Designing Women: Difference between revisions

[[File:DesWo.jpg|frame|Southern-Fried Golden Girls]]

 

 

A [[Work Com]] by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason about four Southern women who operate an interior design company in [[Atlanta|Atlanta, Georgia]]. The cast included:

* [[Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist|Suzanne Sugarbaker]] (Delta Burke): Julia's younger sister, [[Southern Belle|a former beauty queen]] who supports herself through alimony payments from her many ex-husbands and is the main financial backer of the company.

* [[Hot Mom|Mary Jo Shively]] (Annie Potts): A single divorced mother who performs unspecified duties at ''Sugarbaker's'' and spends much of her time sitting around the office/living room [[Deadpan Snarker|tossing out one-liners]].

 

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* [[Arch Enemy]]: It was pretty much Allison vs. Everyone during her brief tenure on the show.

* [[Big Beautiful Woman]]: Suzanne, as played by Delta Burke, is quite the looker, the only thing that actually detracts it is the horrible eighties clothing and hair that most of the cast suffered from time to time. Unfortunately in real life, Burke had been a favorite target of the tabloids because of her putting on weight as the show progressed. Worse, she had always struggled with her weight, and the depression and eating disorders that came with it; all of which that stretched as far back as her pageant days in the early 1970s. The press treatment of her was so terrible that it led Burke into asking the show to have an episode addressing her weight and the discrimination fat people have to go through. The episode in question has Suzanne go to her high school reunion and ending up hurt by the way everyone treats her because of her appearance now.

* [[The Cast Showoff]]: In exchange for performing Julia's decidedly left-wing rants, Dixie Carter (a Republican) requested that the character be allowed to sing in a number of episodes.

** Jean Smart also sang on the show. Pretty much everybody performed at one point or other, [[Crossing the Line Twice|once even in blackface (Suzanne)]].

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: While [[The Ditz|the Frazier sisters]] had their moments, Bernice Clifton takes the prize here. The only thing keeping her from being truly dim are her [[Hidden Depths|rare profound moments]].

* [[Coincidence Magnet]]: Charlene and Anthony tended to have all kinds of weirdness happen to them.

** She was Julia and Suzanne's deceased mother's friend. Keeping her around reminded them of their mother.

* [[Eighties Hair]]: Thankfully toned down by the end of the series.

* [[Fur and Loathing]]: Spoofed in an episode.

* [[Gay Aesop]]: Combined with AIDS to boot, and Julia chewing out a client.

* [[Horrible Judge of Character]]: Charlene's taste in men to date.

* [[Miscarriage of Justice]]: Naturally, Anthony was completely innocent of the crime that caused his [[Catch Phrase|"unfortunate incarceration"]] and spent the entire run of the series getting his life back in order (earning his GED, going to college, becoming a partner in ''Sugarbaker's'', etc.) and trying to put his past behind him. This fact did not stop Suzanne from constantly [[Crossing the Line Twice|expressing her displeasure with having a black ex-con around the office.]]

* [[Prepositions Are Not to End Sentences With]]: If someone calls on you for this, correct the sentence with calling the [[Grammar Nazi]] a fitting name.

* [[Pretty in Mink]]: Except for the instance of the other trope, Suzanne wore furs with no comment. And, on rare occasions, so did the others.

* [[Sweater Girl]]

* [[Theme Tune]]: "Georgia", by [[Ray Charles]], and done as an instrumental in some versions.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:American Series]]

[[Category:Designing Women]]