You'd Be at the Free Clinic all the Time

In honor of World AIDS Day, below is one of my favorite clips in all of television.

Back in the fall of 1987, when so many people -- even in Hollywood -- remained ignorant about the disease, Designing Women became the first sitcom I can think of (yes, even

before The Golden Girls) to tackle the issue. And as Linda Bloodworth-Thomason always does in her writing, the show did so with grace and class. (Bloodworth-Thomason wrote from experience; her own mother Claudia had at that point contracted HIV from a blood transfusion and had died, inspiring the writer to create episode "Killing All the Right People," the fourth in the show's 2nd season.)

Tony Goldwyn guest starred as Kendall, a rival decorator who hires Sugarbaker's Design Firm to redo a room at the local funeral parlor in a New Orleans theme, to be used for his own unfortunately impending service, and as a gift to future AIDS victims who die without the resources for proper burial. The storyline dovetails nicely with the B story, in which Annie Potts' Mary Jo Shively is tasked with debating a local tight-ass in front of the PTA, and advocating for the dispensing of condoms to teens to save lives.

As Julia Sugarbaker, Dixie Carter practically patented the angry rant, and seeing her get "fired up" was the highlight of any Designing Women episode. Here, watch her rip evil Imogene a new one -- and deservedly so.

And if you have the Designing Women season 2 box set, I urge you to check out the full episode of "Killing All the Right People." I defy you to make it through, to the "Closer Walk With Thee" sequence at the very end, with a dry eye. Like all of Linda Bloodworth-Thomason's writing at its best, the episode entertains, informs, and once you've seen it, it will remain forever in your heart.

Designing Women on my mind

Finally, as of today, May 26, 2009, Designing Women has been released on DVD.   Long delayed, the first season of this beloved Southern series, which ran on CBS from 1986-93, introduces us to the outspoken steel magnolia Julia Sugarbaker (Dixie Carter), her vapid beauty queen sister Suzanne (Delta Burke), single mom Mary Jo Shively (Annie Potts) and the design firm's rambling and naive receptionist/accountant, Charlene Frasier (Jean Smart.) And then, a few episodes in, we meet ex-convict Anthony Bouvier (Meshach Taylor) and the slightly senile matron Bernice Clifton (the late Alice Ghostley), both of whom proving so popular as foils to the four sassy ladies that they ended up staying for the 7-year run of the series.

I have collected many series on DVD, and I usually watch the first few episodes of each before ultimately getting distracted. But Linda Bloodworth-Thomason's witty wordplay in Designing Women, a show I remember vividly from my high school days, is so addictive, Frank and I quickly saw this DVD box set through to the end.

What's amazing about this series is that quite a few of the classic moments you might remember from the show are right there in the first season. For example, the now-closed bar Revolver on West Hollywood's gay Santa Monica Blvd. strip used to show one classic speech of Julia's, where she defends her younger sister Suzanne's reputation as a beauty queen, so often that its patrons often would shout along. And from speaking to Delta Burke a few years back, I learned that this is the case in a few of the Atlanta bars as well; the ladies know it, and often joke about making a surreptitious outing down South to check it out for themselves.

In August, Shout Factory will release Designing Women's 2nd season -- it's great that unlike with some shows, like The Mary Tyler Moore Show for example, we won't have to wait forever to get more of the episodes we love.