Was Designing Women a poor man’s Golden Girls?

I have seen some episodes and it was try hard and too many early 90s politics that is not irrelevant.

You may find this thread of interest.

[quote] too many early 90s politics that is not irrelevant.

Oh dear.

I remember it had the occasional very funny scene - usually involving Delta Burke. Overall, it wasn't consistently funny, and it has not held up well at all. I really thought Delta Burke was going to have a better career.

I watched a few episodes back then, not sure why. As a young designer fresh out of design school, I never saw a thing about design in that show. It actually soured me on the industry if working out of a house of Fraus with conservative taste was going to be the reality.

It was pedantic.

Yes, it had good moments but was inconsistent and often too preachy. It could’ve been so much funnier.

Had some truly great bits.

Those last couple of years after Delta left are excruciating. Julia Duffy was miserable and it showed. Jan Hooks didn’t fit in well and ended up mugging for the camera half the time. Then she was miserable for the last season. That’s why she kept showing up back at SNL.

At its best, the show was one of the best on TV.

Dixie Carter deserved an Emmy for her fiery, passionate monologues. Delta is a first-rate comedienne. And Jean and Annie are wonderful character actresses. Meshach created a multi-dimensional character out of something that would have been stereotypical and throwaway in the hands of lesser-known writers/actors. The show was not afraid to go where most TV shows wouldn't. And it deserves major kudos for being the first TV show to discuss the plight of a gay man suffering with AIDS.

Linda Bloodworth Thomason carried on the tradition of pushing the envelope that Norman Lear and Susan Harris started. She doesn't get enough credit for her brilliance.

Delta Burke was amazing - the equal of any of the Golden Girls.

Yes, it was.

Years after the dust has settled it’s never risen above cult classic even in the south. Golden Girls was a tv phenomenon.

Never got into Designing Women. I still watch The Golden Girls often.

It was said Linda Bloodworth Thompson wrote many of the episodes longhand on a legalpad. It definitely feels like it.

Designing Women, at least in the first 5 seasons, were single plot shows (there was no B or C plot). The problem with that was that sometimes the sole plot stunk which tanked the whole episode.

The Golden Girls was like a joke and punchline assembly line - one joke immediately followed the previous one and so on. Designing Women just wasn't like that.

It was an entertaining show but, though I love them both, Jean Smart and particularly Dixie Carter were always giving speeches and posturing rather than being funny. The humor was just too forced but maybe it was a reflection of its. time. I think the GG humor holds up better.

LMAO at the red-tag note that Muriel gave to the OP of the thread linked at R2. I’d like to see a few dozen other DLer’s get that treatment.

I prefer to think of Golden Girls as a rich woman’s Designing Women, OP.

I think GG and DW (in its first five seasons) were both hilarious. Despite both shows having four women as leads, they were different styles of comedy though. The last two seasons of DW were crap though.

Be careful GG OP or a DW may CEO you.

[quote]Dixie Carter deserved an Emmy for her fiery, passionate monologues.

Agreed. The only acting nods the show received were:

- Delta Burke for Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in1990 (lost to Candice Bergen in "Murphy Brown") and 1991 (lost to Kirstie Alley in "Cheers")

- Meshach Taylor for Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 1989 (lost to Woody Harrelson in "Cheers")

- Alice Ghostley for Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 1992 (lost to Laurie Metcalf in "Roseanne")

When I read "poor man's," I thought of production values. I haven't seen any episodes of DW since they first aired, but my memory is that the sets were much nicer on DW and the lighting warmer. GG looked like it was made on the cheap by comparison.

Bernice was a lot wackier than Sophia OP. I still occasionally sing "Black man, Black man". Alice Ghostley was a treasure.

I love them both, but I give a slight edge to DW.

Other than those last two seasons, which I never rewatch.

I love this lady's videos about working on various shows/movies, etc. Here she talks about doing the hair for Designing Women.

The loss of Jean and Delta after season 5 was just too jarring. The show probably could have survived just Jean leaving (though she would have been missed), but with Delta's absence, it just didn't feel like the same show.

[quote]When I read "poor man's," I thought of production values. I haven't seen any episodes of DW since they first aired, but my memory is that the sets were much nicer on DW and the lighting warmer. GG looked like it was made on the cheap by comparison.

GG was shot on videotape, DW on film.

R25 I know Seasons 6 & 7 get shit on by fans, because they're sans Jean Smart and Delta Burke, but I really enjoyed Season 6 and was not surprised to learn that it was the show's highest-rated season:

Season 1 (#33)

Season 2 (#34)

Season 3 (#33)

Season 4 (#22)

Season 5 (#10)

Season 6 (#6)

Season 7 (#67)

The show lost a lot of charm and humor when Delta and Jean left after season 5. By that point both Julia and Mary Jo had essentially merged into being very similar characters - loud, opinionated women who loved telling people off. Then they added Julia Duffy's Allison who was so obnoxious that the character even admitted at one point in season 6 that she had been diagnosed with annoying personality disorder.

R27 Season 6 did so well in the ratings because the Delta dustup had gotten a lot of press, so people were tuning in out of curiosity. Artistically, the show was horrible the last two seasons.

Delta got funnier as she started gaining weight. I know a lot of people think her “they shoot fat people don’t they” episode was her best, but I loved the “there she is” episode where she has to give back her Miss Georgia crown.

r30 Yes, that one was hilarious

Donna Jo

r3 I meant no longer relevant.

It's weird how the the show wanted to present a picture of "the new progressive South" but once they got outside the Atlanta metro area they leaned into the easy hillbilly stereotypes.

The Golden Palace was the poor man's Golden Girls.

Tonight on antenna TV they're showing the season 7 episode where Julia starts menopause. That's actually a pretty funny episode compared to the rest of the abysmal 7th season there were a couple others I liked. But in the episode she's dating some hot dude and it reminds me of how Julie had all the hottest boyfriends on the show. Starting with hot daddy hal Holbrook and the classmate that wanted to fight him for her. Then there was the hot blonde guy she thought was gay in season 6 followed by the hot surgeon Dr hacker and then this hot salt and pepper daddy whose name I can't remember even though the episodes literally on right now.

Phillip. That's his name anyway he was probably the hottest of all the dudes maybe tied with Dr hacker.

Mary Jo on the other hand only had one hot boyfriend and that was JD. Every other guy she dated was some sexless eunuch. Among them the bland as f*** preacher, her long time best friend and want to be lover, and the dullneyed Ken doll that she stole from her daughter. After the fifth season it seemed like they didn't give her any sexy story lines I wonder why.

Oh wait I totally forgot about Patrick Warburton and how he was her sex toy in the last season.

Now it's the episode where Anthony and Vanessa break up and they go out to Vegas and he marries at TN. It's too bad Jackie couldn't have stayed on the show but I also like BJ's so I don't know. I recently saw someone propose a reboot on Instagram that was Shirley Rowe is at the end Jackie as Vanessa Kim Coles is her living single character and for the life of me I can't remember who the fourth one was. Anyway that sounded like a pretty awesome idea.

They were too snobby looking to me to be funny. I was a kid when they were on and I always changed the channel when it would come on.

I felt the same way about “Mad About You” and the “Bob Newhart Show”.