Designing Women - General Discussion

[qtpye]

I think one of the most memorable Charlene moments was when she turned Julia in for talking about the "exploding sperm bank" case and Julia missed her dinner with Jimmy Carter (who she idolized)

 

Julia called her big ol donkey girl scout and threatened her baby.

[ShellSeeker]

I hate the way Charlene's story line went after she married Bill. I wish she would have married Shadow instead.

 

Aww, I liked it. But I'm pretty sappy. One of my favorite episodes was when Bill came home, and Charlene was trying to figure out how to politely tell Mary Jo to stop spending every evening at their house so they could have some "couple time." Then it turned out that Mary Jo wasn't clueless, she thought she was doing them a favor because she'd seen an episode of Oprah about how military couples have a hard time adjusting when the spouse comes home, they're uncomfortable with each other, they don't know how to behave with each other, and so on. It was a really sweet moment between Charlene and Mary Jo.

 

Another favorite moment is when Julia invited Bill over to her house to see all the paintings she'd done after her first husband died, and the conversation ended with Julia saying she thought Charlene had room in her heart for both Bill and his late wife.

[ButterQueen]

Full Moon will always be my fave episode.

[AndySmith]

Short but brief and awesome.

[Bastet]

As soon as I saw that freeze frame, I said aloud, "You'd be wise to ask yourself, 'Do I know where my baby is?'"

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

[TheGreenKnight]

That's definitely one of my favorite Julia episodes. I also enjoy the one where she opens the house to tourists and goes ballistic while dressed like she's in Gone With the Wind. "And babies that sneeze fudge-sickle juice!" Her relationship with Suzanne was one of my favorite aspects of the show.

[AndySmith]

Yes, it was a good scene.

[Primetimer]

We all loved Bernice, but where does she rank among the Sugarbakers and Sugarbaker-adjacent? Mark Blankenship puts them all in order, because someone has to.

View the full article

[FormerMod-a1]

I think I agree with the overall rankings.  Bernice was best in small doses, and when at the end they had devolved her into randomly blurting out "Black man! Black man!" it was too much.  When that "song" first appeared it was OK but they brought it back and made her tourettes-like with it.  Ugh.

While I'd put Charlene in the same spot, I don't think Jan Hook's character replaced her so easily. I like Charlene a whole heck of a lot better than Carlene. 

[ChlcGirl]

My only issue with Mary Jo is that the writers had her attempt Julia-style rants once or twice and she just could not pull it off convincingly. I know Julia Sugarbaker ma'am, and you are no Julia Sugarbaker.

[Trip]

I was discussing this show at a pool party yesterday (what are the odds?? ... oh, pretty good, actually) and I heard a fascinating tidbit that I haven't confirmed yet, because I really want it to be true and don't want to know if it isn't: Dixie hated doing those liberal rants and eventually had it put into her contract that every time she had to deliver one, in return, she was given a singing scene.

[AndySmith]

That was true, and was actually known for quite a while. Dixie wasn't quite as liberal as Julia. It was really win win for the audience, since we got some awesome Julia rants delivered by Dixie, plus we got to hear Dixie sing.

Rankings like this for me don't work, since this show and the Golden Girls (well, when it became Golden Palace) are both good examples of how you can't replace or lose someone from the original cast without the show suffering. It isn't just the writing that makes these shows good, sometimes you just get lucky and your cast clicks together and the chemistry is there from the start. And messing around with that formula doesn't quite work.

I'm not sure Stan works as a comparison to Anthony, given that Dorothy shared a marriage/history/kids with Stan, and also had a subplot during the show where she and Stan almost get back together.

Edited May 31, 2016 by AndySmith

[sinkwriter]

I agree with the rankings, but I'm with aquarian1 - I liked Charlene a lot more than Carlene. To me -- as much as I like Jan Hooks -- Carlene was a poor substitute that felt forced in order to fill that quirky space on the show. It didn't work for me, because Charlene seemed much more genuine. Carlene felt like "I'm Here To Be the Silly, Weird One Who Talks About Arkansas and Doing Weird Things There When I Was A Kid"!

I didn't like the show after Suzanne and Charlene left. It's just one of those things - like AndySmith said, the original cast is a golden, miraculous thing, and once you remove a piece or two, it's not the same. And you can't just plug someone else into the roles.

[Julie Firestone]

I'd put Charlene ahead of Anthony. For me, it was the four ladies who made the show, and once you got rid of any of them, the show was just a shadow of itself.

[Bastet]

Charlene was my least-favorite character of the original four, but if I'm ranking everyone in order of who the show could most withstand losing, she has to be above Anthony.  The way the original four meshed together as a group is what made the show, and the absence of any one of them was inevitably going to turn it into a lesser version of its former self.  The one-two punch of Suzanne and Charlene leaving in quick succession amplified it, of course, but even if Suzanne had stayed, Charlene's absence would have been keenly felt and the show probably would have petered out in two or three more seasons. 

[lallalla]

I was discussing this show at a pool party yesterday (what are the odds?? ... oh, pretty good, actually) and I heard a fascinating tidbit that I haven't confirmed yet, because I really want it to be true and don't want to know if it isn't: Dixie hated doing those liberal rants and eventually had it put into her contract that every time she had to deliver one, in return, she was given a singing scene.

Awesome tidbit! A comment above yours seems to hint at that, how fascinating if it is true!

[lallalla]

I grew up in the South, I was 11 in 1991. Looking back at this show, it's amazing to think we (the South, perhaps the majority of the US?) where only "there" when it came to black males of any sort, but particularly ones with "unfortunate incarcerations" being in the regular company of white women. I remember always loving Anthony and resonating with how ludicrous..yet understandable, (based on personal observations), client and even some passing staff at Sugarbaker's interactions with Anthony were. It was just ground-breaking to present a black man in that way at that time. Looking back, I'm kind of shocked we were only "there" in 1991, though I guess in the span of America's past, it hadn't been too terribly long since segregation and Jim Crow laws.

Don't know if I properly conveyed the sentiment of how unique this show was in context with real-life perceptions, but it was seminal and yet also captured the mood of the day on so many important issues.

[Bastet]

Quote

Awesome tidbit! A comment above yours seems to hint at that, how fascinating if it is true!

Yes, it is true - it has been discussed by the cast and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason several times, on reunion specials/panels and such, as they enjoyed joshing Dixie Carter about it.

[Shannon L.]

This was one of my favorite shows, but I hadn't seen it in years until recently when I bought the first season to introduce to my 14 year old daughter.  She loved it right from the pilot, so we plowed through season one and are now almost done with season 2.  While she's laughed at all of the characters, I've noticed that the one she laughs at the most is Anthony. 

I don't know that I could rank them.  At first, I was thinking that I'd put Mary Jo in 5th, right after Berniece (who did have some funny moments, but I could only take her in small doses), but the writer made a good point about Mary Jo and Annie Potts ability to play her. 

One thing that I'm appreciating more this time around is what a wonderful sense of comic timing Delta Burke has.  Even her facial expressions and actions in the background while someone else was front and center in the scene were spot on and have made us laugh. 

So, I don't know how I'd rank them--they were just perfect together.  I guess, though, if I had to simply name a favorite, it would have to be Suzanne.  I can't comment too much on the ones who took their places because I watch too many of those episodes.  I knew pretty quickly that I just wasn't going to enjoy it (although, I did hear that the last new character (BJ?) was supposedly really good, but by then it was too late for the show).

3 hours ago, AndySmith said:

Rankings like this for me don't work, since this show and the Golden Girls (well, when it became Golden Palace) are both good examples of how you can't replace or lose someone from the original cast without the show suffering. It isn't just the writing that makes these shows good, sometimes you just get lucky and your cast clicks together and the chemistry is there from the start. And messing around with that formula doesn't quite work.

I think MASH was pretty successful, even if people thought it got too preachy and that the original characters that remained changed too much.  The trick there, though, was to make the new characters different and not try to duplicate the ones who left.  From what little I remember, Carlene seemed like the writers were attempting to recreate Charlene and Julia Duffy's character was an attempt at a new personality.  Unfortunately, the writing just wasn't up to par.   

[gpgurl50]

I liked what was written about Mary Jo but I think her realism is why I would've ranked her lower. She was a person of contradictions which is very human and real but could also be grating. In trying to make her have rants like Julia, she would swing from one extreme to another. That said, it was a great show and everyone had their role.

[The Crazed Spruce]

My only issue with Mary Jo is that the writers had her attempt Julia-style rants once or twice and she just could not pull it off convincingly. I know Julia Sugarbaker ma'am, and you are no Julia Sugarbaker.

The funny thing is, one of my favourite moments was when Charlene gave a Sugarbaker-style rant to Julia after the latter dared to say that the Rocky movies "weren't exactly Oscar contenders".

That being said, if Julia hadn't won, I'd have rioted. Granted, it's just me on my own, so it's less "riot" and more "tantrum", but still.... RIOT!

[ChlcGirl]

Excuse me, why is Noel not on this list?

 

[rubyred]

Personally I would have ranked Charlene higher than Mary Jo; Charlene was my introduction to the amazing talent of Jean Smart and I loved how she pulled off that role. Mary Jo, yeah, I guess she was more "relatable" or whatever but for me she got points off for that doofus ex, Ted, who was obviously, even to my adolescent eyes, NOT WORTH IT.

BUT. I still recall my favorite Mary Jo speech. The women were worried about having to buy a new van for the business -- worried that they would be taken advantage of, that they didn't know how to negotiate for something like that. And Mary Jo was like, "Have you ever tried to buy a chicken in Guadalajara?" And went on to tell this glorious story of going with Ted to Mexico (where he attended medical school, I mean come on) and how she learned how to negotiate. And then she went to the dealership and totally crushed the "don't worry little lady" car salesman LIKE A BOSS. Never forgot that, and it has informed every negotiation I've made since.

[AndySmith]

Quote

I think MASH was pretty successful, even if people thought it got too preachy and that the original characters that remained changed too much.  The trick there, though, was to make the new characters different and not try to duplicate the ones who left. 

MASH was different, I think, in that the setting was just as important as the characters. With shows like this, Golden Girls, Friends, etc, the setting is secondary. 

Edited June 1, 2016 by AndySmith

[TheGreenKnight]

Bernice is actually my favorite character after Suzanne. Julia would be third. Most of her rants were awesome, but there are several that fall flat for me. Mary Jo would come after that. When I first watched the show, she was my favorite. I still love Annie Potts, but the character has dropped down some spots with me over the years. Anthony was pretty funny, and especially great when interacting with Suzanne. Delta Burke was the star of this show for me.

As far as characters who came later, I really enjoyed BJ and Julia Duffy's character (who I read was unpopular at the time, which surprises me). Charlene was the worst of the original cast, and only beat as the worst overall by her replacement, Carlene. I do like the actors and their deliveries, just not the characters. Carlene was such a flat, lazy replacement; they couldn't even give her a new name, just took the 'H' out of Charlene.

[Bastet]

Well, to be fair, if they were going to bring on one of Charlene's sisters, she had to have an -arlene name since we'd already learned all the Frazier girls had names like that -- Harlene, Darlene, Marlene, etc.

[auntlada]

The great Lene sisters.

[bigskygirl]

I hate the Mason storyline. Yes, the man was overweight, but he was not big as a house as they made him out to be. Funny how he thought Charlene was not good enough for him because she did not run around in the same social circle he did.

[KLovestoShop]

When Delta Burke left, so did the show, imho.  Hated Julia Duffy and Jan Hooks.  One of my favorite episodes was the one where Charlene's family came to the house and she introduced all of them.  Then, when that big football player came to threaten Anthony, he was able to name every one of Charlene's family and made the guy believe that he was a Frazier.  Too funny.  

[Primetimer]

And his character's decor ideas are terribly patriotic.

View the full article

[AndySmith]

Eh, Mike Ehrmantraut is ok and whatever, but I'll still take Julia Sugarbaker over him any day of the week.

[Dancingjaneway]

Julia was my favorite on Designing women. I loved her rants/speeches and I loved her facial expressions. I just loved the way Dixie Carter could deliver certain lines (ie when she was telling Charline what the construction workers yelled at her). It also doesn't hurt that I have always had a huge crush on her. She was always amazing looking. 

[bigskygirl]

I have to remind myself not to use the evidence of two dicks and a hat as my only evidence in a sanity hearing.

[CriticalMass]

Consuela is my favorite peripheral character (and Anthony as Consuela). 

[ChlcGirl]

18 minutes ago, CriticalMass said:

Consuela is my favorite peripheral character (and Anthony as Consuela). 

I had forgotten Anthony as Consuela!!! Bless you for reminding me!!!

[DrSparkles]

On ‎5‎/‎31‎/‎2016 at 9:08 AM, aquarian1 said:

I think I agree with the overall rankings.  Bernice was best in small doses, and when at the end they had devolved her into randomly blurting out "Black man! Black man!" it was too much.  When that "song" first appeared it was OK but they brought it back and made her tourettes-like with it.  Ugh.

While I'd put Charlene in the same spot, I don't think Jan Hook's character replaced her so easily. I like Charlene a whole heck of a lot better than Carlene. 

So, I frequently say "white man, white man" when I feel like someone is mansplaining too much. For me, Delta Burke is the star. God I love her. I also call Mercedes "Krautmobiles", even though I learned to drive in a 220D Mercedes! I went to a drag play of 2 of the epis earlier this year in Atlanta. One of the episodes they did was the fur coat one, when Suzanne broke her arm. When the PETA woman (onstage) said "50 animals died for that coat" I almost yelled out (but managed to whisper it in my neighbor's ear) "Wanna make it 51?!"

[DrSparkles]

On ‎9‎/‎9‎/‎2014 at 10:12 PM, ms.o said:

I grew up in Poplar Bluff. Anytime she mentioned PB I would just think it was coolest thing ever. I'll never forget the episode where Monette is listing her clientele and she says my dad and uncle's names. Of course i didn't realize what she was taking about because I was 6, but by god it was amazing.

GET   OUT!!!!!!!

[annzeepark914]

I can't find any reruns of DW & I just love the early years shows.  Suzanne is my favorite, especially her crazy shenanigans with poor ol' Anthony.

[SanDiegoInExile]

Try youtube.  There are at least a dozen complete episodes.

Edited September 6, 2016 by SanDiegoInExile

[Bastet]

The whole series is available on DVD (season by season; I don't think there's a complete boxed set) at good prices.  It's been a while since I saw this in syndication anywhere, but I pull out the DVDs at least once a year to relive the glory.

[sugarbaker design]

The syndication episodes can be really butchered in the editing process, some of my favorite Charlene lines have been totally erased.  That's why I value my DVD's.

[AndySmith]

Sounds like they do the same to these episodes that they do the Golden Girl episodes. Lots of great lines and the occasional scenes go missing...

[annzeepark914]

This is a great article about the show with comments from Delta Burke, Annie Potts, Charlene Smart & Linda Bloodworth-Thomas.  I didn't know where to put this link to the article so I just put it here:

https://www.yahoo.com/tv/designing-women-at-30-a-tribute-to-the-four-man-loving-feminists-who-changed-tv-201223694.html

[Bastet]

I knew that Killing All The Right People came out of Bloodworth-Thomason's mother having AIDS, but I had no idea Imogene's line had actually come out of someone's mouth.

What a great article, with all the memories and the reflections from Bloodworth-Thomason at the end.  Thanks for posting!

Edited October 4, 2016 by Bastet

[VCRTracking]

I like the character but I really prefer Jean Smart when she plays more formidable characters.

[VCRTracking]

I really wish Jan Hooks character wasn't basically a version of her Alamo tour guide from Peewee's Big Adventure. I know they were trying to fill the Charlene void, but it would have been great if she had been playing someone like Brenda the waitress from that classic SNL sketch with Alec Baldwin.

Edited October 4, 2016 by VCRTracking

[sugarbaker design]

More of a rant than a quote, but it's still one of my fav Suzanne Sugarbaker scenes:

from Julia Gets Her Head Stuck In A Fence

Suzanne:  You know, I'm sorry but I don't think we like your tone of voice. Who do you think you're talkin' to? For your information, we are the Sugarbaker sisters of Atlanta. We had people living here long before it burned. Our great-great grandfather was Robert E. Lee's roommate in college. Our other grandfather helped write the Georgia Constitution. I myself have stood in the rose garden with Jimmy Carter. So even if we do, on this particular day, happen to have our head temporarily stuck in a fence, we are not going to take any crap off some two-bit, low-level bureaucratic usherette.

[JAYJAY1979]

I agree that Mary Jo was best as the greek chorus character...which she became around season 2 till around season 6 when she morphed into a Julia clone.

[JAYJAY1979]

Charlene on DH and her character on Samantha Who prove how versatile Jean Smart was as an actress.

Charlene was naive, yet had the ability to be fascinated by things people take for granted.  And on occasion, Id even marvel at how much thiught she would give to these issues.  

[ButterQueen]

On October 3, 2016 at 9:29 PM, annzeepark914 said:

This is a great article about the show with comments from Delta Burke, Annie Potts, Charlene Smart & Linda Bloodworth-Thomas.  I didn't know where to put this link to the article so I just put it here:

https://www.yahoo.com/tv/designing-women-at-30-a-tribute-to-the-four-man-loving-feminists-who-changed-tv-201223694.html

Thank you so much for this.  I'm going to read it a few times.  I loved this show.