Tell me the story of the decline of Designing Women

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Bueller?

Delta was a beautiful lady

We've discussed Delta Burke and Jean Smart leaving Designing Women to death....

Just read linked story which pretty much covers things Delta Burke wise.

Thanks r3. Honestly I was more curious about Jean Smart. The Delta stuff I've heard about. Jean Smart leaving at the same time always puzzled me.

Jean Smart left DW basically because she was tired of playing Charlene. But a more important reason was that Ms. Smart wanted to devote more time to her young family.

It was Jaclyn Smith's husband who strong armed the cast and sewed discord.

R6 "Sow discord" not "Sew." You'll get no "oh dearing" from me though.

As for "decline" of DW, face it, whenever one or more of main ensemble cast leaves a show things change, often not for the best.

DW just was not the same after Delta Burke departed, there was just something missing that none of the other actors could replace.

Audiences loved Suzanne Sugarbaker, and once she left show just struggled. It limped along for two more seasons before calling it quits.

DW wasn’t the first show to go down the shiter once someone named Suzanne was no longer around.

Only difference was Delta got fat and crazy afterward. I got insanely rich and thighs that can crack a walnut.

You just couldn't replace Suzanne as played by Delta Burke.

The girls and their real life husbands.

R4

When Charlene married, then had a baby it changed dynamics of DW and focus of Jean Smart's role.

As a young wife and mother Charlene naturally couldn't just be at the office and or running around with the girls, and or participating in various antics. Show did have a few episodes devoted to Charlene (one when she thinks Bill is having an affair), but otherwise reasons had to be thought up for Charlene to be at work and often dragging her daughter and nanny along.

R8. Not when Farrah left "Charlies Angels". The talented Cheryl Ladd was added to the main ensemble cast and the 2nd season rating were better than ever!

Julia became overbearingly preachy and the new cast members were just vaudeville characters.

Sometimes there are only so many good stories to tell.

There is an episode in the final year of Designing Women that HAS to be the worst episode of a respected show ever produced. Trust me when I say, I love nearly every episode of the show, including the post-Suzanne/Charlene episodes. i think the episode when they spend the night in Carlene's new apartment and wind up calling the Queen of England on the phone is just as good as any peak DW episode. However, the last season episode when Mary Jo has a shovel with the face of Elvis on it and becomes a faith healer is just the worst. None of the characters acts as their personalities have been established. The plot is insanely stupid and just flat-out unfunny. It was all just desperate and outlandish. So outlandish that a few years ago, the show came up in conversation and none of my friends believed it was an actual show, Like I made it up in a fever dream or something. I didn't, did I?

[quote] As for "decline" of DW, face it, whenever one or more of main ensemble cast leaves a show things change, often not for the best.

Uh, not necessarily.

Annie Potts teased Delta Burke years later in a group interview that her main memory of the period of in-fighting and troubles on the set was that Delta was so depressed and nearly catatonic that they'd practically have to carry Delta from the dressing room to the stage for the pre-show introduction to the studio audience...

But once they pushed Delta out on the stage into the spotlight, she was immediately transformed; she "became" Delta Burke, and she beamed to the audience as if she was Miss Florida walking the runway again.

Delta laughed and acknowledged that it was all true...it was a ritual they went through every week during those difficult years with production

I think that photo in the article from r3 is from "Filthy Rich," I loved that show!

Unfortunately, they strayed too far from their original premise, and lost their audience. Moving into the direction of a sci-fi sitcom alienated the original fans of the show, but failed to appeal to a sci-fi audience.

During the hiatus between seasons 5 and 6, an off screen alien invasion of Earth occurred. Charlene and Suzanne died during the invasion. The remaining characters were abducted, and taken aboard an alien ship. The aliens had also abducted Julia's cousin Alison, and while sorting their prisoners discovered the relationship via DNA analysis. Alison was therefore housed with the Sugarbaker group.

The ship was taking the Sugarbaker group to their home planet of Omicron Persei 8 when a catastrophic failure occurred in their FTL drive during a jump. The ship emerged from hyperspace well short of its destination, however, to everyone's surprise, the ship emerged into normal space traveling at approximately .9C - a feat previously thought impossible.

To keep people occupied during the remainder of the flight to OP8, the aliens engaged the Sugarbaker Design firm to redecorate the ship as it made its way back to the home planet. The cramped conditions aboard the ship, and the long travel time caused friction, and Alison did not prove to be a good fit with the rest of the firm, and was jettisoned via an airlock in the general vicinity of the Horsehead Nebula. This occurred in the season 6 finale.

A new character, BJ was introduced in season 7. She was not related to any of the characters, however the aliens thought that teaming her up with Julia would create interesting interactions for their amusement. While BJ was better received by the firm than Alison, the aliens began to lose interest in the project.

Realizing that the life span of humans was too short, and all humans would be dead before reaching Omicron Persei 8, which was estimated to take at least one thousand solar years, even traveling at .9C, the aliens decided to put everyone in hyper sleep (cryogenic suspension) for the remainder of the journey.

In the final episode, after being placed in hyper sleep, the Sugarbaker team dreams that they are in the old south in a parody of Gone With the Wind, set in Julia's old house back on Earth.

So there you go, OP. That is the story of the decline and fall of Designing Women.

Season 7 seemed like not one person involved cared that much. Mary Jo became a mega cunt while Julia was shriller than ever Carlene got so dumbed down that she was barely noticeable and BJ was just sort of there.

Was Delta depressed about her weight gain?

I did see Potts somewhere discussing how Delta kept gaining weight and was self-conscious about the tabloid coverage of it BUT the more weight she gained the funnier she got. Those episodes where she would come charging in with the pet pig are just hilarious. If it was the theater she would have got entrance and exit applause.

R22 Who wouldn't be depressed about gaining all that weight?

It's too bad she couldn't see how the weight gain oddly freed her up comically and she just became hysterical.

(in the early episodes she's a bit bitchy. The goofy Suzanne became quite loveable and brought the laughs.)

Losing any cast member affects the dynamics of a show. Losing two fifths of the main cast at the same time was devastating and just couldn’t be overcome. Delta was the fan favorite and impossible to replace but I’ve always thought they lost the heart of the show when Jean Smart left. Charlene was naive but not stupid and her endless optimism countered the cynicism of the other characters and was really missed those last two seasons. The writers thought they could just replace her with another naive country girl transplanted to the city but without Charlene’s big heart it just became a stream of dumb hick jokes. I don’t blame Hooks; she was very funny and played what they gave her well. I think because all the focus was on the drama surrounding Delta leaving they underestimated or were unable to develop Charlene’s replacement the way they needed to.

Delta Burke is a comic dream.

Any of her throw off lines, ending in "Thank You" can make me laugh just thinking about them.

"Would the parents of the juvenile delinquent who just broke the windshield of my Mercedes please come the announcers booth. And bring your checkbook, Thank You!"

"Mr. Fladbow! Mr. Fladbow! This is Suzanne Sugarbaker. Reggie Mac is taking his break now. Thank You!"

Laughing as I type.

[quote]Audiences loved Suzanne Sugarbaker, and once she left show just struggled. It limped along for two more seasons before calling it quits.

Not so. Season 6 (1991-1992) was its highest-rated season ever (#6). Usually, the show hovered in the #20s or #30s though Season 5 was #10 in the ratings.

R27 is right. I guess this is really a Delta Burke obsesssd thread and not a Designing Women thread.

I remember one episode where for some reason they have to work in a fast food restaurant. A few years ago I was in a McDonalds and a foreign tourist ahead of me was asking all these questions about the filet of fish.

I couldn't help but think of this episode.

Some guy asks Julia who is at the cash register if the fish is fresh. She says it costs 79 cents, comes in a cardboard box and is ready in 2 minutes. What do you think? (he says he doesn't know.) She says its fresh. (I got the details wrong but you get the gist.)

It’s square fish, Phyllis.

People complain about season 6 all the time, but season 7 was really the pits. I watched the entire series on Hulu recently and can't remember anything about season 7 except for the awful shovel episode and the godawful Gone With the Wind finale.

Season 6 was thrown out of whack by having two major cast members get replaced, but I thought Duffy and Hooks were very funny. They just weren't Burke and Smart and the chemistry suffered. Hooks fit in alright, but poor Duffy never did. It's a shame, too, because she had great comic timing, but her character seemed like someone from a different show.

I liked all the seasons even with Julia Duffy. I thought some of the writing with Julia and Jan Hooks was hysterical. The last season, I like Judith Ivey for drama…but she definitely did not belong on this show.

I said this on another recent Designing Women thread but I’ll repeat. Back during the original run of the show I preferred the final Judith Ivey season to Julia Duffy’s but having watched the complete series again in reruns recently I’ve flipped my opinion. Neither season is great but whatever I preferred about Ivey’s season back then was lost on me during the rewatch. Duffy never really meshed well but I fault the writing because all the characters seemed off that year and no one seemed happy to be there.