MovieChat Forums > Designing Women (1986) Discussion > After Suzanne left

After Suzanne left

posted 11 years ago by morningsidemary
9 replies | jump to latest

It became talk, talk, talk. Julia pontificating and Mary Jo almost as bad. Suzanne did the physical comedy, sometimes with Anthony, and she was the spark, the outrageous one, the clown. I loved her.

I think Dixie Carter's power trip played a lot more into the shakeup than we know. My God, what an ego! She wanted to be The Star and instead wrecked the show in the end.

All the face lifts, the airs, the persona of the professional singer. How did the creators let it happen? All the BORING characters ended up sitting around giving long, tedious, boring speeches on subjects that nobody gave a s*** about. I do believe the decline was Carter's doing. She thought she was more important than the show.

Proofread!

[–] laurelataylor 11 years ago

Suzanne was definitely the best character on the show. She was and will always be my favorite. She was the only one of the original four female characters who was truly funny and could carry a scene on her own; most of the time, Julia, Mary Jo, and Charlene were reacting to what Suzanne had said or done.

Also, Suzanne's scenes with Anthony were priceless. The two of them were so funny together and had so much chemistry. My favorite episodes of the show are the ones in which Suzanne and Anthony are helping each other out or are involved in some kind of predicament together (Stranded and Foreign Affairs are two of them).

We don't know what happened behind the scenes to get Delta Burke fired. I wouldn't be surprised if another actor on the show (whether it was Dixie Carter or another of them) helped influence the Thomasons in their decision to fire Ms. Burke. That kind of thing happens all the time in corporate America so it most likely occurs in the entertainment industry as well.

Like you, I didn't care for all of the episodes showing Julia singing. It seemed like the writers started writing more of those episodes starting in Season 4 and especially in Season 5 (with the episode about Julia moonlighting as a singer named Gisele at a nightclub). Those episodes were some of the least enjoyable for me.

Also, I thought that Mary Jo became more and more unlikeable as the series went on. To me, starting in Season 5, she was downright rude and nasty to Suzanne and Charlene in some of the episodes' scenes. By season 6 and season 7 (with the new characters of Carlene, Alison, and B.J. on the show), Mary Jo seemed totally negative and unhappy most of the time. I don't know if Annie Potts was totally unhappy being on the show by then, but the producers shouldn't have allowed the character to be portrayed that way because I think that that really hurt the show at that point.

[–] horizonbeach 11 years ago

I think that of the original four, Delta was the only truly gifted comic actress and the other three were likeable enough in the earlier seasons, but they needed her to bounce things off of and to make them funny as a result. Their characters and personalities were well done, they just weren't funny enough to carry a sitcom, which I think became painfully evident in that horrific season after Delta left. To replace someone who was so funny and so loveable because, while she was arrogant and obnoxious, she had no idea she was, which was much of the humor of the Suzanne character and what made her so human and loveable, IMHO, with the likes of the Allison character, who was arrogant and obnoxious and knew she was and flaunted it, was a grave mistake, which I think the ratings proved.

The only funny character in the last two seasons was Carlene, and she wasn't strong enough of an actress to carry the whole show by herself. I absolutely loved Mary Jo in the first three or four seasons, but as the show went on, and paricularly in the last two seasons, she went from being a sweet, insecure divorcee' who put her kids first, to being a brassy, outspoken liberal mouthpiece for the Thomasons, and they already had that in the Julia character. I think the sperm bank episode was the low point for Mary Jo, and I can't watch it to this day.

Julia was also almost unwatchable in the last two seasons. So full of herself, self-righteous, and attention grabbing. The B.J. Poteet character was a desperate, last ditch effort to save the show after the bland, unfunny, and painful to watch Allison departed, and she was just so over the top that she wasn't even funny either.

R.I.P., "Designing Women". : (

[–] Peterkoss90 11 years ago

It went so bad after she left. unwatchable.

[–] gambitcolumbus 11 years ago

Supposedly, every big Julia "terminator" speech would be offset by a song. Dixie supposedly didn't agree with a lot of the speeches, so worked out that deal.

I think the absence of Burke and was a big part of the reason Alice Ghostley starting making more appearances. After Suzanne, I think Bernice is by far the funniest character in the series.

[–] morningsidemary 11 years ago

I bet Dixie worked out lots of deals, and that killed the show essentially. She became the show. Blecch.

Proofread!

[–] ginda2000 11 years ago

You people should read some of my older posts as this subject is always brought up.

Dixie Carter had nothing to do with Delta's firing. A horrible feud started between Delta her husband Gerald McCraney and Linda and Harry Thomason. This is the quickest way to explain it (and even this is complicated):-

Delta (after marrying McCraney) started putting on vast amounts of weight as she came off a long term starvation diet. She gained about 50 lbs in 2 years. The press noticed this and began really laying into her. Due to this, Delta started suffering from anxiety and this caused her to become flakey on set.

Harry Thomason (who had been a long time friend of Delta's)was not particularly sympathetic nor supportive of Delta's dilemma and on several occassions pulled the 'boss card' with her.

Gerald McCraney (with a degree of ego himself due to him being the star of both Simon & Simon and at that point Major Dad) began to interfere and effectively wind Delta up by saying to her that she was not being treated as a 'star' by Thomason and instead she and the other women were being worked too hard. McCraney's influence over Delta then caused a big rift between McCraney and Harry Thomason who in turn began to pull rank on Delta even more and stand for less of her 'flakey behaviour' at a time when quite frankly she should have been signed off due to stress (due to the backlash from the press about her weight).

Delta and McCraney then made the unwise decision to go on TV and bring this feud into the open and complain about Harry and Linda Thomason.

Harry Thomason then went on TV (himself) to retaliate and stated Delta was unprofessional, did not show up for work and had been suspended on one occassion.

Dixie Carter, Jean Smart and Annie Potts were placed in a terrible position where they could see both sides but tried not to get involved. Ultimately they all hated working in that environment and Dixie (at the time) was the only one who was vocal about it and she subsequantly fell out with Delta, because she had to finally take side with the Thomasons. Remember, she must have been in a really awkward position as her husband Hal Holbrook was also starring on another of their shows 'Evening Shade', and this dispute would have been spilling onto that set too.

In the end, it was Harry Thomason who arrogantly sacked Delta believing she was easily replaceable. In reality, the Thomasons had left the show anyway to go to Evening Shade and should have handed over full reign to someone else and let Delta stay. Harry Thomason effectively killed Designing Women because he got into a silly macho ego fight with Gerald McCraney and wanted to make an example of Delta for speaking out on TV. It had nothing to do with Dixie Carter at all.

[–] sassy126 10 years ago

I loved the early seasons of the show and always wondered why Delta and Jean left. Thanks for all that interesting background on what happened.

[–] ginda2000 10 years ago

It was ultimately bad timing that Jean left at the same time as Delta. As I would have said in a previous post, all sit com stars are signed to a 5 year option - which means they cannot leave until that 5 years is up. Delta was never actually fired. All 4 women had reached the end of their 5 year option and Delta's wasn't renewed. Jean took the end of the 5 year option to not renew herself. She claimed she wanted to do other acting roles (which she has definately proven to be true). However, I think she probably would have stayed on had all the unpleasant stuff with the McCraney's and the Thomasons not been happening for the prior two years.

The show apparently declined horribly behind the scenes anyway after season 5. Annie Potts became very unhappy with the Thomason's also (for going back on a promise to include her pregnancy in season 6). She had already stated that at the end of her option contract (which was season 7) she was not coming back. I would imagine Annie felt really narked for staying with the show (after the release of Delta who she was friends with) only to become treated poorly by the Thomasons also.

[–] 10 years ago

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