Designing Women

Suzanne visits a new gynecologist, Mary Jos ex-husband Ted, and a maelstrom of emotions is unleashed when she announces she is dating him.

Suzannes intimate dinner party, planned to impress an important client, goes awry before it begins when she arranges a date between a more-than-hefty man and a reluctant Charlene.

Concerned that Mary Jo hasnt dated since she and Ted broke up, Suzanne arranges a bind 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 tonguelashing from Julia.

Perky Sugarbaker, Julia and Suzannes 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.

When her boyfriend Mason takes a job in Japan, Charlene finds she has chemistry with another man, a man who happens to be married to one of the Sugarbaker clients.

It is New Years Eve, and everyone is dressed in their finery, anticipating a fun-filled night on the town. The identity of Charlenes date is kept secret until a news flash reports that the infamous ""Shadow"" is the subject of a massive manhunt.

Mary Jo is brooding about her ex-husbands interference in her life, while Charlene distrusts her doctors cavalier attitude toward the lump he found in her breast.

Suzanne picks up a client who wants period furniture on a shoestring budget, and the Sugarbaker women find that antique furniture at bargain prices is no bargain.

The news that Charlenes family--all ten brothers and sisters--will be in town at the same time is overshadowed by the news that she is going to become a recording star!

When Mary Jos divorced father arrives in Atlanta for a four-day visit and dances cheek to cheek with Charlene, Mary Jo becomes very protective.

Suzannes baseball player ex-husband, Jack Dent, writes in his autobiography that he had more groupie action than all the rock ""n"" roll bands in North America, and Suzanne vows revenge.

A scruffy gas-station owner wins free interior decoration from Sugarbakers, Charlene consults a psychic about her future.

Anthony goes to extremes to impress his girlfriends wealthy parents, inventing a pedigreed family -- then an uninvited dinner guest informs him he is the father of her child.

When an eccentric client harasses the women with bizarre decorating requests, they decide to matchmake him with Bernice.

Reeses fitness demonstration - arm wrestling an old buddy and sometime-rival -- causes a heart attack, and subsequent different treatment from Julia.

Charlene dreams the Sugarbakers back to WWII and the USO.

Its the mercy date from Hell when the female Sugarbakers staff accompany dateless Howard the nerd to his high-school reunion. Their sympathy quickly wears off when he begins to boast about handling his ""four women.""

Anthony is dismayed when an old prison cellmate arrives at Sugarbakers with a business proposition -- he wants Anthony to become his partner.

Julia and Suzanne disagree on how to handle the arrival of their half-brother, a recently discharged mental patient with aspirations to stand-up comedy.

A penniless Suzanne faces stiff fines for back taxes, so after trying to charm Ray Don at the IRS, she sells off her possession and considers marriage to wealthy octogenarian Wilmont Oliver.

Suzanne and Julia clash over a posh clubs offer of membership when Suzanne discovers discrimination in the clubs by laws.

On the brink of marrying a young woman, Ted begins to appreciate ex-wife Mary Jos maturity, but his sudden attentiveness strikes everyone else as suspicious.

A voluptuous maid disrupts a romantic Thanksgiving at the beach.

While touring Graceland on VIP tickets, Julia is touched when a truck driver tells how the King influenced his life.

Mary-Jo contemplates breast enlargement after receiving an inheritance from her uncle Dude stipulating that she must spend it on something frivolous.

Striking laborers from a textile factory besiege the company, and the Sugarbakers women come to respect them for surviving their terrible working conditions.

Acting as surrogate brother a troubled youth, Anthony remembers his own painful childhood, and when Julia puts her trust in Anthonys juvenile charge, it only gets her photo on the evening news.

Mary Jo, Charlene and Anthony feign nonchalance at a nudist colony, the Sugarbakers nieces visit.

Suzanne didnt spend one week and $2,000 at a spa to be asked out by a blind client who cant appreciate her radiance -- especially since she finds it difficult to believe that he is attracted by her personality.

A full moon coincides with strange occurrences, including Mary Jos sudden conviction that Claudia and her boyfriend are up to no good.

Charlene, now happily engaged, dreads meeting Bills intimidating mother and aunt, Mary Jo gives the dating game another try, with a much younger man.

A photographer shooting a magazine spread on the women of Atlanta asks the decorators to participate, but they become suspicious when he keeps encouraging sexier poses.

When she discovers him working as a bellboy/pianist, the accountant who absconded with her life savings offers Suzanne a deal.

Mary Jo uses the mansion shes decorating to entertain, and Anthony suffers when his health insurance lapses and Suzanne must nurse his injured back.

While preparing for Charlenes 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.

Attempting to prove himself when Mary Jo hires him and some of his ex-convict friends to finish an incomplete remodeling job, Anthony gets a new girlfriend -- an ambitious young woman who sees him as an upwardly mobile vehicle.

The Sugarbaker women testify for Bernice when her niece Phyllis attempts to have her declared legally incompetent because she sings Bobbie Gentry songs to strangers on the street and introduces Anthony as her illegitimate son.

Julia and Suzannes plans go awry when they travel to Japan to visit their mother: after discovering that she has gone to Paris to see a sick friend, they are robbed of their luggage and money. Meanwhile, Anthony and Mary Jo are stuck with an enormous telephone bill after calling in votes to a television poll.

Fat as a feminist issue surfaces when Suzanne endures cruel jokes about her weight at her high-school reunion; Anthony enlists Julia and Mary Jo to join him in a two-day fast to focus attention on world hunger.

Suzanne and Mary Jo rush Charlene to the hospital when she goes into labor on New Years Eve and conceives a desire to deliver the first New Years baby. Dolly Parton plays Charlenes ""guardian movie star,"" who comes to her in a dream with news of her babys birth, and Bernice goes for an unexpected ambulance ride.

The ladies are hired by wealthy stockbroker Ancel Pollard to decorate a house for a clients wife -- and a condo for his mistress. Suzanne is sure that straight laced Julia and Mary Jo will never go through with the assignment.

Julia and Suzanne negotiate for a new delivery van and drive a hard bargain with an overbearing salesman (Ross).

Julia is not pleased to learn that Payne is graduating early in order to marry his pregnant girlfriend. Upset at becoming a grandmother so soon, Julia gets tipsy at the wedding, then wakes up mortified -- and scantily clad -- the next day with Paynes frat house roommate (Young).

A redecorating job for a sports account is right down Sugarbakers alley when it pits the women against a macho, over-confident designer from an all-male firm. They determine to steal one of his prized clients, Cherokee Lanes Bowling Alley, but discover they must pose as regular bowlers.

When her maid Consuela is threatened with deportation, Suzanne puts Anthony in a dress and pays him to impersonate the terrified woman. But he performs too well, awakening romantic interest in the Immigration and Naturalization Service examiner.

When Mary Jo attends church with Julia and Suzanne, she ends up dating Gene Chapman, the minister, but feeling guilty about her sexual interest in him.

An extremely anxious Anthony makes it to his college graduation despite a series of mishaps and his nervousness about his grandmothers visit and his performance as commencement speaker.

Sugarbakers is beset by tourists when the buildings Civil War foundation puts it on the Tour of Historical Homes, Mary Jo opens her heart to an old friend eager to make good on a marriage pact they once entered into.

Resentment builds between Charlene and Mary Jo when Charlene wants to take a year off to look after her baby. The decorators cater to the whims of a rich, insufferable 10-year-old client as Mary Jo and Charlene ponder the joys and pitfalls of working mothers.

When organizational confusion leads to Suzanne winning a date with Anthony in a bachelor charity auction, the two reluctantly try to make the best of a very awkward situation.

Charlenes baby, Olivia, auditions for a modeling job, Mary Jo finds one of her former teachers in a nursing home.

Anthony buys in to become a full partner; new student Charlene fends off an amorous psychology professor.

Mary Jo forbids her nearly 18-year-old daughter to date a 34-year-old, then dates him herself, Julia is forced to crash the mens room at a football stadium.

Mary Jo borrows and loses a string of pearls flaunted by Suzanne, subbing as a lifestyles reporter for local TV news. Meanwhile, a recurring dream about Julia upsets Anthony.

Everyone at Sugarbakers is baffled to discover that sensible Julia has covertly been singing evenings at a nightclub, Anthony tries to muster the nerve to ask out a girl who works at the bookstore.

Mary Jo, wanting a baby, turns to her friend and former beau; Suzanne takes up smoking as a way to diet.

When the gang attends a convention in intoxicating New Orleans, Mary Jo unwittingly sleeps with a married man.

Julia tries coping with her boyfriend Reeses death by looking after Randa Oliver, the supremely spoiled child of a client couple on an extended vacation.

Suzanne is jealous when Anthony is invited to be the first black (i.e., token) in the previously all-white Beaumont Country Club.

Cousin Alison Sugarbaker buys out Suzannes share of the business and then moves in, complete with an enormous desk and a take-charge attitude, Charlenes divorcing younger sister Carlene arrives.

Mary Jo protectively takes divorcee Carlene under her wing -- going overboard with a lie about Carlenes latest flame -- when ex-hubby Dwayne shows up to sweep Carlene off her feet again.

Mary Jo turns to a sperm bank to get pregnant, prompting mixed reactions at work. Meanwhile, Julia threaten to rip the draperies from the windows of the home of a wealthy client whose payment is overdue.

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 Hills accusation of sexual harassment: Mary Jo and Julia side with Hill and Allison with Thomas. Conflict spills over into Allisons birthday party, where Mary Jo and Julia turn up in costume just in time to hear a television interview about the hearings with Allison.

Julias second date with electrician Rusty becomes a group outing with Carlene and Allison dating junior-college guys, and Anthony tagging along to the drive-in with Bernice to keep an eye on things.

When their van breaks down the women become unwelcome guests at a mens club retreat Wildman Sanctuary, where Anthony is trying to land a new account.

Julia accompanies Mary Jo and her mother Darla on an overnight bus trip back to South Carolina; meanwhile, the other employees get locked into the storage room while doing inventory.

Carlene moves into her own apartment on the wrong side of town, where space is at a minimum and burglars roam free, so the Sugarbakers staff visit to try to persuade her to find a better home.

Julia stages a sit-in at the mall to protest racial mistreatment of Anthony by brutish cops who accosted him for window shopping near a jewelry store -- and television coverage links Anthony romantically with Allison.

On an overnight Girl Scout outing, Carlenes leadership abilities take a beating, while Allisons methods seem to charm the spoiled troopers, and Mary Jo and Julia advocate roughing it.

Julia strolls down memory lane while awaiting the results of hysterectomy tests at a hospital whose workers are on strike, and a surgeon turns out to be her prescription for romance.

After cousin Allison leaves Sugarbakers, Julia needs cash but is refused a bank loan. To cheer themselves up, the women play poker with a wealthy client -- who wins the business from them. Sugarbakers could use an infusion of cash, and at a rowdy party given by potential new client B.J., the gals kick up their heels in wild abandon.

After Julia completely rewrites a letter Mary Jo asked her to proofread, Mary Jo comes unraveled on a fashion-show runway, where she just plain has her fill of know-it-all Julia. Meanwhile, back at the office, B.J. has her hands full with angry vegetarians.

Julia fears the emotional roller coaster of menopause -- just as her affair with Phillip heats up, and is upset when she discovers a Sugerbakers ""Change of Life"" surprise party.

BJ offers to help a desperate Anthony, who invents various schemes to extricate himself from his hasty marriage to a Las Vegas showgirl.

Etienne drives Anthony crazy trying to be the perfect wife, and the Sugarbakers crew throw a Las Vegas style wedding shower for them.

Mary Jo dates a handsome idiot, a to-die-for toyboy male model who seems to have few toys in the attic and little in common with her.

After eye surgery, Bernice overhears the gals talk of putting Mary Jos dog out of its misery and figures theyre planning her own mercy killing, so she barricades herself inside the storeroom. Meanwhile, Julia gets caught listing to a London phone line which plays tapes of Princess Dianas private conversations with her boyfriend.

Julias old mentor for her bohemian art school days in New York unveils his nude portrait of Julia.

Worshiping hordes gather outside Sugarbakers after the face of Elvis mysteriously appears on a snow shovel belonging to Mary Jo, who attracts the attention of a ""paraspectacular"" expert (Gilpin) -- especially when she apparently restores her neighbors damaged hearing.

A visit from Julias meddlesome former schoolmistress is extended -- on ghostly instructions from her deceased husband, it turns out -- until the desperate Sugarbakers women hold a seance to try to force her to leave.

With Julia continuing to fight to save the antebellum Kearney mansion, B.J. struggles to save Sugarbakers and Poteet Industries from a take over from the Kearneys. However, despite their efforts, Kiki Kearney announces her new plans for ""Kikibakers,"" Lester Kearney announces that the purchase of Poteet Industries is complete, and the modernizing of the mansion gets under way. Though Anthony and the women are fired for insubordination, when Craig, a friend of Mary Jos, stumbles on some embarrassing news about the Kearneys illegal financial activities, Poteet Industries and Sugarbakers are saved from the take over.