how his personality and quirks clash with Katie and Greg, particularly his desire to become rich. Greg admits he and Katie have discussed the possibility that Oliver was SwitchedAtBirth.
75	* MouthyKid: In season 1. Talks back constantly to his parents and antagonizes his sisters, but does well in school, is an overachiever, and is generally level-headed and perceptive. Ages into a DeadpanSnarker.
76	* OnlySaneMan: With the exception of when he is focused on money and/or wealth, Oliver is the most level-headed member of the family as he is able to see past and call out the quirks and eccentricities they display.
77	* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: So much so that Katie mistakes Oliver's screams for Anna-Kat's, even after he hits puberty. (Made doubly funny because Daniel [=DiMaggio=]'s voice dropped like a stone.)
78	* SurprisePregnancy: Averted - of the three Otto children, he was the only one his parents deliberately tried for. In her more frustrated moments, Katie has openly lamented this.
79	* YoungEntrepreneur: Oliver, upon finally realizing that his parents won't simply buy him whatever he wants, starts a lucrative career repairing and selling defective designer shirts and enlists the local housekeepers to to do the repair work.
80	[[/folder]]
81
82	[[folder:Anna-Kat Otto]]
83	->'''Played by:''' Creator/JuliaButters (seasons 1-4); Creator/GiselleEisenberg (season 5)
84
85	The reason the Ottos are in Westport in the first place, their youngest child begins the series with OCD and is being treated for it at Westport Unified's special needs program. Katie's blatant favoritism toward Anna-Kat is a running gag throughout the series. As Anna-Kat matures she begins to grow out of her OCD and into what Katie hates most: a tweenage girl.
86
87	* AllGirlsLikePonies: She desperately wishes own a pony and has a large collection horse-themed toys.
88	* HarmfulToMinors: The reason she named the pet pig Hans Gruber is because Katie let her watch ''Film/DieHard''.
89	* MouthyKid: Picks up Oliver's slack as he ages, and as she matures and her OCD begins to recede.
90	* ParentalFavoritism: Katie makes it fairly obvious that Anna-Kat is her favorite, much to Taylor and Oliver's chagrin.
91	* PuppyLove: Her relationship with Franklin officially becomes a romantic one at the end of season 3, in "The Dance", when they are just nine years old (well, Franklin is nine-and-a-half, as Anna-Kat angrily informs Taylor). Anna-Kat had previously decided Franklin was her "boyfriend" in the season 2 episode "All Coupled Up" after Oliver got a new girlfriend of his own (leaving her as the only single Otto), but Franklin was in no way ready for even a "relationship" at that time and so it didn't take.
92	* SurprisePregnancy: A classic "oops" baby, Anna-Kat is much younger than Taylor and Oliver. Katie blames Greg's latex allergy.
93	* WoundedGazelleGambit: Season 2 revealed she was actually more adept at doing things for herself than previously thought, but she pretended otherwise so she wouldn't have to.
94	[[/folder]]
95
96	!!Recurring Characters
97
98	[[folder:Doris]]
99	->'''Played by:''' Creator/AliWong
100
101	Doris is an Asian-American friend of Katie, one of the few Westport housewives who will give her the time of day. As the series begins she is married to Richard, a very wealthy and aloof husband with whom she has several children whom she variably neglects or disciplines depending on her mood. Doris is gleefully lacking in scruples or morals, leading her own best friends to call her sociopathic.
102
103	%% Doesn't explain what the reaction is. * BerserkButton: Being called Japanese. Understandable, considering she's Korean.
104	* ChildrenAreAWaste: This is what she feels about her unexpected pregnancy in Season 2 as it delays her plans to retire to a small Mediterranean island by several years, thus lowering her chances of still having her looks and seducing a well-built local when she finally does get there.
105	* ComedicSociopathy: Multiple characters have acknowledged Doris as a sociopath. Even her own best friends acknowledge she's not a very good person. But the most prominent victims of her sociopathy (her husband and children) are seldom-seen (and the few times we see her husband Richard he's even less pleasant than she is), so we're able to laugh at how horrible she is.
106	* EducationMama: In classic Asian Tiger Mom fashion, Doris is intent on her children excelling in everything they do and exerts enormous pressure on them as a result.
107	* FreudianTrio: Doris is TheSpock, usually giving the more practical (if ruthless and calculating) advice.
108	* MrsRobinson: After she and Richard divorce, she consistently expresses interest in much younger men, including Lonnie and Trip.
109	* OnlyOneName: We never learn Doris's surname.
110	* SitcomArchNemesis: She seems to have a particular animus for Oliver, of all people. One suspects it's a case of "likes repel".
111
112	[[/folder]]
113
114	[[folder:Angela]]
115	->'''Played by:''' Creator/CarlyHughes
116
117	Angela is an African-American friend of Katie, a high-powered lawyer who is also a lesbian who cheated on her ex-wife, having joint custody over their children. Angela is a very laissez-faire parent who suggests to Katie that she should befriend her children and treat them as equals, and for this reason Katie usually ignores Angela's advice.
118
119	She goes on a vacation to Baltimore in the show's fifth season and is never seen or heard from again.
120
121	* FreudianTrio: Angela is TheMcCoy, generally giving the more compassionate, understanding advice (that Katie usually ignores).
122	* LipstickLesbian: She used to be married to a woman named Celeste and the divorce has not been amicable.
123	* LongBusTrip: In the episode "Psych", Angela is said to be vacationing in Baltimore to explain her (first-ever) absence from an episode, but she has not been seen or mentioned since.
124	* NewAgeRetroHippie: She goes on silence retreats, she meditates, she regularly visits a psychic and likes to burn sage.
125	* OpenMindedParent: Her child-rearing philosophy is to engage her children as equals and to acknowledge their wants and desires through intellectual discussion. Brief glimpses at her home life shows that this has failed spectacularly.
126	* OnlyOneName: Angela's surname was never revealed.
127	* ReallyGetsAround: Angela cheated on her ex-wife and since then has preferred to play the field, avoiding relationships and focusing on casual hookups. When circumstances force her to stay put with just one woman for just a few weeks, she becomes increasingly uncomfortable with the other woman's growing intimacy and attachment to her.
128	* TwoferTokenMinority: A black lesbian, the only main character who fits either description.
129	* WhereDaWhiteWomenAt: It ''could'' just be because it's Westport (where the only other woman of color is Doris), but every woman Angela's been involved with has been white. Her ex-wife Celeste is white, her [[spoiler: ''extremely'' short-term love interest Chloe Brown Mueller]] was white, and, when pressed, Angela admits an attraction to Katie (and ''not'' to Doris, which rankles her something fierce). And after all, the pilot ''does'' have Katie and Angela [[FakeOutMakeOut messily making out to discourage a homophobic racist from moving in across the street]].
130
131	[[/folder]]
132
133	[[folder:Trip Windsor]]
134	->'''Played By:''' Creator/PeytonMeyer
135
136	Taylor's second boyfriend, a dumb jock a year older than her who is nonetheless incredibly sweet and devoted to her and gets along with all the Ottos (no mean feat). However, he is also idiotic to the point of appearing to have some difficulty functioning in real-world situations.
137
138	* CrazyJealousGuy: Downplayed, but it's there. He gets intensely jealous whenever Taylor is even mistaken for interested in someone else, or when someone expresses an interest in Taylor. This backfires on him when [[spoiler: he learns the truth about Pierce and confronts Taylor about it, but angrily demands she quit the play so as to avoid spending any more time with him, which she refuses to do.]]
139	* TheDitz: He seems to exist primarily to make Taylor, who barely has two brain cells to rub together herself, look smart by comparison.
140	* DumbJock: Although his athleticism isn't hugely emphasized most of the time, he ''is'' a jock and he is very, ''very'' dumb. It takes him two tries to graduate high school, and even then he has the lowest grade point average of any student in the graduating class.
141	* FamilyOfChoice: This isn't as pronounced as it is with Cooper, but Trip is very attached to the Ottos and enjoys spending time with all of them. In turn, Trip might be the only outsider all of the Ottos actually like.
142	* GoodIsDumb: An exceptionally sweet, good-natured young man (even Katie likes him)... and a moron.
143	* HiddenDepths: Ordained to perform wedding ceremonies, which happened because he and Anna-Kat wanted two of her ponies to be married "for real", so he went online and got certified. This saves Katie's bacon when she needs a minister on super-short notice.
144	* IconicSequelCharacter: Trip is one of the few long-term recurring characters who didn't debut in the show's first season, instead making his first appearance in season 2. But he's logged more appearances on the show than anyone else not named in the opening credits.
145	* OddFriendship: Genuinely close with Anna-Kat, the youngest Otto sibling.
146	* SatelliteCharacter: Initially one to Taylor before he develops a close relationship with Anna-Kat.
147	[[/folder]]
148
149
150	[[folder:Cooper Bradford]]
151	->'''Played By:''' Creator/LoganPepper
152
153	Oliver's best friend, and the son of the wealthiest family in Westport. He isn't stupid, exactly, but he seems to have trouble comprehending what it means to not be able to afford whatever his heart desires. Cooper's parents are unseen characters who are constantly absent from his life, leading him to latch onto Katie (much to her own chagrin) as a surrogate mother figure. In season 5, after the Bradfords leave Westport to move to Palm Beach, they agree to let Cooper remain to finish his schooling there, and so he moves in with the Ottos.
154
155	* ADayInTheLimelight: Before moving in with the Ottos in season 5, Cooper tended to average about [[OnceASeason one of these per season]], where he's the focus of his own plotline and not just Oliver's second banana:
156	** "The Walk" in season 1, where Katie, annoyed that he's a terrible influence on her son, picks on him mercilessly; surprisingly, he's very touched by her refusal to kiss up to him because he's the son of the richest couple in town and all of the genuine hard work she puts into raising her family personally. He speaks on her behalf and calls out the other housewives when they accuse her of neglecting Anna-Kat after letting her walk to the library on her own and being a bad mother; threatening to use his influence to ruin them.
157	** "All Coupled Up" in season 2, where Cooper is the central character in the FriendVersusLover plot when Oliver picks his new girlfriend Gina over him. He seeks out Katie to help him reform so that Gina (a girl from Branford who hates stuck-up "Westport kids") will tolerate him spending time with Oliver. He doesn't really pull it off but Oliver's so touched by him trying anyway that he puts in a good word for him.
158	** "Insta-Friends" in season 3 finally shows his StepfordSmiler side after three years of pretending that his parents never being around doesn't really bother him, and he admits how much being Oliver's friend and the Ottos taking him in really means to him. From this point forward, he's much more open about his unhappiness with his home life.
159	** "Hip to Be Square" in season 4 has Cooper ready to tell his first serious girlfriend that he loves her, which Oliver protests because they're both in lockstep relationships with their girlfriends and Oliver isn't ready to say it yet. Cooper eventually says it anyway after asking Katie and Greg for advice, only to get rejected and heartbroken. (This also means that Oliver's girlfriend dumps ''him'' as well - the girls were in lockstep too.) At the end of the episode, [[spoiler:[[HeterosexualLifePartners he says "I love you" to Oliver, and Oliver reciprocates]]]].
160	** Cooper also gets to sing lead on one of the numbers in the MusicalEpisode.
161	* CharacterDevelopment: Like his best friend Oliver, Cooper goes through a lot of this. In his first appearance, Cooper is a vain, AlphaBitch-like character whose only redeeming quality is that he went out of his way to befriend Oliver, one of the "poors" (although even this virtue is undermined by Oliver apparently having pretended to be rich like the rest of them at first). Over the following years, he comes to enjoy spending time with the Ottos, acknowledges that his own parents have been neglectful to the extreme with him, decides to stop being reliant on their money, tries to figure out how to do basic house chores, and takes steps to figure out what to do with his life independently of his wealth.
162	* FamilyOfChoice: The Ottos are this to Cooper, in lieu of his frequently absent parents. He even begins calling Katie and Greg "Mom" and "Dad" because of how close he begins to view them as his own surrogate parents. When it looked like [[spoiler: his father was going to officially take him away from the Ottos, his seemingly last words to Katie are (in English) "I love you, mom".]]
163	* Fiction500: By implication the Bradfords are this, being the richest family in a town full of insanely wealthy people. More concrete examples: the Bradfords have ''at least'' one house on every continent, and possibly more; they have ''multiple'' yachts; their ''son'' has exclusive access to his own private jet and a helicopter; their palatial estate has a bowling alley and an arcade with a full-time employee even though the place is usually empty; Cooper is able to buy and sell a Porsche as if he was shopping for clothes.
164	* {{Foil}}: Cooper is one to his best friend Oliver, having the thing Oliver wants most in the whole world (obscene wealth), but wanting the one thing Oliver has that he doesn't: a loving family.
165	* FreudianExcuse: He grew up being part of the richest family in town. That explains his poor people skills, but he says it's also why he doesn't care that Oliver is substantially poorer than he is. Everyone else is already poorer than he is, so he has no reason to care about stuff like that.
166	* FullNameBasis: In early seasons, Cooper was usually referred to by his full name, even by his best friend Oliver. Even Cooper is known to call himself "Cooper B", even though we don't know of any other character named "Cooper". This is dropped in later seasons as he and the Ottos become more familiar.
167	* TheGhost: Cooper is mentioned several times before he makes his first appearance midway through season 1. His ''parents'', whom Cooper mentions constantly, have yet to make an on-screen appearance at all.[[spoiler:.. until the fifth season finale, when his father, Doyle Bradford, finally appears.]]
168	* GratuitousSpanish: Frequently peppers his speech with phrases you'd hear in any introductory Spanish class. Lampshaded when, after someone responds to one of his Spanish salutations in kind, he has no idea what they're saying.
169	* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Oliver. Although both characters are straight and have had girlfriends, Cooper acts as a surrogate "love interest" to Oliver in many plots, often grouped with Oliver's sisters' ''actual'' love interests, Trip and Franklin, and it's clear that their relationship with each other is the one that both of them value the most.
170	* HiddenDepths:
171	** The richest kid in town cares way less about class differences than a lot of the adults. Oliver more than once has commented that Cooper befriended him immediately after he moved to Westport, despite Oliver being both the new kid and one of the poors.
172	** After four years of demonstrating no discernible life skills or ability to survive without his family fortune (as Cooper himself says, "I was bred to be rich"), he finally discovers he is actually an ''excellent'' cook in "The Heist".
173	* HistoryWithCelebrity: [[Series/VanderpumpRules Lisa Vanderpump]] is his godmother, and he makes use of this connection when the Ottos are vacationing in Los Angeles to arrange a meet-and-greet as a birthday present for Katie.
174	* LonelyRichKid: Double subverted. While he acknowledges his parents are always away, he often seems blissfully unaware of why that's a bad thing. Season 3's "Insta-Friends" shows this is more of a StepfordSmiler attitude; his parents bail on him at literally the last minute for a social function, and he suffers a major depression.
175	* TheNotLoveInterest: To Oliver, though not at first. Initially, his appearances were infrequent and much more attention was paid to Oliver's ''actual'' love interests, first Alice [=McCarthy=] and especially Gina Tuscadero. However, once Cooper began making more appearances starting in the show's third season (along with Gina dumping Oliver for ballet school), he then became the most important person in Oliver's life (and vice-versa) with several episodes affirming how much they mean to each other, and how their subsequent love interests are afterthoughts who are completely ancillary to their relationship.
176	* RichInDollarsPoorInSense: Often unaware of anything he says that might be insulting or out of touch.
177	[[/folder]]
178
179	[[folder:Franklin]]
180	->'''Played By:''' Creator/EvanOToole
181
182	A weird kid and a fellow student of Anna-Kat's in her special needs class. She is extremely fond of him, seeing in him what nobody else does.
183
184	* CloudCuckooLander: Franklin is ''weird''. One episode shows he gets this from his mother, who informs Katie that she is a ghost. (Later on we learn she's joined a cult.)
185	* ColorBlindConfusion: Admits he's this, which is why all of his "punch Porsches" are grey.
186	* HiddenDepths: Anna-Kat pleads with Oliver and Cooper to make Franklin over to impress her friends at her first "party for no reason" party, which turns out to be completely unnecessary when [[spoiler: it turns out Franklin can play the piano and has the voice of an angel]], which Anna-Kat never even knew about.
187	* LoveEpiphany: In "The Dance", his initial PrecociousCrush on Taylor wears off not because of Anna-Kat's ill-fated attempts at OperationJealousy, but because he sees Anna-Kat's date (Trip) kissing his own date (Taylor) - which is to say, kissing his girlfriend. He's irate at Trip two-timing "the greatest girl in the world"... and then he realizes.
188	* NoAccountingForTaste: Anna-Kat absolutely adores him, for reasons which make sense only to her.
189	* OnlyOneName: Unlike Trip Windsor and Cooper Bradford, Franklin doesn't seem to rate a last name.
190	* PuppyLove: He and Anna-Kat have a very elementary school type "relationship" starting at the end of the third season. Anna-Kat calls him her "platonic childhood husband partner".
191	* SatelliteCharacter: Is this to Anna-Kat.
192
193	[[/folder]]
194
195	[[folder:Kathryn]]
196	->'''Played By:''' Creator/WendieMalick
197
198	Katie's mother, a retired flight attendant who spent much more time jet-setting than she did actually raising her daughter.
199
200	* HistoryWithCelebrity: Apparently the airline she worked for took on a lot of celebrity passengers, so she has a lot of stories about famous people from the '70s and '80s.
201	* ItsAllAboutMe: Kathryn always wants to be the center of attention.
202	* LadyDrunk: Kathryn is seldom seen without a drink in hand.
203	* OnceASeason: Apart from a run in season 3 where she lived with the Ottos for a while, Kathryn generally appears once or twice a season.
204	* ParentalNeglect: Kathryn was not a very good mother, and this informs the relationship between her and her now-adult daughter.
205	* ReallyGetsAround: Both in her heyday and in the present, Kathryn has been known for her promiscuity.
206
207	[[/folder]]
208
209	[[folder:Viv]]
210	->'''Played By:''' Creator/LeslieBibb
211
212	She moves in across the street from the Ottos in the pilot, an obnoxiously perky woman whom Katie instinctively dislikes. Still, she's the only Westport housewife other than Katie's friends who seems to genuinely like her.
213
214	* GlamorousSingleMother: Subverted in Season 3. She is a constant wreck and exhausted from the baby's needs, as well as regularly going to Katie for help. She considers getting back together with her ex just to take the pressure off.
215	* TokenGoodTeammate: For the rich women in town (excluding Doris and Angela). She's a snob and often thoughtless, but she's rarely malicious, actually likes Katie and admits to being envious of her chaotic yet loving family life. Several of her appearances also portray her sympathetically, such as having a neglectful husband and a couple of stepchildren who hate her.
216
217	[[/folder]]
218
219	[[folder:Spencer Blitz]]
220	->'''Played By:''' Creator/GeorgeHamilton
221
222	A wealthy ex-convict who went to jail for insider trading, spending 20 years in the slammer. Upon his release he moves back home to Westport. He has no heirs, leading Oliver to befriend him and hope to be named his beneficiary.
223
224	* CruelToBeKind: [[spoiler:He ultimately decides not to leave Oliver his millions. He knows that might seem harsh, but he feels that would rob Oliver of the joy of becoming rich on his own.]] Oliver agrees with this.
225	* DiscoDan: Still lives like it's The80s. Justfied, as he'd been in prison for over 20 years and hasn't had much contact with the outside world.
226	* {{Expy}}: Of [[Film/WallStreet Gordon Gekko]], PlayedForLaughs.
227	* IntergenerationalFriendship: Develops one with Oliver, becoming a mentor to him.
228	* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:Dies in the aptly titled episode "It's Hard to Say Goodbye".]]

Context Characters / AmericanHousewife