Preston Scavo

Preston Scavo is the son of Tom and Lynette Scavo, who has an identical twin brother, Porter.

Biography
It is unknown whether Preston was the first or second born twin. The twins are the eldest of the Scavo children nonetheless (excluding Kayla). Preston and Porter are often deemed to be rebellious children/teenagers in the series, whose main purpose is to give their mother, one of the protagonists of the show, a lot of drama. The character was conceived by series creator Marc Cherry, who based Lynette's life and problems in his own childhood. Preston was originally portrayed by Brent Kinsman, but due to the character's sudden aging relative to the five-year-jump that occurred at the end of season four, Max Carver took over for the role. Carver was a series regular in season five, despite not making many appearances, and was demoted to a recurring cast member afterwards, because the regular cast was big enough as it was.

Season 1
Lynette struggles to take care of her four demanding children, Preston, Porter, Parker and Penny on her own while her husband, Tom, is away for business. While walking to the wake of Lynette's friend, Mary Alice Young, Lynette threatens to call Santa and put Preston and his brothers on his "naughty list" if they do not start behaving. At the wake, Preston and his brothers decide to go swimming in the pool. After being warned by Martha Huber, Lynette climbs into the pool in her dress and collects the boys. When Tom returns home from work for a short while, he's greeted by Preston and his brothers by being climbed on. When they ask if he brought any presents, he gives them a football and tells them to go outside and practice with it, giving him and Lynette a quick chance to have sex. ("Pilot")

When Lynette takes Preston and his siblings with her for a car journey, the boys misbehave continuously, even when their mother asks them to stop. She is eventually pulled over by a police officer. When he comments on her parenting skills, she yells at him and tells him how hard it is to have four children. After seeing how stressed Lynette is and how unruly her children are, he decides to let her off without a ticket. Later on, when the boys continue to misbehave, Lynette leaves them on a random street and drives away. She immediately comes back and is horrified to find they're missing. A woman says she took them into her home. When the woman threatens to call social services, Lynette and the boys escape by attacking her. When they rush back into the car, Lynette is pleased to see Preston and his brothers had learned their lesson and put on their seat belts. ("Ah, But Underneath")

Season 2
In season 2, Lynette's frantic return to work leads the Scavo twins to have a less noticeable presence in the series. Lynette worries that by suddenly altering her kids' lives by going back to work, she might be scarring them for life. However, it's Preston's young brother, Parker, who gets the main focus in this storyline. However, Tom's dominant role in the household is put to the test when Lynette finds out that he's been failing to keep the boys inside the house in the nighttime. The couple tries to send across to the twins the message that there are some very dangerous people out there, and they act as if they understand it, particularly after Tom teaches them exactly what they should tell her mother about such dangers, but Lynette isn't too convinced, so she asks her receptionist Stu to fake a kidnapping attempt featuring the twins, and forces Tom to watch as it goes down. The twins accept to enter Stu's car once he offers them candy, thus proving Lynette's point, that the kids are reckless, and therefore so is their father. One weekend, Lynette asks her good friend Bree to babysit for the kids, but the latter passes out drunk, and the twins stroll Penny out of the house and walk for miles, winding up at a hair saloon, much to the Scavos' dismay. In the end, they are grounded for sneaking out of Bree's house, as the latter refuses to admit that she was responsible for the mishap. Toward the end of the season, Lynette becomes suspicious that her husband might be having an affair with a woman in Atlanta, so she leaves Wisteria Lane with her kids and puppy, but they are all ultimately reunited once Porter breaks his arm at the hotel and Tom reveals to Lynette that he isn't cheating, he has a daughter from another woman.

Season 3
In season 3, the Scavo kids appear to take a liking into their new sister, Kayla, and her crazy mother, Nora Huntington, whom they call "aunt". When Lynette is taken hostage at the local grocery store, Tom leaves the kids at Bree's care, and everyone neglects to tell them what is going on out of fear of worrying them too much and harming their innocence. After Nora's death, Kayla comes to stay with the Scavos permanently, and, out of thirst for revenge over her mother's death, starts treating Lynette with disdain. This leads the latter to use her own sons for back-up when it comes to fighting back against Kayla's evil deeds. Tom once buys Preston ice cream before dinner, which Lynette later forbids, making Tom more intent on asserting his masculinaty before his own wife. Preston and Porter have their brother Parker break into Mrs. McCluskey's basement in order to get them some ice cream because their parents wouldn't let them have any, and Parker discovers McCluskey's husband in the freezer. In the season finale, the kids are all visited by their maternal grandmother Stella Wingfield, who comes to stay with the Scavos after she learns that her eldest daughter's been diagnosed with Hodgkins' lymphoma.

Season 4
In season 4, the children are among the last ones to know about their mother's condition, as she had been keeping it from them (and everyone else on the lane, for that matter) to protect them from the harsh truth. None of them react well to the news, but it appears as though none of them is all too negative about it either. The kids come up with a safe spot in which they can get away from all the cancer-related stress that has taken over their household once the truth comes out, which is their treehouse. Lynette tries to do everything she can to protect the treehouse, so that their kids can have their own refuge. During Halloween, they witness Danielle giving birth to her son. When a tornado hits Wisteria Lane, the entire Scavo clan reunites in Mrs. McCluskey's basement, but unfortunately the house collapses on top of them, and Ida Greenberg tells the kids to get under the stairs, because they'll be safe there. She ends up dying in the wreckage because there was no room left for her, and so she was killed saving the Scavo family. Afterwards, Lynette tries to get her family to attend church masses more often. Rick Coletti, an ex-manager at Scavo Pizzeria who was attracted to Lynette, comes back in season 4, and stirs the pot some more, leading Tom to become increasingly jealous yet again. He throws a brick through Rick's new restaurant's window, and Lynette covers it up for him. However, when the restaurant is lit on fire, Lynette suspects her husband was behind it, but Preston and Porter fess up to the crime, telling their mother that they didn't want Rick to steal her away from them. Lynette punishes the twins, but soon learns that Kayla was the master planner behind it all, and realizes just how dangerous her stepdaughter can be. Kayla overhears her stepmother arguing with Tom that she is evil, and, out of spite, she tricks Preston into jumping from the rooftop with nothing but an umbrella, ultimately causing him to fall hard and break his arm. He is rushed to the hospital by his parents. In the five year jump that takes place at the end of season 4, it appears as though Preston's become a sort of a juvenile delinquent who's spent some time in juvie.

Season 5
In the fifth season premiere, Lynette catches the twins hosting a gambling party in the pizzeria at night, and decides to ground them, prohibiting them from attending the homecoming dance at their school, but Tom allows them to go. Preston is the one who warns his mother that his brother Porter has impregnated Anne Schilling and plans to run away with her. Lynette puts a stop to their plans because of this, and thanks Preston. However, when Warren Schilling's club is set on fire, Porter is accused, and Warren threatens him, which leads him to run away and seek cover. Preston takes his place during his trial, fooling everyone but his parents. Bob Hunter, Porter's attorney, becomes aware of this, and the time begins to run out for the Scavos. Lynette tricks Preston into allowing her to call Porter, but the latter immediately hangs up on her. She blames Preston for keeping his brother's whereabouts a secret from her, and Preston tells her that Mr. Schilling threatened to kill Porter, which is why he skipped town. Lynette takes Preston on a car ride with him, letting him pick up on the fact that she plans to run over Warren Schilling if that's what it takes to protect her family, but Preston tells her to stop, saying he'll get Porter to talk to her. Preston and all his siblings are forced to work for their parents at the pizzeria once the entire staff is dismissed because they couldn't afford to pay their salaries anymore. He and Porter are too embarrassed to wait on some kids from their school, which enrages their father. In the season finale, Preston asks his mother to let him take a year off from studying and spend it in Europe. Lynette wants him to go to college, and sends him on a tour through a local campus with his father, but his mind isn't changed... Tom's is. Preston's father decides to go to college, but Preston himself still manages to go to Europe.

Season 6
Preston is absent from most of season 6, only returning in episode 17 from his trip to Europe, accompanied by a pretty Russian woman, Irina Korsakov, whom he's dating. Lynette instantly disapproves of their relationship, because she refuses to believe that such a beautiful, attractive woman would be so interested in her son without having some ulterior motive. Preston proposes to Irina under their roof, and she says "yes". The Scavos are horrified, and the fact that Preston wants to give Irina his grandmother's ring doesn't help much. Lynette tries the best she can to break them up, but isn't able to. She prohibits them from having sex in her house, and so they decide to get their own apartment. Preston gets a job at a meat packing factory to pay for his apartment, and Lynette is angered because he is giving up on a better future to provide for his trashy bride-to-be. Preston's mother gets help from an INS agent to dig up some dirt on Irina, and learns that she is a serial bride, meaning she has been with too many men in the past mostly because she need someone to provide for her. Preston learns what Irina's motives for being with him are, and calls off the wedding. Later on, Irina is murdered by a close friend of the family, Eddie Orlofsky, who is the notorious "Fairview Strangler". Preston is interrogated by the detectives in charge of the case, who clear him out because he was in Europe when the other crimes were committed by the strangler.

Season 7
In season 7, Preston is still living at home with his parents, and welcomes Renee Perry onto Wisteria Lane, amazed by her stories of when she was living with pro-player Doug Perry. He disapproves of his mother's harsh remarks towards their paternal grandmother, and supposedly watches over his baby sister, Paige, during Thanksgiving, but he and his brother are more keen on paying attention to the football game. He helps the entire neighborhood protest against Paul Young's plan of opening a halfway house on the lane. In "Where Do I Belong?", Preston and his brothers exchange some back-and-forth as they tease Penny, saying they won't come to her soccer game. This leads to Tom and Lynette silently making amends following the revelation of his involvement with Renee twenty years before. When Stella Wingfield marries Frank Kaminsky, a curmodgeonly old millionaire, Parker and his family all attend the wedding, and also the taking of a family portrait that Frank wants to rub in the faces of his previous families. However, he dies from natural causes before the first picture is even taken, and his body sits in the sofa the whole night through.

In "Farewell Letter", the twins decide to wake up Lynette to help them with the preparation of omelets, as they've brought home girls in the middle of the night and they all got hungry. Due to this, Lynette and Tom agree that it is time for them to find their own place. The boys find a house soon after and say goodbye to Tom and Lynette. However, it transpires that the twins "new house" is just across the street, living with Karen McCluskey. Lynette, who has been concerned that the twins lack the necessary domestic skills to look after themselves properly, is stunned to see Karen cooking and doing their laundry for them. Eager to get them out, Lynette brings them a keg of beer and suggests they have a party. Inevitably, Karen's house is trashed and she kicks the twins out. Back at the Scavo house, they say to Lynette that she has not given them the chance to practice looking after themselves, because she insists on doing everything for them. Lynette realizes her mistakes and shows the twins how to make an omelet before they move out.

In "Then I Really Got Scared", Tom announces that he has booked a luxury family holiday to Hawaii. Lynette is disappointed because she has spent ages planning a two-week road trip and complains that Tom didn't talk to her first. That night, in bed, Lynette continues to moan about Tom booking the holiday. He points out that the kids were really excited and Lynette says it is only because they've never had a lavish vacation. The pair agree that they will each pitch holidays based on the same budget and the kids can decide. The next day, Lynette starts her pitch with the Grand Canyon and a national forest in mind, but the children seem bored. However, they perk up when they see her show off photographs of a huge rollercoaster and a luxury vehicle called the Road Juggernaut which was used by Justin Bieber. Tom is next up and shows them a helicopter tour of a volcano and swimming with dolphins. However, Lynette puts them off with images of a shark and a helicopter crash. The kids head upstairs to decide.

Season 8
The twins' first appearance in season 8 comes in the episode "Putting It Together", as portrayed by uncredited extras, via a flashback in which their mother pretends to call the police in order to scare them straight, after she's found them playing with firecrackers.

Trivia

 * The twins were originally going to be named Paul and Peter - possibly referring to the two apostles of Jesus with the same names - with their younger brother having the name Preston.
 * Ironically, Brent Kinsman, the original portrayer of Preston, had his best ratio of appearances in a season during the first year of the series, when he was billed as a recurring guest star, appearing in 20 out of 23 episodes (and being credited in a 21st, in which he was only featured as part of a deleted scene). When he became a series regular, he never again had an equal or better ratio. Coincidentally, Max Carver was absent from approximately two thirds of the fifth season, in which he was a series regular, and wound up appearing in many more episodes during the following two seasons, when he was demoted to a recurring guest star.
 * It is often believed by the fans that the moustache the character came home with during season 6 was used mostly to help them tell him apart from his identical twin brother, considering that Preston's arc was considerably more notable.
 * During his trip to Europe, it is known that he visited Prague, Paris and Madrid.
 * Preston was demoted from a series regular in the sixth season because the creator, Marc Cherry had felt that there were too many characters on the show. Ironically, season six had more regulars if compared to the fifth season.

Gallery
Gallery of photographic stills released to promote the character.