Designing Women

[Deleted]

Whatever happened to Charlene's breast cancer? I see that episode where she's diagnosed all the time but I never see any follow-up. Did I miss something in the episode that she doesn't actually have cancer in the end?

[Deleted]

Designing Women has been a favorite of mine for a long time. I watched it when it was a first run show.

Every year at Emmy time, I watched in shock as the no-talent Candace Bergen was nominated year after year while NONE OF THE ACTRESSES FROM DESIGNING WOMEN WERE EVEN NOMINATED.

Year after year at the Emmys, I watched as the repetitious, same old, same old, Murphy Brown won and Designing Women was ignored.

It was one of the things that made me realize that the Emmy Awards were bogus.

The original 4 actresses, together with Anthony, created a wonderful dynamic. The Suzanne/Anthony shows were some of my favorite laugh-out-loud shows. The Susanne/Dash Goff episodes were really sexy. Charlene's non-sequitors and sweetness were wonderful and the ongoing big-breasted duo vs. the smaller endowed pair were original and very funny. I guess I was never much of a Mary Jo fan and unfortunately they took the "Julia rants" thing too far. It became too much of a good thing and went way beyond what I thought the character would actually do. While the original rants were designed to show how Julia could be pushed out of her normal "ladylike" character, they became so frequent that she began to appear like a shrew.

I remember when there was conflict between Delta Burke and the shows producers, even to the point where they wrote a show where Suzanne had accidently glued her lips together, so that she had to appear and sit there, but was given no dialog. It was a shame, really, and as they later reconciled (after Delta had left the show), I don't really know who was to fault.

I do remember Hal Holbrook (Dixie Carter's husband) remarking that Delta Burke should be grateful because if she had been on a show with other producers and had gained so much weight, she would have been fired. What he apparently failed to notice was that it was Suzanne and Charlene who were the linchpins of the show. Not Mary Jo and Julia. And Delta Burke's weight gain, rather than remaining slender, made her clutching onto the beauty queen past, even more poignant. A perfect example is Suzanne banishing the "nanny" Ursula to protect her friends (and maintain her own status) during their beach vacation.

The fact that they still have released the DVDs of this show merely reinforces their second class status. I hope the episodes appear soon.

[ladymadonna]

You know what I love about Designing Women? You can totally pull out a quote in any group of people and they will laugh and say "Yeah! I remember that one!" It's the same way with Friends and Seinfeld.(Whether you love or hate the shows, you know immediately where "How YOU doin'?" or "Could it BE more ____?" or "No soup for you!" came from)

We just hosted a self defense class, and I brought up the scene where Suzanne gets the perp to hold her purse while she digs through it to get her gun, and EVERYONE laughed and chimed in with their own memories of that show, and then we did the NO!!! thing.

Good times.

[kathy1977]

Oh happy day! Nick at Nite is adding Designing Women to their lineup. Starting October 2 they will kick off a week long marathon. I have seen the promo 3 times in the past hour.

[mrspickles]

"Julia- play The First Noel for my pig!"

And if anyone wonders who this is, my name is Helen Van Patterson Patton. Make sure you spell that correctly

Seriously, there are no words to describe how much I loved this show! The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia is my FAVORITE!!!!! tirade of all times.

One of the best lines ever from that show, though, was when Julia said "Being yourself is highly overrated. I say, be whoever you damn well please."

Lord, I could do this all nght.

About 2 years ago, I was happily working away when one of the senior managers in my office walked by and said, "...and I'd like to thank you, Ray Don..." and then just walked away. I damn near swallowed my tongue.

Another one of my very favorite moments was when they went to nerdy Howard's class reunion as his dates. The former prom king/ super jock starts hitting on them and teasing Howard, and Mary Jo jumps in with "Howard has a job with one of the top design firms in the nation- he's changing the face of America. And what do you do, Doug?"

So as a thank you, Howard sends them a music box that plays a standing ovation when opened. From that episode, Charlene: You knew someone who couldn't make band? That is so saaaad!"

Love, love, love it!!!!!!!

[ladymadonna]

At the risk of killing the thread again, lol.... My friend and I were JUST talking about Julia's "Ray Don" speech today, because we know someone with a similar name, and I've been trying to find a transcript of it somewhere, unsucessfully. That's my favorite TV rant EVER!

Seriously one of my all time favorite shows. It ranks up in my top three with Cheers and Friends for most quotable. (Up to a point, they all jumped the shark and became painful to watch, but in their heyday, DAMN funny!)

[swanflake]

The addition to Nick and Nite is good news, but when is it all going to be released on DVD?!?

[batmom]

Youtube has the Night the Lights Went Down in Georgia rant posted. Not much else, unfortunately.

[Deleted]

Ooooh! I LOVE that show! I was little when it was on, but I'd watch with my mom! It was the best!

My favorite episodes:

The one where they go camping in the mountains and run into that family of mountain men, who basically made Larry the Cable Guy look like James Bond? And then the guys got into a big fight with the hicks, and they ended up in the hospital. Long story short, then Anthony comes by, and they hear that he had a run in with them, and Reese is like, "Oh shit, poor Anthony!"
Then Anthony comes in, not a scratch on him! Apparently, he brought two of his ex-con friends who roughed up the hicks for him.

Or the one where the local country club recruits Anthony after years of being segregated, because they want to be included on the PGA tour. So Anthony goes to one of their snotty cocktail parties with Julia as his guest, and he acts all prissy and super sweet with the snobby women there. And just as they're taking a group picture for the local picture, just as the photo is snapped, he kisses one of them on the cheek!

I loved Anthony. "My unfortunate incarceration." Ha!

I hated Alison and was indifferent to Carlene (although I definitely preferred Charlene). But B.J. was cool, awkward initials not withstanding.

Meschach Taylor and Delta Burke were one of the BEST comedy duos ever.

[CarolinaGirl]

Bernice and the Christmas Tree skirt was comedy gold.