When do you think DW jumped the shark? I think that when Julia Duffy left it really jumped the shark...she was the best part of the show.

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Andrew Carden

I think Designing Women jumped the shark when Charlene left. I wanted to see Olivia grow up! Also, I didn't like how they never showed Randa even though she was at Julia's and stayed there for over a month.

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~*~Allison~*~
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Dixie Carter, Julia Duffy, and Lisa Whelchel rock!
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Designing Women
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JULIA: Please, if you really want to feel like crying try being one of those women who holds down a job, raises a family on the side, watches their legal rights erode year after year, and is still being told that women's liberation has gone too far. That ought to make you feel like crying. Hhhoooo!
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Newhart
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STEPHANIE: Don't call me, don't try to see me, and if you think you can get to me by sending me gifts, then I guess I can't stop you.
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Facts of Life
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BLAIR: If I'm not perfect, and that's a big if, it certainly wasn't his place to say.
JO: You're right, it's mine!

The-season-with-Alison

Def. when Charlene left. She was my favorite. I also wanted to see Oliva grow up

When Suzzane and Charlene left. They tried to replace them, but Suzzane and Charlene were 1/2 the part of what made the show what it was. Allison, Carlene and B.J. were alright, but they didn't really add much of the spice that Suzzane and Charlene added.

I agree. The 6th and 7th seasons were the worst. Especially the 6th....right after Delta and Jean left!

:talk: I'M JUST SO GLAD THATDIXIE CARTER NEVER LEFT:D

Oh gosh me too!!! She is the epitome of southern beauty and vitality...without her the show wouldn't exist!! I LIVED for her speeches!

Originally posted by HALANDME
Oh gosh me too!!! She is the epitome of southern beauty and vitality...without her the show wouldn't exist!! I LIVED for her speeches!


:happyface Me Too!:D

I think we all did!!!!

yEA pROBABLY!:talk:

I believe that Julia Duffy gets alot of the blame for the decline of Designing Women. Yes, Allison Sugarbaker was an annoying character who never developed, but it is not Duffy's fault. Duffy
had two things going against her. First she had to fill Burke's
shoes, impossible to begin with. Second, She arrived at the end of the Designing Women wars that resulted in Burke leaving under bad conditions. As a result the situation on the set was tense and chaotic. According to Duffy one year on Designing Women was enough.

The show was going through alot when Julia Duffy came on board, but the failure of that character and the decline in the show can only be attributed to the writers and director. At least they cut their loses by replacing Allison with a more interesting character in BJ, but losing the dynamic duo of Delta and Jean was too hard to overcome.

CBS moving Designing Women to Fridays and then back to Mondays effectively killed it as much as the Bloodworth-Thomasons being too busy with Bill Clinton's campaign to actually write it anymore.

I believe that Julia Duffy gets alot of the blame for the decline of Designing Women. Yes, Allison Sugarbaker was an annoying character who never developed, but it is not Duffy's fault. Duffy
had two things going against her. First she had to fill Burke's
shoes, impossible to begin with. Second, She arrived at the end of the Designing Women wars that resulted in Burke leaving under bad conditions. As a result the situation on the set was tense and chaotic. According to Duffy one year on Designing Women was enough.

Ironically, the Julia Duffy season (1991-92) was the highest rated (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Designing_Women#Nielsen_ratings) of the whole series. But it was really due to a ratings surge from its lead-in, Murphy Brown, which was having a huge season.

I personally like all 7 seasons of the show. I don't think it jumped.

BJ Poteet was so annoying to me. She always looked like she was laughing at a joke in her own head that nobody else could hear.

The last season was just horrible.

I did like Carlene and thought Allison was funny but they didn't know what to do with her and two replacements in one year was just too much of a change at one time.

The show was at its best with the original cast of course and I liked it despite how preachy it was at times. Murphy Brown gave it a run for its money though in the preaching and lecturing department.

Also, there was an excessive use of the laugh track machine. Very annoying when there was a huge laugh sound on every other line of dialogue.

I liked BJ but the lack of 'diva' character that final season threw off the balance. Jackee should have came on as planned because IMO she would have been much better than Sheryl Lee Ralph whom I think cheapened the show. There were some clunkers that final season but a few are also among my series favorites.

I would argue that Charlene's departure hurt even more than Suzanne's. Charlene had this wonderful warmth that balanced out the shrill Julia. Without her, Julia became more difficult to take, and Mary Jo started to be more like her.

I would argue that Charlene's departure hurt even more than Suzanne's. Charlene had this wonderful warmth that balanced out the shrill Julia. Without her, Julia became more difficult to take, and Mary Jo started to be more like her.

http://www.looper.com/35589/actor-replacements-ruined-show/

Delta Burke had not been happy on the set of Designing Women for years. In 1990, she told the Orlando Sentinel that the show was "not a good workplace, not a good environment." She even claimed that producer Harry Thomason routinely screamed at cast members and told them they were expendable and even criticized Burke when she gained weight. CBS grew so tired of Burke lashing out at the show's producers and the network in the press that they fired her from Designing Women in 1991. Tiring of a tense workplace, cast member Jean Smart (scatterbrained Charlene) also left the series after the 1990-91 season.

That meant that Designing Women, a top 20 show, had lost half of its main cast. Replacing Burke was Julia Duffy, fresh off a seven-year run on CBS's Newhart, as Suzanne's cousin, the equally haughty Allison Sugarbaker. Replacing Jean Smart was Saturday Night Live veteran Jan Hooks as Carlene, Charlene's similarly dumb-dumb sister. Despite ratings on par with previous years, CBS fired Duffy after her sole season on the series, and replaced her with Judith Ivey as a rich Texan widow named B.J. Poteet. It didn't do much good, because CBS moved the show to Friday nights, where it slipped into ratings oblivion—and then cancelation.

Read More: http://www.looper.com/35589/actor-replacements-ruined-show/?utm_campaign=clip

Has anyone other than Delta Burke ever said anything about DW not being a "good workplace, not a good environment?" I believe that's how she felt, but she was also going through some struggles at the time, that could have colored her own feelings.

Since Delta was hired as the pretty and young one, and her weight did go up noticeably after a while, I can't really blame producers for being frustrated. Not to the point where they would be abusive. Her emotional struggles put a strain on the show, and the pressure of the show must of added to her struggles.

I tried watching once Delta left but I don't remember ever enjoying an episode once she and Jean Smart were gone.

Definitely season 6 when Allison Sugarbaker was introduced. Not that it was Julia Duffy's fault, because she didn't write the character, she just had to act it, but Allison was possibly one of the most unlikable characters in the history of TV, I mean, she had zero redeeming qualities. She was whiny, selfish, vindictive, self-righteous, and yes, obnoxious. If they valued the show they would have tried to make her at least a little likable, but written like she was, it just made it all the more obvious what the show lost in Delta Burke and Jean Smart.

It was a bad, bad decision to bring Allison Sugarbaker on board.

I would argue that Charlene's departure hurt even more than Suzanne's. Charlene had this wonderful warmth that balanced out the shrill Julia. Without her, Julia became more difficult to take, and Mary Jo started to be more like her.

I wonder if Delta Burke's departure hurt Dixie Carter's character the most? Suzanne was just as strong and big a personality as Julia and their distinctive perspectives balanced each other well. Jean Smart and Annie Potts' characters were both much gentler, and once Burke left, Julia just came across as over bearing and self-righteous (but without a good foil in Suzanne).

Definitely season 6 when Allison Sugarbaker was introduced. Not that it was Julia Duffy's fault, because she didn't write the character, she just had to act it, but Allison was possibly one of the most unlikable characters in the history of TV, I mean, she had zero redeeming qualities. She was whiny, selfish, vindictive, self-righteous, and yes, obnoxious. If they valued the show they would have tried to make her at least a little likable, but written like she was, it just made it all the more obvious what the show lost in Delta Burke and Jean Smart.

It was a bad, bad decision to bring Allison Sugarbaker on board.

The producers admitted that it was their fault that this character turned out the way it did. I did not really dislike the Allison character a whole lot, but she could have been softened up some to make her more likable.

Another problem with the Allison character was the way the other characters interacted with her. It came across that they really did not like her much, so therefore the audience did not like her a whole lot either.

Definitely season 6 when Allison Sugarbaker was introduced. Not that it was Julia Duffy's fault, because she didn't write the character, she just had to act it, but Allison was possibly one of the most unlikable characters in the history of TV, I mean, she had zero redeeming qualities. She was whiny, selfish, vindictive, self-righteous, and yes, obnoxious. If they valued the show they would have tried to make her at least a little likable, but written like she was, it just made it all the more obvious what the show lost in Delta Burke and Jean Smart.

It was a bad, bad decision to bring Allison Sugarbaker on board.

Allison when you get right down to it was just plain shrill and mean-spirited. I don't know that's on Julia Duffy or the writers, but either way, Allison didn't have the charm that Delta Burke's Suzanne had to make up for her own selfish moments.