"Bang" Writer Leaving "Desperate Housewives"

Joe Keenan, the man who wrote "Bang", possibly the best episode of "Desperate Housewives" ever, is leaving the ABC dramedy at the end of the current third season.

Keenan helped "Desperate Housewives" creator Marc Cherry bring the buzz back to the suburbia-set soap opera after a lackluster critically-panned second season.

The former "Frasier" scribe wrote the most critically acclaimed episode of the series in which several characters are held hostage in a supermarket by Laurie Metcalf's character.

Hollywood press reports Keenan was leaving because he has a desire to work on original material rather than an existing series.

Although the departure is being described as amicable, there have also been indications of creative tension between Keenan and Cherry.

Former executive producer and writer Tom Spezialy left "Desperate Housewives" at the end of the troubled second season last May citing creative differences with Cherry.

Keenan will stay through the end of the current season, which wraps production in a few weeks.

He is in negotiations with ABC TV Studio reps about coming back during the summer to help set the stage for the next fourth season of "Housewives" which had already been ordered by the ABC network.

In addition to NBC's signature hit "Fraiser" and ABC's "Desperate Housewives" Keenan also created CBS's comedy "Out of Practice."

This is TELEVISIONISTA