The Sugarbakers Will Be Streaming: Hulu Has Picked Up the Rights to Designing Women

OMG I just found out that Meshach Taylor died back in 2014. That makes me sad. He was a joy to watch.

I know I’ll get lambasted for this but I’ll watch it again.

They Shoot Fat People, Don’t They? Delta was robbed of the Emmy that year.

Seasons 2 - 5 were perfection

Can't wait to watch the last two seasons.

Why were the last two bad? It was a long time ago and I cannot recall.

Can’t wait

R6 Jean Smart and Delta Burke left and the writing sucked

R8 that would do it.

Poor Julia Duffy took the fall for the season 6 failure when it truly was just bad writing

R7 every drag queen in NYC does that bit

I love a good breathy Julia rant

R12 another tired NYC drag skit

Let’s not forget Dixie Carter’s insane “exorcise” with that insane 30 second lion roar

Not all of us live in New York r12 🙄

R15 THANK YOU!!!

I love the episode when Suzanne shoots Anthony! And the one where her pig runs away.

I meant Not all of us live in New York r13🙄. Not r12, sorry

R18 yeah, we know backwoods retard.

[quote]Poor Julia Duffy took the fall for the season 6 failure when it truly was just bad writing

Yes, she got a raw deal. Alison was said to have a condition known as "Obnoxious Personality Disorder," and Julia played the role exactly how Bloodworth-Thomason wrote and envisioned Alison.

Has Julia ever talked about her year on DW? It had to be miserable. After just a few months, there were legitimate reports that they were looking to drop her. Then, knowing she wasn't going to be asked back, she had to do the last two episodes of the season with her replacement, Jackee (whose offer to join the cast was rescinded thanks to Dixie).

The 6th season is interesting to watch just to see how they were able to line up two strong comedic actresses (Julia and Jan Hooks) to replace Delta and Jean, yet completely failed to pull it off.

R19 is posting from her mother’s basement in Flint, MI. “NY’r” my ass!!!

R19 I believe you are correct. An elitist NY’r would never say [quote] yeah, we know backwoods retard.

[quote] yeah, we know backwoods retard.

That's rich, coming from a mook self proclaimed elitist NYer who probably lives in The Bronx in a 5th floor walk up, with no A/C.

This is a pretty good read about the behind the scenes drama.

EXCUSE ME! EXCUSE ME!

I’m actually in my $1M apartment in one of the trendiest parts of the city.

Well this was prophetic

Killing all the right people - Let me guess this is another tired NY drag skit🙄

R28 Another played-out NYC Drag skit...

OP or anyone?

Was this a popular series? I never heard of it. Is it funny?

I assumed the thread was a parody thread because of the way people are posting like they know all about this show. But did anyone actually watch it?

Thanks.

"Tonight we're going to talk about a topic that preys on the mind of every senior citizen: [bold]SEX FOR SALE.[/bold]"

R31 another tired NYC Drag skit

R30 It was about as popular with gay men in the 80s as the Golden Girls

Black man! Black man!

Great News!! I love Designing Women. It's my second favorite show of all time...right behind The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

It would have worked better had Julia and Jan switched roles. Jan would have excelled playing the frigid ice queen, and I think Julia could have pulled off a rube quite well (she also has similar features to Jean Smart).

It also would have spared the public the incredibly awful Judith Ivey season.

Yes, R36. In which case I do blame Judith Ivey.

The writing was beyond terrible, but so was she.

OHmigod I love this show so much. Suzanne Sugarbaker was OG Karen Walker. The show was terrible without her.

Perhaps there is some variety of diety out there after all.

The last season SUCKED.

What's the episode where Sheryl Lee Ralph gives them advice on how to be confident and it's literally her standing there and saying "Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah."

Jan Hooks was great on DW. None of the cast ever said a word when she died, and have never spoken about her in the reunion shows. Very sad.

Happy Anniversary Lois & Shimmy!!!

r40, I recall Jan making a rather flippant remark to the press when they let Julia Duffy go (something along the lines of “glad I’m not her”), so there’s probably not a lot of love lost there.

That really only leaves Annie Potts. Jean only worked with her for one episode.

[quote] I’m actually in my $1M apartment in one of the trendiest parts of the city.

$1M apartment, in NYC? Like I said, a 5th floor walkup in The Bronx with no A/C. And a studio at that!

I would suggest skipping the first 5 seasons and going straight to the Julia Duffy and Judith Light seasons.

Seasons 1-4 were pretty perfect.

It just depends on what you liked - the earlier shows were a bit more cornball and full of heart, and somewhere in the middle of the show, when Linda wasn't writing all the episodes any more, the writing became way more broad, broader comedy.

Sometimes it worked (Julia's jury duty ep is a classic) and other times it was over the top.

When Delta and Jean left, Jan Hooks filled some of the gap but they started to use Alice Ghostley a lot, and it became sillier and sillier at the end.

This show aged badly because too much of the humor came from contemporary issues.

MTM Show is a classic and still plays fine today like ILL .

DW is too dated.

Smart for Hulu to do this, as most DW fans have no idea how to watch shit for free.

Other than the first half of the first season I don’t think it’s dated at all

There are bits and pieces that are dated, sure. But I don't think it aged quite as badly overall as, say, the old Murphy Brown episodes.

Conseula Consuela bo beda banana fanna bo beda CONSEULA!

I can’t imagine the black face episode going over well today. It was funny in context though

Can’t wait for this

R51 another tired NYC Drag Queen stunt

Oh please, whoever keeps complaining about elitist NYers, please find a rusty, tetanus covered lead pipe and kindly fuck yourself.

R54 Thank you! She’s an exhausting one

Obnoxious “NY’r” posting from her mother’s basement in bumfuck AL.

R41 ‘Tornado Watch’ is my favorite episode!

R56 this post is yet again another tired ass NYC Drag Queen skit

Okay, had to block her ass.

R59 Yay!!!! Some people are so touchy here...

R59 can’t manage a sentence or a cognitive thought

R59 is the herpes sore of this thread

I meant r60 dammit. Sorry r59

You're forgivem, Miss R63.

Miss R60 et al = Imogene Salinger

R44

Judith Light was never in Designing Women. I think you mean Judith Ivey.

They should have brought in Judith Light as Charlene’s other hooker best friend, Karen Sue Wolek.

I never realized how much Jean Smart looked like Delta.

she looks nothing like Delta

Ok, granted, it was less consistent that Golden Girls. But the best episodes are arguably better, at least for people who favor DW a little more. Which includes me. Delta Burke and Alice Ghostley both gave outstanding comic performances on the show. Too bad Delta had to sideline herself by porking out immediately after achieving stardom as DW's breakout star.

Boogershakers!

R70. Seriously? I come here after dealing with the AA thread and the best you have is Boogershakers?!? FUCK MY LIFE

I don't understand why LBT wrote that episode where there are multiple references to the women playing "The Supremes", only to have their performance be a lipsync to "Ain't No Mountain High Enough". I don't recall that being a Supremes song. Wasn't it Diana Ross' first solo hit after she left the group to pursue a solo career?

You are correct r72. It's was Ross's first single as a solo artist.

Delta Burke was drop dead gorgeous in the first two seasons. I can see why Dixie Carter rushed off to get a face lift as soon as the pilot got picked up.

When was the last time an actress got fat like Delta Burke did? That doesn't seem to happen anymore. In today's Hollywood everybody gets a personal trainer and a nutritionist assigned to them by their management or the studio. It was a lot different 30 years ago.

R75 Delta is my goal weight.

The fatter Delta got, the more the writers started to write her character as some sort of outrageous, over the top drag queen.

I recently saw that episode where Susan dramatically declares that Timothy the waiter is a homosecual (no X). She was obviously a pain in the ass on the set, but that bitch knocked it out of park EVERY TIME.

^Suzanne

"The restaurant business is just RIDDLED with homaseckshul activity!"

For a laugh...

I may tune in for the Suzanne and Anthony episodes. I hated Mary Jo and Charlene after she married Bill.

^Those episodes are the best!!

Mary Jo and Borelene were the weakest links.

I loved the episode where Anthony pretended to be Suzanne’s made and took her citizenship test

[quote]pretended to be Suzanne’s made

Oh, deer!

Meshach Taylor came off as SO gay, but he was apparently straight.

I loved the episode where the photographer came in and made them dress up and pose in erotic poses - Julia finally caught on when the photographer asked her to "Suck her pearls" - She exploded with "Okay - That's It!!" Wendy Jo Sperber played the bored assistant who would respond to everything with "Yeah, sure, fine, whatever ...." .......LOVE the Ray Don episodes.

Loved Wendie Jo Sperber.

I still cry every time I see How Great Thou Art.

Charlene wants to be a minister - or deliver a sermon, maybe (lay people do that at lots of churches) and gets shot down by the male minister. It ends with Julia singing the hymn and reaching the high note.

It's just very moving.

It's sad and I know Dixie's voice is a bit operatic.....but when she hits the note and Charlene starts to cry and looks up....

MARY!

Oh, boy. I can't wait for the Twitter cancelers to get ahold of the blackface episode and write a few scathing takedowns of the show for Vulture of BuzzFeed like they did for Friends and Seinfeld in the past few years.

The show is definitely less constantly funny than The Golden Girls, but it was always more topical, too. I remember one episode actually featuring real footage of the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill trial.

The last two seasons did fall from grace a bit, but the last season was the one that really sucked. I just rewatched the last two seasons a year or two ago and the Julia Duffy season was still pretty entertaining with some sharp writing here and there, but the Judith Ivey season was embarrassing from the first episode to the last. Incredibly boring. Their biggest mistake for the Duffy season was not softening her up a little bit. She was just way too bitchy and annoying to believably not have been murdered by Julia at some point. I thought Duffy was great and frequently funny on the show. Jan Hooks was excellent, too.

Jan Hooks was wasted on this show. She was far too talented for this frau fest.

R87 I love you

R93 Agree, I think some people would jump on it.

I don't think blackface is acceptable, but in this episode, it was showing what an absolute fool Suzanne was, that she was just not in the real world.

Don't they even discuss in that episode whether or not it would be appropriate for Suzanne to show up in blackface? I remember Suzanne arguing that she'd be wearing dark makeup because she's pretending to be a black woman during the performance.

I loathe blackface, but should pale skinned people never wear dark makeup if they are indeed portraying people of darker skin tones? What if it's done not to mock, patronize, shock and insult, but with a genuine awareness of the difference?

Excuse me!!

WEHT to Delta Burke? She just disappeared.

Bill was hot, so I didn’t mind him.

They banned her from performing with them if she wore blackface, but she went onstage anyway

[quote]The last two seasons did fall from grace a bit, but the last season was the one that really sucked. I just rewatched the last two seasons a year or two ago and the Julia Duffy season was still pretty entertaining with some sharp writing here and there, but the Judith Ivey season was embarrassing from the first episode to the last.

Judith Ivey always seemed as if she was on the verge of forgetting her lines.

I did like Mary Jo vs the Terminator from the final season. That’s was it though!

Judith Ivey was better than Alice Ghostly. She was terrible in Hogans Heroes, Bewitched and she ruined DW when they made her part of the main cast.

Mary Jo wearing a padded bra - "These things are POWER!!" ..... Julia to Daddy Jones: "I'll bet you will be cooking up some big ole meat!" .... Berniece singing into the fast food microphone: "Look at meeee, I'm as helpless as a kitten up a tree!!"

Black man! Black man! Where have you gone to?

The best episode of the entire series is the Supremes episode, but not because of that, but rather because of Kim Zimmer's astonishing performance as Charlene's friend who is a battered wife. Zimmer is such an underappreciated talent, she should have won AT LEAST an Emmy for this episode. Add to that, she stole Body Heat from Kathleen Turner and even offered to do a full frontal nude scene, but Kasdan thought she was already drawing too much attention away from the stars.

Thanks for chiming in, Kim.

Can you imagine judith light, completely bald, sitting on the toilet?

Why r109? Why?

The blackface episode is still really hilarious and all the women are horrified by what Suzanne is doing, which you'd think would give the keyboard warriors a clue that the writers and actors knew they were playing with fire and are not approving of Suzanne's behavior, but these days, context doesn't matter for anything. Give the villain in a novel about the segregated south in the 60's the n-word to say and people will flip their shit and assume the author is an awful Nazi racist despite it being a perfectly acceptable thing for the villain in a story to say.

I think the message of that episode would save it from the masses. I 've seen in it on broadcast TV in recent years. There's some morality tied to it.

"It's SQUARE FISH, Phyllis, okay?"

Yes, Julia was mortified and pissed when Suzanne showed up in blackface. "I don't give a damn if you're a California Raisin -- you stay away from us!"

I always thought one tiny thing the last season did right was the season long arc of Sugarbaker Design Firm about to go bankrupt. It showed that (a) Suzanne really did hussle business for them and (b) they were finally facing the consequences from years of quitting or refusing jobs due to moral outrage!

If we can put a man on the moon, we can put a man on you!

The consequence of sitting around and yapping all day instead of actually working, r114.

That lesbian episode (with Suzanne's old pageant friend) and the one from Golden Girls with "I'm very fond of you, Rose" were epic.

“I guess she didn’t know.”

I watched for Suzanne, Suzanne’s pig Noel and Anthony.

R118 That's another great episode, too.

Suzanne nails both the punch lines.

I want!

I can neither confirm nor deny that I have a set of these candles.....

I want fifth billing, you whores!

“Oh, Bernice...put her BACK!!!”

That Olivia Benson prayer candle was too much, r123!

Why didn't Alice Ghostly not do more Broadway? She had a killer voice. Maybe she'd be too odd for a role like Mame, but she'd have been a great Vera or Gooch.

She did Miss Hannigan.

I bet she was a fabulous Miss Hannigan.

Here's her IBDB page.....

She was a wicked stepsister!

#MeToo

When I watch some of the old episodes again Julia seems to be such a judgmental know-it-all, and there's a lot of smug moralizing about everything. Even in the episode about AIDS, after they say their PSA lines about how HIV is and isn't transmitted, Julia does a mini rant about how Hollywood was going to stop glamorizing promiscuity because of AIDS. She then says something very smug and judgmental about how not sleeping around is the classy thing to do.

The SJWs of today would crucify her for "shut shaming" and virtue signalling. Suzanne, though written a spoilt brat, lazy, mildly racist, vain cartoon, is the only character of the four who comes off as even mildly bearable.

Claudia was a little cunt.

So, Bernice ... how about another nose?

I think Julia's "moralizing" is overstated. Some of the clinical dialogue in the scene re AIDS transmission seems a little clunky now, but it was really well done for its time (when no one but NO ONE talked about it on TV) and it's rooted in something deeply personal: the creator's mother had died of AIDS only months before.

The way Julia calls out the client on her hypocrisy and the delicious way she says, "You would be at the free clinic ALLLLL the time!" is fabulous.

There ARE little speeches of Julia's that I don't think work very well. The main one is the First Amendment/porn one. I don't think the writers had a clear grip on what they wanted to stand up for there.

I have to agree with R136.

These days, I don't realize people realize how personal this show was to the creators. Linda wrote the show herself, by herself, for many seasons. And she and her husband were the only southerners making TV about the south in the 90s. DW was a sitcom, but it was really closer to being a play--in that, there weren't a group of writers cracking jokes at each other, just trying to turn out the "funniest" stuff they could (a la Golden Girls).

One of the my favorite episodes (among many) was the one where the four of them go to Graceland, and on the way, they stop at a diner and all of these other Elvis fans talk about how listening to Elvis got them through the tough times of their lives. For a "coastal" like me, I didn't know Elvis as anything other than a 50s pop star and a fatty. But it was very stirring that someone would write an episode for primetime TV that was so much about sentiment of a group of people I didn't know.

That is all.

R137 Yeah, she wrote all of season 2 by herself. (In part, I think because the 1988 writers' strike was coming, but still, 22 episodes, all by herself.)

And wrote huge chunks of 1, 3 and 4. The show had so much heart and was definitely personal. You can tell in the later years that element is less pronounced, and once Linda left for her other shows it wasn't really there at all.

The theme of the AIDS episode came from a nurse that Linda Bloodworth Thomason overheard when she was sitting with her dying mother in the hospital. The nurse said what Imogene says in the show - "this disease is killing all the right people."

Some of the things in this article are very interesting....others, prophetic.....

I loved Mary Ann Mobley as the cunty tour director.

R140 I love that rant

A tired NYC Drag skit...

Oh god here we go again!!!

R137 The GG/DW comparison never works, anyway. Four women, a few similarities here and there in character types, but the style of comedy and the types of stories are very different.

GG is meant to be a warm blanket. DW was a little racier and edgier, and had a little bit more Southern flair.

Go ahead.....feel 'em.

“Don’t you even think about cutting into the Abbott mother-fucking bannister!!!”

Another show with a big white mansion, Delta Burke and Dixie in the opening......

Scissor me, Charlene!

....

Mary Jo: Suzanne, she's gay! What did you think she meant when she mentioned Sappho?

Suzanne: Well I didn't know. I thought it was a detergent!

Half the cast is dead.💀 Meshach, Dixie, and Alice.

I love Jean Smart

It's crazy to think that half the cast is already dead because except for Alice Ghostley none of them were very old.

Uh, hello, I'm dead too!

Well, I just don't believe it. That's twice that he's been in here, and YOU'RE raving about some girl's breasts, and YOU'RE lying on the table juggling imaginary underwear. Now I'm telling you people for the last time—you have GOT to get it together!

[quote]OMG I just found out that Meshach Taylor died back in 2014. That makes me sad. He was a joy to watch.

At his funeral, the first clip they used in the video reel about his life was the 'black man, black man' clip. At 33:32:

Wilderness Experience Leader: And what is this camper's name?

Anthony: Cindy.

Wilderness Experience Leader: Cindy what?

Anthony: Cindy Birdsong.

Wilderness Experience Leader: Birdsong . . . I don't remember that name. [To other leader] Check your list.

Anthony: I was late. I got on the bus at the last minute.

Wilderness Experience Leader: Who let you on?

Anthony: I don't know—some white girl.

Wilderness Experience Leader: Where's your application?

Anthony: I turned it in.

Wilderness Experience Leader: To who?

Anthony: Some white girl.

I remember after the Julia porn episode came out, there was a rant in the next issue of Playgirl magazine from the Editrix about how the show USED to be her favorite one, but for a preachy, judgmental character!

Meshash Taylor's story on Celebrity Ghost Stories was awesome.

That porn episode was when Julia became truly insufferable. What a fucking prude!

[quote]Half the cast is dead.💀 Meshach, Dixie, and Alice.

Pretty sure I'm dead, too.

[quote]The GG/DW comparison never works, anyway. Four women, a few similarities here and there in character types, but the style of comedy and the types of stories are very different.

I disagree. The first season of GG had some heavyhanded moments before they went to a more broad approach. Season 5 is also noticeably somber and mellow. They had quite a few message episodes and there was a lack of slapstick that seasons 2-4 had.

Designing Women veered from the serious to the slapstick in season 4.

R162 I know! It USED to be my favorite show!

R162 I know! It USED to be my favorite show!

I’m far too excited for this tomorrow!

R81, you better believe that I do not give two shits about protocol of a antiquated institution or the tax payers who support said institution. I secretly up she picks up where Diana left off and burn the whole house down

R169 What?

I wonder if this will go live at midnight on Hulu. I never really paid attention to when they drop shows.

I didn't stay awake to see what time they went live. But they are not the original episodes. Just playing the first few seconds of episode 1, they do not have the original opening credits. I think these are the ones they recreated when they went into syndication

They changed the show ??? Jeez

I had to skip ahead to season 2. The first season transfer is unforgivable! It is the syndicated version. I’ll still watch though

Do you mean they also used the version that had cuts for extra commercial time in syndication?

Love Jean Smart

My god I forgot how whiny Anthony is!

r175, yes. I just saw a big cut in one of the Jan Hooks episodes. (I overlook the cunty Allison as I love Jan.)

The Mary Jo family episodes are the worst

I just watched the series finale (a Gone With the Wind spoof), with guest star Gail O'Grady as a bimbo trophy wife. Dear God in Heaven was it hideously bad. Atrocious writing at both dialogue and plotting level undercut any efforts some people (Alice Ghostley, Jan Hooks) were making. Annie Potts was phoned in.

The final two seasons are unwatchable. It’s sad. They should’ve stopped when Jean and Delta left

They really couldn’t make their mind on which couch they wanted in season 2. It changes every other episode

The Julia Duffy season still had some decent writing and there are some good episodes, but the final season with Judith Ivey is some of the worst shit I've ever seen in my life. It's embarrassing.

[quote] The Mary Jo family episodes are the worst

You can't be referring to the episode where her ex-husband forgets to pay his child support, and they all end up working at a fast food place...

You just can't...

R184 All of them. Same with the Reese episodes. It’s best when it’s the 4 women in a storyline

Suzanne is so thin in Season 1. Season 1 has the “The night the lights in GA” in it. Fuck whoever said it’s not a good season.

R186 I said the transfer was horrible. And it is

Judith Ivey almost redeemed herself with “The Five Mrs. Buchanans “ but it was cancelled before its time.

Season One had some great episodes but it really hit its stride in Season Two.

Dash Goff The Writer ♥️

I wrote a few fan letters to Alice Ghostly circa 1990 or so. Her two responses are among my most prized possessions.

[Quote] I wrote a few fan letters to Alice Ghostly circa 1990 or so.

MARY!

The Mariest Mary who ever maried

Hulu used syndicated versions of the opening theme and cut a bunch of scenes as if they were cutting scenes for commercials.

Designing Women never did well enough in DVD sales or syndication for it to make sense to re-master the episodes,gso I'm not surprised about cuts and poor quality on Hulu. I bet they got them for a song.

This explains Charlene to a tee.

Charlene and Suzanne made this show!

OMG R196, Ann Blyth DID make commercials for Hostess cupcakes. How did I not know this?

I mean, I know who Rula Lenska is of course.

People always mention that the show was never the same after Delta left. I think it was when Jean Smart left. She was the heart of the show and Jan never had a chance in that role.

Question: I’m watching the first season and the picture quality is beyond horrendous. Are they all this bad? I thought it was my WiFi but it’s not.

R200 No, from the second season on its much better. I skipped most of the first season because of the quality

Thank God r201

R202 No, I want to thank you, Ray Don!

The Suzanne Sugarbaker spin-off “Women of the House” is now streaming on prime as well!

Get real, Imogene

r204 With DL fave Patty Heaton!

[quote]I wrote a few fan letters to Alice Ghostly circa 1990 or so. Her two responses are among my most prized possessions.

She responded nicely even though you couldn't be bothered to spell her name correctly? She was a SAINT!

Dixie had a good singing voice, but my god her sing style is horrid

R208, how do you mean?

I just watched the blackface episode and I’m sorry! It is the most touching and hilarious episode of the series! Jean stole the series with this episode

Foreign Affairs may be my favorite episode of television ever though

Second on Foreign Affairs.

But also the, "Consuelo, Consuelo, Bo-belo" episode as well.

😍 CONSUELA!!! I love that episode r211

r212. I wish we could chill with a bottle of wine and watch season 4

R214, thanks!

It's been a while, so I've forgotten a bit how much I loved this show. I'm watching "Rowdy Girls" right now.

(Rowdy Girls is the blackface episode.)

I adore “They shoot Fat Women, Don’t They” as well, but “The Rowdy Girls” is my ❤️

Would love to hear your post thoughts on Rowdy Girls though r215

I never liked "Designing Women." I thought it was the poor man's "Golden Girls" plus Dixie Carter with all her self-righteous indignation was completely insufferable.

But to be fair, I will never understand how Linda Bloodworth-Thomason has sustained a career in television given that all of her shows are horrible. She was definitely no Susan Harris.

R219 = Les Moonves

There are episodes missing. I just noticed the episode where Julia gets drunk and sings at her son’s wedding is missing from season 4. This is a terrible release

Col. Bill Stillfield is obviously transgendered. Every word that comes out of his mouth is clearly from the mind of a woman. They didn't even try to make him sound like a straight man, let alone a career military man.

Suzanne in her last two seasons was more or less a drag queen. She stopped resembling anything close to a real woman sometime in Season 2. The heavier she got, the more LBT tried to make her an over the top drag caricature.

I thought the heavier she got, the funnier she got.

No, Col. Bill Stillfield is written as the man every woman wants, according to frau television standards of the time. Only has eyes for the wife, romantic, sentimental, soft spoken, rarely argumentative, and beefy. Too handsome and in shape for his mildly overweight wife. Frau Fantasy. I loathe that character. Charlene was the fill in frau and Bill the frau's unrealistic masturbatory dream.

R225, you thought Jean Smart, as Charlene, was mildly overweight? I thought she had a great figure and a sexy feminine body, especially compared to the boyishly skinny Annie Potts.

I love Jean Smart, loved her on Designing Women and everything she's done since, truly one of the most underrated actors working today. With that said, while I agree she wasn't overweight or even slightly overweight she did have that Julia Roberts' 'big boned, horsey, clunky' quality about her shape that often made her seem heavier than she was (Roberts' had this more at the beginning of her career before getting really, really thin in the early 2000s), her hairstyles didn't help much.

I had the biggest crush on Doug Barr on this show (I'm a dude) and didn't even know about him on The Fall Guy until much later. With that said, I generally fall for quite, soft-spoken, 'unthreatening' men.

Jean Smart played this character flawlessly. She made this show! Fuck off r225

Julia made the show!

I think LBT rushed through Charlene's wedding and pregnancy storyline because Jean Smart, who had fallen in love with Richard Gilliland (the actor who played JD, Mary Joe's boyfriend) on the sets of the show and married him, had discovered that she was pregnant. As Charlene had been written as a naive, romantic and religious woman, they needed the plot to explain her pregnancy when she started showing. Hence the "Charlene got pregnant on her wedding night" storyline.

I believe Smart was already pregnant in real life when they filmed the episode of Charlene's wedding.

R230 again. I too loved Jean Smart on the show. I did not care for the character per se, but Smart played it wonderfully well. Southern friends of mine also noted that for a woman born and raised in Seattle, she pulled off the accent almost flawlessly too.

When I watch the show these days I find myself extremely annoyed by Julia and Mary Joe. They seem like such nags without a sense of humor. Suzanne, Anthony and Charlene make the show for me,

Fuck you back R228. I was describing the ideal man according to fraus--a man who wouldn't notice his wife's extra pounds. Jean Smart is wonderful and beautiful but with all of her character's flowy blouses and near caftans, coupled with her broad shouldered--not overweight--build, yes, the producers were using her as a frau fill-in. Charlene was how fraus see themselves--despite Jean Smart being far better looking than your average frau. And because she was their stand-in, she got the adoring soft hearted hunk the frau's would dream of. When Jean Snart left, so did the relatability for some viewers because the replacements were either too kooky (Jan Hooks) , too bitchy (the Newhart actress) , or too asthmatic (Judith Ivey, who couldn't say three words without having to interrupt her delivery to take a breath).

Jean Smart really was the unsung MVP of that show. Without Charlene and Suzanne, the flaws in Julia and Mary Jo really became obvious.

I just watched S6 E1 and S7 E1. The quality without Jean and Delta is shocking! Dreadful

I loved that show, at least until the they wrote out Suzanne. Sadly, I think it's too dated to be successful in reruns. It was the same problem with Murphy Brown, the original.

I loved that show, at least until the they wrote out Suzanne. Sadly, I think it's too dated to be successful in reruns. It was the same problem with Murphy Brown, the original.

Many of the episodes hold up. Season 1 was dated. 2-5 held up pretty well

I LOVE Julia Sugarbaker, but it could be because I have been known to go off on long winded diatribes when I get riled up.

Without Charlene to calm them down and Suzanne to add the vapid humor, it really wasn't the same. Jan Hooks and Julia Duffy tried, but the chemistry just wasn't there nor was the writing. Hooks managed a bit better than Duffy, though. Her character was at least still charming and likable. Judith Ivey was a big nothing. I don't remember hating her or loving her.

I've watched a few Season 6 episodes, and they aren't as bad as I remember. Moreover, Julia Duffy isn't really the problem (although they did her no favors with how unlikeable that character is). The problem is that they doubled-down on how right Julia and Mary Jo always have to be, and without the balance r239 mentioned, the show just sinks. Jan Hooks definitely fared better but she was not Jean Smart.

I didn't hate Judith Ivey, but many things about her character was such a missed opportunity. For one thing, she was the widow of a Texas Oil Baron, she shouldn't have been written as a liberal Democrat. They should have written her as a conservative Republican and had her and Julia engage in arguments and debates. But, of course LBT wouldn't allow that. The only episode that just completely didn't work for me was the one in the last season, where they are trying to all get to DC for the inauguration, it just seemed like an amateurish valentine from the Thompsons to the Clintons. I have to also say they were lucky to have been cancelled when they were, Julia would have had to have been shown at the least questioning her support for Bill Clinton, once the sex scandals started really hitting, and if they had written her as steadfast it would have been completely out of character.

I often think of the show at the supermarket. I did once asked a pair of gentlemen shoppers whether they were familiar with the show. They weren't, but when I explained the background of my question they thought it was a hoot and promised to look up the quote!

Does anyone else think this might be a trial balloon, to test how popular DW is? It was reported awhile back that LBT was working on a revival for ABC, and Hulu is a corporate sibling of ABC.

Never crossed anyone’s mind!

Every second of Jean Smart’s performance is believable. You can’t say that about the rest of the cast. Love them all though

DW was on when I was a kid and I have to say I was surprised to find out that Jean Smart wasn't from the South

My favorite Charlene moment was the scene where the other women try to let her know gently what her best childhood friend, Monette, does for a living. When they ask her to sit down before they tell her, she replies, "Oh no, every time someone says, ' Charlene, sit down', it's always bad news. What, what is it? Monette's a man?".

It doesn't sound funny when written but I thought Smart's delivery of those lines was priceless.

DW will always be my favorite show, but I'm annoyed these are the edited syndication episodes. There are entire scenes chopped out which make some other scenes less good.

The originals have to be around somewhere, right?

My favorite Charlene moment... Anthony is studying for his college finals. They are lying on a giant water (or was it some kind of gel) bed that a tacky customer ordered and then refused delivery on (the same people who ordered the piano with the Beatles faces on it Bernice eventually buys.) Charlene states she knows all of the capitals and major crops of every nation in the world. Mary Jo asks why and Charlene says "Because I love knowledge. In fact, I yearn for it."

I use that line every time someone asks why I know some mundane fact.

Anyways, that episode is chopped up to bit in the syndicated version, and I think that line is cut.

I have the originals on DVD somewhere. Don’t know why they used syndicated instead. I’m not amused

It was cheaper. Shame on Hulu!!!

R250, I think that's from the episode where Anthony pretends to be Consuelo to get her citizenship. ("Foreign Affairs.)

I loved Annie Potts in the movie "Pretty in Pink" (1986).

I vaguely remember watching from childhood so I decided to give it a shot, watching some episodes you guys have mentioned here.

It's fucking terrible.

Was it funny at the time? Some series from that era have held up in the humor department - golden girls and Roseanne being two of the big ones. DW didn't even merit a chuckle.

Which seasons/episodes did you watch?

r256 is Helen Van Patterson Patton.

It’s more witty/bitchy than slapstick funny.

I saw this on another site. Some interesting items in here, including the statement that in terms of salary, Annie Potts was making the most.

That BITCH made more than me???

Yeah, and you're dead and I'm on another hit series.

Because Jean was SO believable as the naive , bumpkinish Charlene, I never realized how good she was as an actress until I saw her as the obnoxious, loud and brash Lana on several Frasier episodes. She was hysterical...and as unlike Charlene as you could get.

R256 If you don’t find Suzanne Sugarbaker and her pig amusing you must have no soul. Season 4 was brilliant across the board. 2-3 were great as well. You must have watched seasons 5 and 6 which are awful.

What happened to the remake? I miss Delta Burke. She never got her due credit as a comic actress.

What’s taking so long?

Hell, if Bette Porter can be mayor of Los Angeles, Mary Jo should be governor of Georgia.

In fact, new thread: What TV characters, who weren't politicians, would make great politicians?

r263 You need to see her on "Fargo." She was amazing.

Who on Earth are "The Sugarbakers?"

Famous pastry chefs?

Conseula, Conseula

Bo-beula, bo-na-na

Fo-feula. fee fi mo-meula, CONSEULA!

The awful The person who posted the awful joke at r269 has now been cursed!

JUNE ALLYSON BLADDER PADS

Does anyone know why Jean Smart left?

I believe I had heard that she and Delta were especially close, and she didn't feel it would be the same without her.

Hal Holbrook is still alive though he's always looked older than dirt.

Jean Smart is an acting genius.

I HATE the edited versions of DW. It practically makes it unwatchable for me. Like that clip in R271. It's just over 2 minutes long but they edited out at least 2 jokes that I remember. It is very jarring to when they make those types of cuts. If that is really what is on Hulu then it is such a waste.

[quote]The fatter Delta got, the more the writers started to write her character as some sort of outrageous, over the top drag queen.

Delta was brilliantly funny when she hit her stride as Suzanne. I even loved her throwaway lines, like when they had a tacky swinger couple as clients and she said, "They're those people who are always dressin' up like the police!"

This thread is full of Miss Valdosta Feed and Grains.

R278, just say "Miss Feed" or "Miss Grain"!

Mr. Fladbow!

Mr. Fladbow!

Reggie Mack is taking his break now....Thank you!

I’m naming my dog Suzanne Sugarbaker 🐶

Suzanne Sugarbaker >>> Karen Walker & MaryAnn Thorpe combined

Delta was stunning

r283 = Major Dad/Simon

Delta is a good ole girl from pre-Disney Orlando.

The pageant photo used in the opening credits is her winning Miss Florida. Which is why the state is hidden.

Vodka and Suzanne Sugarbaker! Happy Friday to me!

^Which seasons? I hope your viewing includes ‘Stranded’!

What kind of vodka?

R287 If one is drinking vodka while watching the Sugarbakers , this one seems the more appropriate.

Lol! Season 3 and I’m drinking vodka with an Arnold Palmer mixer!

Greatest gif ever! How do I format it so the text will show without having to click on it?

For those afraid to click the text says “Helen Van Patterson Patton, and her sister, Debbie! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Suzanne: You know, it is FUNNY to me that you people can eat ANYTHING IN THE WORLD that you want—CAKES! PIES! ENTIRE SIDES OF BEEF!—where I MYSELF have been reduced to eatin' some tasteless lo-cal rice puff stuck together with FISH SALIVA, and yet for some reason you people STILL feel compelled to come over here and chow down on it!

Julia: I think your sugar may be a little low. Why don't you try suckin' on a breath mint?

Suzanne: Because, Julia, I don't WANT to suck on a breath mint—why don't YOU try suckin' on one! Look, I am serious, girls, don't mess with me—I am THIS CLOSE to climbin' a tower and hurtin' some people!

R289. Have you watched ‘The Wilderness Experience’ yet?

Great Article with interviews from the cast and creators about the behind the scenes drama

[Quote] The day I found out that CBS was greenlighting Designing Women to be a series is the day I found out my mother had AIDS. That was in April of 1986. She died in November of 1986. For that period, I was writing scripts by her side in the hospital.

It was hard to find a hospital then that was proficient in AIDS care. Nobody really knew how to deal with AIDS patients. We were all still wearing gloves and masks. Nobody knew exactly how it could be transmitted. They would put the medicine in a bucket and kick it into the room. We were not welcome at the hospital where we were. No nurses wanted to touch my mother or any of the 17 young men. It was my mom and 17 young men who were all dying on the same floor.

A lot of those young men died alone with game shows playing across the hall in a sitting area. Only my mom’s heroic AIDS doctor, Dr. Jeff Galpin, would come by and hold their hand when they died. They actually had my mother transferred to the Sherman Oaks Burn Center, which did have trained nurses, because she was treated so badly. One day I was standing out in the hall, and they were taking my mother for a test, wheeling her with their mask on. This woman, who was just a visitor at the hospital, was standing outside in her high heels and her purse, and she looked at my mom, and she didn’t say anything, but I noticed her disdain. Then they wheeled a couple of AIDS patients who were young men. She took a look at them and said, “Well, if you ask me, this disease has one thing going for it — it’s killing all the right people.” It just sent chills up my spine. I couldn’t believe anyone could be that ignorant, or that cruel. If you haven’t seen anyone die from AIDS, you can count yourself lucky in this life, because it is a horrible, horrible thing. I thought, “OK, I’ve got to do this show.” We did, and everybody did it so beautifully. When I look at it today, it seems a little primary and not so sophisticated, but when we did it, it was the first AIDS show that had ever been done on a comedy. I was very proud of that.

I screwed up the quote code ^ sorry 😐

[Quote] Burke’s all-time favorite episode of the show is Season 4’s “Rowdy Girls.” Fans will remember it for Charlene’s convincing her cousin Mavis (Kim Zimmer) to leave her abusive husband — and for the talent show in which Suzanne, in blackface, lip-synced Mickey & Sylvia’s “Love is Strange” with Anthony and the Supremes’ “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” with Julia, Mary Jo, and Charlene.

[Quote] Burke: The day before [filming it] there had been something really awful in the tabloids, and I really couldn’t cope with it. I had driven up into the hills and parked my car and I was extremely depressed. That was when I had the gun with me. [Her voice breaks] It’s hard to talk about, but I was very depressed and I kept taking Valium to help the pain go away. Apparently I ended up back home and everything, but I guess I had taken too much Valium. The doctor came to see me and I was fine, but I shouldn’t have gone to work the next day. I don’t know how I drove to work. I don’t remember it. Apparently, throughout that day, I don’t remember this happening, but they would have to walk me around the soundstage to keep me moving and going. They were thinking, “There’s no way she can do the show. She’s in really bad condition.” [But] when the show happened, I clicked and I was safe. I was on safe ground. I could go out there and do the show like nothing had happened. I don’t why that was, or how that was, I was just very thankful for it. So I was able to do the show, and it was the show I loved so much with Anthony. In blackface.

Thanks for posting. That was a great read.

I can’t believe I read the whole thing. I became engrossed in that article

r269's gay card has been revoked.

R299 Mostly for that awful attempt at a joke

The missing episode Payne Grows Up in season 4 has been added!

Props to Hulu. I bitched them out on twitter for using the edited syndicated versions and having missing/mislabeled episodes. They responded that day and fixed the mislabeled episodes, uploaded this missing episode, and alerted the distributor that viewers are unhappy with the syndicated edits.

Just watched the "They Shoot Fat Women, Don't They?" and it is amazing that everyone was acting like Suzanne was as big as a whale, when compared to many people today, she looks waif like.

The DVD versions of the episodes are longer, and look better.

Linda must be a very nice person.

One thing I noticed about that interview posted above is she always gives credit to other people--like when she said someone else thought of the name, Designing Women. If you've ever worked with a narcissist as a project leader (and they proliferate), they take credit for everything that doesn't belong to them.

My BF and I are going to Vegas and I am doing conseula at the blackjack table! Nobody can stop me. It may take me four martinis, but I’m doing Conseula

I don't understand the ownership issue. It had been established that Julia, Suzanne, Charlene, and Mary Jo all owned shares of Sugarbakers, then they all sold or gave Anthony shares, making him a partner. So how come when Allison bought Suzanne's share she claimed to have controlling interest?

(Some partners are not equal.)

R309 True, but I doubt Suzanne would own the biggest share, let alone a controlling interest, considering the business is housed in Julia's home, she founded the business, and she wasn't exactly poor. I would have imagined that it was originally most likely, Julia 40%, Suzanne 30%, Mary Jo 20%, and Charlene 10%. Then Julia 38%, Suzanne 28%, Mary Jo 18%, Charlene 8% and Anthony 8%. I very much doubt that Julia would have ever agreed to Suzanne having 50% or more of the business.

But Suzanne had more money than Julia did. Sure Julia's house was grand, but so was Suzanne's (remember the brick mansion), and she was driving around in the big Mercedes. Apparently, from the episode with Charlene opening her mail, we know that she has many rich ex-husbands sending her alimony checks (which is not legal in the real world--maybe settlement payments?) We also know that Suzanne spends time on the French Riviera with her other "rich bitch" alimony babes (from the episode where Bernice has her competency court hearing).

Julia's affluent, but not rich. Mary Jo and Charlene both lived in an apartment (they were neighbors) and had to scrounge to get the cash together to buy in.

R311 yes but Julia was said to have put in all her inheritance from when her husband died, I’m sure he had a very nice life insurance policy. Suzanne even mentioned on one episode about while Julia went on about the poor, that when it came to men she chose Hayden and then Reece, both of whom her rich and successful. I just don’t think a woman like Julia would ever have put herself in a situation where her baby sister had more control than she did, regardless of fortune. Plus, Julia’s house being the office would probably have counted as part of her investment. Also, by the time the show started Mary Jo was living in a house, not an apartment, she mentioned taking out a second mortgage and using the kids college funds to invest in the business.

Another money issue that bothered me on the show, was when after Charlene and Bill married they talked about them “saving” for a house. Why would they have to save. He was a colonel in the Air Force & from a rich old Virginia family.