Karl Mayer is a fictional character portrayed by Richard Burgi and created by television producer and screenwriter Marc Cherry for the ABC television series Desperate Housewives. He is the ex-husband of housewife Susan Mayer and father of Julie Mayer, as well as a successful practitioner of family law. The character also becomes romantically involved in the series with two other housewives, Edie Britt and Bree Van De Kamp, both of whom he gets engaged to. Karl dies in Season 6, Episode 11 after injuries sustained when a plane crashes into Wisteria Lane during the Christmas Festival. He reappeared briefly as a ghost in the series finale.

The sixth season of Desperate Housewives, a television series created by Marc Cherry, began airing on September 27, 2009, and concluded on May 16, 2010. The season consists of 23 episodes. The deceased Mary Alice Young continues to narrate the events in the lives of her friends and Wisteria Lane residents, Susan Delfino, Lynette Scavo, Bree Hodge, Gabrielle Solis and Katherine Mayfair. Angie Bolen and her family are the focus of this season's mystery.