Designing Women
There are words that came to mind when discussing Designing Women: the 1980s hit comedy. Thatâ??s sweet, sexy, and outright feminist. Even through its initial struggles to grab an audience and the public feuding of its stars, Linda Bloodworth gave the world a great show with an amazing ensemble cast, witty writing and a certified hit.
Bloodworth was a newspaper reporter who became a freelance writr for shows like M*A*S*H*, Rhoda and One Day At A Time. she soon became an independent producer and created Filthy Rich, a short-lived spoof of Dallas. It was on the set of filthy Rich where she met Dixie Carter and Delta Burke.
Bloodworth married another television producer Harry Thomason in 1983. Together, they put up Mozark. One of their first projects, Designing Women, was quickly sold to CBS.
Designing Women had some similarities with The Golden Girls. However, the show was more about younger workplace women, who outspoke each other and dealt with each other. The women were based in Atlanta, Georgia.
Designing Women was based in a fictitious interior design firm, Sugarbaker and Associates. It had four women leads: Julia Sugarbaker (played by Carter) as the widowed founder of the business; Suzanne Sugarbaker (played by Burke) as Juliaâ??s beauty queen sister, whoâ??s sole concerns were her ex husbands, rich boyfriends and spending money; Mary Jo Shively (played by Anne Potts), a divorced woman who was solely supporting her two kids; and Charlene Frazier (played by Jean Smart), as a tabloid-addicted receptionist who always seemed to date the wrong type of men. There was an honorary â??womanâ? in the cast, Anthony Bouvier, an African-American ex-con who was wrongfully indicted for the crime, played by Meslach Taylor.
Designing Women had a rocky first year. It was initially shown on Monday nights, where it had a decent following. But when CBS began to move the show to different timeslots, it began to lose wind. By 1987, it face an eminent cancellation. CBS put the show in hold â?? a sure sign that it would be cancelled soon. But then fate, in the form of Viewers for Quality Television, began to demand the showâ??s return. The group first saved Cagney & Lacey a few years prior to Designing Women. The networkâ??s entertainment chief soon relented and put back the women in their Monday night time slot. Designing Women soon became a top ten hit.
For its second year, Designing Women began to discuss controversial topics like AIDS, prostitution, domestic violence and pornography â?? all with brilliance and fun. Other characters were also added.
However, by 1990, the on-set turmoil began to come out. Burke began experiencing panic attacks and went into therapy and medication. She also gained a lot of weight and was ordered by the producers to diet. This began the tabloid feud between Burke, Thomason and Bloodworth. She was eventually let go. Other cast members left too, for personal reasons. The show began to lose its loyal viewers. By 1993, it said goodbye, with the lead character imagining herself like scarlet Oâ??Hara in Gone with the Wind.
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