is a American comedy made by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason aired on CBS from September 29, 1986 to May 24, 1993, producing seven seasons and 163 episodes. The comedy series Designing Women is a joint production of Bloodworth/Thomason Mozark Productions in partnership with Columbia Pictures Television for CBS.
The series focuses on the lives of four women and one man working together at an interior design company in Atlanta, Georgia called Sugarbaker & amp; Associates. Originally starring Dixie Carter as Julia Sugarbaker, president of design firm; Delta Burke as Suzanne Sugarbaker, former queen of beauty queen Julia and partner of silent design company; Annie Potts as head designer Mary Jo Shively; and Jean Smart as Charlene Frazier's office manager. Later on in its journey, this series received recognition of well-publicized behind-the-scenes conflicts and shades of change. Julia Duffy and Jan Hooks replaced Burke and Smart for season six, but Duffy was not brought back for the seventh and final season, and he was replaced by Judith Ivey.
Video Designing Women
Premise
Julia Sugarbaker was introduced as an intelligent and overtly intelligent middle-aged intellectual widow. His younger sister, Suzanne Sugarbaker, was the third person divorced, rich, flashy, often selfish, former Miss Georgia World. They are constantly on personal opportunities, but have launched Sugarbaker and Associates Designs, an interior design company, following the death of Julia's husband, Hayden McIlroy. Julia runs the company and is the company's guiding power, while Suzanne is largely a financial supporter who just roams around and harasses everyone under the guise of a company salesperson. However, he brings in new customers regularly through breakfast, lunch and dinner arrangements.
The pragmatic designer Mary Jo Shively, a widow has recently raised two children, and a rather naive office manager Charlene Frazier (later Stillfield) is an early investor and co-worker. Mary Jo and Charlene were best friends for a long time (they are neighbors in Charlene's apartment building). Anthony Bouvier, a former convict who has been convicted of robbery, is the only person on staff, and then in series becomes a partner. Bernice Clifton (Alice Ghostley), a dazed friend of Sugarbaker's chief mother, also appears frequently.
Carter and Burke have been cast members of the CBS siti CBI Filthy Rich, written by Bloodworth-Thomason. Coincidentally, Potts and Smart became the guest stars together in the 1985 episode of Lime Street, also made by Bloodworth-Thomason.
Although it is a traditional comedy, and often includes extensive physical comedy, Designing Women is highly relevant (especially in episodes written by Bloodworth-Thomason itself), and featuring discussions on controversial topics such as homophobia, racism, dating pastors, AIDS, hostile attitudes toward overweight, and husband-wife abuse. The "Kill All the Right People" episode of season two (1987) directly addresses the prejudice associated with the AIDS epidemic after Bloodworth-Thomason's mother died of the disease, and the episode won two Emmy nominations.
The program became famous for the monologues Julia delivered in anger at another character, the character that began in the second episode, when Julia verbally punished a beauty queen who made fun of Suzanne. The speech, which Julia ends with firmly says, "And that, Marjorie, just so you know, and your children will someday know... is the night.... the lights go out..... in Georgia! "became a fan favorite. Dixie Carter, a registered Republican, disagreed with many of his left-of-center character comments, and finally made a deal with the producer that for every speech he gave, Julia would sing the song in the upcoming episode.
Maps Designing Women
Starring
- Dixie Carter as Julia Sugarbaker (season 1-7)
- Annie Potts as Mary Jo Shively (season 1-7)
- Jean Smart as Charlene Frazier-Stillfield (season 1-5; guest star: season 6)
- Delta Burke as Suzanne Sugarbaker (season 1-5)
- Meshach Taylor as Anthony Bouvier (repeats: season 1-2, main: season 3-7)
- Alice Ghostley as Bernice Clifton (repeating: seasons 1-7)
- Julia Duffy as Allison Sugarbaker (season 6)
- Jan Hooks as Carlene Frazier-Dobber (season 6-7)
- Judith Ivey as Bonnie Jean "BJ" Poteet (season 7)
Main characters
Julia Sugarbaker
Julia is president and owner of Sugarbaker and Associates Design Firm, located in Victoria's own home. Julia can be described as a feminist who often supports the liberal point of view. He is very quick to speak his mind, sometimes without knowing all the facts involved. Julia can be personified as a brave, independent, self-confident, no-nonsense southern lady who likes to defend her old and sweet South. His quick speeches and his passionate conviction earned him the nickname "The Terminator". He often quarreled with his sister Suzanne. Despite his disagreements with Suzanne, he often defends himself against those who insult him. Initially in the series, he disagreed with his son, Payne, who was dating an older woman. She married Hayden McElroy for several years, who died before the premiere (in the 1986 debut episode, Hayden's death was described a year earlier, in 1985) after suffering several heart attacks. Julia has a romantic relationship with Reese Watson, also a widower, who is also known for placing her in her place. After Reese's sudden death during the fifth season, Julia temporarily starts dating again, eventually starting a relationship with symphony conductor Phillip Russell Stuart during the final season of the event. As the series continues, Julia becomes a softer person. Though the most logical and sensible group member, Julia is sometimes convinced by others to try something that is not usually ridiculous (like sticking her head through the banisters at the Governor's Mansion), usually with poor results, but often, Julia is a person which convince others to change their minds when they want to do something that can not be the right thing to do, or the most logical idea to do it. Carter is the only cast member to appear in all series episodes (Potts absent for just one). Delta Burke's flow was the first person to appear on the intro credit (which praised the player in alphabetical order) for his first five seasons, the Carter character has been indicated as the main character of the show plot for all seven seasons, which made Dixie Carter the lead actress of the show.
Mary Jo Shively
Mary Jo is Sugarbaker's main designer. At the beginning of the series, the newly divorced Mary Jo is very shy, easily intimidated, and somewhat lacking in self-esteem. He and Charlene are described as close friends (after being neighbors in the last apartment building). However, as the series progresses, he gradually becomes more independent and resourceful. Mary Jo is the mother of two children, Claudia and Quinton. With a sarcastic and self-deprecating sense of humor, he often mocks the personal life stories told by Suzanne and then Allison. Rather inspired by Julia, she becomes more confident and also a bit more opinionated, and even supports a safe sex campaign at her daughter's school. Initially, Mary Jo took a long time to start dating again after divorce. Finally, Suzanne matches her with J.D. Shackelford, a talent scout for Atlanta Braves, whom he sporadically showed during the first season of the event. He often portrays a false personality about himself to impress old friends and clients. Along the way of the series, despite the romance that again with JD., Mary Jo is largely unlucky in love. He sometimes goes to the extreme to impress a man, sometimes a man whom he does not have much interest in. Several times during the series, Mary Jo expresses feelings and actions that signify she is going through a midlife crisis. Potts appear in all but one episode.
Suzanne Sugarbaker
Suzanne, Julia's sister, is a self-centered couple, rather quiet in Sugarbaker's. She is a beauty queen of exquisite beauty, striking, and beautiful, who often denied her true age. Among his previous titles, he won the 1976 Miss Georgia World contest in Atlanta and was a contestant at the Miss America Pageant in 1976 or 1977 as stated in the second season episode of "High Rollers" during his trip, Charlene and Anthony took to Atlantic City ( Burke himself had been a contestant in the 1974 contest). She divorced with three previous husbands; two of whom are Dash Goff (Gerald McRaney), a Southern writer, who is his first love and one true love, and the other is Jack Dent, who plays for Atlanta Braves and the third is J. Benton Stonecipher (unknown occupation). He has a Hispanic waitress named Consuela. Though never appearing in front of the camera, Wild and Conscela's crazy antics are usually expressed by Suzanne as being a voodoo and violent outburst. Suzanne often shows disinterest in Anthony, but thinks of her as one of her best friends and can often make her do something for her like guarding her home when there's an environmental raid and teaching Consuela how to drive. Suzanne and Anthony eventually play foil each other while the series goes on and find themselves in an increasingly quirky and funny situation like in the four-episode season "Overseas", as Suzanne convinces Anthony to dress up as Consuela to deceive immigration and get citizenship. status so he will not be deported. Suzanne also has a fascination with weapons, having some of them leading to a funny episode during the fourth season when she accidentally shot Anthony in the leg after mistaking him as a thief the day before he graduated from college. In the first season, he tried to adopt a foreign girl named Li Sing. At the start of the series, he gets a pet pig named Noelle, whom he treats as a man, dresses him, drives him in a car, and takes him to the local Dairy Queen. However, Noelle finally escaped from her and never returned. In season four, Suzanne started the battle with her weight after performing in her class reunion. He missed several episodes throughout the four and five seasons, and made his final appearance in the last episode of season five. In the first episode of season six, it is explained that Suzanne has left Atlanta to take a job in Japan to be closer to her mother, and she has sold her share in Sugarbaker's to her cousin (and Julia's) Allison. Had Burke resumed last season's five-year series, Thomason had declared a plot involving Suzanne and Anthony eloping would be done.
Charlene Frazier-Stillfield
Charlene is Sugarbaker's office manager. Sweet hearted, but often naÃÆ'¯ve, she is a tall blonde from Poplar Bluff, Missouri. Charlene is reported to have never met a stranger and is known for seeking kindness in everyone. She keeps friends with all her co-workers (Mary Jo became her best friend from their time as a neighbor), though she often produces quarrels with Julia and Suzanne. Charlene is very practical, but a dreamer. He dreamed of being the son of a preacher and fanatic of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Dolly Parton. Though often guided by his psychic counselor, Charlene often finds herself in trouble when looking for a respectable man to this day. He is often the target of the fraudsters. He had a brief love affair with Shadow, a government secret agent, before encouraging Mason Dudd, an overwhelmed businessman, who left him for Japan. Charlene met her soul mate in Air Force's ambitious Colonel Bill Stillfield, whom she eventually married. She gave birth to their daughter, Olivia, early in the fourth season. In a dream, he is visited by the entertainer Dolly Parton as Olivia's Guardian Movie Star, who confirms to Charlene the gender and the name of her son. When Bill was transferred to England at the start of season six, Charlene handed over her job at Sugarbaker's to her sister, Carlene Dobber.
Anthony Bouvier
Anthony is Sugarbaker's sender, who later became a partner of the design firm. Before coming to work at Sugarbaker's, he was raised by his grandmother, Dondi, after his mother, who was a drug addict, left him. In the episode, "Papa Was A Rolling Stone", Anthony met his real father for the first time on his 30th birthday after the women hired a private detective to find him. He was unknowingly involved in a robbery of a local department store, which made him sent to prison. (The details behind his beliefs and imprisonment are unknown - to other characters or audiences - until quite late in the series.) Anthony often addresses his "unfortunate detention", most of the time to explain his feelings and get out of fear. His cellmate, T. Tommy Reed, often oppresses him, but then returns as a changed man who wants to make Anthony his business partner. Anthony became involved in several tasks during the run of the series in an effort to improve his life. In the seventh season, Anthony worked hard to finish law school. Nonetheless, he soon traveled to Las Vegas after his fiancé threw it away. There, she wakes up to find she's married to a charming lady named Etienne Toussaint. At the end of the series, he has completed law school.
Allison Sugarbaker
Allison is a cousin of Julia and Suzanne, who swept into Sugarbaker's early in the sixth season. After buying Suzanne's stock, Allison made her petite but ruling and arrogant presence felt that she had a controlling interest in the business. He also took up residence at Suzanne's house, claiming that he held the lease and plot to drive Anthony out of the house, despite the fact that he had hired him since Suzanne left Atlanta. The extraordinary ability to alienate everyone around him can be attributed to Obnoxious Personality Disorder, and he enjoys antagonistic relationships with Julia, Anthony and Mary Jo. Allison sometimes shows self-awareness in admitting that she finds it difficult to form relationships with others. Originally presenting himself as a corporate dynamo attending Wellesley College and a friend of Marla Maples, Allison has been dismissed from every job he has, especially working as an eye-opener for a rich blind woman in New York who dismissed Allison after he learned that she has colored her hair with a terrible color. After testifying against his former boss, Barry Bensfield (played by Julia Duffy's husband Jerry Lacy), which led to his imprisonment for insider trading, Allison was the victim of a revenge plot, when Barry arrived at Sugarbaker asking him to marry him, only to let him be denied. Allison does have moments during her time at Sugarbaker's - paying Carlene to go to college, dancing with a convict during prison riots, dating Mary Jo's brother, tied up with scout girls more manicures and pedicures, and she even had asked Julia to admit that some of her insights were true. Nevertheless, Allison never really became one of the groups. In the first episode of the seventh season, it is explained that Allison has left Atlanta, after taking her money from Sugarbaker to invest in Victoria's Secret franchise.
Carlene Frazier Dobber
Carlene is Charlene's sister, who has moved to Atlanta for a fresh start after divorcing her husband Dwayne Dobber in Missouri. Carlene took over an office job at Sugarbaker's when Charlene moved to England. Due to the lack of worldliness of his sister, Carlene is a village girl at heart, in a way that almost innocent children look at the world. Mary Jo had a friendly friendship with Carlene, while Allison funded the Carlene campus study. When he does not imagine that he is the star of his "live sitcom", Carlene is also an aspiring songwriter and is often seen plucking his guitar, but shows greater enthusiasm than his true talent.
Bonnie Jean "B.J." Poteet
Bonnie Jean, or B.J., met the girls at Sugarbaker's at the start of the seventh season when she called to hire them to decorate her home just as Julia decided to get out of business. A friendly Texas widow, B.J. married millionaire James Poteet and inherited his business, Poteet Industries, when he died of a heart attack. Despite winning Julia's share of Sugarbaker in a poker game, B.J. offering Julia a chance to win back her stake in the BlackJack game. After realizing that B.J. letting it win, Julia offers her a chance to buy a business, saying they need someone "with the air in her hair". Will B.J. to invest in Sugarbaker provides a much-needed financial lifeline for business after Allison's departure. Despite the millions, B.J. is a down-to-earth woman who is always tickled by life and by the people around him. He likes to push the buttons of others, especially the liberal tendency of Julia, but always knows how to defuse the situation with his good humor.
Recurrent
Bernice Clifton
Bernice (Alice Ghostley; season 1-7) is a dazed friend of Julia's mother and Suzanne, Perky, who took her to join her daughter and friends for Thanksgiving during the first season. Bernice has "a problem of arterial flow above the neck" as described by Perky, which causes him to make off-hand and strange comments from time to time. When Perky suddenly moved to Japan, Sugarbakers became the watchdog of Bernice, at the request of their mother. Bernice is married to Louis Clifton for many years, who has worked in a circus as a youth, billed as "Dancing Fool". In the fourth season, he fights with his cheerful niece, Phyllis McGuire, who wants to put her in a sanitarium. Having never had children of his own, Bernice often considered Anthony and the four women as his own. She has a funny relationship with Suzanne, who calls her "little fruit cake". Bernice often believes some men have a "crush for her", though this always proves to be wrong. Originally a repeat guest character, Bernice's appearance in the series became more frequent. Although he has never been credited as a main character, Bernice has more episodes than Carlene, Allison or B.J.
Additional recurring characters
- Reese Watson's lawyer (played by Hal Holbrook, season 1-5) is Julia's girlfriend, successful lawyer, and real-life Dixie Carter husband. The character died during the fifth season. (The character's death was requested by Holbrook's request to leave the show in 1990 to allow him to star in the Evening Shade.
- J.D. Shackelford (played by Richard Gilliland; season 1-5) is Mary Jo's once-dead girlfriend and real life husband of Jean Smart.
- Dr. Theodore "Ted" Shively (played by Scott Bakula, season 1-3) is a former husband of Mary Jo, who works as an obstetrician.
- Payne McElroy (played by George Newbern; season 1-2, 4, & 6) is Julia's college-aged son.
- Claudia Marie Shively (played by Priscilla Weems; season 1-4) is the daughter of Mary Jo, whom Mary Jo spends a lot of time educating about safe sex.
- Quinton "Quint" Shively (played by Brian Lando; season 1-6) is a school-age son of Mary Jo.
- Col. Bill Stillfield (played by Douglas Barr; season 2-5) is an Air Force Colonel from an old-money family, and Charlene's boyfriend and then her husband.
- The Gof Dash (played by Gerald McRaney; season 2) is a successful writer and one of Suzanne's ex-husbands, having married her, with her own confession, specifically so that she can suffer enough to become a writer. (Gerald McRaney is Delta Burke's real life husband.The two met first when filming "Dash Goff, The Writer," an episode where Dash Goff characters first appeared, before this, Burke himself had never been married and rarely went on dates.) made another appearance on Burke in 1994, a spin-off sitcom, Women at Home.
- Vanessa Hargraves (played by Olivia Brown; season 4) is Anthony's boyfriend again, before her boyfriend marries Etienne.
- Etienne Toussaint-Bouvier (played by Sheryl Lee Ralph; season 7) is Anthony's wife, who works as a Las Vegas show girl, where she meets her.
Famous guest star
For seven seasons, Designing Women has a series of guest stars, including Tony Goldwyn, James Naughton, Dale Raoul, JackÃÆ' Â © e Harry, Mary Ann Mobley, and many others. Sherman Hemsley, Della Reese, Kim Zimmer, Marla Maples, Wendie Jo Sperber, Louise Latham, Mariann Aalda, Leann Hunley, Lewis Grizzard, and Lloyd Bochner are also guest stars.
One of the most famous guest stars of this series is the entertainer Dolly Parton, on January 1, 1990, an hour episode of "First Day of the Last Decade of the Twenty-Century Century". She plays Charlene's "Guardian Movie Star", who advises her and tells her the gender of her son in the legendary dream sequence. As reported in the press release, Parton himself requested that he be a guest star in the episode, simply because he is an old fan of the sitcom.
Episode
Location filming
The exterior of the house seen in the series as the location of the Sugarbaker design firm, an ordinary house with a front door with only two windows on either side of the door, is located in the historic Quapaw Quarter district of Little Rock, Arkansas. In addition, Suzanne Sugarbaker's house seen in the series is the Governor's Palace of Arkansas, also in Quapaw Quarter. Both houses are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Reception
When his debut show on CBS's lineup on Monday night in 1986, he earned a respectable ranking; however, CBS moved the event multiple times to another time slot. After the gloomy ratings in Sunday night and Thursday night time slots, CBS put them on hiatus and is ready to cancel the show, but the viewer's campaign saves the show and returns it to Monday night's slot. The event ratings are compacted, and regularly landed in the top 20. From 1989 to 1992, Women's Design and Murphy Brown (also centered around a strong and opinionated female character) was shown from back to back, creating a very successful long-time blocking for CBS, as both events are considered to attract similar demographics. The event was the top 30 hits over three seasons, from 1989 to 1992, where the 1989-1992 season made it the most successful at the time and helped CBS, who fought in the rankings around the late 1980s. However, with CBS's move from a Friday night show to the fall of 1992, ratings dropped and the show went down from 6 to 67. The show was canceled in May 1993.
Initially, CBS moved Designing a Woman The Golden Girls , an NBC show that also had about four women. However, because The Golden Girls will always win in the rankings, CBS encourages Designing Women to Monday.
Political view
Show creators Linda Bloodworth-Thomason and Harry Thomason are strong supporters of old friends and future Democrats for the President of the United States, Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary. In one episode, Julia was stranded at the airport while trying to attend Clinton's first inauguration. In addition Charlene mentioned working for Clinton during her reign in Arkansas. Yet another joke related to Clintons is the introduction of the sweet character, Allison Sugarbaker, who makes it very clear to the other "Designing Women" that she attended Wellesley College (Hillary's alma mater). One episode revolves around Julia running for commissioner, where she is arguing on television against a conservative candidate, whom she eventually lost. In fact, Dixie Carter is a Republican who disagrees with some of the liberal views raised by his character on the screen, even though he is a Clinton supporter. He reached an agreement with the producer in which he was allowed to sing a song for every "speech" of his character made in the series.
Julia also expressed her admiration for former president Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, and was very disappointed in the episode, "Miss Trial", when her duties for jury duty prevented her from attending a dinner with Carters, who, like her, volunteered for Habitat for Humanity. He was then very flattered to find Carters had sent flowers and rushed to meet them for a cup of coffee.
Cancellation
Judith Ivey's introduction to the series received better reception than Julia Duffy's debut a year earlier when the show was the most popular, but despite this change, the ratings soon fell in part because of the network's decision to move the sitcom to Friday night at 9:00. Only a few weeks into its seventh season at the "Friday night death slot", although it does not accept competition from other networks, the series has dropped dramatically from 6th to 67th in the Nielsen rankings.
Designing Women
Awards and nominations
DVD release
Yelling! The factory has released all seven seasons of Designing Women on DVD in Region 1.
On September 2, 2003, Sony Pictures released The Best of Designing Women, a single-disc DVD featuring five episodes from season one to four: "Designing Women (Pilot)" (season 1), " Killing Everyone Right "(season 2)," Reservation for the Eight "(season 2)," Big Haas and Little Falsie "(season 3) and" They Shoot Fat Women, Do not They? "(4th season ).
On September 28, 2010, Shout Factory released a female single-disc DVD featuring seven episodes from the first season: "Designing a Woman (Pilot)", "A Big Affair", "Design House "," I Do, I Do not "," New Year's Daze "," Monette "," And Justice for Paul ". The selected volume of episodes has not yet been announced.
On June 5, 2012, Shout Factory released Designing Women - 20 Eternal Episodes , aimed at casual fans to enjoy the series without buying the full season set. The 2-disc DVD set includes the following episodes, from season one to five: Disc 1 - "Designing Women (pilot)" (season 1), "New Year's Daze" (season 1), "Monette" (season 1) , Season 2), "Heart Attacks" (season 2), "Return of Ray Don" (season 2), "Oh Suzannah" (season 1), "Ted Remarries" (season 2), "Killing All the Right People" , "Big Haas & Little Falsie" (season 3), "The Wilderness Experience" (season 3). Disc 2 - "The Naked Truth" (season 3), "Stand & amp; Fight" (season 3), "Nightmare from Hee Haw" (season 3), "Julia Gets His Head Caught in the Fence" (season 4), " Julia & Suzanne's Big Adventure "(season 4)," Foreign Affairs "(season 4)," A Blast from the Past "(season 5)," And Now, This is Bernice "(season 5)," This is Art ? "(season 5) and" The Pride of the Sugarbakers "(season 5).
Reruns
CBS ran an event rerun in their daytime lineup at 10:00 (EST) from April 1991 to June 1992. Furthermore, Designing Women The Designing Women Reunion , premiered on Lifetime on July 28, 2003, unites Burke, Potts, Smart, Carter and Taylor at where they shared memories of their time in the series, and also featured interviews with Thomason and various authors. Actor Alice Ghostley, Hal Holbrook, Gerald McRaney, and Richard Gilliland also took part in the special event.
The series also aired on Nick at Nite starting October 2, 2006; however, quickly left and later appeared on his TV network Land, aired late at night and in the morning sometimes until the network lost the right to broadcast the event in 2008. The series also aired on ION Television in 2007, Monday through Thursday 7:00 & amp; 7:30 pm ET.
The program now airs on Comedy Gold (formerly Land Canada TV) in one hour block every day at 11:00 and 17:00 EST. The TV Guide Network also began broadcasting an hour of block weekdays at 11 am EST in October 2011 and currently broadcast a two-hour block, weekdays from 3:00 pm (EST & amp; PST) to at 5:00 (EST & amp; PST)).
As of May 2014 will aircast again on the LOGO network. In recognition of the event's 30th anniversary, GetTV began running "Designing Women" in June 2017 with a night block featuring 30 fan favorite episodes. The show will enter the regular time slot after 30 episodes. Also in June 2017, FETV also showed a rerun of the show.
References
External links
- Designing Women
- Designing Women
- Designing Women Online
- http://www.tvacres.com/homes_designing.htm
- Designing Women
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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