JamesG
02-08-2017, 06:53 PM
Jean Smart on "Designing Women"
For five seasons and 120 episodes, audiences fell in love with Charlene Frazier, the sweet and often naive office manager who worked alongside Julia (Dixie Carter), Suzanne (Delta Burke), and Mary Jo (Annie Potts) at the Sugarbaker interior-design firm in Atlanta.
The show became a hit for CBS and won critical acclaim for all the leads. It was a big break not just professionally for Smart but personally, too. She met her husband, actor Richard Gilliland — who played J.D. Shackleford, the on-again off-again love interest of Potts’ character — while working on the series.
“I met him when he was kissing someone else,” Smart says with a laugh.
Later, when Charlene got married, she had another big epiphany. “I was sitting in my dressing room strapped into this gorgeous wedding dress. And I’m sitting there, looking at myself in the mirror and smoking a cigarette, and suddenly I just knew I was pregnant — I’d suspected for about a week. I looked at myself in the mirror and said, ‘You are pregnant.’ I put out my cigarette, and it was the last one I ever had.”
So while fans may remember the witty banter among the women, Smart cherishes the offscreen milestones. “Those are the things that stand out most to me when I think about the show.”
http://ew.com/tv/2017/02/08/jean-smart-role-call/
For five seasons and 120 episodes, audiences fell in love with Charlene Frazier, the sweet and often naive office manager who worked alongside Julia (Dixie Carter), Suzanne (Delta Burke), and Mary Jo (Annie Potts) at the Sugarbaker interior-design firm in Atlanta.
The show became a hit for CBS and won critical acclaim for all the leads. It was a big break not just professionally for Smart but personally, too. She met her husband, actor Richard Gilliland — who played J.D. Shackleford, the on-again off-again love interest of Potts’ character — while working on the series.
“I met him when he was kissing someone else,” Smart says with a laugh.
Later, when Charlene got married, she had another big epiphany. “I was sitting in my dressing room strapped into this gorgeous wedding dress. And I’m sitting there, looking at myself in the mirror and smoking a cigarette, and suddenly I just knew I was pregnant — I’d suspected for about a week. I looked at myself in the mirror and said, ‘You are pregnant.’ I put out my cigarette, and it was the last one I ever had.”
So while fans may remember the witty banter among the women, Smart cherishes the offscreen milestones. “Those are the things that stand out most to me when I think about the show.”
http://ew.com/tv/2017/02/08/jean-smart-role-call/