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''Designing Women'' is an American sitcom created by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason that aired on CBS from September 29, 1986, until May 24, 1993, producing seven seasons and 163 episodes. The comedy series ''Designing Women'' was a joint production of Bloodworth/Thomason Mozark Productions in association with Columbia Pictures Television for CBS. The series centers on the lives of four women and one man working together at an interior designing firm in Atlanta, Georgia called Sugarbakers & Associates. It originally starred Dixie Carter and Delta Burke as sisters Julia and Suzanne Sugarbaker, Annie Potts as head designer Mary Jo Shively, and Jean Smart as office manager Charlene Frazier. Later in its run, the series received recognition for its well-publicized behind-the-scene conflicts and cast changes. Julia Duffy and Jan Hooks replaced Burke and Smart for season six, but Duffy was not brought for the seventh and final season, and she was replaced by Judith Ivey. ==Premise== Sisters Julia (Dixie Carter) and Suzanne Sugarbaker (Delta Burke) are polar opposites. Julia is an elegant, outspoken liberal intellectual; Suzanne is a rich, flashy, often self-centered former beauty queen and Miss Georgia World. They are constantly at personal odds, but have launched Sugarbaker Designs, an interior design firm. Julia manages the company, while Suzanne is mostly a financial backer who simply hangs around and annoys everyone under the guise of being the firm's salesperson. However, she does bring in new customers on a regular basis through breakfast, lunch and dinner appointments. The pragmatic designer Mary Jo Shively (Annie Potts), a recent divorcee raising two children, and the sweet-natured but somewhat naïve office manager Charlene Frazier Stillfield (Jean Smart) are initial investors and coworkers. Anthony Bouvier (Meshach Taylor), a former prison inmate who was falsely convicted of a robbery, is the only man on the staff, and later in the series becomes a partner. Bernice Clifton (Alice Ghostley), an absent-minded friend of the Sugarbaker matriarch, also appears frequently. Carter and Burke had both been members of the CBS sitcom ''Filthy Rich'', which was written by Bloodworth-Thomason. Coincidentally, Potts and Smart guest-starred together in a 1985 episode of ''Lime Street'', which was also created by Bloodworth-Thomason. Although it was a traditional comedy, and often included broad physical comedy, ''Designing Women'' was very topical (particularly in episodes written by Bloodworth-Thomason herself), and featured discussions of controversial topics such as homophobia, racism, dating clergy, AIDS, hostile societal attitudes towards the overweight, and spousal abuse. The episode "Killing All the Right People" from season two (1987) directly addressed the prejudice associated with the AIDS epidemic after Bloodworth-Thomason's mother died of the disease, and the episode won two Emmy nominations. The program became noted for the monologues delivered by Julia in indignation to other characters, a character trait that began in the second episode, when Julia verbally castigated a beauty queen who had made fun of Suzanne. That speech, which Julia ends by emphatically saying, "And that, Marjorie, just so you will know, and your children will someday know....is the night....the lights....went out.....in Georgia!" became a fan favorite. Dixie Carter, a registered Republican, disagreed with many of her character's left-of-center commentaries, and eventually made a deal with the producers that for every speech she gave, Julia would get to sing a song in a future episode. As a liberal Republican who was actively involved in civil rights issues, Carter used this deal more as a means to indulge her passion for singing than to promote right-wing commentary.〔http://www.legacy.com/news/legends-and-legacies/dixie-carter-vs-julia-sugarbaker/594/〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Designing Women」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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