Results: Designing Women

"Designing Women", a TV program which ran from 1986-1993, is one of my all-time favorite sit-coms. It starred 4 women---Dixie Carter as Julia Sugarbaker, Delta Burke as her sister Suzanne Sugarbaker, Annie Potts as Mary Jo Shively, and Jean Smart as Charlene Frazier---who worked at a design firm located in Julia's house in Atlanta, Georgia. Did you ever see the show?

Hal Holbrook, known for his stage performances as Mark Twain, appeared now and then on the show as Julia's love interest. Did you know that Hal Holbrook and the late Dixie Carter were married in real life?

Gerald McRaney, currently seen on "House of Cards", played Dash Goff---one of Suzanne's many ex-husbands. Were you aware that Delta Burke and Gerald McRaney are married in real life?

Richard Gilliland played J.D. Shackelford, Mary Jo's boyfriend. In real life, though, he's been married to Jean Smart, who played Charlene, since 1987, after they met on the set of "Designing Women". Did you know that these two were married?

Now for some current day tie-ins: George Newbern played Julia's son Payne McIlroy. He is currently acting in the hit TV show "Scandal" as Charlie, a B613 operative. Were you aware that these characters were played by the same actor?

Another "Scandal" tie-in: Tony Goldwyn, of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer clan, plays President Fitzgerald Grant on "Scandal". Back in 1987, he portrayed Kendall Dobbs, a young man dying of AIDS who asks the ladies of Sugarbaker Design Firm to design his funeral. Did you ever see that episode?

Did you realize that Tony Goldwyn played both the roles of Fitzgerald Grant and Kendall Dobbs?