| Designing Women |
Shopping Designing |
Website Links For Designing Women |
Information AboutDesigning Women |
|
Sisters Julia Sugarbaker ( Dixie Carter ) and Suzanne Sugarbaker ( Delta Burke ) are polar opposites. Julia is an extremely outspoken liberal intellectual; Suzanne is a sexy, flashy, wealthy, self-centered former beauty queen and Miss Georgia World. They are constantly at personal odds but have launched Sugarbaker Designs, an interior design firm. Julia manages the company while Suzanne is mostly a financial backer who simply hangs around and annoys everyone under the guise of being the firm's salesperson. Practical designer Mary Jo Shively ( Annie Potts ) was also an initial investor and later ditsy office manager Charlene Frazier Stillfield ( Jean Smart ) and Anthony Bouvier ( Meshach Taylor ), a black man and former prison convict (actually, he was falsely accused of a robbery, but was released after he was cleared of the crime; the fact that he had not actually committed said crime was not disclosed to viewers until the third season), were made partners. Bernice Clifton, an absent-minded friend of the Sugarbaker sisters' mother played by acting legend Alice Ghostley , also appeared frequently. The series immediately attracted critical plaudits and a fiercely devoted cult following, but the ratings were poor. CBS nearly cancelled the series, but was bombarded with letters and phone calls and gave the show another chance. The second season was a hit and the program remained successful for many years. Usually the plot revolved around some sort of a professional or personal crisis of one (or all) of the characters intertwined with a larger moral battle. For example, in one episode, Julia is upset about a newsstand in the neighborhood that puts pornographic magazines on open display. When she cannot lobby to force their removal, she ends up plowing into the newsstand with her car. ''Designing Women'' also featured discussions of controversial topics such as homosexuality, racism, dating clergy, and hostile societal attitudes towards the overweight. The program became infamous for the righteous monologues delivered by Julia in indignation to other characters whom she felt were perpetuating injustices on women (or others). Dixie Carter, a registered Republican, disagreed with many of her character's left-of-center commentaries, and made a deal with the producers that for every speech she gave, Julia would get to sing a song in a future episode. There was great controversy surrounding the show in 1991 because of the abrupt dismissal of Burke, a pivotal part of the series. Burke was fired, and alleged that her dismissal was due to her having gained a substantial amount of weight, while producers claimed that Burke was let go due to her "argumentative" behavior and for creating discord on the set. The ensuing squabbling was covered amply in the tabloid press, but despite that, the show reached its pinnacle of popularity that year (the year-end Nielson Ratings ranked ''Designing Women'' as the number 6 show). It fell out of the top twenty next year and the show concluded its seven-year run. In the show, Burke's character of Suzanne moved to Japan and sold her part of the design business to her wealthy cousin Allison Sugarbaker ( Julia Duffy ). At the same time, Smart chose to leave the show and was replaced by Jan Hooks as Carlene Dobber; Smart's character, Charlene, moved to England where her husband was stationed and her sister, Carlene, took over her job. The character of Carlene was very similar to Charlene; however, Allison was a prim and proper conservative who proved the foil to uber-liberal Julia. Despite series-high ratings, the character was unpopular with audiences and Duffy was let go at the end of the season. The final season featured Judith Ivey as Bonnie Jean "B.J." Poteet, a rich widow who invested some of her millions in the business (the role was initially offered to Bonnie Hunt , who turned it down). Ivey's presence brought a new and well-rounded element of intelligence and humor to the show. However, a ratings slide caused CBS to cancel the series in 1993 . Show creators Linda Bloodworth-Thomason and Harry Thomason were strong supporters of longtime friend and then- Democrat ic nominee for President of the United States, Bill Clinton . One episode revolved around Julia getting stranded in the airport while attempting to attend Clinton's first inauguration. The theme song of the program was "Georgia On My Mind". During the first five seasons, the theme was instrumental including a version by trumpeter Doc Severinsen ; for the sixth season it was performed vocally by Ray Charles . The song was dropped in the seventh season and the credits rolled over the episode's first scene instead. Delta Burke reunited with the Thomasens and CBS to reprise the Suzanne Sugarbaker character for a short-lived 1996 sitcom, '' Women Of The House '', in which Suzanne's latest husband died and she won his seat in Congress. Burke and Carter later reunited when Burke guest starred on Carter's subsequent series, '' Family Law '' in 2002 . ''Designing Women'' has been rerun continuously on the Lifetime cable network for over a decade and will be leaving in 2006 for Nick At Nite . The ratings were so strong that finally in 2003 Lifetime reunited Burke, Potts, Smart, Carter and Taylor for a reunion special, which also featured interviews with the Thomasens and various writers. MAIN CAST Dixie Carter as Julia Sugarbaker McIlroy Delta Burke as Suzanne Sugarbaker Goff Dent Stonecipher (Seasons 1-5) Annie Potts as Mary Jo Jackson Shively Jean Smart as Charlene Olivia Frazier/Stillfield (Seasons 1-5) Meshach Taylor as Anthony Bouvier Julia Duffy as Allison Sugarbaker (Season 6) Jan Hooks as Carlene Frazier Dobber (Seasons 6-7) Judith Ivey as Bonnie Jean 'B.J.' Poteet (Season 7) RECURRING CAST Alice Ghostley as Bernice Clifton Hal Holbrook as Atty. Reese Watson (Julia's boyfriend, Seasons 1-5) Richard Gilliland as James Dean 'J.D.' Shackelford (Mary Jo's on & off-again boyfriend, Seasons 1-5) Douglas Barr as Colonel William 'Bill' Stillfield (Charlene's boyfriend and later husband, Seasons 2-5) Sheryl Lee Ralph as Etienne Toussaint-Bouvier (Anthony's wife, Season 7) Priscilla Weems as Claudia Marie Shively (Mary Jo's daughter) Brian Lando as Quinton 'Quint' Shively (Mary Jo's son) Scott Bakula as Dr. Theodore 'Ted' Shively (Mary Jo's ex-husband, Seasons 1-3) George Newbern as Payne McIlroy (Julia's son, Seasons 1,2,4,6) Olivia Brown as Vanessa Hargraves (Anthony's on & off-again girlfriend, Season 4) |
|
|