Let’s be honest. Designing Women was a terrible show.

And yet, I loved it. Still do.

Also, it has better characters, wit, and more charm than most of today's shows.

I always liked Designing Women better than Golden Girls. However, when they created Women of the House and rewrote details of Suzanne's life, it was the Golden Girls all over again.

It got stale as it went on and began to get really preachy and less fun.

IDC. I love Dixie Carter

r5

R6 HEY! She was a Republican, married to Hal Holbrook, and a women's rights activist.

Dixie was anti gay marriage. She believed the purpose of marriage was to raise children.

r7

r8 so were most democrats at the time.

Doesn't excuse it. Fuck all of them.

OP- Let's be honest- Friends was a terrible show.

r11 oh but we have a lesser of evils system, and celebrity, most turn on a dime. If we had to boycott every single one that did / said / believed something stupid, what would we be left with in this new moral frontier?

No one said anything about boycott. It's just not accepting the "everyone did it" excuse. I didn't even know at the time, at least not at the beginning. I watched DW. I can't boycott retroactively.

Let's be honest most TV shows are terrible. Time killers on the way to the grave.

r14 Sure, you can.. protest releases, boycott stations and streamers, and call for a ban of all associated works. burn some books, tear down some statues and call for restitution or a sizable donation to your six months to live or less lobbyist group.

It was absolute shit. Pity the old trashy queens who quote Bloodworth-Thomason's righteous tirades as the Golden Age of television.

My favorite episode was on Pluto last night- when Suzanne foster's Li Sing before she's adopted.

After Burke gained the weight, the writers really tried to punish her, but she turned Suzanne into the most memorable character of the series. Pitting Suzanne and Charlene, the two big girls, against Julia and Mary Jo, repeatedly, was garbage.

After Burke and Smart left, the show just circled the drain for years until it was put out of everyone's misery.

Fosters, not foster's. Oh dear to me.

I don't think it was terrible at all. Even the post-Delta Burke episodes with Julia Duffy and Jan Hooks are pretty funny.

I'm glad Jean Smart is having a renaissance with her HBO comedy Hacks.

Jean Smart has been doing incredible work for years, from her turn as FLOTUS on 24, to her work on Legion and Watchmen.

Settle down 23. We all love Jean Smart. Yes, she's worked consistently over the years and she did a stellar job in Watchmen but it was Hacks that brought her back to her roots in comedy.

WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU SAY TO ME, ANNIE? HOW DARE YOU TELL ME TO CALM DOWN, YOU HO-AH? YOU'RE GARBAGE!!!

Another "get the activity" up thread.

Always the same formula. Say something "DL-controversial" and wait for the punching of the posts on the Frauen flitter phones and the big keypads of the seniors.

And a response from R26 which helps keep the thread going.

Seasons 1-5 were absolutely amazing. Quite a few episodes of Designing Women were better than some of the best Golden Girls episodes.

However, after Delta and Jean left it suffered a lot.

Agree that it jumped the shark after Julia "moved to Japan" and Charlene "moved to England."

But it was more formulaic than your average Golden Girls episode. I mean, how many episodes started with the same general premise:

-Charlene is sitting at her desk, pencil in hair, reading something aloud about Elvis, aliens, or Sam Walton. She makes an airheaded remark that Julia smirks at.

-Mary Jo STORMS in, yanking off her jacket and bitching about the latest horrors of driving, parenting, or living in Atlanta.

-Suzanne, fat on the couch, makes a detached rich cunt quip and that's it.

-Later, Julia comes back from a meeting looking sour, and mentioning how men outside catcalled her. Charlene demands to know what they said. Julia recounts the vulgarity.

-Mary Jo tells the group about some vague "insult" to Southern culture in a magazine. Julia gets irate, calls the publisher, and rants.

-Anthony mentions his unfortunate incarceration.

-Bernice shows up wearing a backwards dress.

-Credits. Mozark. Fade-out.

Hated Julia Sugarbaker. To death.

This show is very dated though it has it's moments. The Golden Girls endured because of it's more timeless humor and the cast chemistry. Cool old ladies will never get old. Designing Woman is too 80s and too Southern and comes across far less progressive than it was in it's day. Like The Cosby Show, it's a product of it's time.

The season with Jan Hooks as Carlene and Julia Duffy as Alison was my favorite. Bernice Cliffton was the best character on the show behind Julia Sugarbaker.

I wish they had kept Jackée as Anthony's love interest instead of the deadly-dull Sheryl Lee Ralph.

I like this clip…. Mary Jo moonlights at a fast food restaurant to make ends meet. The others find out and go there and get talked into helping out for a shift. Hilarious!

I make fun of Friends all the time but I would not say it was a TERRIBLE show but it certainly was mediocre.

I show a REALLY loathe is Will And Grace.

That show was desperate to please and it had a gay male character Will that was there to serve straight womens fantasies of an Urban Gay Male.

As eye rolling as some of Julia’s rants became over time - wouldn’t it be spectacular for Julia and Trump to wind up at an event and she could give a really good speech ala “That’s the Night the Lights went out in Georgia” or “Ray Don.”

It had its moments but is mostly unwatchable today. Still, one of my favorite episodes of just about any tv show of that time was the episode where Suzanne had to return her crown.

R28 is easily amazed if seasons 1 - 5 'amazed' him. Poor guy.

This is pinnacle Designing Women. It doesn’t get any better than this.

And this.

This scene cracked me up

Another funny scene - with Bernice

R8 you’re full of shit.

I watched and enjoyed it when it was first on (except the last season), but there are only certain episodes I'd re-watch.

It was pretty great until Burke and Smart left, then pretty bad after. But even in the good seasons it was fairly uneven in a way that the Golden Girls wasn't.

R45. True, but I’d say the writing, characters and performances of Golden Girls were extraordinary.

For me, Designing Women occupies the same space of rewatchability as Will & Grace, Gilmore Girls and I Love Lucy: Always pleasant with a handful to always skip, a few I often revisit and most that I can fill time watching.

What’s interesting to me is that I find myself quoting DW more than the others.

Designing Women at their bitchiest at the Emmys, where they describes themselves as the poor step-sisters of Golden Girls

OP is a homely Miss Vermont.

The show was good for its time. It's a bit dated now, but covered many topics that were groundbreaking at the time.

Tony Goodwyn's appearance as a gay friend who died of AIDS was excellent.

Suzanne's high school reunion before being self-righteously fat was a thing.

The classic "the night the lights went out in Georgia" episode.

Bernice's sanity hearing.

I felt bad for Julia Duffy. Replacing Delta was an impossible task. Julia is a complete pro and can be very funny but the character of Allison was poorly conceived and actually made the audience dislike the actress.

Fuck you r50

I liked Alison on DW.

I think of the “Berniece” stuff all of the time - A) Wearing the Christmas tree skirt - I think of her when I see them in the store. B) Singing “Misty” into the drive thru order microphone “Look at meeee….” C) And I’m blanking out now but the bit at her sanity hearing about the Square Fish!

No, it's not terrible.

And honestly, I hate the Golden Girls comparison. The only real similarities is that there are four women.

GG was very much old fashioned broad comedy. DW was a little more of a curious comedy with Southern flair.

I loved the show, though some of Julia's rants haven't aged well nor some of the Anthony storylines. And I wasn't as much of a fan in the later years - which some GG fans liked more because the comedy was broader.

Now, the other Bloodworth Thomason shows....Evening Shade and Hearts Afire.....those were pretty dreadful.

[quote] Still, one of my favorite episodes of just about any tv show of that time was the episode where Suzanne had to return her crown.

THEY CAN HAVE THAT CROWN WHEN THEY TEAR IT FROM MY COLD DEAD SCAAAAALP!

R52

While Golden Girls dealt with some issues - Designing Women was better discussing feminism and topical women's issues

#55 - That’s it - that’s the one! Thank you so much for posting it!

First of all, that topknot's crooked ...

I love Suzanne.

When Bernice had her one episode cable access talk show - Senior Roundup - I loved it!

Datalounge classic "Designing women" sayings:

"If sex were fast food Suzanne, there would be arches over ur bed"

"She has a butt you could serve Tea on".

I think it was a good show that lacked the intelligence in the writing to be a great show. But they figured out what worked and they delivered it consistently. They foundered when the original foursome was lost and they tried to replicate it.

I know I stand all alone but I never found the Golden Girls particularly entertaining and I seldom watched it. Susan Harris shows were all the same. It was even dumber in the scripting than Designing Women.

My fav was the episode when delta broke her arm wearing the fur coat , couldnt get the coat off because of the cast and had to wear the coat for weeks.

"Oh. Well, excuse me. I do not happen to be up on homosexual history or my latest lesbian lingo!"

[quote] lacked the intelligence in the writing to be a great show.

Huh?

If anything, Linda's writing was too smart, too specific for the audience. She tried to balance smart and sassy and Southern - sometimes the balance worked, sometimes it fell flat. But it was definitely a smart show.

I meant it was often corny, preachy and sentimental, R65. She went too far for my tastes. To each his own.

Maybe the show would fare better now on Netflix or Amazon or HBO where they can appeal harder to a modern Southern audience as opposed to watering down for Middle America.

Nah, Southerners have more interesting shit to watch in 2023.

[quote]I meant it was often corny, preachy and sentimental, [R65]. She went too far for my tastes. To each his own.

R66 is a Yankee.

Come on, I loved Noelle!

CHARLENE: Julia? Julia!? (hangs up) Oh my gosh, she threatened Olivia.

MARY JO: What'd she say?

CHARLENE: She said she was going to hunt me down like a dog and hire blood hounds to rip my clothes off! Now, I thought the judge was just going to give her a warning. I didn't know she was going to be shut up in a motel room. Now, Suzanne, you know Julia. I mean, when this is all over she'll realize I had to do it and forgive me, don't you think?

SUZANNE: I think you and your baby should get some black wigs on and get the hell out of town.

R48, that’s right!

But you will never see a homely Miss Mississippi.

No, you won't. Just right now,

run through all the Miss Mississippis in your head

and see if you can name an ugly one.

See? You can't.

And I'll tell you why.

Because the Miss Mississippi people know

that a dog belongs in a pound and not in a pageant,

and that's just the way it is.

Dixie did several high-pitched songs, but she occasionally loosened up and did a saucy lounge number.

But since Julia was so uptight, they had to write it in that Julia only performed this way when she was drunk.

Richard Gilliland was sex on a fucking stick in his prime.

R74 agreed.

DW had a few great, sexy men on, Richard and Scott Bakula were both hot in that sort of casual way.

Richard was also in a show where he wore military attire. My little soldier stood at attention and saluted him every time I watched!

I haven’t watched it as an adult but when I was a kid I loved it

R75 What about the baby-faced hunk who played Charlene's dashing soldier husband, Bill?

Oh yeah, Douglas Barr. He was hot too.

Richard, Scott, Douglas and Gerald McRaney all could have taken turns sitting on my face.

Eh, they're okay.

Charlene: Yesterday, when you said that stuff about your cold, dead scalp, y'know, and then you ran out to the parking lot and threw yourself on the ground kicking and screaming, and then you crawled to your car with dirt and saliva all over your face, and then you drove away peeling rubber ... we thought you were upset.

It had its time and its place.

Very few sitcoms age well.

R74 Yes he sure was

Black man....black man....WHERE have you gone to?

I seem to recall Suzanne going on some spiel about wiglets for babies that had me in stitches.

R84 I think it might be at R71? Unless there's another one.

I think the baby wig was when Charlene took her her baby to an audition for a commercial and Suzanne had a baby wig made for her.

^ "Suzanne, is that one of Consuela's shrunken heads?"

Don't knock it. It introduced me to that culturally significant film, "There's Some Black People Coming Over For Dinner."

I’m watching it on Pluto TV Land comedy channel. Right now it’s season 7 with BJ

Unpopular opinion: I actually don't mind the Allison character.

Sure, she's no Suzanne Sugarbaker, but she has some complexity and humor to her, and is more entertaining to watch than dumbass hick Carlene Dobber. But the worst casting change was bringing in Judith Ivey as BJ in the final season. That woman was barely in the series, and never had more than three lines in a scene. She's the one who didn't belong.

I think we can all agree that Julia Duffy didn't kill the show single handedly, and that what happened when she and Jan Hooks joined wasn't really their fault. The writing, shaky to begin with, just went horribly down hill that season. I remember when their casting was announced the fans I knew were excited for them to join the cast. Both were top comedic talents of the day. I blame the writers and producers for the show tanking, not the performers.

R91 Agreed. Rewatching season six just shows how inconsistent and lame the writing was at the time.

No one is dating this season, or has any romantic tension. The characters were often at their best when they were on a bad date or even a good one.

Julia has been de-fanged (making her boring), and Mary Jo has been inexplicably amped up (making her shrill and unstable).

They have no zany clients - or any clients at all, to speak of - which makes bad news for this ever-struggling business.

They have no more debates about womanhood, appearance, gold-digging, or race relations. Julia no longer cares about her own views, Allison is too new and too flighty to speak up, and Mary Jo has become more unstable and zany than Bernice Clifton.

Delta and Jean weren't the only things that left this show after season five. They also lost stories worth watching.

The episode in the last season where BJ pretended to be a psychic conducting a seance was just bad.

R92 I disagree totally.

Carlene’s apartment is pure comedy gold. Alison’s input and jabs are on point and very funny. Bernice was extra feisty.

RIP Jan Hooks.

R52 I have friends who have been having a Christmas Tree Skirt party for years in honor of that episode. In fact, this past December was the first one since 2019. I’m a flight attendant and had Jean Smart on a flight some years back shortly after the party. Of course I had to show her the pictures of all the gay guys in their tree skirts, she laughed the “Charlene” laugh and we ran the lines from that scene…she is an absolute doll!

My Huuuhsband, HAL HOLBROOK, would have words with you...

R95 yes you certainly are that.

Jean Smart is a fucking great actress. She was so awesome on Legion.

I couldn’t stand the way the character of Anthony was written. Cooning, mincing stereotype of a black man. And an ex-convict to boot. Can’t stand Linda Bloodworth-Thomason or whatever her name is.

I think R9 meant to say “Filthy Rich” was better, and he’s right.

R97, big may be understating the Marydom.

R99, Linda is a Southerner and has her idea of what a black man should act like. And Meschach Taylor needed a job.

It was already clear in DESIGNING WOMEN that Jean Smart was a force to be reckoned with -- handed the potentially bland, largely reactive dope/simp, she infused it with personality, charm and depth. Her serious moments ("The Rowdy Girls," most obviously, but also shorter beats like when Anthony's father shows up and she pleads with him to go see him) were also wonderful.

Did anyone else catch the Zoom reading of the pilot during the earlier days of COVID? It wasn't very effective, needless to say, but Smart somehow transcended the format and brought Charlene back to life as if she'd never stopped playing her.

MARY!!

I don’t like Dixie Carter or Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, so those are two major hurdles I’d have to get over to enjoy the show. And I just can’t get past how sanctimonious they seemed. My ex liked the show, but I would tune out mentally and do a crossword puzzle or read when it came on, so none of these clips are remotely familiar. I’ve liked Jean Smart in other shows, though.

Losing both Delta Burke and Jean Smart really was a huge loss, as much as I love Julia Duffy and Jan Hooks.

I realize all these years later that I really didn't care for Mary Jo. I like Annie Potts but I found MJ to be very grating at times. Suzanne and Charlene (and even Julia) had the right combo of sass and sweetness. I found MJ too dull.

Jan Hooks had the most amazing smile. Her whole face was transformed when she smiled.

I'm watching the last season reruns on antenna TV and it's currently the menopause episode from season 7. It just struck me watching this that over season 6 and 7 Julia had lots of hot cock. First there was that guy that Allison thought was gay hot burly surgeon guy and then the sexy conductor with the salt and pepper hair. Did they cast these guys instead of letting her sing occasionally?

Dixie sounds like she was difficult to deal with.

Dixie Carter was really excellent on Broadway as Maria Callas in "Master Class". I liked her even more than Zoe Caldwell.