1243 replies to this topic

[LouisVuittonRULZ]

Since about the end of February they now show Designing Women weekdays @ 6:30p.m. E.S.T./P.S.T., right now they are in the middle of Season Two.

I am just happy Lifetime decided to bring DW, it isn't like they don't show nearly enough of The Nanny and The Golden Girls. *sarcasm*

[PrincessFosace]

I jst discovered that DW was on lifetime last week, and season passed it yesterday. I cannot wait for some of my fav. eps to coem up. No one has mentioned the hurricane episode, which is one of my favorites, or when they gamble to save the company in the last season. (yes, I actually enjoyed some of the Ivey episodes).

[10rags]

I mean, why is it the ultimate sign that a man loves you when he checks your tires to see if they have enough air? It was apparently enough for both Charlene and Mary Jo.

As a southern girl I know what's important. It means he likes having you around & doesn't want you hurt or injured! Also the use of Mr. Holbrook is precious. I have a co-worker who married a man 5 years older and refers to him as Mr. Smith in such an adoring way I m reminded of DC.

As for crying this show does me in at least every other episode. I start
with a full box of tissues. The reunion undid me completely. I loved the way Delta described how they supported her during her crisis. I thought it was so great how they spoke of her being off the wall and not rehersing but not missing a note during the shootings. Bernice rocked. My son was in his early teens and he loved her. Since he is my kid he loved her incorrectness. And with our family he knows nutty as a fruitcake when he sees it. She looks her
age but her mind seemed with it. Grat lady.

I have adored Dixie since her days on the soap, The Edge of Night. She brough such class and humor to her character. As a lady lawyer in the 60s she inspired me. I just knew I didn't want to be "just" someone's wife and mother.

[BookWoman56]

I used to watch DW religiously when it was originally broadcast, but have missed the run on Lifetime. Suzanne was always my favorite, followed by Mary Jo, Julia and then Charlene. I just didn't realize until Delta Burke left how much the show's humor depended on her. Julia's rants didn't bother me until the last few seasons, and frankly I welcomed having a show with liberal opinions to balance out some of the other conservative shows. But after DB left, Julia's rants started to grate. I'm definitely in the minority, but I didn't mind Julia Duffy. I had loved her on Newhart, and I think she did a passable job with the script she was given when she was hired for DW. It just seemed the writers didn't have the part fleshed out well enough for the character to be funny, especially compared to Suzanne.

On the eating dirt idea: I grew up in Mississippi and had never heard of anyone eating dirt. It still seems strange to me.

Favorite episodes: Loved They Shoot Fat Women, Don't They. Also, I don't remember the name of the episode, but it was the one when Suzanne's ex-husband (played by Gerald McRaney) shows up and Suzanne is asking him about why their marriage failed. Wish I could remember the exact dialogue, but he says something to the effect that when they got married, as a writer he felt he should experience suffering. Then Suzanne asked him why they got divorced, and he replies, "I had suffered enough." That line always cracks me up, and I believe this was the episode when they met and began dating IRL.

[swimmerboy]

BookWoman56, I believe the dialogue was something like:

Suzanne: "Do you ever wonder why we got married?"
Dash: "Oh I know why we got married...I wanted to be a writer and I felt I hadn't suffered enough."

I guess Julia Duffy didn't bother me because that was the first season I saw, so I didn't have Delta Burke to compare her to. But that whole first episode with Allison going around saying "I believe that if you're walking around with a bird on your head, someone should tell you", then when Julia gets fed up and calls her to say "Hello Allison. This is your cousin Julia. I'm just calling to let you know there's a HUGE bird on your head. Not just any bird, we're talking giant WHOOPING crane!" That scene has me on the floor in stitches every time I see it...which is never, since Lifetime won't put it on more than once a day.

[taylor3698]

Julia's rants didn't bother me until the last few seasons, and frankly I welcomed having a show with liberal opinions to balance out some of the other conservative shows. But after DB left, Julia's rants started to grate

I completely agreed with you. My favorite character was also Suzanne. I think it was the combination of the four characters that provided the perfect chemistry. Without Suzanne and Charlene, the chemistry shifted and I stop watching the show. I missed how silly and vain Suzanne can be and I loved her funny lines. In my very bias opinion she was the heart of the show. Loved her friendship with Anthony, who was the convict. I loved how she made him dress in drag in that one episode, and how he was probably her best friend. Suzanne and Charlene related to one another and usaully pair together was the "dumb" ones in comparison to Julia and Mary Jo who were the "smart" ones. One of my favorite episodes was the one where Suzanne drag Charlene and Anthony to Vagas to gamble back her money. I loved how she would sing her lucky song that her maid had taught her to sing and how in the end, she really won back her money. Now that is something only Suzanne Sugarbaker could do.

Edited by taylor3698, Apr 21, 2004 @ 6:36 PM.

[TudorQueen]

I loved Julia. She was gutsy, opinionated, funny, smart and loyal. And I'd loved Dixie Carter since "Edge of Night", not to mention that she has the good sense to love Hal Holbrook. In fact, in the later seasons when they held up Mary Jo as the Voice of all earthy wisdom and good, folksy values, and often had her and Julia in some sort of opposition, I tended to get annoyed.

I do agree with a wholehearted WORD with those who say the show never really recaptured the perfect balance it had when it was Suzanne, Julia, Mary Jo and Sharlene. The stories got thinner, the writing more strident, and the sense that these were four women - two of them sisters! - who had known each other forever and would stick together through thick and thin, was lost.

[BookWoman56]

Thanks for the dialogue, swimmerboy. Also ITA that the show never recaptured the perfect blend of characters it had with the original four women and Anthony. I admired Julia for her willingness to speak up on issues she thought were important, and it was nice for once to see a Southern woman portrayed as intelligent. But Suzanne always cracked me up, and she provided a perfect counterpoint to Julia's tendency to become too serious. I truly felt sorry for Julia Duffy and Jan Hooks (have forgotten who else was added, if anyone) who joined the show after DB left. The show obviously needed someone to be funny and the writers just seemed to struggle with how to get each new character to fit it. It just felt a lot like Cheers did for me after Shelley Long left; the show still had its moments, but IMO never was consistently as funny after that.

I am glad that Delta has her panic attacks under more control and that everyone has gotten past the disagreements. And while I know the official story now is that DB left because of creative differences and the fact that she was having a meltdown, I remember reading a few truly nasty remarks by the show's producers about her weight gain, and being very angry about it. Suzanne to me was even funnier and had much more depth after she got heavy. I could totally empathize with her, because she was used to thinking of herself as beautiful enough to win a beauty contest, and then after she gained weight, people regarded her very differently. And I think most of us can identify with that, whether we gain weight or just get older and are no longer the way we were at 20. In our mind's eye we still think of ourselves as young and beautiful, and then sometimes something happens that makes you realize you're not young and beautiful any more. That's why I loved They Shoot Fat Women, Don't They, because Suzanne suddenly had to confront the fact that because her body had changed, people who used to admire her were now laughing at her. She handled it much better than many women would have.

[Munchkinmom]

Giant WORD to all the posters who cry like babies during this show. The one that gets me the worst is when Charlene gets swindled into thinking that cheesy promoter guy Gaylen(?) will make her a country star and her family comes from Poplar Bluff to see her perform. Her story about her Daddy going to the bank with his hat in his hands absolutely puts me over the edge. Full-on weeping.

Gawd- I love this show. I don't get to see the reruns much, sniff, sniff.

[chilis]

I just found this thread, because it never occured to me to look back more than 30 days. Duh. Anyway, my favorite moment from this show has to be from Charlene. She was telling the story about the southern woman going to the Yankee cocktail party. She's just trying to be friendly, and asked "Where are y'all from?", and the Yankee woman looks at her and says "We're from where we don't end a sentence with a preposition", and the souther woman replies "alright, where are y'all from, Bitch!!" Love it!!! I was raised in Texas and Virginia, and my best friend is from North Carolina. We both live in Chicago now, and we use it all the time. Whenever we drink our accents get thicker, and people make fun of us, so for some reason one or both of us ends up busting out the line. Good times.

[SassandtheCity]

My personal favorite moments of Designing Women would have to be a) Julia speech to the beauty queen about Suzanne and "that's the night the lights went out in Georgia" and b) the one with Dash the writer, and the ending brings me to tears when you hear his description of the women and it turns into a black-and-white photo

[DoctorGlatisha]

One of my favorite episodes is Full Moon. I'm pretty sure that's what it's called. It's the one where Julia is in the fashion show and the back of her dress gets caught in her panty hose and she "moons" everyone. Just seeing her, and everyone elses reactions is hilarious. One of my favorite lines (paraphrased):

Julia: What I don't understand is, why didn't anyone tell me?

Suzanne: What I don't understand is, why weren't you wearing any underwear?


Cracks me up every time!

[greybear]

Watching Superstar USA and contestant NinaDiva, whom I've renamed NinnyDiva, reminds me of one of my favorite DW moments. It's something like: Charlene is advertising for a baby sitter and the candidates are idiots. Mary Jo asks her whether the ad had a mistake, soliciting Ninnies instead of Nannies.

Some lines just stick in your head forever.

[LouisVuittonRULZ]

I think one of my all-time favorite episodes was "Tornado Watch" in Season Four, which was the one where they are all stuck at Julia's for the night, and that guy Elmer finally gets to let loose -- since his wife wasn't around for like the first time in 50 years-- Anthony's Tina Turner-esque girlfriend Vanessa is there, and Daddy Jones (the hillbilly guy from the Georgia mountains) returns and he and Bernice take a liking to one another.

Old Elmer unwraps Reese's birthday presents, which included a silk robe, a yachting hat, and bikini underwear. Oh, and then Charlene is filming it all for some CNN newshound prize which does make it on the air, and they show the cops taking Elmer away.

God, that was one of the funniest episodes ever on this show.

[landsnark]

I got to see Dixie Carter on BROADWAY in Thoroughly Modern Millie. She was great! Made me miss DW even more. I don't get Lifetime now so I enjoy reading everyone's ep. and quotes memories.

[Shanimal]

Hey, LouisVuittonRULZ, in the Tornado Watch episode, wasn't Elmer played by Les Nessman from WKRP? And didn't he also appear in another DW episode as Charlene's lecherous college professor? It seemed like that happened kind of frequently on DW - recycling actors to play different characters on different episodes.

[LouisVuittonRULZ]

Shanimal, yes he was, but according to TVTome.com his name is Richard Sanders, and he was Les Nessman on WKRP in Cincinnati. He was also Dr. Elliot Newhouse in Season Five.

[swimmerboy]

LouisVuittonRULZ, ITA with you about Tornado Watch being one of the funniest episodes ever of this show. I love the part where they're watching Charlene's video, and you see Elmer dancing around with those plant branches in his hands and Mary Jo smashes the cake in his face. Elmer doesn't miss a beat, and goes right back to dancing. I also love when Charlene starts to focus on Suzanne and she goes through her purse, pulls out her gun and points it at the camera. This really is my fav episode, followed closely by Blame It On New Orleans.

[Shanimal]

OK, swimmerboy, you seem to be the resident DW expert. Which episode is it where Julia gets totally tanked at someone's wedding reception, is up on the piano belting out Sweet Georgia Brown, wakes up in the frat house bedroom of one of her son's friends, wearing his football jersey, and has to call the girls to come and pick her up? Or, is that, like, an amalgam of five different episodes? In any event, it's the reason why I can tolerate some of Julia's more strident tirades - she was so willing to make a complete and total fool of herself, physical-comedy wise.

[swimmerboy]

Shanimal, that's all from the same episode, and that episode is Payne Grows Up. The wedding reception in question was her son's. And I agree, when Julia let loose, she was so much fun.

Yeah, I know virtually everything about this show. It's my favorite sitcom EVER! I would kill in a DW trivia contest!

[YourDensity]

Shanimal, that's all from the same episode, and that episode is Payne Grows Up. The wedding reception in question was her son's. And I agree, when Julia let loose, she was so much fun.

Didn't she act all prissy at some point and say "I have to go drink out a funnel" or "they're going to drink out of the funnel now so I have to go"? On the phone. I just remember cracking up at the idea of Julia drinking from a funnel.

[swimmerboy]

No, that was from the episode where Charlene went to Bill's house in Virginia to meet his family. She was calling Julia for advice, but Julia was at a keg party that Mary Jo had dragged her to. So Julia was on the phone with Charlene and at the end of the conversation, she said in a deadpan tone, "And I have to go now because Craig[sic] is getting ready to drink out of the funnel." (because someone had yelled that out a few minutes earlier).

Edited by swimmerboy, Jun 11, 2004 @ 7:23 AM.

[Shanimal]

Oh, I loved that episode, too! And, I usually just adored Charlene and Bill together, but the episode where he plays a practical joke on her and tries to make her think that he's really the ghost of a WWII pilot shot down in action was just plain mean. I really didn't like him so much after that. That's the WWII flashback episode, isn't it, swimmerboy? If so, it has one of my all-time favorite DW quotes: when Julia is on the phone to Hitler and tells him he "can't even grow a decent mustache."

[YourDensity]

That's the WWII flashback episode, isn't it, swimmerboy? If so, it has one of my all-time favorite DW quotes: when Julia is on the phone to Hitler and tells him he "can't even grow a decent mustache."

That's when Dixie Carter flashed her (as she called it) "Pretty" to the cast and crew accidentally. Apparently she didn't wear any underwear in that dress, she threw her leg up on the chair and everyone saw EVERYTHING. Her husband (actor who plays Reese) consoled her backstage. She said "Oh I just flashed my PRETTY" and he said "But it was just lovely".

That was on the reunion show though, so all y'all are familiar with that (by the way "all y'all" is the plural for "y'all".. Suzanne Sugarbaker would be proud..

I think my favorite moment of the reunion was Delta Burke recalling how she just hit on Gerald McRaney unabashadly and how they scandalized the tourists who visited the set. Also her screaming "HEY, YOU GOT A GFRIEND??? JEAN WANTS TO KNOW!" to the actor who played JD. Incestuous little cast weren't they?

[Shanimal]

Thanks for the remind, YourDensity. The revelation about the "Pretty" scandal was my very favorite part of the reunion episode. Although, I must admit, I thought it was even better when Meshach first told the story and used the euphemism "Fancy" instead!

[Albanyguy]

the episode where he plays a practical joke on her and tries to make her think that he's really the ghost of a WWII pilot shot down in action was just plain mean. I really didn't like him so much after that. That's the WWII flashback episode, isn't it, swimmerboy?

Wasn't the WWII episode the one where Bill's character was introduced? Charlene meets Bill when he comes to the office on business, dates him, falls asleep and has the WWII dream and then when she wakes up, Bill plays the joke about being a ghost (which wasn't as mean as it sounds because he didn't know she had just had the dream). He was very contrite when he realized how seriously she took it.

[Shanimal]

Are you sure, Albanyguy? I thought Bill seemed rather smug and smarmy and condescending and "oh, you silly little thing" about the whole practical joke. Or, wait, maybe I'm just projecting ... that does sound a little reminiscent of my attitude regarding men in general :)

Edited by Shanimal, Jun 15, 2004 @ 5:57 PM.

[Albanyguy]

I could be wrong, Shanimal. It's been a long time since I've seen that one, but I definitely remember him apologizing. Although it does seem like a weird thing for him to do in the first place.

Bill did have a dark side. Remember when he broke Charlene's heart by suddenly breaking up with her with no explanation. It turned out that he was overwhelmed with guilt at the idea of falling in love again after his first wife's death. Possibly a valid feeling, but not handled in a very mature way. Of course, all it took was a heart-to-heart talk with Julia to make him see the error of his ways.

Edited by Albanyguy, Jun 15, 2004 @ 6:47 PM.

[swansong]

Bill did have a dark side. Remember when he broke Charlene's heart by suddenly breaking up with her with no explanation. It turned out that he was overwhelmed with guilt at the idea of falling in love again after his first wife's death. Possibly a valid feeling, but not handled in a very mature way. Of course, all it took was a heart-to-heart talk with Julia to make him see the error of his ways.

Yeah I think he felt guilty because he'd only ever been in love with his first wife before Charlene and he thought by falling in love again he was betraying her memory or like his love for her hadn't been real or something. And I guess Julia understood that because she'd been through a similar thing.