Designing Women
Published in
6 min readJul 2, 2024
On a Monday night in 1986, we heard the song “Georgia on My Mind” and were treated to the first episode of a television show that would become a classic; Designing Women. How unusual to see on TV sophisticated and educated Southern women owning and operating a successful business in a big city like Atlanta, GA. The real-life equivalents existed all over the South, but seldom had Southern women been depicted in a series in this manner.
Linda Joyce Bloodworth-Thomason, a writer, producer, and TV director, created the new series. She had written episodes for hit shows like M*A*S*H, Rhoda, and One Day at a Time, among others. Designing Women was the first major hit from her production company, Mozark Productions. When Bloodworth-Thompson envisioned the series, she had the four original actors in mind for the leading roles, and she wrote their characters based in part on their real personalities. The series ran a total of 163 episodes and ended in 1993.
Thompson was not a Southerner, having been born in Poplar Bluff, MO, but tapped in perfectly to the ever-changing facets of a Southern woman’s personality. She realized that not every successful Southern woman resembled any one of the four main characters, but she hoped there would be something that resonated with female Southerners and ladies in general. Maybe it was a strength of character, a keen sense of humor, or the fact that not many southern ladies, despite their family background, their level of education, or their role in society, could ever back down from a verbal altercation when defending family or friends.
The Julia Sugarbaker character’s main flaw was that she couldn’t suffer fools. She was superb as she held her anger as long as needed until she exploded in a controlled tell-them-off diatribe. Who could ever forget her soliloquy that, in no uncertain terms, explains the true meaning of the Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia? Jim Harris wrote an article about the character and the actor that describes it all. It’s worth a re-read.
Humorous-themed plots outnumbered the more serious ones. But some episodes lacked that iconic humor when controversial or sad subjects were the focus. Those were treated with respect for the subject and any viewers who might disagree. The episode “Killing All the Right People” in season 2 was based on Linda Bloodworth-Thompson’s own experience as she watched her mother dying in the hospital of AIDS, contracted from a blood transfusion. The real-life staff was afraid to touch the AIDS patients and often shoved their meds into a container and through the door. Patients were dying alone. She overheard a statement that was made by someone in the hallway, “If you ask me, this disease has one thing going for it. It’s killing all the right people.”
After the first season, the show was moved from Monday to Thursday opposite Night Court, and the ratings took a huge dive. CBS put the show on hiatus, which meant cancellation was inevitable. One of the producers contacted VQT, Viewers for Quality Television, who wrote over 50,000 letters to the CBS network, ultimately persuading CBS to move Designing Women back to Monday nights, where it flourished again.
Dixie Carter, who starred as Julia Sugarbaker, was born in McLemoresville, TN in 1939. She was married three times, with the last marriage to Hal Holbrook, a fellow actor who played the Sugarbakers’ attorney Reese Watson. They were married from 1984 until her death in 2010. Her greatest acting talent (in my opinion) was to say more with her facial expressions than the scripts could define with dialog. Perhaps in the role, she inherited the “look” from her fictitious mother, Perky Sugarbaker.
From 1986–1991, Delta Burke played Suzanne, the younger Sugarbaker sister and former beauty queen. In real life, she was born in Orlando, Florida in 1956. In 1974, she won the Miss Florida Beauty Pageant and competed for Miss America. She is married to Gerald McRaney, who played the part of Dash Goff, the writer and Suzanne Sugarbaker’s ex-husband. Delta Burke is a beautiful lady who admits she has fought her weight and depression for years. Unfortunately, fighting either problem while in the public eye is very difficult.
Annie Potts, who played Mary Jo Shively in the series, is a tiny actress with a big personality. She has stayed busy acting since she began her career. She was born in 1952 in Nashville, TN. She married her college sweetheart and a short while afterward; they were in an automobile accident caused by two drag racers. She sustained multiple fractures, which resulted in long-term traumatic arthritis. Her husband lost his leg. She has been divorced twice and has been married to James Hayman, producer, director, and cinematographer since 1990. On the Southern Voice, you will find a full article about this talented lady.
Jean Smart, who played Charlene Frazier, was the only one of the original four who was not from the South. She was born in 1951 in Seattle, Washington. She was married in 1987 to actor Richard Gilliand, who played JD Shackleford on Designing Women. They were married until his death in 2021.
Not really one of the designing “women”, Meshach Taylor played Anthony Bouvier, an ex-convict and delivery man. He was cast in the beginning in a small one-time part but quickly became an integral member of the cast. His character’s reference to his “unfortunate incarceration” became a regular line in scripts. He lasted 7 seasons, and his character became a partner in the Sugarbaker Design Company. He was born in 1947 in Boston, MA, and died in 2014 of cancer.
We watched from week to week, never being sure if the Designing Women episode would be funny or thought-provoking. But one thing was for sure: it was always entertaining.
