Jackée Harry and Dixie Carter did NOT get along. At all.

[TMC]

https://mobile.twitter.com/JackeeHar...99116196851713

Jackee was supposed to get the spot that went to Judith Ivey. Anthony was going to get married to Vanessa and his wife was going to have a share in the company. That's why they had her character introduced in such a big way. When things didn't work out, they rewrote the storyline and had Julia lose the business to BJ Poteet, who gave it back to them as long as she could be a partner.

Rhymes With Snitch | Celebrity and Entertainment News | : Jackée Harry Spills Old TV Tea

[Kasey]

I wish Jackee had stayed on. I liked Judith Ivey but her character wasn't a "diva" and that's what the show needed to maintain a good balance/chemistry. Sheryl Lee Ralph was kind of a half-assed Jackee substitute and she was terrible.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by Kasey

I wish Jackee had stayed on. I liked Judith Ivey but her character wasn't a "diva" and that's what the show needed to maintain a good balance/chemistry. Sheryl Lee Ralph was kind of a half-assed Jackee substitute and she was terrible.

I wonder why Dixie Carter didn't get along with Jackee? She also notoriously clashed with Gary Coleman on Diff'rent Strokes, which is why she was replaced by Mary Ann Mobley in the final season on ABC. I wonder if Dixie was partially worried that Jackee was going to "take over" the show like she did with 227 (when it was supposed to be Marla Gibbs' show).

Reading into the comments on the old IMDb message boards, Jackee Harry had apparently already been optioned for a TV series that was very soon put on indefinite hiatus. After shooting her episode of Designing Women, the network who owned the rights to her initial show decided to renew it. She was therefore already contracted to do this series (due to her outstanding option) and could not do Designing Women in the fall of 1992. As it happened, the show she was contracted to never happened and the character of BJ Poteet had (by then) been created for Bonnie Hunt, who declined it and in turn it was offered to Judith Ivey. Therefore, after all that Jackee Harry could have actually done Designing Women, but it was too late by this stage to bring her in as the fourth woman on the series.