There has to be a better clue than "suburbs" for "Desperate Housewives." There are a million shows set in the suburbs. The other clues are much more specific: Barone, Final Answer, Fired, How YOU Doin...these are all clearly tied to their shows. "Suburbs" could be tied to half the shows on TV in the 2000s. What about "Wisteria," "dead narrator," or even "MILFs"? Has to be better than "suburbs."
Didn't figure out Barone until about 25 seconds left. Yeah, suburbs had me completely stumped. However, having seen the answer it does work, just tough.
It was one of the first shows on television to feature an openly gay main character. I understand your hesitation in describing it like that, but I think that because it was sort of a big deal at the time, it's remembered that way. It's still really strange that it took that long for gay characters to be normal on television though.