Designing Women

[atpeacewithme]

Are there any other fans out there? I mean, the good ol'days -- Charlene, Julia, Suzanne and Mary Jo. I think it was some of the most clever sitcom writing of the 80s.

[celebrityfly]

This is one of my most favorite shows, EVER. I remember watching it with my mother when I was younger. I felt it went downhill with Carlene, Allison and eventually BJ, but the early days were golden.

I just loved big old donkey girl scout Charlene, especially in the jury duty episode. Suzanne was my all time favorite, and her episode about going to the high school reunion with extra weight was just so well done. It was humororus and sad at the same time.

Oh and we can't forget Bernice with her "black man black man, where have you been".

Lifetime needs to stop showing the later seasons and go back to the ones with the original cast!

[atpeacewithme]

I think they only show episodes from Seasons 1 - 4. So, I'm having an 80s party on Sunday night and I'm trying to decide which episode to show. The crowd will be mostly guys -- SF computer programmers. I want to show them that Southerners can be progressive and entertaining. I can only show on of the episodes from the "Best of..." DVD. Which one do you recommend?

1. The High School Reunion with Suzanne
2. Killing All the Right People (Tony Goldwyn guest stars as a young man dying of AIDS)
3. Reservations for Eight -- Battle of the Sexes at the Ski Lodge

I'm leaning towards Reservations for Eight - which I think would be most funny and enjoyable for mixed crowds. But "Killing" mixes funny with 80s "special episode" poignancy. Anyway, any suggestions are appreciated!

[celebrityfly]

Okay as far as being progressive that would likely be the Killing all the right people because the women really make a stand that they want to do the funeral of the boy dying with aids even though others in the community are against it. Mary Jo does a good speech at the PTA about why she'd rather condoms be given out at schools, if it helped prevent Claudia and Quint from contracting AIDS. Plus Julia has a mini-tirade on a woman in it.

The high school reunion is great, very touching and again you have the great rant about how That was the night the lights went out in Georgia. But this one seems to be to be geared a bit more towards the female audience.

I think the other one on that DVD is Mary Jo contemplates breast implants? It's been awhile since I watched the Best Of disc. I did hear rumor that they might FINALLY be releasing this show on DVD.



And also currently on Lifetime they are showing the older season episodes with BJ and Carlene, and have been doing so for about 3 weeks. I always DVR the episodes but I really don't like those as much as the original foursome. If you had the time you could record some of those, they had the one with the Clarence Thomas hearing last week.

[CAgirl]

I like this show as well. Although I never watched it during it's original airing. I started to watch it during syndication. I love the earlier seasons much better than the last ones. Suzanne and Charlene are just too funny. And Bernice is just wacky.

[Deleted]

When Delta Burke left I almost stopped watching it. I tried it for another season but there was just no way that show could ever be as good without Suzanne so I gave up. I love the high school reunion episode, as a big girl myself I could really relate to it.

[Deleted]

Suzanne was the whole show for me too because Delta really brought the comedy. It was a great contrast between her and the other characters. Didn't she leave over personality differences?

[celebrityfly]

I believe Delta and the producers had some major disagreements, maybe even about her weight? I remember around the time of her departure reading articles saying that was the resaon for the fights.

I know she and her husband frequent some festival in Mississippi, my mother saw her there a few years ago and said she looked great.

[tamaradixon]

I loved the eps when Gerald McRaney guested. He and Delta were sizzlin' back then.

[Deleted]

For a party, I think that the battle of the sexes ep is best. Designing Women at its finest writing- and hilarious. The other ones might be too heavy for a light and breezy summer bash (still landmark eps, though).