MovieChat Forums > Designing Women (1986) Discussion > When did DW jump the shark?

When did DW jump the shark?

posted 17 years ago by reeceglenburnie
37 replies | jump to latest

I absolutely adore this show, always have. I remember Monday nights were the best night on television, Murphy Brown and Designing Women. I always used to feel so empowered after watching those back to back! LOL. But the show (DW) was simply AWFUL after two of the main charecters left and they tried to fill them in with poor replacements. They kept trying to 'fix' the show with new faces and it just got worse-Julie and Mary Jo became over the top and argued about EVERYTHING but instead of siding with them I was cringing, it just felt so forced. Anthony was useless and annoying and Bernice went from being funny to being irritating!! My question is, at what point do you think the show jumped the shark?

[–] abajasds 17 years ago

I think it jumped when Julia Duffy and Jan Hooks came to the show, At first I thought Jan Hooks character was trying to hard to be funny,but then she fitted in better (not a favorite however) but Julia Duffy character was not funny in no way IMO.

[–] TVShow100 17 years ago

I thought Judith Ivey was a better fit.

[–] Spycat 17 years ago

The last couple of years, the writing was pretty bad tho. The show became a platform for liberal politics, with the writers working in contrived agenda dialogue for Dixie Carter's "Julia Sugarbaker" character.

[–] tydemanjudy 16 years ago

I think it was when Duffy joined the show--but I don't think she was a bad actress or a bad fit necessarily--it was more that when they had her character join the show, suddenly for a whole a season, Julia Sugarbaker just sort of faded into the background. She wouldn't stand up to Duffy's character, she just sparred with Mary Jo--it was so inconsistant with previous seasons as to Julia's and Mary Jo's personalities. And then Anthony gets engaged in a whirlwind romance, but then marries someone else in a different whirlwind romance. It wasn't the characters leaving so much, or the actors, it was the writers, they went off on some strange tangents.

[–] LeaBlacks_Balls 16 years ago

It somewhat jumped the shark when Delta Burke and Jean Smart were replaced. But Julia Duffy and Jan Hooks were pretty good, and Judith Light was really funny.

I think it competely jumped the shark in its second to last episode, when Carlene dressed up like a man to understand what her crossdressing boyfriend felt like.

The beginning of the episode was funny, and then halfway through I swear you can feel the show deflate and lose all of its wit, humor and energy, and just sit there, waiting to be cancelled.

Then the hour long finale lurched onto the TV screens and then poof, the show was gone forever.

[–] reeceglenburnie 16 years ago

I agree with everyone's comments here-glad I wasn’t the only one that thought the last couple seasons sucked. I TiVo all the DW shows, but delete without watching the last two seasons...I tried to watch a couple of them (wanted to be open minded, after all i'm older now than when i watched them back in the day) but it was almost embarrassing, it was so bad! Julia just spouting off to spout off, Mary Jo, no longer timid, but instead with an opinion on EVERYTHING...and that Carlene...she didn’t have Charlene's sweet disposition, Carlene was just...dumb...Julie Duffy's character is so annoying, you hate her, even when they try to make her loosen up and become more likable, I don’t think the writers ever achieved that...

[–] Tickerage 16 years ago

I agree with everyone's comments, I think we nailed it. Suzanne and Julia were my favorite characters and Delta always had the funniest lines, the seasons without her were vindication that it was she and not just the lines who made a major contribution to the show.

Yeah? Well you're with you, honey. That's never a good time.

[–] Director-21 16 years ago

I agree it was the cast changes that did it in. It was an ensemble show about those original characters. It's not "Law & Order" or "NYPD Blue" where you can just change the cast members like that.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] ginda2000 16 years ago

Designing Women is my favourite sit-com of all time, however I have to say the final season is dreadful, absolutely dreadful and I never watch any of those episodes. I actually disagree with a lot of the posts here - the scripts for series six were very well written, the problem they had was actually Julia Duffy's character, she was all wrong.

Firstly to this day it amazes me the arrogance of the Thomason's to sack Delta Burke. Quite frankly she was the reason people watched the show, it was the Karen and Jack factor ala Will and Grace. In this day and age that would never happen, the star getting sacked from the show, but back then producers throught they could get away with that and insult the audiences intelligence.

Thats truly the moment the show jumped the shark. Julia Duffy's character wasn't a good replacement for Delta Burke. I have said it a million times, but they should have simply brought Anthony's girlfriend Vanessa (not that irritating Jackie character but the funny girl who wore the Tina Turner wig) in to replace Charlene, made Alice Ghostly a permanent fixture and perhaps brought in a new semi-regular - perhaps a catty P.R Woman who fills the original role Suzanne filled. This would have given the show room to breath and not kicked up any dust after Burke and Smart left.

[–] hankysmom57 10 years ago

I agree that having "the funny girl who wore the Tina Turner wig" end up with Anthony would've been great. I also found Jackee just really annoying. Wasn't that Tina Turner-girl the black woman cop on Miami Vice? Alice Ghostly was probably my favorite character on the whole show.

[–] anastasiabeaverhausen1 16 years ago

That's easy...when they got rid of Delta and Jean quit. It just threw the chemistry off completely. Carlene was okay, though definitely a poor-man's version of Charlene, and Allison was just too unlikeable. She's that girl at work that everyone thinks is a complete b**** and then leaves and no one cares.

[–] ochamar 16 years ago

no one can replaced Delta Burke and Jean Smart (of the 4 these 2 women are funniest)

[–] KevinnD 16 years ago

Definitely jumped when Delta and Jean left. Julia Duffy,although she is a great actress she just didn't fit in. I felt that her character was to much of a Suzeanne ripoff but lacking in the charm that Delta Burke brought to the role. Also her sparring with Anthony fell flat because unlike Delta and Meshac,Julie and Meshac had no chemistry and there fights came off as silly rather than amusing. Carlen had her moments but like Alison was to much like Suzeanna Carlen was far to much like Charlene. I think the producers thought that if they brought on characters with the same personality traits as Charlene and Suzeanne that nobody would miss Delta and Jean. The only new character I liked was B.J.

[–] Storm23S 16 years ago

The show was great until Delta left. Then it started to go downhill from there.

[–] dcsh123 16 years ago

When half of a 4 person ensemble cast leaves, trouble brews. Personally, my opinion is they would have had a better chance of surviving the loss of Delta and Jean if they had gone straight to Judith Ivey. Carlene was a 2 dimensional version of Charlene that never really worked, but became tolerable.

But Julia Duffy's season killed the show. Her character was too much like her character from Newhart, which I bet is what they wanted, to cash in on her recent fame.... but didnt work here. On DW she was simply irritating and those of us who had watched Newhart as well, never really got Stephanie's character out of our heads watching her performance on DW.

When Judith Ivey appeared, I breathed a sigh of relief and felt there was finally hope. But by then, it was probably too late to save it and too many viewers had left because of the Julia Duffy debacle.

And on a side note, I found it more than a little insulting by the writers to think their loyal viewers would not notice that "Carlene" was never mentioned as a sister of Charlene.... specifically the episode when her entire family came and Anthony did that AMAZING repeat recitation of the entire Fraser clan's names when they all came to visit. That episode was already in reruns when Carlene was added.... did they think we wouldnt notice? Or just too lazy to do their research before naming the character?

[–] KevinnD 16 years ago

And on a side note, I found it more than a little insulting by the writers to think their loyal viewers would not notice that "Carlene" was never mentioned as a sister of Charlene.... specifically the episode when her entire family came and Anthony did that AMAZING repeat recitation of the entire Fraser clan's names when they all came to visit. That episode was already in reruns when Carlene was added.... did they think we wouldnt notice? Or just too lazy to do their research before naming the character?
____________________________________________________________________________
Yup and not to mention that it was also made very clear that all 3 of her sisters were married with kids.

[–] ginda2000 16 years ago

Designing Women is still a tragic tale for sit-coms of years gone by. Like all other great sit-coms, Mary Tyler Moore, Will and Grace, Seinfeld, Friends, Frazier, Golden Girls there was no reason it should have kept on a high and then bowed out with style after about 8 to 10 years with a fantastic finale episode.

Do you all know that Linda Bloodworth-Thomason had planned on ending the show (had it carried on being popular and prior to Delta being axed) in about 1994/5 having Anthony and Suzanne get married?? That is what (even in early episodes like Stranded) Bloodworth-Thomason was slowly building towards.

However, the production of Designing Women was not a well oiled machine in the end. The Thomasons left the show to concentrate on Evening Shade and then became more concerned with getting Bill Clinton elected than the shows they were producing, which merely became platforms for them to (quite wrongly) broadcast Democrat propoganda.

Delta was an ill women, she was suffering a nervous breakdown, had eating problems and was being hounded by the press - rather than sit her down and tell her she needed help and write her out for half a season (as would happen today) the production outcast her and called 'difficult'.

Annie Potts was promised her pregnancy would be written into season 6 and it wasn't, she was therefore told to cover it up and had bad storylines written for her that didn't involve her doing much.

And Dixie Carter (a strong republican) was forced to sprout more and more democratic political mumbo jumbo in order to convince America to vote for Bill Clinton. All of this she would have found very difficult!

In the end Designing Women's producers allowed it to die a death, the cast and the viewers were all rooting for it but it was unsalvagable.

[–] pvd295 16 years ago

Julia Duffy's talent was wasted on the show, while Jan Hooks only convinced us of the fact that a sitcom actress "she ain't". A variety performer - yes, a sitcom actress - no.

The show sank after Burke and Smart left - the chemistry was no longer there.