Designing Women, a show about four Southern belles in Atlanta who operated an interior design firm called Sugarbaker and Associates, is considered to be well ahead of its time. The show unabashedly tackled topical issues through the characters' differing views. Although the cast's amazing chemistry bled off-screen, it wouldn't last long. By 1990, a wedge was driven between Emmy-nominated Delta Burke and the rest of the stars, which ultimately led to Designing Women's demise. Read on for more about the show and the cast.
The Designing Women Didn't Have To Audition
None of the actresses had to audition for their parts, because Designing Women creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason wrote the show for them. Before ideating Designing Women, she was already a seasoned television writer who had created short-lived series such as Filthy Rich and Lime Street.
Delta Burke and Dixie Carter both starred in Filthy Rich, while Jean Smart and Annie Potts had guest-starred on an episode of Lime Street. Those shows didn't work out, but Bloodworth-Thomason saw something in these four actresses.
They Were Interior Designers Because It Was The First Thing The Creator Thought Of
Linda Bloodworth-Thomason wanted to create a series involving Burke, Carter, Smart, and Potts. What she conceived was a show in which these four women were placed in an environment where they could spar with each other verbally.
At its core, Designing Women is truly just a show about four women talking, but Thomason had to find a way to give the show some intrigue. When she pitched the show to CBS executives, they asked her what the setting would be. Thomason ad-libbed her response and said, "Uh... an interior design company," according to a 1987 article in Inside Entertainment.
People Wrote Letters To Keep Designing Women On Air
Halfway through Designing Women's first season, the show's time slot was moved from Monday nights to Thursday nights, putting it in direct competition with NBC's Night Court. The schedule change caused the show to drop from 16 to 65 in the Neisen ratings. CBS put the show on hiatus which really meant it was close to cancellation.
Executive producer Harry Thomason worriedly enlisted the Viewers for Quality Television (VQT), a grassroots organization that launched a letter-writing campaign in which 50,000 letters were sent to CBS urging the network to keep the show. They did and moved the show's time slot back to Mondays.
Dixie Carter And Delta Burke Played Sisters
Dixie Carter was already an established actress by the time she was cast as Julia Sugarbaker at the age of 47. The character was southern to her core and was not afraid to speak her mind, especially when her famous temper boiled over.
Julia Sugarbaker was full of outspoken, but well-deserved, verbal take-downs that fans couldn't get enough of. In one of her most famous tirades, she defends her sister Suzanne (Delta Burke) from another beauty pageant contestant.
Meshach Taylor Got Along With The Women So Well, He Became A Regular
Meshach Taylor was the first Designing Women cast member to receive a Primetime Emmy nomination, but that was an honor that almost didn't happen. Taylor improvised his entire audition and impressed the producers so much, he was hired on the spot.
Taylor played Anthony Bouvier, Sugarbaker's delivery-man-turned-partner, who was only supposed to be a recurring character in season one. But Taylor had such strong chemistry with the four main cast members that producers decided to keep him on. "Well, after I did the first show I never left, I was there from then on," Taylor said in a 1990 interview. Sadly, he passed away in 2014.
Jean Smart Was The Only One Not From The South
Jean Smart was Sugarbaker and Associates' office manager Charlene Frazier. Smart was the only one of the four women on the show who wasn't actually from the south. Delta Burke was from Florida, Dixie Carter was from Tennessee, and Annie Potts hailed from Kentucky.
After Designing Women, Smart went on to win two Primetime Emmy Awards for her role as Lana Gardner on the hit sitcom Frasier, which was based in her hometown of Seattle.
Dixie Carter Didn't Always Agree With What She Said As Julia Sugarbaker
Central to the show was Julia Sugarbaker, the owner of Sugarbaker and Associates Design Firm. Julia was known for speaking her mind, often breaking off into passionate speeches about her beliefs that she was nicknamed "The Terminator."
In real life, Dixie Carter was a registered Republican. While many championed Carter for Julia's liberal and feminist speeches, Carter herself was sometimes uncomfortable with Julia's politics. Because Julia's outspokenness was a cornerstone of the show, she reached a compromise with the Thomasons. For every "Terminator Tirade" she had to give, she would be given a song to perform in a later episode.
An Important Episode Was Based On A Real-Life Conversation
"Killing All the Right People" (episode four, season two) was one of the most memorable episodes of Designing Women. The episode was lauded for how it addressed the AIDS epidemic and the unfair treatment AIDS patients received.
In 1986, as she developed early drafts of the show, creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason's mother was dying of AIDS after a contaminated blood transfusion. While visiting her mother in the hospital, she was saddened at peoples' treatment towards AIDS patients and she overheard one woman say, "If you ask me, this disease has one thing going for it. It's killing all the right people."
Annie Potts Had To Hide Her Stomach For Season Six
Annie Potts, who played Mary Jo Shively, was pregnant in real life during season six. She spent most of the season hiding behind furniture. Producers didn't write her pregnancy into the show since Mary Jo was single.
At the time, Candice Bergen's character on Murphy Brown was also expecting. "Our show being a show mostly about women's issues, I would think that they would take the bone and run with it... Part of it has to do with Murphy Brown. They didn't want all the women on Monday night having a baby," Potts said on The Dennis Miller Show in 1992.
Julia And Reese Were Married In Real Life
Remember when Julia Sugarbaker began dating attorney and fellow widower Reese Watson? As it turned out, Julia and Reese were married in real life. Reese Watson was played by Hal Holbrook, who became Dixie Carter's third and final husband in 1984 – two years before Designing Women started.
Holbrook was reportedly offered the role of Reese Watson on several occasions, turning it down every time. Finally, creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason asked him, "Do you really want some other man making love to your wife on television?"
Charlene Married Mary Jo's Boyfriend
Jean Smart also married a man who guest-starred on Designing Women, but it wasn't anyone Charlene dated. Richard Gilliland had a recurring role as J.D. Shackleford, Mary Jo's boyfriend during season one.
"I asked Delta to find out if he was married. Naturally, Delta walked up to him and blurted, 'Jean wants to know if you're married,'" Smart told Ladies Home Journal in 1990. Afterward, Smart invited Gilliland to her dressing room under the pretext of helping her solve a crossword puzzle. One thing led to another and eventually the couple married in 1987.
Delta Burke Married Her On-Screen Ex-Husband
Suzanne Sugarbaker was a three-time divorcée and her most prominent ex-husband was a writer named Dash Goff, who only appeared in two episodes. Goff was played by Gerald McRaney, who became Delta Burke's husband in real life!
The two met at a luncheon in 1987 shortly before he guest-starred on Designing Women. After Burke and McRaney shared a kiss in one scene and the rest, as they say, is history. The couple married in 1989 in an elaborate ceremony where Dixie Carter was Burke's matron of honor.
The Public Believed That Delta Burke Let Herself Go
The cast's undeniable chemistry began to fizzle out after season three. Many believe that the start of it was Delta Burke's marriage to Gerald McRaney. Part of why Burke was so in love with McRaney was that he loved her for who she was, rather than her looks, but this wasn't necessarily the problem.
The problem, according to People in 1991, was that McRaney loved his wife so much he'd stock her dressing room with chocolates and perform other grand gestures. Unfortunately, the tabloid press couldn't help but point out Burke's noticeable weight gain following her wedding.
Designing Women Helped Burke Earn An Emmy Nomination
Within the Designing Women cast, nobody responded to Delta Burke's weight gain in the same way the public did. In fact, they were so supportive of Burke during this bout of publicity that they did an entire episode to address the topic.
In December 1989, season four's "They Shoot Fat Women, Don't They?" was such a bold and outstanding episode that Burke later scored an Emmy nomination for Best Actress – and was the only female cast member in Designing Women history to do so. But after Delta Burke's career feat, things started going south behind the scenes of the show.
Delta Burke Began Bad-Mouthing The Producers
After the Emmy nomination, Delta Burke thanked producers Harry Thomason and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason with a bucket-load of drama. For one, she claimed that "They Shoot Fat Women, Don't They?" was her idea, while the Thomason's claimed that Linda spent hours trying to convince Burke to do the episode.
This inevitably caused tension between Burke and the producers (meanwhile the rest of the cast was caught in the middle). Then there was the meeting between Burke's agent and Harry Thomason. The former claimed it was to ease the tensions, the latter claimed it was to discuss Burke's position as "the star of the show."
Burke Claimed That The Set Was a Toxic Workplace
The growing feud became public when Burke bashed the show to the press. Addressing the public fodder of her weight gain, Burke told Orlando Sentinel in 1990, "The last two years have been very hard... I lost all my self-esteem. But I had to play a character who was God's gift to the world, I had to strut out there."
Commenting on returning for season five, she said, "I have not wanted to be there for some time now. It is not a good workplace, not a good environment... It's so strange, being part of something that's so wonderful and so awful at the same time."
Burke Took Her Drama To Barbara Walters
When season five began, Burke began showing up late to set, if at all. She also claimed that the cast was forced to go on "extreme diets" and that at one point Harry Thomason locked the cast in a room and yelled at them.
Then she appeared on a 1990 Barbara Walters special without telling the Thomasons because she was "afraid to tell them." She reiterated her claims but also revealed that former close friend Dixie Carter had sided with the Thomasons and the rest of the cast has sort of followed suit. At the same time, Burke requested to be released from her contract.
Everyone On Designing Women Voted Burke Off The Show
Burke's continued truancy on set required the cast to learn two versions of the script – one with Suzanne and one without. Eventually, the Thomasons rounded up the cast and voted to boot Burke from the show and not have her return for season six. Harry Thomason wrote to Columbia Pictures asking them to release Burke from her contract.
Burke appeared on Designing Women for the last time in the season five finale. Burke was replaced by Julia Duffy, who was introduced in season six as Allison Duffy. Unrelated to the Burke drama, Jean Smart also left the show and was replaced by Jan Hooks as Charlene's sister.
Today, Burke is Focusing On Her Health
Burke openly struggled with depression and diabetes, as fans watched the actress gain weight and struggle to lose it. However, in recent years, Burke has shared that she's gotten a handle on her health and lost a lot of the added weight.
She told Daily Mail, "Everything is fine, I'm just not very exciting right now!" That's despite the fact that she's lost 75 pounds! Burke said that she's now down to 150 pounds and has her husband to thank for encouraging her to eat healthier. She says she doesn't have any projects on the horizon and that's just fine with her.
Thomason Invited Burke To Return For A Spin-Off
Eventually, Delta Burke and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason were able to patch things up, both personally and professionally. This was enough for Thomason to bring Burke back for a spin-off of Designing Women called Women of the House.
Burke reprised her role of Suzanne Sugarbaker who, as a result of her latest husband's death, has to take his seat in the House of Representatives for the remainder of his term. Though we were glad to see Burke and Thomason have put the past behind them, 1995's Women of the House didn't stick with audiences and was canceled after one season.
Dolly Parton Made A Guest Appearance
Of all the guest stars on Designing Women, one of the most notable was Dolly Parton. Parton played Charlene's "Guardian Movie Star" in a one-hour special during season four. The country legend was allegedly such a huge fan of the show, she wanted to be a guest star.
In the episode, titled "The First Day of the Last Decade of the Entire Twentieth Century," Charlene goes into labor on New Year's Eve, leading the women to want her to have the first New Year's baby. Parton's character appears to Charlene in a dream sequence where she reveals the baby's gender.
RIP Dixie Carter, 1939 - 2010
After Designing Women ended, Dixie Carter continued to act. She had a role as Randi King on the legal drama series Family Law and also made guest appearances on shows like Desperate Housewives and Law & Order: SVU.
Sadly, she died on April 10, 2010. Her husband, actor Hal Holbrook, said that the cause was complications from endometrial cancer, which had been diagnosed earlier that same year. Carter is buried in McLemoresville, Tennessee.