NEW YORK, Sept. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- The Sugarbakers have their designs
on Nick at Nite as the hit comedy Designing Women joins the Nick at Nite
line-up beginning Monday, October 2. The critically-acclaimed series kicks
off with a four-day marathon of the show's best-loved episodes from 10
p.m.-2 a.m. (all times ET/PT) and airs through Thursday, October 5. It will
air in its regularly scheduled timeslot of 12 a.m. Monday-Saturday
beginning Friday, October 6.
"Designing Women is a hilarious comedy with a great ensemble cast of
outspoken and sassy women," states Jaclyn Cohen, Senior Vice President,
Programming and Acquisitions, TV Land and Nick at Nite. "Its strong writing
and honest storylines have such a strong appeal to women, and as Nick at
Nite is the premier destination for Women 18-49 and 18-34, it truly is the
perfect fit."
Created by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, Designing Women aired on CBS and
starred Dixie Carter, Delta Burke, Jeanne Smart and Annie Potts as four
outspoken Southern women running Sugarbaker and Associates, an interior
decorating business in Atlanta. The show, which aired from 1986 to 1993,
focuses on their personal and professional lives, as they deal with their
business, romances and friendship. Julia Sugarbaker (Carter) is the founder
of the business and the classy and smart one of the bunch. Her sister
Suzanne (Burke), is a former beauty queen who uses her flirtatious ways to
charm both clients and men, Mary Jo (Potts), is a recently divorced mom
with two kids and Charlene (Smart) is the trusting business manager who has
never been married. Anthony (Meshach Taylor) is their outspoken
deliveryman/handyman, who also happens to be an ex-con, but constantly
gives his opinion on everything going on in the ladies' lives. In the
series' fifth season, as Burke and Smart left the show, two new characters
were introduced. Allison Sugarbaker (Julia Duffy), Suzanne and Julia's
cousin, and Carlene Frazier Dobber (Jan Hooks), Charlene's newly divorced
sister. The final cast change was when Julia Duffy left the series and
Bonnie Jean "B.J." Poteet (Judith Ivey), a wealthy widow, was brought in to
save the firm that had become financially strapped.
The schedule line-up for the Designing Women marathon is as follows:
Monday
10:00pm #001 - Designing Women (Pilot)
Guest star: Scott Bakula
Suzanne visits a new gynecologist, Mary Jo's ex-husband Ted, and
a maelstrom of emotions is unleashed when she announces she is
dating him.
10:30pm #005 - Mary Jo's First Date
Concerned that Mary Jo hasn't dated since she and Ted broke up,
Suzanne arranges a blind date for her with an old acquaintance,
J.D. Shackelford, head scout for the Atlanta Braves baseball
team, while Julia struggles through an I.R.S. audit conducted by
the same Ray Don Simpson who tried to pick up the women at a
restaurant and suffered a tongue-lashing from Julia.
11:00pm #007 - Perky's Visit
Perky Sugarbaker, Julia and Suzanne's mother, and her friend
Bernice hope to escape the dull routine of their lives in the
retirement home by joining the girls and their ex-con handyman
Anthony for the festive occasion, considering it an exhilarating
change. Guest star: Louise Latham
11:30pm #018 - Oh, Suzannah
While in Reese's office to sign legal papers, Suzanne
off-handedly volunteers to keep a Vietnamese boat child, Li Sing,
who is being adopted but needs an interim home for the next four
weeks while final papers are being completed. Suzanne becomes
attached to Li Sing quickly and doesn't want to give her over to
her new family.
12:00am #026 - Killing All the Right People
Guest star: Tony Goldwyn
News that a friend and fellow decorator is dying of AIDS (and
wants Sugarbakers to design his funeral) gets Mary Jo fired up at
a PTA debate on sex education and contraception.
12:30am #028 - Dash Goff, the Writer
Suzanne's visiting ex, a novelist who loves flowery Southern
words and women, is in a writer's slump and contemplating
suicide. Guest star: Gerald McRaney
1:00am #029 - Heart Attacks
Reese's fitness demonstration -- arm wrestling an old buddy and
sometime-rival -- causes a heart attack, and subsequent different
treatment from Julia. Guest star: Hal Holbrook
1:30am #032 - Stranded
While Charlene, Julia and Mary Jo get the flu on a trip to St.
Louis, a snowstorm forces Suzanne and Anthony to share a motel
room in Tennessee.
Tuesday
10:00pm #044 - Reservations for Eight
A romantic ski weekend becomes a battle of the sexes when an
avalanche sidelines the Sugarbakers ladies and their boyfriends.
Guest star: Hal Holbrook, Gerald McRaney
10:30pm #049 - Big Haas and Little Falsie
Mary-Jo contemplates breast enlargement after receiving an
inheritance from her Uncle Dude stipulating that she must spend
it on something frivolous.
11:00pm #053 - Tyrone
Acting as surrogate brother to a troubled youth, Anthony
remembers his own painful childhood, and when Julia puts her
trust in Anthony's juvenile charge, it only gets her photo on the
evening news. Guest star: Shavar Ross
11:30pm #059 - Full Moon
A full moon coincides with strange occurrences: Julia gets her
dress stuck in her pantyhose during a fashion show runway walk,
Suzanne buys a gun to protect her pig from threats, and Mary Jo
suddenly wants to find her daughter at look-out point, convinced
that Claudia and her boyfriend are up to no good.
12:00am #062 - Come On and Marry Me, Bill
Charlene's wedding is in jeopardy when she finds Bill handcuffed
to a scantily clad dancer after his stag party.
12:30am #065 - The Last Humorously-Dressed Bellboy in America
When she discovers him working as a bellboy/pianist, the
accountant who absconded with her life savings offers Suzanne a
deal.
1:00am #069 - There She Is
While preparing for Charlene's baby shower, the Sugarbakers women
are surprised by a visit from the Director of Pageants for Miss
Georgia. Due to a clerical error discovered in the 1975
balloting, Suzanne must relinquish the crown she won 15 years
earlier.
1:30am #072 - The Rowdy Girls
While she is helping the Sugarbakers women choreograph a Supremes
lip-synch routine, Charlene's favorite cousin inadvertently
reveals that she is a victim of domestic violence.
Wednesday
10:00pm #074 - Julia Gets Her Head Stuck in a Fence
While posing for a gag photo at the governor's mansion, Julia
gets her head stuck in the banister just before the annual ball.
10:30pm #077 - They Shoot Fat Women, Don't They?
Feeling that she is beautiful for her class reunion, Suzanne is
forced to re-evaluate her life when she becomes the victim of
cruel jokes and hurtful comments regarding her weight gain.
Anthony enlists Julia and Mary Jo to join him in a two-day fast
to focus attention on world hunger.
11:00pm #079 - The First Day of the Last Decade of the Entire Twentieth
Century (1)
Suzanne and Mary Jo rush Charlene to the hospital when she goes
into labor on New Year's Eve and conceives a desire to deliver
the first New Year's baby. Dolly Parton plays Charlene's
"guardian movie star," who comes to her in a dream with news of
her baby's birth, and Bernice goes for an unexpected ambulance
ride. Guest star: Dolly Parton
11:30pm #080 - The First Day of the Last Decade of the Entire Twentieth
Century (2)
Suzanne and Mary Jo rush Charlene to the hospital when she goes
into labor on New Year's Eve and conceives a desire to deliver
the first New Year's baby. Dolly Parton plays Charlene's
"guardian movie star," who comes to her in a dream with news of
her baby's birth, and Bernice goes for an unexpected ambulance
ride. Guest star: Dolly Parton
12:00am #099 - Miss Trial
Julia's dinner plans with former President Jimmy Carter and his
wife are put on hold when her slow-moving jury gets sequestered.
12:30am #104 - A Class Act
Guest star: Richard Sanders
Suzanne had trouble relating to Anthony after he buys in to
become a full partner; new student Charlene fends off an amorous
psychology professor.
1:00am #116 - The Big Circle
Julia tries coping with her boyfriend Reese's death by looking
after Randa Oliver, the supremely spoiled child of a client
couple on an extended vacation.
1:30am #118 - Fore!
Suzanne is jealous when Anthony is invited to be the first black
(i.e., token) in the previously all-white Beaumont Country Club.
Thursday
10:00pm #120 - The Big Desk (1)
Sugarbaker cousin Allison buys out Suzanne's share of the
business and then moves in, complete with an enormous desk and a
take-charge attitude. Also, Charlene's younger sister Carlene
arrives and reveals she's divorcing her husband.
10:30pm #121 - The Big Desk (2)
Sugarbaker cousin and the new not-so-silent partner Allison tries
to take charge of Sugarbaker's and Julia is not too thrilled.
11:00pm #127 - The Strange Case of Clarence and Anita
Guest star: Ted Kennedy, Senator Alan Simpson
Perhaps the most famous episode and a rare instance of a
situation comedy making direct political comment on a current
issue. The Sugarbakers women take sides on the controversial
confirmation hearings of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence
Thomas and Anita Hill's accusation of sexual harassment: Mary Jo
and Julia side with Hill and Allison with Thomas. Conflict spills
over into Allison's birthday party, where Mary Jo and Julia turn
up in costume just in time to hear a television interview about
the hearings with Allison.
11:30pm #130 - Julia and Mary Jo Get Stuck Under a Bed
Mary Jo and Julia are trapped under anchorman Chuck Tremains' bed
when a Christmas design contest inspires them to examine a
competitor's handiwork for evidence of plagiarism.
12:00am #143 - Of Human Bondage
After cousin Allison leaves Sugarbakers, Julia needs cash but is
refused a bank loan. To cheer themselves up, the women get drunk
and rowdy celebrating Julia's birthday at the house of wealthy
client B.J. Poteet, who wins the business from them in a poker
game.
12:30am #156 - Wedding Redux
Guest star: Della Reese, Sherman Hemsley
Anthony and Etienne renew their vows for Etienne's visiting
parents and Anthony's grandmother at a ceremony at B.J.'s, where
anything that could go wrong does.
1:00am #163 - Gone With a Whim (1)
With Sugarbaker's in such bad financial shape, the ladies are
grateful when B. J. gets them a job redecorating a house that
resembles the great home from Gone with the Wind -- until they
find out that the new lady of the house plans to rip out the
grand staircase and replace it with an elevator. To make matters
worse, B. J. finds out that their client is trying to take over
Poteet Industries and plans to give Sugarbaker's to his young
bride Kiki --- renaming it "Kikibaker's".
1:30am #164 - Gone With a Whim (2)
With Julia continuing to fight to save the antebellum Kearney
mansion, B.J. struggles to save Sugarbaker's and Poteet
Industries from a take over from the Kearneys. However, despite
their efforts, Kiki Kearney announces her new plans for
"Kikibaker's," Lester Kearney announces that the purchase of
Poteet Industries is complete, and the modernizing of the mansion
gets under way.
Currently seen in more than 88 million U.S. homes, Nick at Nite
features timeless hit comedies: The Cosby Show -- this Emmy Award-winning
sitcom is one of the network's highest-rated shows: Full House -- this
popular family comedy launched on the network in October and is one of the
highest-rated and most popular syndicated programs in television; and
Roseanne, one of the most talk-about and celebrated sitcoms in television
history.
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CONTACT:
Jennifer Zaldivar, +1-212-846-8964,
jennifer.zaldivar@tvland.com, or Vanessa Reyes, +1-310-752-8081,
Vanessa.reyes@tvland.com, both of TV Land & Nick at Nite
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