Designed to keep you laughing!
Original title
Designing Women
Released
9/29/1986
Origin country
US
Genre
Comedy
Production companies
Columbia Pictures Television, Mozark Productions, Embassy Television
Status
Ended
Number of seasons
7
Number of episodes
163
Julia Sugarbaker, Mary Jo Shively, Charlene Frazier-Stillfield and Suzanne Sugarbaker are associates at their design firm, Sugarbaker and Associates. Julia is the owner and is very outspoken and strong-willed. Mary Jo is a divorced single-parent whom is just as strong-willed as Julia, but isn't as self-confident. Charlene is the naive and trusting farm girl from Poplar Bluff, Missouri. Suzanne is the self-centered ex-beauty queen whom has a number of wealthy ex-husbands.
Delta Burke, Dixie Carter, Annie Potts, Jean Smart and Meshach Taylor reunited to share behind-the-scenes memories from their time on the series. Included are topics such as initial casting, favorite episodes, how the women met their real-life husbands on the show, and of course, ""when Delta was crazy."" Clips from many episodes are showcased, as well as new interviews with additional cast members, crew members and others associated with the world of television.
On October 25, 2006, the women of Designing Women reunited at The Paley Center for Media (then known as The Museum of Television & Radio) as part of their "Fearless Women" series. Moderated by Barbara Dixon, the reunion included series creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason and stars Delta Burke, Dixie Carter, Annie Potts, and Jean Smart.
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.
Charlene sponsors Mary Jo's daughter in the Miss Pre-Teen Atlanta contest, and despite her depression over her own upcoming 30th birthday, Suzanne coaches Claudia on how to walk and smile.
Suzanne's 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.
Julia's nineteen-year-old son, Payne, is bringing his girlfriend home from college for a visit, and Julia wants everything to be perfect for her ""baby."" Payne then presents his girl, Primmie, who is tall, attractive...and forty years old!
Concerned that Mary Jo hasn't 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.
Since Suzanne has money invested in Sugarbaker's and is tired of her image as a front bimbo for the firm, Julia assigns her to do the decorating of their next project. Unfortunately, the house burns to the ground while Suzanne is working on it.
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.
The dinner is perfect, the champagne flows, Julia is presented with a single rose, and on a lark she and her current beau Reese get married. The next morning both parties regret their hastiness, and Reese appears with annulment papers. An argument ensues, and Julia finally agrees to sign the papers, thereby annuling their marriage and their entire relationship.
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.
Arriving at work one morning, Suzanne tells Julia, Mary Jo, and Charlene that when she tried to fire her maid, she put a voodoo death curse on her and proclaimed that Suzanne would be gone by midnight. Mary Jo invites Charlene, Julia and Suzanne to help her with Claudia's slumber party.
It is New Year's Eve, and everyone is dressed in their finery, anticipating a fun-filled night on the town. The identity of Charlene's 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-husband's interference in her life, while Charlene distrusts her doctor's cavalier attitude toward the lump he found in her breast.
Mary Jo is brooding about her ex-husband's interference in her life, while Charlene distrusts her doctor's cavalier attitude toward the lump he found in her breast.
When an old school chum of Charlene's, Monette, buys the old Chadwick mansion and asks Sugarbaker's to redecorate, the women are excited at the prospect of a most lucrative assignment--until they find out what the assignment REALLY is...
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.
A disagreement over the theme for the annual country club fund-raiser has Julia and Suzanne at odds, but the quibbling is forgotten when Reese appears with a gorgeous young women on his arm, explaining that she is a new attorney in his law firm.
The news that Charlene's 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!
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.
When Mary Jo's divorced father arrives in Atlanta for a four-day visit and dances cheek to cheek with Charlene, Mary Jo becomes very protective.
When Anthony saunters into the shop wearing an enormous cowboy hat, followed by a breathless Mary Jo who has obviously been out all night as she is wearing the same clothes ahe had on when she left the day before, the others clamor for an explanation. It seems their appointment with Sugarbaker's newest client turned into an all-night bash, complete with Cajun buffet and country-western band.
Suzanne's 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.
When Mary Jo undertakes the decoration of Hence Winchester's new home, she finds herself the object of sexual harassment by her wealthy client.
A scruffy gas-station owner wins free interior decoration from Sugarbakers, Charlene consults a psychic about her future.
Mary Jo can't face her children being with her ex-husband's new wife, who is spoiling them.
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.
"Killing All the Right People" is the 26th episode of the sitcom Designing Women. Originally airing on October 5, 1987, as the fourth episode of the second season, it features Tony Goldwyn as Kendall Dobbs, a young man dying of AIDS who asks the women to design his funeral. Series creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason's mother died of AIDS and her experience with her mother's disease and the prejudice associated with it inspired the episode.
When an eccentric client harasses the women with bizarre decorating requests, they decide to matchmake him with Bernice.
Suzanne's visiting ex, a novelist who loves flowery Southern words and women, is in a writer's slump and contemplating suicide.
Reese's fitness demonstration - arm wrestling an old buddy and sometime-rival -- causes a heart attack, and subsequent different treatment from Julia.
Suzanne and Mary Jo become romantic rivals while doing a job aboard a cruise ship.
Charlene dreams the Sugarbakers back to WWII and the USO.
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.
It's 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.""
Charlene and Anthony scheme to outsmart Mary Jo's disbelieving son on Christmas Eve -- until their hired Santa beats them to it, by swiping the Sugarbakers' Christmas gifts.
Anthony is dismayed when an old prison cellmate arrives at Sugarbaker's with a business proposition -- he wants Anthony to become his partner.
Charlene withdraws after being dumped by her boyfriend Bill, who is still grieving the loss of his first wife.
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.
Mary Jo gives Claudia permission to go to a school dance with a black youth, contrary to his father's wishes.
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.
After Charlene unwittingly puts a bug in Suzanne's ear by relating the success story of Fred Smith, founder of Federal Express, Suzanne flits off to Atlantic City with Charlene and Anthony in hopes of winning a bundle to pay off debts by employing Anthony's gambling expertise.
Suzanne and Julia clash over a posh club's offer of membership when Suzanne discovers discrimination in the club's by laws.
Scruples cause Charlene to resign from her church after she loses faith in her minister when he votes against allowing women in the ministry.
On the brink of marrying a young woman, Ted begins to appreciate ex-wife Mary Jo's maturity, but his sudden attentiveness strikes everyone else as suspicious.
A romantic ski weekend becomes a battle of the sexes when an avalanche sidelines the Sugarbakers ladies and their boyfriends.
A voluptuous maid disrupts a romantic Thanksgiving at the beach.
Julia runs for a seat on the local board of commissioners, but her outspokenness may cost her the election.
While touring Graceland on VIP tickets, Julia is touched when a truck driver tells how the King influenced his life.
Bernice asks the ladies to be her wedding attendants when she receives a marriage proposal from a TV pitchman -- who habitually proposes to every woman he meets.
Mary-Jo contemplates breast enlargement after receiving an inheritance from her uncle Dude stipulating that she must spend it on something frivolous.
Suzanne convinces Charlene that Bill should date more before they get serious, and the ladies plan revenge on a bunch of sexist hardhats working across the street.
Striking laborers from a textile factory besiege the company, and the Sugarbakers women come to respect them for surviving their terrible working conditions.
The women embark on a wilderness survival course designed to build leadership -- but it's first-time camper Bernice who ultimately takes command.
Acting as surrogate brother 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.
The designers are determined that a recently deceased client's last wish be honored -- to leave her millions (and the ladies' prepaid services) to her cat.
Mary Jo, Charlene and Anthony feign nonchalance at a nudist colony, the Sugarbakers' nieces visit.
Charlene becomes a part-time saleswoman for ""Lady Jun"" cleaning products, and when she repeatedly succumbs to psychological pressure from her friend Libby despite her stated intention to quit, Julia determines to rescue her from this ""cult"" -- and winds up taking on Lady Jun herself. Meanwhile, Anthony receives an unusual nomination from his junior college -- as homecoming queen -- and gets unexpected support from Suzanne.
Suzanne didn't spend one week and $2,000 at a spa to be asked out by a blind client who can't appreciate her radiance -- especially since she finds it difficult to believe that he is attracted by her personality.
Sugarbakers becomes the site of a Southern family feud after Charlene's brother arrives and announces he is marrying the daughter of a longtime family rival, Anthony partners Bernice in a dance contest.
A full moon coincides with strange occurrences, including Mary Jo's sudden conviction that Claudia and her boyfriend are up to no good.
Mary-Jo overreacts to J.D.'s losing his job and moving in with her, but a psychic helps her sort out her feelings.
Charlene, now happily engaged, dreads meeting Bill's intimidating mother and aunt, Mary Jo gives the dating game another try, with a much younger man.
Charlene's wedding is in jeopardy when she finds Bill handcuffed to a scantily clad dancer after his stag party.
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 Mary Jo is mugged, the Sugarbaker women take a self-defense course.
When she discovers him working as a bellboy/pianist, the accountant who absconded with her life savings offers Suzanne a deal.
A nearby newsstand selling pornography offends Julia, to the point where she drives her car straight through it, and pits her against an equally determined publisher in the ensuing court battle.
Mary Jo uses the mansion she's decorating to entertain, and Anthony suffers when his health insurance lapses and Suzanne must nurse his injured back.
A terminally-ill high school classmate's last wish is to spend one night with the girl of his dreams -- Julia. The catch is, she doesn't remember him at all.
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.
The Sugerbaker women and their mates take a canoe trip in the Georgia backwoods -- which turns into a nightmare when them encounter some good ole boys.
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.
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.
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.
While posing for a gag photo at the governor's mansion, Julia gets her head stuck in the banister just before the annual ball.
Julia and Suzanne's 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.
Desperately single Mary Jo, worried that her busy schedule will condemn her to a life alone, accepts coaching from Suzanne as she plans a weekend manhunt.
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.
Mary Jo takes a second job at a fast food place when Ted's child support payment is late.
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.
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.
The ladies are hired by wealthy stockbroker Ancel Pollard to decorate a house for a client's wife -- and a condo for his mistress. Suzanne is sure that straight laced Julia and Mary Jo will never go through with the assignment.
The fur flies at a fashion show, where Suzanne's after-dinner mink causes a riot among animal-rights activists. Meanwhile, Charlene is forced to bring Olivia to Sugarbakers while she looks for a nanny.
Julia and Suzanne negotiate for a new delivery van and drive a hard bargain with an overbearing salesman (Ross).
Hired for a temporary job at Sugarbakers, Anthony's needy friend Vanessa learns the tricks of the trade from Suzanne, then goes to work reeling in Anthony.
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 Payne's frat house roommate (Young).
A bizarre collection of characters is trapped inside Sugarbakers by a tornado warning, including hillbilly Daddy Jones who takes a liking to Bernice.
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.
Julia intervenes when Bill's grief over the loss of his first wife threatens his relationship with Charlene -- and she becomes convinced he is having an affair with his new cockpit partner, Gail.
A lonely Suzanne digs through her old pageant connections for a best girlfriend, not realizing that her friend's "coming out" meant that she was a lesbian and not just the oldest living debutante.
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 hour-long clip show of highlights from the previous seasons, including: razor-tongued Julia standing up for Suzanne against an insolent beauty pageant contestant, Julia defending Bernice's eccentricities, Mary Jo commenting on men and bra sizes, Charlene wondering about everything from killer bees to the personal habits of other women, Suzanne displaying a series of wacky dresses, and Anthony being plagued by a variety of indignities.
An extremely anxious Anthony makes it to his college graduation despite a series of mishaps and his nervousness about his grandmother's visit and his performance as commencement speaker.
At a plush spa, the sparse diet, vigorous exercise program and thermal mud baths bring out the worst in Suzanne -- especially when Julia and Mary Jo are encouraged to gain weight.
Sugarbaker's is beset by tourists when the building's 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.
Charlene aims to make Anthony's 30th birthday a memorable one -- by hiring a private detective to find his long-lost father.
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.
Julia's dinner plans with former President Jimmy Carter and his wife are put on hold when her slow-moving jury gets sequestered.
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.
As the proud new owner of a grand but ghostly mansion, Charlene hires the decorators to give the place a facelift -- not mentioning that it's haunted.
Charlene's baby, Olivia, auditions for a modeling job, Mary Jo finds one of her former teachers in a nursing home.
Mary Jo takes up jogging, and inadvertently helps turn Julia into a fitness zealot.
Anthony buys in to become a full partner; new student Charlene fends off an amorous psychology professor.
With her husband away on a mission, Charlene guiltily draws close to a man in her support group for military spouses who wife is also away. Meanwhile, lottery fever sweeps Sugarbakers.
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 men's room at a football stadium.
After Bernice gets a local public-access cable TV show, Mary Jo has her heart broken by a client and decides that Bernice's show is the ideal arena to air her views on men.
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.
Anthony, concerned with his masculinity after working with the women so long, tries standing up to his bullying neighbor, and is further humiliated when the women come to his rescue.
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.
Bernice gets an extraordinarily bad eye tuck and rhinoplasty from a plastic surgeon whose work leaves something to be desired.
Mary Jo, wanting a baby, turns to her friend and former beau; Suzanne takes up smoking as a way to diet.
Amateur painter Julia inadvertently becomes the darling of Atlanta's art scene when someone tries to buy her handbag while she's attending a gallery opening; Suzanne inadvertently glues her lips shut.
When the gang attends a convention in intoxicating New Orleans, Mary Jo unwittingly sleeps with a married man.
Mary Jo runs across the man who mugged her the year before, but faces horrendous judicial red tape to bring him to trial.
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.
Charlene, readjusting to married life upon Bill's return from the Middle East, quits her and Mary Jo's children's-book project.
Suzanne is jealous when Anthony is invited to be the first black (i.e., token) in the previously all-white Beaumont Country Club.
Mary Jo and Julia demonstrate different coaching styles when their firm sponsors a Little League team.
Cousin Alison Sugarbaker buys out Suzanne's share of the business and then moves in, complete with an enormous desk and a take-charge attitude, Charlene's divorcing younger sister Carlene arrives.
Cousin Alison Sugarbaker buys out Suzanne's share of the business and then moves in, complete with an enormous desk and a take-charge attitude, Charlene's divorcing younger sister Carlene arrives.
Julia thinks she's ready to resume dating, but Alison disagrees, questioning the manliness of Julia's new beau. Meanwhile, Allison and Anthony continue to bicker about who owns Suzanne's house, until Anthony obtains an affidavit asserting his right to occupy the house -- and allows Allison to stay on only as her personal servant.
Mary Jo protectively takes divorcee Carlene under her wing -- going overboard with a lie about Carlene's latest flame -- when ex-hubby Dwayne shows up to sweep Carlene off her feet again.
When Allison's ex-convict former flame (whom she turned in for insider trading) is released, she fears he is plotting revenge, instead, he proposes to her.
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.
When the Sugarbakers women are persuaded by Anthony to help with an outreach program at his former prison, they find themselves in the middle of a prison break and are held hostage by Anthony's old cellmate T. Tommy Reed -- who takes a liking to Allison.
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.
When Mary Jo's womanizing brother visits, falls for Allison, and takes her and Quinton on a deer-hunting trip, the women secretly tag along.
Julia's 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.
Mary Jo and Julia are trapped under anchorman Chuck Tremain's bed when a Christmas design contest inspires them to examine a competitor's handiwork for evidence of plagiarism.
When their van breaks down the women become unwelcome guests at a men's club retreat Wildman Sanctuary, where Anthony is trying to land a new account.
Anthony sees opportunity when his normally unfriendly law professor is attracted to Carlene and invites the two of them to his annual Christmas party.
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.
Julia delights in the opportunity to dote on son Payne when he returns for a visit -- which Julia learns will be permanent.
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.
A tough-talking, hard-drinking, temperamental Broadway has-been promises to make Julia rue the day that she stole the role of Mame from her in Anthony's community-theater production. But on opening night she is too drunk to perform and Anthony is pressed into taking on the role.
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.
Songwriter Carlene gains notoriety -- and her first groupie -- by entering her ditty in the semi-finals Atlanta's theme-song contest, where she performs with Mary Jo and Julia, all decked out in ""big hair"" and costumes.
On an overnight Girl Scout outing, Carlene's leadership abilities take a beating, while Allison's methods seem to charm the spoiled troopers, and Mary Jo and Julia advocate roughing it.
Allison thinks she's invited to stay at Charles Nelson Reilly's home, so the decorators do Hollywood and get flimflammed on an expenses-paid trip accompanying investor Allison to the set of her movie.
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.
The Sugarbakers women use Anthony as ""date bait"" to reel in a big account involving a hotelier's flamboyant debutante daughter, who's angling for a whopper of a deal, then Anthony announces he is marrying Vanessa, who intends to become a partner in Sugarbakers.
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. Sugarbaker's 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.
Carlene allows herself to be seduced by her ex-husband, then admits she was just using him for sex.
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.
In an attempt at spontaneity, a carefree Mary Jo takes off for Nashville on ""a hen party on wheels"" with Julia and Bernice, but become terrified when a trucker Bernice flirted with at a diner pursues them. Meanwhile, back at the office, Carlene and Anthony put their noses to the grindstone studying for midterms.
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.
After Vanessa calls off their wedding, Anthony joins the gang on a getaway to Las Vegas, where he nurses his broken heart -- in the company of a show stopping showgirl he impulsively weds.
BJ offers to help a desperate Anthony, who invents various schemes to extricate himself from his hasty marriage to a Las Vegas showgirl.
A steamy love letter from another woman found in James' safe-deposit box shatters B.J.'s image of her late husband as a faithful companion worthy of her trust. Meanwhile, reveling in the destruction of her old car, a symbol of her days as a suburban housewife, Mary Jo goes wild in a new red convertible.
Etienne drives Anthony crazy trying to be the perfect wife, and the Sugarbakers crew throw a Las Vegas style wedding shower for them.
B.J. goes overboard showering everyone with gifts, and law student Anthony gets carried away trying to help Mary Jo win a small-claims case involving her defective freezer.
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.
B.J.'s contribution to the Democratic Party gets the Sugarbaker crew invited to the Inaugural Ball, but the trip proves to be a party for no one, even Julia, who struggles to maintain a cheery disposition in the face of disaster as bad weather forces a change in plans.
After eye surgery, Bernice overhears the gals talk of putting Mary Jo's dog out of its misery and figures they're 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 Diana's private conversations with her boyfriend.
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.
Julia's old mentor for her bohemian art school days in New York unveils his nude portrait of Julia.
B.J.'s dating adventures take a turn for the worse on her birthday, when a bad-hair day and two miserable blind dates have her vowing to give up men, so Julia tries to cheer her up by getting her a date with a really nice fellow.
Worshiping hordes gather outside Sugarbaker's 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 neighbor's damaged hearing.
Anthony is jealous of Etienne's successful writer friend, who shares a vivid past with her, but tries to be gracious by throwing a signing party for him.
A visit from Julia's 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.
There's no skirting the fact that Carlene is confused by new beau Eric (Kean), whose unusual habit (cross-dressing) she begins to understand only by tapping into her own masculine side.
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"".
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. Though Anthony and the women are fired for insubordination, when Craig, a friend of Mary Jo's, stumbles on some embarrassing news about the Kearney's illegal financial activities, Poteet Industries and Sugarbaker's are saved from the take over.
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