The Ladies of Sugarbakers Ride Again

The cast of CBS' original Designing Women (1986-93):
l-r: Annie Potts, Jean Smart, Meshach Taylor,
 Delta Burke, Dixie Carter

This morning, at the Television Critics Association convention in Beverly Hills, Hulu made one of the most exciting announcements of the press tour so far -- about a show that premiered nearly 33 years ago.

After finding huge success in streaming all seven seasons of The Golden Girls, Hulu has announced its acquisition of all seven seasons -- 163 episodes worth -- of the 1986-93 CBS hit sitcom Designing Women.  The series will be available beginning August 26, which not so coincidentally, happens also to be Women's Equality Day.

Following a similar comedic "rule of four" with its characters, Designing Women starred Dixie Carter, Delta Burke, Annie Potts and Jean Smart as four women of different backgrounds and certainly personality types who ran a successful design firm in Atlanta, with Meshach Taylor joining as a fifth partner in the Sugarbaker Firm.  In many ways a Southern Golden Girls, Designing Women dared tackle political topics and social issues of its day even more directly -- in fact, it was the first sitcom to air an episode dealing with the HIV/AIDS pandemic -- and has earned a similarly devoted following even more than three decades later.  In fact, it's hard to find a gay man of a certain age who can't quote Julia Sugarbaker's "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia" rant word for word, after seeing the video clip playing seemingly on a loop in American gay bars.

With reboot fever in full bloom, Designing Women's prolific creator, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, had recently written a pilot script which would feature a brand new generation working at Sugarbaker's -- but they would also be graced by recurring, if not regular, visits from the show's three original stars, Burke, Potts and Smart.  At a press event for Potts' current series, CBS' Young Sheldon, in the spring of 2018, she expressed enthusiasm for appearing again as Mary Jo Shively in any new Designing Women; but unfortunately, this past winter of 2019, ABC declined to shoot a pilot for the series.

It's not a complete coincidence that after Hulu began streaming The Golden Girls that Disney/ABC, the show's rights owner, finally began creating merchandise such as tee shirts, action figures, themed Monopoly and Clue games, and so much more.  (Immodestly, I must say that part of the credit should also go to my book Golden Girls Forever, which alerted Disney about all the merch money they had long been leaving on the table.)

So perhaps, with the new heat coming from Hulu, Designing Women might ride again?