Sugarbaker's: Mann muss nicht sein

This show was funny most of the time--and a might preachy some of the time, but always fun to watch. As long as Delta Burke and Jean Smart were on the show, it really was great, but when these two funny women left the show, it went downhill FAST!! That means that the first five years of the show were the best and should not be missed. Suzanne, Charlene and Anthony were the funniest characters on this show and Julia was too preachy, while Mary Jo was a pain in the neck--always whining about something!!

For five seasons this TV comedy was a solid hit starring Dixie Carter, Delta Burke, Annie Potts, and Jean Smart as four friends and co-workers in an Atlanta interior design firm.

They shared their lives in a series of funny episodes that involved their work, family, friends, romance, and the sling and arrows of outrageous fortune.

The semi-regulars during these years included Meshach Taylor, Alice Ghostley, Hal Holbrook, Douglas Barr, and Richard Gilliland.

Starting around season 5, Burke and show creator Linda Bloodworth Thomason started fueding about Burke's weight and the zaniness of her character, Suzanne Sugarbaker. By the end of the season, Burke was out of the show and was soon followed by Smart, who wanted more time with her family.

Season 6 brought in Jan Hooks to replace Smart and Julia Duffy to replace Burke. While Hooks was mostly annoying, Duffy was an outright disaster as the unlikable Alison Sugarbaker. Neither actress came close to capture the warmth and humor of Burke and Smart.

Season 7 saw Duffy gone and with Judith Ivey coming in as a blowsy millionaire widow. An improvement, but the bad writing that plagued season 6, continued into season 7. Stupid storylines and predictable plots defeated anything the cast could do with the material.

Also, by season 6 the women talked about their design firm but their work was virtually erased from any plots. Taylor's character of Anthony also descended from a lovable and hapless man to a smug jerk. They eventually married him off to a Vegas showgirl (Sheryl Lee Ralph) which went nowhere.

Even the beloved and zany character of Ghostley's Bernice went from being loopy to being just one of the women.

In most shows in the last 2 seasons, they just sit around yapping. Meanwhile the production values of the show plummeted with sets that look like high school productions.

An attempt to spin off Taylor and Ralph into their own show, with Della Reese and Sherman Hemsley as her parents, flopped. The hit show went out with a whimper.

Loved this show for 5 seasons. It was witty, funny, sad, sentimental and had a lot of good moral lessons; like Suzanne's speech at her high school reunion after everyone made fun of her for being fat. Sometimes the producers pushed their personal political agenda too much, but overall it all evened out. Delta Burke and Dixie Carter carried the show with solid support from Jean Smart, Annie Potts, Meshach Taylor and Alice Ghostly. When Delta and Jean left, the show took a real nose dive. I just don't like Julia Duffy. I will give her the benefit of the doubt and say it's the characters she plays; I didn't like her on Newhart either. A lot of the problem was that she wasn't southern, and it threw off the cohesiveness of the characters. Jan Hooks was okay, but the show just didn't work anymore without Delta and Jean. When Judith Ivey joined in Season 7 it was on it's way to being good again; but by that point it was too late to save it, the audience was gone. I'm amazed at reviews that say the show wasn't funny; they must not have watched the same shows I was watching. Also people who kept comparing it to the Golden Girls; aside from being four women, I don't find them at all similar.

"Designing Women" centered on four Southern women who worked at an interior design firm in Atlanta, Georgia. The original cast included Dixie Carter, Delta Burke, Annie Potts, Jean Smart, and Meshach Taylor. The humor was outrageously funny, witty and topical and the actors all worked well as an ensemble since their characters were so well-defined and very different. I am puzzled by the many negative comments about this show stating that it was not funny. Were these people watching the same show that I was?

In 1991, both Delta Burke and Jean Smart left the series and were replaced by Julia Duffy, who had played Stephanie on "Newhart," and Jan Hooks, an alumna of "Saturday Night Live." Both were fine actresses but their characters were not well fleshed-out. Duffy's Allison Sugarbaker was a New Yorker and, in my opinion, just never caught on with viewers. Hooks' Carlene Dobber was simply a nitwit, which is a shame because Jan Hooks was hysterical and very versatile on all the seasons she was on SNL. They never developed a multi-layered character that utilized her full comedic potential, but rather one that was mostly a one-note caricature. So, this truly fine and funny actress was wasted in a silly role. Julia Duffy was replaced the next and final season by Judith Ivey, whose character was again a Southern type who fit seamlessly into the ensemble.

I often think the best character was Bernice Clifton as played by the outrageously funny and talented Alice Ghostley. Next to Suzanne Sugarbaker, this character had some hilarious and unforgettable lines.

There are many terrific episodes of this series. They are currently being rebroadcast on the Lifetime Network along with "The Golden Girls," another great series. Those who commented that "Designing Women" is a rip-off of "The Golden Girls" are mistaken; both are fine situation comedies in their own right but are also very unique and distinct from one another. The only thing common to both is that each show starred four wonderful comedic actresses. It would be great to have some solid programming such as both of these shows on the networks today.

Designing Women is a true classic show, certainly with its original cast, offering some of the best characters, chemistry, and scripts ever on television. The people behind the show were the Thomasons, good friends of Bill Clinton from Arkansas, and often, the show expressed their liberal point of view.

Julia, Suzanne, Charlene, Mary Jo etc., have now all passed into syndication where they can be enjoyed all the time. These wonderful actresses fleshed out their characters so were able to laugh, be appalled, and cry with them: Julia, the widow, outspoken with a good heart; Suzanne, her beauty queen sister, selfish, shallow, and lovable; Charlene, the patsy, pretty, sweet, and naive; Mary Jo, the divorcée, struggling with dating and motherhood, self-deprecating and funny. And what can be said about that supporting cast of Meshach Taylor as Anthony and Alice Ghostley as Bernice? Perfect.

Even though I laughed hysterically at many of the episodes, two stand out - one where, during freezing weather, Suzanne and Anthony are stranded at a fleabag hotel for the night; the other was when the girls went on some sort of camping trip and were ordered around by a counselor - I'm vague on the details, but I can still see the look on Charlene and Mary Jo's faces.

Like the Golden Girls, with the loss of one of the cast, in this case Delta Burke, the show suffered, although it was still funny with Julia Duffy and Judith Ivey. But audiences find it difficult to accept new characters as replacements, no matter how good. The chemistry was never the same. Nevertheless, even the later episodes make for great viewing.