Designing Women

One of things that bothered me about Designing Women was the loss of Delta Burke and Jean Smart leaving the show. Saturday Night Live's Jan Hooks and Newhart's Julia Duffy joined the cast but the show was never the same again. Alice Ghostley and Meshach Taylor were regulars in supporting roles. I remember watching this show on Monday nights when it first aired. They were four loud, opinionated, Southern broads with a sense of humor and chemistry. I truly could believe that Suzanne and Julia played by Dixie Carter and Delta Burke were sisters. I didn't care about Suzanne or Delta's weight. It wasn't an issue but people in Hollywood think that weight is a bigger issue than it should be. Anyway, I never saw the four women ever appear to be working. The place didn't look like an office but an actual house. I know they were supposed to be interior designers but I never saw them do any work. Anyway Annie Potts and Jean Smart were great as the divorced mom and single receptionist. I remember the episode in which Julia was a juror and she was invited to meet President Carter and his wife. Well she missed the dinner but they invited her for desert because of her obligations. It was a well-written show too and very well acted.

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 was WAY before it's time! It is relavant to the Women's Tell All Movement of today. The show should have gone to the big screen with such a great cast and the stellar performances they gave and with no profanities! Bring it back so the audiences can see good humor with the correct language.

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.

I know most episodes word for glorious word, and hope that Designing Women stays in syndication for a long time. It would be wonderful to see a reunion between the main characters, Dixie Carter, Delta Burke, Jean Smart and Annie Potts. The recurring themes to the show are the strong-willed Julia's many social campaigns and commentaries, and the ultra-feminine Suzanne as her manipulative yet sexy counterpart. I rather see myself in both characters, and feel that Southern women are portrayed pretty accurately in the show. We are very feminine, yet strong as Steel Magnolias. I live in Atlanta, and wish that I knew 4 wonderful friends as spunky and interesting as these main characters.