Delta Burke details her meth use for weight loss and 'ugly' Designing Women exit in first interview in decades

I still love Delta.

I am glad they are still together and in love. That warms my heart. I really like them both.

She sounds like she’s in a better place. Good for her.

Hoarding, compulsive shopping, eating and obesity. Sign her up for ozempic

She was the best part of Designing Women, but it was really a well-cast show overall.

It’s really nice to hear how well her husband treats her. I’m glad she found happiness.

Hoarding, compulsive shopping, an eating disorder, severe body dysmorphia, drug addiction, the inability to handle fame, a retreat into extreme privacy, a reputation for professional difficulty, a career marked by the creation of a character with a cartoonish persona instilled with pathos, and a long term relationship with a partner who acts like a caretaker and tells her what to do.

Very good case for female aspergers.

Nedra Volz suggested meth.

She suggested a little crack cocaine to Nell Carter one morning over scones.

Meth use is practically the last thing I'd expect of her.

She's well-known on skid row. Butter fingers, she's called.

Meth? How gauche.

Her husband is still an attractive man and a good actor

Isn't Gerald McRaney a crazy right wing MAGAt, though?

Well she got so fat I thought that she might crush me!

So I turned her onto Meth.

Big deal, chumps!

Yes, and I gather from your comments there are a couple of other things you don't know, Marjorie. For example, you probably didn't know that Suzanne was the only contestant in Georgia pageant history to sweep every category except a clean drug test, and that is not something the women in my family aspire to anyway. Or that when she walked down the runway in her swimsuit, five contestants quit on the spot. Or that when she emerged from the isolation booth to answer the question, "What would you do to prevent the war on drugs?" she spoke so eloquently of libertarianism, freedoms and small waistlines, grown men wept. And you probably didn't know, Marjorie, that Suzanne was not just any Miss Georgia, she was THE Miss Georgia. She didn't twirl just a meth pipe, that meth pipe was on fire. And when she threw that meth pipe into the air, it flew higher, further, faster than any meth pipe has ever flown before, hitting a transformer and showering the darkened alleyway with sparks! And when it finally did come down, Marjorie, my sister caught that meth pipe, and 12 junkies jumped to their feet for sixteen and one-half minutes of uninterrupted thunderous ovation, as flames illuminated her tear-stained face! And that, Marjorie --- just so you will know --- and your children will someday know --- is the night the pipe lit up in Georgia!

R16- Caftan Wearer.

How kind I sign up for this “withdrawal from work” because the “joy is gone”??

[QUOTE]. "We do Designing Women, and I'm so happy to be there," she said. "I love everything. But then things started to change, which I won't go into.

R14 - I don't know if McRaney is MAGAt now, but he was definitely a conservative Bush supporter. And the Bloodworth -Thomasens from Arkansas were famously Clinton supporters. So the things changing, I'm assuming, had to do with politics once McRaney entered the picture. And she understandably doesn't want to talk politics in this climate

r15 that old lady always got the funny lines. I remember here from that show "A Year At The Top" with hunky Greg Evigan and Paul Shaffer.

Dangit the above comment is for r17 he was on A Year At The Top

She was gorgeous.

Everyone here categorically believes McRaney is such a wonderful, loving man who only cared for his wife's career?

In case anyone hasn't noticed, he's the only factor in her downward trajectory. But, "he's so wonderful to her and treats her like Kween!"

Don't we all know what this means?

Nedra Volz was my idol. She played my favorite characters on Filthy Rich and Diff’rent Strokes.

A little PCP is good for the complexion.

I shared needles with Nedra Volz.

Wasn’t McRainey on Designing Women, dated Mary Joe early on? I feel like I remember him on that show. If so, he obviously didn’t have a problem working for the Bloodworths even if he didn’t like their politics. I remember liking his Major Dad show that premiered a few years after DW but I couldn’t tell you one thing about it other than Iola Boylan was in it.

Only the first five seasons of Designing Women are worth watching. After Delta and Jean left it mostly went to shit.

I’ve never really got the Designing Wonen gays. This show held zero interest for me.

[quote]If so, he obviously didn’t have a problem working for the Bloodworths even if he didn’t like their politics.

I think as time went on, the Bloodworths got more insufferable with their politics. It was the same with Susan Harris. Every show had some political thing wedged in. Like the “Rose has AIDS” very special episode of The Golden Girls. Or when the girls went on vacation and they all made a point of buying condoms. Like anyone was going to fuck Dorothy!

Go fuck yourself, R30.

R27 McRaney played a character named Dash Goff on DW. He was Suzanne’s writer ex-husband.

Turns out Delta was a methhead actress.

R30 Regardless of politics The Golden Girls were groundbreaking as one of only a select number of sitcoms to tackle controversial subjects.

Although some episodes were a bit too preachy and PSA heavy to the point where they came off as contrived, forced and disingenuous like the lottery ticket episode which I absolutely loathe and often skip.

Golden Girls pulled the social messaging far better than the cloying Designing Women.

R34, I loved the episode where Delta guest-starred and forced Rose to smoke opium.

Meth mixed in cranberry juice? I'll have to try it.

[quote]Regardless of politics The Golden Girls were groundbreaking as one of only a select number of sitcoms to tackle controversial subjects.

Bea Arthur was doing it on Maude a decade earlier.

All in the Family and Good Times we’re doing it. Alice let her son go on a camping trip with a gay man! Mary Tyler Moore was being subversive.

The Facts of Life almost had Natalie raped!

And Little House on the Prairie had their share of “very special episodes”.

Everybody was pushing buttons on tv before The Golden Girls.

She should be Ozempic's first spokesmodel.

She obviously got taken by her meth dealer……she was big as a house when she left DW. She had more chins than a Chinese phone book.

R27 You’re thinking of Dick Gilliland, who played Mary Jo’s boyfriend for a few seasons.

He was married to Jean Smart for a few decades.

I’m a fan of every lady that joined the cast after Delta’s exit but they should have canceled it when she left. Heck, the show wouldn’t be worth watching if any one of the originals left.

[quote]Meth use is practically the last thing I'd expect of her.

Keep in mind she was born and raised in Florida!

Delta did return as Suzanne Sugarbaker for the DW spinoff Women of the House in 1995. It only lasted for one 13 episode season before it was cancelled. Meshach Taylor returned as Anthony for one episode.

[quote] She was gorgeous.

You bet your bippy I was!

Richard Gilliland was gorgeous. Secret sizemeat, I bet.

Mary Jo may have been mousy but on the show she had Gilliland and Scott Bakula. Some fine cock right there.

She was gorgeous then but definitely sounds like she has some personality problems. The way she speaks of Linda B-T almost sounds like a romantic relationship that soured, fantastically.

Based on interviews both have given, I think a fair amount of blame lies with Burke. Like Cindy Williams, she had people advising her badly, and she also had some mental health issues (and apparently drug use, too).

I do think the bigger DW got, the less say LBT had in the show's day to day, and she probably was caught between a rock and a hard place. She defended Burke at first and was shocked when Burke really shit all over her, Harry and the show.

"Nobody knew about crystal meth". What utter nonsense. She's clearly had some work, although it doesn't look bad.

I wish that series that was planned for her a few years back had gone to series.

It was Delta, Margo Martindale, I think??? and some other folks working in a diner. She would have been great as part of an ensemble. She didn't really work as the star, but she would be great as the frosting on the cake, as it were.

I bet it was Ann Wedgeworth who got Delta hooked on illicit substances.

You do realize you’re talking about fictional characters, R46?

[quote]She's clearly had some work, although it doesn't look bad.

R46, She's either had some fillers removed, or the 'work' has settled. She looked bad for a while, though I think some of it was moon-face from medications.

Glad she seems to be doing well.

^Still pretty, even with moon-face.

R52 Yes, I was mixing fictional characters and actors in my previous description/post. But my point was, for the fictional character of Mary Jo supposedly being the mousy one on the show, she was paired - fictionally - with two hot guys played by two hot actors.

Edie McClurg was known to shoot up a little heroin in between The Hogan Family shoots. It helped her fibromyalgia.

Coke whore.

Shirley Booth's high, nasally voice was from repeated helium inhalation. She gave Bobby Buntrock his first inhale during the second season.

I drank Drano*

I'm so square.

All I took was LeVar Burton's big black cock.

Delta Burke wrote about taking ‘diet pills’ in her book , ‘Delta Style’. I think she referred to them as Black Beauties.

I don’t know why she didn’t just drink, smoke and watch old movies.

Omg this poor woman lived a life of fighting her weight, so much so, she allowed her health to suffer by using meth to lose weight she must have a mental illness (or either HOLLYWOOD is a fucked up place.

Saw her in Steel Magnolias on bway. She stole the show as Truvy.

BUMP

She claims no one knew about meth? Who is she kidding?

She's not the type I would think would ever do meth. That's surprising. She's definitely more of a prescription pill type.