History Literature / TheStepfordWives

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** Thanks to the setting update, this happens. It turns out that no, you can't convince every man to brainwash or replace their wife because not every husband is an EntitledBastard even if they're having marital problems, especially when divorce is an option. [[spoiler:Walter becomes a FakeDefector so that he and Joanna can save all of the wives because while they could escape and expose the scheme, it would leave all the women as brainwashed hostages, and besides which they have no proof. What's more, the publicity revives Joanna's career]].
** A contest that ends up in two of the contestants divorcing and the husband [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge going crazy]] and [[SpreeKiller shooting his wife, her lovers, and trying to kill the executive producer]] is only going to end up OvershadowedByControversy and heads are going to roll. Joanna probably also didn't did herself any favors by trying to pitch a "reunion" special with all of the injured parties.

* BlackEyesOfEvil: [[RoboticReveal When Joanna meets her robot double in the film]], it hasn't quite been finished yet and is sporting a pair of these. It's also sporting a [[EvilIsSexy new large bustline]]. This is a minor SpecialEffectsFailure, as they were supposed to be empty sockets -- the black contact lenses reflected the ambient lighting. However, Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad, as they serve to highlight the creepiness of the double and the monstrosity of the people who created it.

* StepfordSmiler: The TropeNamer, with the remake providing the page image. In the final scene, all the women have them.

* BrickJoke: It's a minor gag halfway through the film that a black couple might be moving to Stepford. In the end scene we see the very couple bickering in the supermarket about the area.

* DaylightHorror: Most of the film takes place during the day. Joanna discovering that Bobbie and Charmaine have been replaced with robots happens on particularly sunny days.

The novel was successful enough to be [[TheFilmOfTheBook adapted into]] a 1975 feature film, directed by Bryan Forbes and starring Katharine Ross as Joanna, Peter Masterson as Walter, and Paula Prentiss as Bobbie. The script, by Creator/WilliamGoldman, stayed relatively faithful to the original, with the major difference being a much more explicit finale that showed what was happening to the wives. In both versions, the "wives" turned out to be robot duplicates, which replaced the original women after their husbands had them murdered. Both the novel and film also had {{Downer Ending}}s.

* AdaptationalAlternateEnding: [[spoiler:Walter only pretended to betray Joanna, all so they could take down the conspiracy together. And since the wives were simply mind controlled instead of, their success bring them back to normal.]]

* ADateWithRosiePalms: The novel shows Joanna finding Walter late at night at home shaking (she worries it's [=DTs=]) and finds him masturbating. He states he didn't want to wake her up, yet she states she won't mind him waking her up for sex.

* LousyLoversAreLosers: Invoked InUniverse and PlayedWith. When the Men's Association recruits Walter, he and the other men seem motivated by the fact that their wives are not the AllWomenAreLustful type. After they get transformed, they're shown to be extremely enthusiastic whenever and wherever. However, one of the first signs Joanna gets of Walter's betrayal is that, rather than having sex with her, he [[ADateWithRosiePalms prefers to masturbate]]. Their sexual relationship also gradually becomes poorer and poorer in the book.

* ItsAllAboutMe: The Men's Association believe that women should be completely submissive to their husbands, and have no remorse about killing and replacing them with robotic duplicates programmed to serve them.

* KarmaHoudini: The husbands of Stepford get away with everything.

* BuxomIsBetter: Walter and the rest of the Men's Association think so and [[spoiler: design the replacement wives accordingly]].

* DownerEnding: Subverted. Walter destroys the computer controlling the wives, freeing them of their brainwashing.