Shout Factory | 1987 | 540 mins. | Not Rated
Created by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, Designing Women was one of my favorite shows of the late eighties, early nineties. Centered around the working and personal lives of four Southern women and one man in an interior design firm in Atlanta, Georgia, the show was most definitely a comedy but was never afraid to deal with a serious issue when the opportunity arose.
Julia Sugarbaker (Dixie Carter) is an intelligent, outspoken liberal, while her sister Suzanne (Delta Burke) is a rich, self focused beauty queen. The two started Sugarbaker Designs, with Julia doing much of the work and Suzanne providing financing backing while purporting to be the firm’s salesperson. Thoughtful and steadfast, designer Mary Jo Shively (Annie Potts) and ditzy but endearing, office manager Charlene Frazier were investors in the company. Anthony Bouvier (Meshach Taylor), a former prison inmate who was falsely accused and convicted of a robbery, was the only man on staff.
Given the continuing popularity of the series today, it’s hard to believe that Designing Women almost didn’t make it to a second season. After dismal ratings in a Sunday night time slot, CBS planned to cancel the show. However, a write-in campaign by viewers convinced executives to give the Sugarbaker’s one more shot. Designing Women was moved its original Monday night timeslot, where the show became a solid top twenty hit. This season saw more appearances by Meshach Taylor as Anthony Bouvier, who gave the girls a male presence to act as second banana and the occasional butt of jokes. Alice Ghostley also began her recurring role as Bernice Clifton, the slightly nutty friend of the Sugarbaker’s who managed to steal nearly every scene she was in.
Season two is a wonderful mix of humor with the dramatic. Things begin with ” 101 Ways to Decorate a Gas Station.” In an effort to drum up business, Julia decides to hold a raffle; the grand prize being s room decorated by Sugarbaker’s. The girls are shocked when the winner turns out to be a grungy gas station owner. One of the best episodes of the series aired early in season two; Tony Goldwyn (Ghost), guest stars as Kendall Dobbs, a young man dying of AIDS who asks the women to design his funeral. The women take the job. This episode is sad, funny and gives Julia a chance to make one of her passionate speeches. When an old friend of hers named Imogene (Camilla Carr), overhears the ladies discussing the funeral plans, Imogene pipes up, “As far as I’m concerned, this disease has one thing going for it: it’s killing all the right people.” Julia angrily confronts Imogene over her belief that AIDS is God’s punishment for homosexuality. “Imogene, get serious! Who do you think you’re talking to?! I’ve known you for 27 years, and all I can say is, if God was giving out sexually transmitted diseases to people as a punishment for sinning, then you would be at the free clinic all the time! And so would the rest of us!” Imogene storms out in a huff. When you consider this episode aired in 1987, that’s pretty heady stuff.
Other episodes focus on Julia’s beau’s heart attack (Hal Holbrook is truly excellent here), a hilarious road trip episode that finds Suzanne and Anthony sharing a hotel bed (one of them wearing a feathery robe, silk scarves and pantyhose – I’ll give you a hint: It’s not Suzanne). Designing Women wasn’t intended to be Shakespeare and it never intended to be. However, more than fifteen years after the last original episode aired, watching the women of Sugarbaker Designs is still a satisfying way to spend a half-an-hour.
All twenty-two episodes are contained on four DVDs. As with the first season, the widescreen 1.33:1 presentations can’t be considered pristine. There is some dirt and debris present on every episode, black levels are inconsistent and colors aren’t as vibrant as titles that have been filmed more recently. While Designing Women fans may be a bit disappointed, I have a feeling Shout! cleaned the video up from the original masters as best they could.
The mono soundtrack is somewhat uneven. Dialogue is passable, whether you’re watching the show on a home theater system or portable DVD player. While the laugh tracks have that unforgettable tinny quality, they don’t overwhelm the way they do for so many shows of that era. One thing to note about this set is the music. There is no label on the box but according to sources online some of the music has been changed from the original broadcast. The theme song is here; however, some of the music cues have changed, so audio tends to fluctuate on those occasions.
English Closed Captioning is included.
There are no special features included in this set.
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