Delta Burke vs. "Designing Women"

Has she forgiven her husband for fucking up her success?

I don't think Delta was built for success. She could handle the workload and attention given to a second banana, not a leading lady.

Neither party was innocent. Things just got out of control.

Which is a shame, because the show really did suffer when Burke (and Smart) left.

She had such a pretty face. I shudder to think what she'd look like naked though.

She would have made a great Scarlett in that god awful GWTW sequel.

I eat whatever I want.

[quote]the show really did suffer when Burke (and Smart) left.

Actually, the show got its best ratings during Season 6. It was the #6 show that year. Usually, the show hovered in the #20s or #30s.

It suffered in terms of quality. Ratings aren't a reflection of how good something is.

I actually think she was more in line with a Southern woman when she gained the weight. When I lived in the South, I encountered many women who had pretty faces but were a plus size. She was closer to my experience of a Southern woman than any of the others.

[quote]It suffered in terms of quality.

Very true. They could never recapture the hilarity of a situation like Suzanne putting her pet pig in the car and driving down to the Dairy Queen. Only Delta Burke could make that believable. When she left, the show really lost its spark.

I've been watching the series on Hulu - and I really wish the formatting for it wasn't totally fucked up. I don't know what they did, but there's bizarre magnification of some scenes and the sides are cut off like they converted it from letterbox to 4:3 and back to letterbox again, or something. It's an amazingly low quality treatment for such a once popular series.

I'm on Season 3 at the moment and the formatting problems have continued. Delta Burke got fatter during season one, even fatter in season two but had some episodes where it seemed like she'd lost some weight, but would then blow up again (so much so that you can tell when they filmed episodes out of order) and REALLY fat in season three.

It's surprising how much of the series really holds up. It's also kind of fun to compare the genteel Southern women and the standards of society back then in the 80s with the way everyone acts now, which is pretty classless all around.

What is the deal with her husband?

The husband seems like a conservative asshole, full on NRA fucker.

She's long been supportive of gay rights and seems rather liberal.

How do people like that get along well enough to be married/stay married?

Unrelated to Delta leaving 'DW', but I'll never forget probably 20 years ago when I read an interview she did about overcoming her hoarding addiction. She was talking about how she could not bear to throw away an Altoids tin once it was empty, as she might "need it for something, like safety pins or other small things." My heart dropped, because I had a couple of Altoid tins with little things in them as well. I immediately went and emptied the tins and tossed them. My grandmother was a terrible hoarder and I was glad for the wake-up call from good ol' Delta before I followed in her footsteps.

[quote] What is the deal with her husband?

Typical Southern redneck. Worked on oil rigs until he began acting. When he auditioned for Simon & Simon he was broke, hungry, and didn't have much more than the clothes on his back. His co-star came from a very privileged background and the two actors didn't really connect until they discovered their mutual love of right wing politics. His most cherished role was in Major Dad. McRaney worships the military, but has never actually served himself. Gives him something in common with Trump.

[quote] She's long been supportive of gay rights and seems rather liberal.

Both she and Dixie Carter appreciated their gay fan base, but every election they supported and contributed to anti-gay Republican candidates. It's more accurate to say Annie Potts and Jean Smart were supportive of gay rights rather than the lip service Carter and Burke provided. Delta's husband is a homophobe and it's probably fair to say he has tried to influence her in that regard as he has in every other aspect of her life.

[quote]McRaney worships the military

As opposed to the left's worship of criminals/outlaws?

[quote] As opposed to the left's worship of criminals/outlaws?

Go to bed, Milo. You're drunk, again.

Delta Burke and McRaney met, fell in love and had their first kiss on DW. Yes, am sure like every other couple they have had their ups and downs, but McRaney has always stood right beside and up for his wife regardless.

DW and DB got it right doing that show addressing head on Suzanne Sugarbaker's weight issues. It was like Julia says in episode; people love to see wealthy become poor, and beautiful women grow old and or fat.

R18 You can't tell me that the left, particularly the far-left, DOESN'T glamorize/romanticize criminals and outlaws.

Ratings, shmatings....

DW was just not as funny nor same after Suzanne Sugarbaker was gone.

There was something missing, especially the way Suzanne got along with Anthony. OTOH she treated him as if didn't count; but on the other he was one of if not the only true best friend Suzanne had.

I just watched the season four fat reunion episode. Some episodes stand out in the series where they hit the right mix of humor and substance without being too preachy, and that was one of them. I especially love her speech at the reunion. However she intended it.

Didn't realize Gerald McRaney was a Republican, but honestly it's not like I think about him much, if at all.

Looks like he said back in the 1990s that he only just realized he was really a Republican, which to me sounds like he must have lied and said he was a Dem in interviews when he had that TV show. In 1992 he was campaigning for Bush against Clinton, touring small towns and yelling that Clinton was an "overeducated moron" pushed on us by the "liberal media," and that doesn't sound like a gradual conversion to conservativism to me.

Are delta and Dixie friends now? Who do we believe with the feud between Delta and the producers?

Don't think she's talked to Dixie for quite some time, R26.

R24, you have to know Miss Dixie died years ago! After reading this thread, I tried to find Delta Burke on social media. She's nowhere to be found, unless I've looked in the wrong places (FB, IG). Seems like something she'd enjoy to pass the time. Maybe like Gary talking Lucy out of things, Gerald has talked Delta out of, "getting on that damn computer."

Delta is also a Republican.

We've discussed Delta Burke and Dixie Carter so called "war" before on DL. Yes, the two women eventually patched things up, it didn't happen at once, but rather at last. Good thing was that bad blood got taken care of before three DW cast members passed on.

Delta Burke looked truly tore up at Dixie Carter's funeral.

Mr. Gerald McRaney is a good ole Mississippi boy born in late 1940's; just what did many of you expect him to be politics wise?

True, R30.

And I don't know why Datalounge is so surprised that a woman named Dixie was a big old right-winger.

What do they expect?

I think working with Bloodworth-Thomason must have had an influence on Dixie. I recall reading that she actually donated to the Clinton campaign.

1992 was less than thirty years, but a different time altogether. There were still a few conservative Democrats. And Bill won West Virginia!

Thank you for the reply. I didn’t know Dixie died and didn’t know of the feud as am from Australia .

The Clintons were friends were the BTs, and so was Dixie, which is partly what led to her falling out with Delta.

It was a tragic Wonderbra accident. There were no survivors.

Dixie must have been approached by QVC at some point. She seems a natural for their kind of I'm your best friend, see how damaged I am buy this necklace and you'll feel better crap. Dixie Q's.

I kept hoping that Encores would do Coco with Dixie Carter.